The location in the radar satellite cover image for the April 12 issue was misidentified, in the Table of Contents (p. 4). The city depicted is Port Hedland, Australia.
Southwest Airlines has renewed a contract with Pratt & Whitney for its EcoPower engine wash services on the airline industry’s largest fleet of CFM56‑7B powerplants. Pratt, which began washing Southwest’s engines in 2007, performed 1,200 cleanings for it last year, saving $12.5 million in fuel because cleaner engines run more efficiently than dirty ones. The engine maker calculates that the fuel savings cut carbon dioxide emissions by 160 million lb. Southwest’s engines are washed at its Oakland, Calif., and Orlando, Fla., service centers.
The Pentagon can no longer afford to build specialized weapons on unique platforms for each kind of war it fights—irregular, conventional or cyber. The military has instead launched an effort to mold already converging technologies into sensors that may also be weapons—weapons that can inflict invisible effects, and effects that may be temporary or permanent, blatant or authorless, tactical or strategic in range.
MTN Communications and satellite equipment specialist Erzia have opened a satellite teleport in Spain to serve as a gateway for VSAT communications. The teleport will be one of the first capable of handling C- and Ku- commercial service as well as X-band government traffic. MTN is establishing a global Ku-band maritime mobile satellite network to compete with Inmarsat.
Even though the disruption of European air traffic is expected to trigger a full-court press to better understand the impact of volcanic ash on aircraft, the aviation industry has to face the reality that there is a dearth of scientific data on the subject.
The Missile Defense Agency plans to redo the Jan. 31 Ground-Based Midcourse Defense intercept attempt that failed, MDA’s director, U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly, told senators last week. MDA still hasn’t publicly released the cause of the failure, though solid-rocket motor “chuffing” from the target apparently overwhelmed the primary sea-based X-band sensor with more than 2,000 objects. In testimony, O’Reilly simply said SBX “stopped transmitting.”
Inmarsat has unveiled the specifications for a handheld phone that could allow it to go head to head with Iridium and other global satphone operators (AW&ST March 15, p. 37). To be rolled out in June, the handheld, dubbed IsatPhone Pro, will be resistant to dust, splash and shock; will work in temperatures from -20 to 55C; and will have an 8-hr. talk time, with up to 100 hr. of standby battery life. It will be introduced at $699—or as little as $500-600 through special promotions—and calls will cost around $1 a minute.
The U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command is looking to improve the self-protection system on the CV-22 Osprey to bolster the tiltrotor’s defenses against surface-to-air missiles, even as the small community has to confront the first operational loss of one of the aircraft. Although the Bell-Boeing V-22 has a history of accidents and technical mishaps, this one marks the first operational crash.
President Barack Obama has taken ownership of the turnabout space-exploration policy embodied in his Fiscal 2011 NASA budget request, opening up a potentially game-changing debate on the U.S. role in space that is likely to encompass much more than the civilian space agency before it is over.
Emilio Romano has been named to the board of directors of Brazil-based TAM . He is president/CEO of Mexican real estate development company Grupo Puerta Alameda and was CEO of Grupo Mexicana de Aviacion. Romano succeeds Flavia Turci, who has resigned.
The European Space Agency has contracted with Eurockot for the launch of two Earth-observation missions—Swarm, a constellation of three satellites to be lofted in mid-2012 to study the Earth’s magnetic field, and another mission to be named later. Both will be orbited from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia using the Astrium-Khrunichev venture’s Rockot vehicle. Swarm will be the fourth mission in ESA’s Earth Explorer series.
France is unlikely to release a request for proposals for air tankers this year, but hopes to lay the groundwork for a purchase in 2011, French government officials say.
Jeff Jonas, Stephen S. Oswald and Peggy Agouris have been elected to the board of directors of the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation , Herndon, Va. Jonas is distinguished engineer/chief scientist of the IBM Software Group’s Entity Analytic Solutions, while Oswald is vice president/general manager of the Intelligence and Security Systems Div. of Boeing Network and Space Systems.
MTU Aero Engines has completed assembly of the first high-speed, low-pressure turbine (LPT) for the Pratt & Whitney PW1524G engine that will power Bombardier’s CSeries regional jet. The LPT will be sent from MTU’s Munich factory to Pratt & Whitney’s West Palm Beach, Fla., facility for testing on the development engine. The program is on schedule toward certification in 2012. Bombardier expects to certify the airplane and make the first delivery to Lufthansa in 2013.
The Polish air force faces hard questions about flight operations after the crash of a Tupolev Tu-154M killed not just the country’s leader, but also much of the military’s high command.
National Reconnaissance Office Director Bruce Carlson says he plans to submit a comprehensive science and technology investment strategy with his Fiscal 2012 budget request. Carlson says 50-60% of the technology now on satellites that are soon to launch came from those research coffers. But science and technology funding has “slackened,” jeopardizing the ability of the NRO to deliver innovative satellites and sensors. Carlson says there are “several” launches of “very large, very critical” satellites in the next 18 months.
It’s still too early to say if the so-called “new” Alitalia is off to a good start. Italy’s national carrier, reincarnated yet again, is certainly doing its best—with behind-the-scenes help from Air France-KLM—despite a severe economic downturn and strong competition.
Start-up company AVX Aircraft is proposing to upgrade the Bell OH-58D Kiowa Warrior with coaxial rotors and ducted fans to meet the U.S. Army’s Armed Aerial Scout (AAS) requirement. Founded in 2005, and staffed mainly by former Bell Helicopter Textron employees, the Fort Worth-based company is hoping to persuade the Army to fund a concept demonstrator.
Guy Hachey, the president of Canada’s Bombardier Aerospace, is surprisingly candid when asked what keeps him awake at night. The first concern he names is the ability of a key supplier, Aviation Industries of China, to deliver high-quality center fuselages in large volumes for his company’s new CSeries jet.
Russia’s decision to delay delivery of the S-300 air defense system to Iran is not stopping Tehran from trying to safeguard its airspace from potential air strikes.
The Obama administration will walk the U.S. back from the space-control posture adopted by President George W. Bush, at least if some White House aides have their way. A multi-agency review of national security space policy is underway at the National Security Council. Retired Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, President Barack Obama’s national security adviser, is overseeing the review, which is tentatively set to be finished this summer. One objective of the Obama administration is to soften U.S.
As the May 10 deadline to submit an intention to bid for the $35-billion Air Force tanker replacement nears, EADS North America’s plans to quickly secure a U.S.-based strategic partner appear to be encountering significant headwinds. After Northrop Grumman backed out, L-3 Communications had emerged as the front-runner, but these negotiations seem to have stalled. Last week, L-3 signaled waning interest in joining in an offer to build 179 aircraft based on the Airbus A330. EADS had promised its decision by mid-April.
You quote a Wall Street analyst as saying “organized labor must start to recognize the reality of $3-per-hour wages” at Airbus’s plant in China (AW&ST March 8, p. 24). The analyst further says there are low-cost, high-quality design and manufacturing facilities around the world. To attract people to U.S. aerospace careers, and preserve the U.S. aerospace industrial base, it will be necessary to offer more than a future of lower wages, outsourcing and offshoring.
Twenty people were injured when a Boeing 737 of Merpati Nusantara Airlines overran a runway in heavy rain in Indonesia’s Papua province. The fuselage split. The aircraft was carrying 103 passengers and six crewmembers. Since 1971, Merpati has suffered 36 safety incidents in which 297 people have died.
About twice as much Western Hemisphere data from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) will be available under a new bilateral arrangement that uses NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System to download observations by the Japanese spacecraft. The L-band synthetic aperture radar on the satellite, called Palsar, measures changes in the surface ice sheets, forest cover, flooding, earthquakes and the like.
