Many of us have enjoyed spectacular video of rocket launches from the rocket's point of view, with the launch pad receding rapidly and strap-on boosters falling away as the black sky of space shows up around Earth's curve. The “RocketCam” videos are a staple on YouTube, but they have a value that far exceeds entertainment. In the high-stakes spaceflight business, video shots of rockets and other space hardware in action give engineers a much better view of system performance than even the most detailed numeric telemetry.
Unloved and abandoned by its creator, the outcast Hawker 4000 (see photo at right below) is being embraced as a valued member by at least one adoptive family. Talon Air, an aircraft management and charter operator, now has nine of the super-midsize twins on its FAR135 certificate. Since only 69 of the big Hawkers were built before its manufacturer halted production and went through a bankruptcy that included cancelling their owners' warranties, Talon Air's fleet is by far the largest. And it is delighted with that distinction.
These are among the 94 STOs and 95 VLs conducted thus far in Developmental Testing 2, a follow-on to a set of day-only DT trials in 2011. The trials, slated to end last week, are designed to open the envelope to include night flying around the ship, different approaches and headings for landings and conducting these operations in varying wind conditions. So far, testing has been conducted in headwinds of 35 kt and crosswinds of 15 kt, says Navy Capt. Kurt Kastner, executive officer of the Wasp, which was operating about 35 mi. offshore.
The remnants of the tail section of UPS Flight 1354 lie near Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport in Alabama, its intended destination, which is in the background of this photo and the one above, both from the NTSB. With back-to-back widebody crashes in the U.S. in June and July—an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777-200ER in San Francisco and the UPS Airbus A300-600F in Birmingham—we offer an in-depth look at global safety initiatives.
NASA supporters may hate the restraints of the 2011 Budget Control Act (BCA) and annual sequestrations brought in part by tea party demands for lower federal spending, deficits and debt, but with the law looking increasingly likely to stay, space boosters might want to pay more attention to the House's related spending and NASA authorization bills this year.
Douglas E. Scott has become senior vice president/general counsel of AeroVironment Inc., Monrovia, Calif. He was head of the legal department at the Science Applications International Corp.
China's lunar exploration program will meet its long-standing target to launch the Chang'e 3 sample-return mission this year, but only just, according to a government authority with oversight of space activities. The mission will launch at year-end, says the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense. Chang'e 3 is to demonstrate soft landing on the Moon, surveying of the surface by rover, survival on the lunar surface, communications for long-distance monitoring and control, and direct injection into a lunar transfer orbit.
European Union carbon dioxide allowance (EUA) prices under the EU Emissions Trading System made modest gains in August, trading in low volumes as expected during the summer lull. December 2013 EUAs averaged €4.42 per metric ton Aug. 1-27, up from €4.24 in July, according to Platts daily closing assessments. The market this year has been increasingly driven by EU policy, as lawmakers grapple with European Commission proposals to withhold short-term primary supply in a bid to support the price.
Ben Humbert has been named general manager of Landmark Aviation's facility at Gerald R. Ford International Airport, Grand Rapids, Mich. He was a safety and training manager at Atlantic Aviation.
NASA Langley Research Center conducted a full-scale crash test of a former U.S. Marine Corps Boeing CH-46E helicopter on Aug. 28 to test improvements to seats and belts and collect crashworthiness data. The drop set the baseline for another test, planned for next year, that will involve additional technology including composite airframe sections. Thirteen instrumented crash-test dummies and two without instruments were onboard the helicopter when it was released from 30 ft. to impact a soil bed at 35 fps. horizontally and 26 fps. vertically.
Birthplace of the iPhone, e-ticket and McDonald's, California has another first: a fly-all-you-want membership airline. Following a tsunami of pre-launch publicity, Surf Air began operations in June.
Africa's poor air safety performance is an old sore, but there are some hopeful signs that the approach of “all talk, no action” is being reversed. Several initiatives are budding across the continent to improve safety of airline operations and the air transport supply chain.
The North Sea oil industry pioneered the concept of oil and gas support operations. Companies such as Bristow introduced new aircraft and technologies into offshore flight operations, but the evolution has been painful, with North Sea accidents accounting for the loss of more than 90 passengers and crewmembers since the worst one in November 1986. This table shows accidents and incidents that resulted in the loss of an aircraft, lives or both.
Many ironies are at play in the debate here over potential U.S. military strikes in Syria, chief among them Republican infighting and assertions of congressional prerogatives in warmaking, as well as an anti-Iraq War president leading the charge based on intelligence of weapons of mass destruction. But in a more subtle albeit significant twist, the greatest irony inside the Beltway may be the effect of Syrian strikes on national security budgets. There will be winners and losers, for sure, but don't place your bets too fast.
Switzerland's national security policy committee has voted in favor of purchasing 22 Saab JAS-39E Gripen fighter aircraft to replace the country's aging fleet of Northrop F-5 Tiger IIs. The upper house of the Swiss parliament approved the purchase earlier this year, but it halted the program over concerns about payments, as well as guarantees and safeguards in the contract with Sweden. The deal still requires parliamentary approval.
David Yu has been appointed Beijing-based executive director of business development-Asia for the International Bureau of Aviation. He will continue as managing director of Inception Aviation. Yu was Libra Group's chief China representative and vice president-Asia.
An article on page 40 of the July 29 edition misidentified a speaker at a congressional hearing. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) is the U.S. House Armed Services Committee member who should have been quoted.
Greg Roberts has become vice president of U.K.-based Curtiss-Wright Controls Avionics and Electronics. He was managing director in the U.K. for the C4ISR and UAV businesses of Northrop Grumman, Defense and Security
