Now that the Air Force has placed the A-10 Thunderbolt II under consideration for cuts in a worst-case budget scenario, a grassroots movement is building to keep the aircraft, flying since 1977, around longer. The A-10 is not one of those programs, like the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter or the KC-46A tanker, that the service wants to protect. In fact, a chart from Air Combat Command shows the entire fleet of close-air support aircraft may be divested by 2015.
Former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood has received the first WTS Navigator Award from Washington-based WTS International, the association for the advancement of women in transportation. He was cited for standing “behind our mission and creating new opportunities for a diverse and inclusive workforce.” He was noted for having set the gender diversity issue in the transportation industry on an accelerated path.
When the NextGen Advisory Committee came out with a prioritized list of NextGen capabilities Sept. 19 to help the FAA decide how best to spend under shrinking budgets, “wake recategorization” made the Tier 1A cut, along with performance-based navigation and multiple-runway operations. Tier 1A is the gold standard of rankings, reserved for capabilities that are “shovel-ready” and provide maximum benefit for minimum money.
NBC will broadcast a reality TV competition called “Space Race” that will offer a trip for its winner to the edge of space on the suborbital Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo, which is now in flight test. The U.S. broadcast network signed a deal with Virgin Galactic and One Three Media. The production team will have “unprecedented access” to Virgin's operations at Spaceport America, near Truth or Consequences, N.M., and will begin distribution activities at an upcoming marketing conference in Cannes, France.
Low-cost operator Norwegian Air Shuttle is expected to return its grounded Boeing 787-8s to service early this month after the manufacturer implemented an aggressive “get-well” campaign to beef up spare-parts provision, maintenance and engineering support. The situation at Norwegian appeared to have come to a head by the end of September, following several weeks of reliability problems in the power distribution system, hydraulics, oxygen system and brakes.
The nonprofit Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (Casis) has awarded a U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) a $250,000 grant to use the station's hyperspectral imager to study harmful algal bloom in coastal areas around the world. Also known as red tide, the algal bloom releases toxins that are harmful to humans and marine life.
The new Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) rules are all about numbers, regardless of actual experience, and will never address the real issues of pilot qualification and professional conduct.
Karem Aircraft is to design a tiltrotor to meet U.S. Army future utility-rotorcraft requirements under one of four contracts awarded for Phase 1 of the Joint Multi Role technology demonstration (JMR TD). JMR is a precursor to the Army's planned Future Vertical Lift (FVL) Medium program to replace first the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopter and later, the Boeing AH-64 Apache attack rotorcraft, beginning in the mid-2030s. The Army has signed cost-sharing technology investment agreements with AVX Aircraft, Bell Helicopter, Karem and a Sikorsky/Boeing team.
Bombardier collected the first noise data on its CSeries airliner during its Oct. 1 second flight from Mirabel Interational Airport, near Montreal. The data will help CSeries customer Porter Airlines build its case for lifting the ban on operating jets from Toronto's downtown island airport. The 90-min. flight was similar to the 2.5-hr. first flight on Sept. 16, says Bombardier. Flight-test aircraft FTV1 retracted its landing gear and reached a speed of 230 kt. and altitude of 12,500 ft.
The FAA's furloughing of its 3,000-strong flight-standards inspector workforce caught many by surprise, given that most inspectors were kept on the job during government shutdowns in the 1990s. The agency says it will recall inspectors on an as-needed basis and could ultimately bring back most of the safety employees if the shutdown drags on. The closure of the FAA's registration branch in Oklahoma City—which also remained open in the 1990s—is delaying deliveries of passenger, business and general aviation aircraft.
Boeing has completed initial airworthiness tests of the stretched 787-9 and accumulated more than 40 flight hours in the run-up to the start of flutter tests, which are expected to begin later this month. Initial aircraft handling qualities are good and systems appear to be robust, says 787 Chief Pilot Randy Neville.
Oct. 14-21—AUSA Annual Meeting. Washington Convention Center. See http://ausameetings.org/annual/ Oct. 22-24—National Business Aviation Association Convention and Exhibition. Las Vegas. See www.nbaa.org/events/name/ Oct. 22-25—24th Annual NHA Gulf Coast Fleet Fly-In. NAS Whiting Field, Milton, Fla. For more information, contact [email protected] Oct. 23—Aerospace Components Manufacturers Inc. Hartford/Windsor Airport Marriott Hotel. Windsor, Conn. See www.aerospacecomponents.org/page3643.html for more information.
If the shutdown continues, thousands of aerospace workers could find themselves temporarily out of work. Sikorsky Aircraft, which produces the Black Hawk helicopter, plans to furlough 2,000 workers at three plants Oct. 7 due to the absence of Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) inspectors who audit and approve manufacturing. Sikorsky parent United Technologies warns that another 2,000 workers could be furloughed from its Pratt & Whitney and Aerospace units.
“Textron's Gamble” (AW&ST Sept. 16, p. 22) could prove fruitful. The company could have taken a page from Alexander Kartveli, designer of the Republic P-47 who was brought out of retirement to design the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II ground attack aircraft, where he kept the engines high and behind the low wing and tail for protection from ground fire. I wish Textron better luck than Beech, with their AT-6, which lost, even when offered in response to an actual U.S. Air Force solicitation.
Alix C. Deymier-Black of Washington University in St Louis is one of five young scientists who have received First Award Fellowships from the Houston-based National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI). Through this two-year program, the scientists will conduct biomedical research with the aim of helping to protect astronaut health during long-duration spaceflights. She will be a member of the NSBRI Musculoskeletal Alterations Team, as will James M. Kuczmarski of Texas A&M University. The other three winners are: Julianna C.
Roger Launius of the Space History Div. has become associate director for collections and curatorial affairs at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington. He succeeds Peter Jakab of the Aeronautics Div., who is now chief curator.
Nigerian authorities are investigating the crash of an Associated Aviation Embraer EMB-120 Pratt & Whitney Canada PW100-powered twin-turboprop on departure from Lagos, Nigeria, on Oct. 3, killing 16 of the 20 people onboard. Witnesses to the crash told local media the aircraft “was making a lot of noise” when it descended, and pilots appeared to maneuver to avoid a residential area.
Paul Sinton has become managing director for the Belfast, Northern Ireland-based European Space Propulsion subsidiary of Aerojet Rocketdyne. He was an executive for analysis, test and senior program management with Thales Air Defense, also in Belfast.
The first set of flexible wings on the X-56A Multi-Utility Technology Testbed (MUTT) are being installed in readiness for the flight tests designed to probe to the edge, and beyond, of the destructive flutter envelope. Built by Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, the 28-ft.-wingspan unmanned aircraft has been designed to test control technologies to counter flutter, a potentially catastrophic aeroelastic instability to which aircraft with slender, high-aspect ratio wings are particularly vulnerable.
Early peer-reviewed results of soil-sample analysis by an instrument on the Curiosity Mars rover hold potentially good news for future human explorers who will need to live off the land as much as possible, and bad news for scientists looking for evidence of past life on the planet.
Roughly 97% of NASA employees were not working as of last week, sidelined by the federal government shutdown that began Oct. 1. Remember that fact if, and when, you see Chinese astronauts walking on the Moon, while Americans are still stuck in low-Earth orbit. While politicians will rue that day, in NASA circles, concern centers more immediately on two planetary spacecraft trying to stay on schedule for their launch windows. The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (Maven) spacecraft was already at Kennedy Space Center preparing for a Nov. 18 launch.
David O'Neill has been appointed director of sales for the Premier Aviation Overhaul Center, Trois-Rivieres, Quebec. He was vice president of international sales and marketing for Aeroframe Services.
