Japan plans to join the U.S. and Russia as a tracker of space debris. The Japanese Science and Technology Agency will spend 2 billion yen ($15.3 million) to build a radar facility and complementary optical telescope in a remote village in central Japan. The telescope is slated to become operational in 2002 and the radar in 2004. The radar will be designed mainly to track debris at altitudes lower than 1,000 km. (620 mi.). It is to achieve a 1-meter resolution at 600 km. The 1-meter-dia. telescope will work at higher altitudes and achieve a 1-meter resolution.
INVESTIGATORS LAST WEEK began disassembly and detailed analysis of actuators and control units from the Silk Air Boeing 737-300 that crashed last Dec. 19 in Indonesia. An international team led by Indonesian officials were examining the hardware at Boeing facilities in Seattle, including the power control unit and other components from the aircraft's rudder system. No problems had been found as of early last week. A human-performance team also is continuing to review the backgrounds of the captain and first officer of Silk Air Flight 185.
As Pretoria and Beijing hold bilateral air services talks, South African Airways has started its own informal talks with Air China, China Eastern and China Southern about code-sharing. The bilateral talks follow South Africa's decision to open diplomatic relations with China instead of Taiwan. SAA General Manager Anton Noffke said the airline will probably establish its first China connections using code-sharing and special pro-rata pricing agreements with Chinese carriers operating on routes out of Hong Kong.
A sharp divergence of views between Lufthansa German Airlines and the European Commission over proposed restrictions to the Star Alliance, which brings together Lufthansa, United Airlines and four other carriers, threatens to lead to a legal clash and may raise the chance of a confrontation between Europe and the U.S.
Elizabeth Clark, a captain with the Mississippi Chemical Corp., has been elected president of Women in Corporate Aviation. Other officers are: vice president, Maria Jeanmaire, first officer for Tenneco; secretary/communications director, Jane Toth, copilot for Wayfarer Aviation; and treasurer, Katha House, chief pilot for AC Aviation Services Inc.
Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr., (R-Wis.) chairs the Science Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. He recently traveled to Moscow to investigate Russia's work on the International Space Station and its commitment to the project. The committee has called a hearing this week on the station program. The following Viewpoint was written exclusively for Aviation Week.
Officials at AeroVironment Inc. and NASA are on a four-year plan to break ceiling and endurance barriers for solar-powered airplanes, flying up to four days at a time and reaching 100,000 ft., exceeding the continuous altitude records for all non-rocket-powered aircraft.
Boeing's Douglas Products Div. has developed a rigid cargo barrier for cargo conversions of McDonnell Douglas DC-10 and Boeing MD-11 transports. In replacing the cargo net, the RCB frees up space formerly kept clear to allow for net stretching during an emergency landing. The 10-in.-thick, interlocking bonded aluminum sandwich structure is designed to restrain a MD-11 main cargo deck load of 202,000 lb., up from 156,000 lb. previously, substantially increasing main deck cargo capability.
AIRLINE PILOTS FROM AUSTRIAN Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Finnair, Sabena Group and Swissair officially formed the Global Pilot Alliance last week. The pilots of the Atlantic Excellence Alliance member airlines formed the partnership to handle labor and management issues.
The Cassini spacecraft flew by Venus on Apr. 26, gaining a gravitational assist of 16,330 mph. in the first of several boosts on its way to Saturn. Cassini was targeted to fly 284 km. (176 mi.) above Venus, and tracking data indicate that it was within 1 km. of that altitude. Navigation has been so precise that both trajectory correction maneuver No. 3 (TCM-3) preceding the Venus encounter and TCM-4 on May 14 have been canceled.
A Boeing 707 and a de Havilland Dash 8 chartered by the Connecticut-based AmeriCares aid group landed in Baghdad last week with $2 million worth of medicine and food for humanitarian relief. It was the first American sponsored airlift to Iraq since the gulf war. The supplies were delivered to clinics identified by the Red Cross and the Red Crescent.
Photgraph: A BOEING DELTA 2 BOOSTER with four solid rocket motors successfully launched four European-built Loral Globalstar telephone relay spacecraft from Cape Canaveral Apr. 24. Ignition of the Rocketdyne RS-27A oxygen/kerosene core engine created the extra burst of orange flame at the base of vehicle. The spacecraft, built by Alenia in Rome with systems from Aerospatiale, Alcatel and DASA were deployed in 670-naut.-mi. orbits inclined 51.9 deg. The satellites' own propulsion systems are to maneuver each about 200 mi. higher next week.
The U.S. Air Force's Airborne Laser program passed a key laboratory test last month when a scaled beam control system demonstrated the laser pointing and focusing performance needed for planned ABL missions. The brassboard demonstrator replicated all the elements of the specially modified 747-400F's full-up laser system from the point of laser generation through beam pointing and focusing on a target.
NASA is working to get details to Lockheed Martin Skunk Works on its requirements for adding a human-carrying capability to the proposed VentureStar reusable launch vehicle. Lockheed Martin executives envision the next-generation VentureStar--which would evolve from NASA's X-33 single-stage-to-orbit test program--as a purely commercial, cargo-carrying spacecraft. The vehicle's design could be modified, however, to carry astronauts.
Airport Group International, which includes Lockheed Martin, Soros Capital, GE Capital and Bechtel Enterprises, has won contracts to manage London's Luton Airport. The Australian Federal Government also has selected AGI for a long-term management lease at Darwin, Alice Springs and Tennant Creek airports.
BOEING THIS WEEK EXPECTS to announce its first new order for the 717 since merging with McDonnell Douglas last summer. Germany's Bavaria Fluggesellschaft will place an order for approximately six of the 100-seat transports, formerly known as the MD-95. Bavaria is an aircraft leasing firm based in Munich. Boeing President Harry Stonecipher recently confirmed plans for high-volume production of the 717 of up to 120 a year (AW&ST Jan. 19, p. 50).
NASA's Huntsville, Ala.-based Marshall Space Flight Center is testing a pulse detonation tube engine developed by Advanced Projects Research Inc. of LaVerne, Calif. The apparatus (see below), with water cooling jacket and upper instrumentation ports, was designed specifically for obtaining thermal design data in oscillatory, pulse detonation flow fields. According to Jim Sterling, principal scientist at APRI, the water cooled, pulse detonation engine is intended as a lightweight and low-cost powerplant.
Spectrum Fuels Inc., of Lebanon, Ohio, has developed a technology for fabricating conformal, internally reinforced compressed gas tanks from composite materials. The company's composite stitching technology can be used on tanks with a thickness of up to 12 in., according to Robin S. Steele, SFI president. Stress is distributed through internal, redundant fibers. This allows thinner tank walls and up to 50% less weight than traditional tanks, which place most stresses on a tank's outer wall.
ELECTRO-RADIATION INC., A SMALL COMPANY in Fairfield, N.J., has developed a technology to protect GPS receivers from interference. The company's interference suppression unit replaces the existing GPS preamplifier with one incorporating its electronics and the antenna with a single 3.5-in.-dia. patch antenna that is 0.25 in. thick. The analog technique operates in the radio frequency domain, which lets it work with any GPS receiver, but a digital design is in research.
TAIWAN'S CIVIL AERONAUTICS Administration has denied a request by Far Eastern Air Transport Corp. to send pilots to China for training on McDonnell Douglas MD-80 and Boeing 737 and 757 simulators. The carrier said the move would help pave the way for a lifting of a ban on direct flights across the Taiwan Strait. But the CAA said the Chinese would not allow Taiwanese authorities to oversee the training, rendering their simulator time uncertifiable.
Evolved versions of 1940s-era pulse jet engines are demonstrating reliable, multicycle test runs that could open the door to possible use in precision-guided standoff munitions, cruise missiles and unmanned aircraft.
Given that the shuttle's Neurolab mission studied the human brain, some NASA managers might want to have their own heads examined. Why? For allowing too much tacky show biz to intrude on the flight. First, at the Kennedy Space Center, the Power Rangers--dressed in Grade-B Halloween-type ``space'' costumes--were allowed to film a kung-fu routine atop the 400-ft.-tall Vehicle Assembly Building as Columbia roared off in the background. Meanwhile, at ground level, NASA admitted to the press site a Bulgarian folk singer who plugged her new CD.
NASA MANAGERS ARE CONSIDERING returning the Hubble Space Telescope to Earth for study--and eventual display in the Smithsonian National Air&Space Museum--once the telescope's mission is completed around 2010. A possible future space shuttle mission to return the historic observatory was reviewed last week at the 35th Annual Space Congress at Cape Canaveral. Examination of the telescope after what would be about 20 years in space would provide valuable data on the effects to aerospace materials of long-term space exposure.
