I agree with the premise of the subject editorial that Pratt & Whitney’s silence regarding the F-135 problems is “disappointing but perhaps understandable.”
Your August 4 issue provides an extensive overview of the state-of-the-art and future possibilities of aircraft tracking. What strikes me is that even though the disappearance of MH370 seems to have spurred the implementation of all these new technologies, none of them would have actually prevented the event from happening. It appears that MH370 was being tracked, but the transponder was deliberately turned off. Why can the transponder be turned off by the pilot?
Reader Dan Patterson demonstrates a lack of basic understanding of unmanned aerial vehicle avionics and mission software in his “Breached Branch” comment about the Taranis unmanned aerial vehicle ( AW&ST Aug. 4, p. 8).
With regard to several letters in recent weeks referencing “False Promises” ( AW&ST July 21, p. 38) about false glideslopes, please note that transport pilots should use (most do) a 3-for-1 ratio as a backup for accuracy on descent to landing. Specifically, at 3 mi. the aircraft should be at 1,000 ft.; at 6 mi., 2,000 ft., and so on. If you are not on this ratio you are not on the proper glideslope. The 3-for-1 method helps to ensure arriving at the correct airport. It is simple and it works.
Northrop Grumman has unveiled a vertical-launch, horizontal-landing reusable booster design for the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s XS-1 experimental spaceplane.
NASA Langley Research Center has begun tethered tests of the GL-10 Greased Lighting, a 10-ft. wingspan prototype of a hybrid-electric distributed propulsion vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) unmanned aircraft.
Under current plans, the U.S. Army’s oldest Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawks will not be replaced before 2035 at the earliest, six decades after the medium-utility helicopter first flew.
More than half of the U.S. Air Force’s F-16D fighters have been grounded due to cracks found during inspections. Eighty-two of 157 F-16Ds, primarily used for training, were removed from flight status after cracks were found in canopy sill longerons between the front and rear pilot seats, the Air Force announced Aug. 19. Longerons run the length of the aircraft and transfer loads throughout the structure and skin of the platform.
Four crewmembers onboard two Italian air force Panavia A-200 Tornado combat aircraft were killed when the aircraft collided during a training mission for an upcoming NATO exercise, over eastern Italy on Aug. 19. The aircraft came down in a forest near the town of Ascoli Piceno; the accident caused a forest fire. The aircraft were from the 6th Stormo (Wing) at Ghedi air base. An investigation into the accident has begun.
Cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev deployed a Peruvian cubesat and worked with materials-space-exposure experiments during a 5-hr. extra-vehicular excursion at the International Space Station Aug. 18. Unlike cubesat deployments from the Japanese Kibo module’s robotic arm, which use a mechanical dispenser, Artemyev deployed the small satellite with a toss of the hand in the direction opposite the station’s travel to avoid a future collision.
The third Orbital Sciences Corp. Cygnus commercial cargo carrier to reach the International Space Station reentered the atmosphere Aug. 17 for a splashdown in the Pacific east of New Zealand, wrapping up the second of eight resupply missions for the company under its $1.9 billion commercial resupply services contract with NASA. Carried to orbit July 13 on an Orbital Sciences Antares launch vehicle from Wallops Island, Virginia, the pressurized capsule carried 3,550 lb. of garbage for its destructive return to Earth. It took 3,669 lb.
Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) has further widened the market for its Surion utility helicopter, gaining a defense ministry contact to develop a medical evacuation version of the aircraft. Development is due to be completed by 2016, with the aircraft going into service in 2018, says KAI. Parliament last year authorized the acquisition of eight medical evacuation helicopters; the army reportedly has a requirement for about 20. KAI does not yet have a production contract, however.
Avic subsidiary Avic Capital says it is in talks to buy Irish aircraft lessor Avolon but stresses that no deal is certain. In a stock exchange statement, Avic Capital denies a newspaper report that the deal will be valued at 12 billion euros ($16 billion). Reuters reports that Avic Capital and China Investment Corp., also a state firm, were negotiating to buy Avolon for $4-5 billion, including the value of debt that they would assume in the acquisition. Avolon, which owns more than 190 aircraft, has reportedly raised $7.2 billion in capital since it was launched four years ago.
Bombardier has replaced its vice president of marketing for commercial aircraft, including the slow-selling and still-grounded CSeries airliner. Ross Mitchell, previously in both business and commercial aircraft sales, last week succeeded Philippe Poutissou. Bombardier also has named company veteran Jean Seguin as president of the Aerostructures & Engineering Services business, which was formed in July when the company split the unit off from its Business and Commercial Aircraft segments.
Europe’s air traffic control agencies claim they are better prepared than in 2010 for the potential impact on aviation from volcanic ash, as eyes turn to another impending eruption in Iceland. Civil protection authorities sealed off parts of the region surrounding the Bardarbunga volcano in southeast Iceland after earthquake swarms, some registering as high as four on the Richter scale, were measured, indicating a possible impending eruption.
Less than four years after the AC311, one of Avicopter’s key new helicopters, made its first flight, an upgraded version with a different engine has taken to the air. The AC311A also features improvements to flight controls and the rotor, says Avic, the parent of the state helicopter maker. The flight of the aircraft, introducing the Turbomeca Arriel 2B1A engine to the AC311 series, lasted 10 min. and took place at Jingdezhen, the home of Changhe Aircraft, a long-established Chinese helicopter maker that now is part of Avicopter.
