U.S. airports have managed to dodge the credit market’s woes, raising billions of dollars for upgrades and expansions. But the environment could become much more challenging after 2010 if a tax exemption on airport bonds is not extended.
Analyst Michael Derchin’s comment (AW&ST Dec. 14, 2009, p. 42) that United Airlines has always selected Boeing aircraft for its twin-aisle fleet is not correct. In the 1970s, United purchased dozens of McDonnell Douglas DC-10s that it operated for years. During the late 1980s, United also operated a few Lockheed L-1011s for a brief time, obtaining them along with some routes from ailing Pan Am. United didn’t really want the L‑1011s, but they came in the package.
Patrick DeWitt (see photo) has become chairman and retired as CEO of Space Systems/Loral , Palo Alto, Calif. He has been succeeded by John Celli, who was president/chief operating officer.
Engineers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center are sifting ideas received last week on applying in-space servicing techniques pioneered with the Hubble Space Telescope to “previously impossible” science, exploration and other space missions.
Italy will deploy to Afghanistan three additional AW129 attack helicopters, for a total of nine, and three more AB412/212 helos for medical evacuation, bringing that fleet to seven rotorcraft. Moreover, three C-27J airlifters will be detached to augment Italy’s single C-130J in the region, with a plan also to add two further Predator unmanned aircraft. But additional fixed-wing strike or reconnaissance assets are not being dispatched.
Remembering the late 1970s, the Ariane space booster’s early history looks like a fairy tale. Today, aging pioneers only remember where the heavy-lift launcher came from: It resulted from the costly failure of an early attempt to give Europe independent access to space. Arianespace, the cross-border company in charge of marketing and selling Ariane, will soon celebrate its 30th anniversary. However, the first Ariane was launched on Dec. 24, 1979, several months before Arianespace was established.
Lockheed Martin has delivered the first two of seven upgraded P-3C Orion maritime surveillance aircraft to the Pakistan navy. The ex-U.S. Navy aircraft have updated mission computers, electro-optical and infrared sensors, communications, data management and acoustic processing systems. The first of 17 new C-130J Hercules transports for the Canadian Forces, meanwhile, has rolled out of the paint shop at the company’s Marietta, Ga., plant.
Jim Gaughan (see photo) has become senior vice president/general manager of advanced research and engineering services for Metron Aviation , Dulles, Va. He was director of the MTA IESS/C3 Program for the Lockheed Martin Corp.
The USAF KC-X tanker program appears to be a disaster in the making. After reading the report on Pentagon acquisition czar Ashton Carter and the Pentagon civilian KC-X procurment board, there are too many people in high places making questionable decisions on the procurement of this airplane, which will drive the cost higher (AW&ST Nov. 30, 2009, p. 30).
Intense use and limited control of communications, radar and jamming of explosive devices in Iraq, particularly around Baghdad, have turned the electronic environment toxic. Communication link ranges for coalition unmanned aircraft and other uses have been cut to a fraction. Introduction of new devices regularly interferes with those already in operation. The volume of communications has clogged the airwaves.
After generations of talk but little success, integration and commonality of digital sensors among operational forces of the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force are showing surprisingly vibrant signs of life. A competition was kicked off late last year to design, build and demonstrate prototypes of the Joint and Allied Threat Awareness System (Jatas) to protect Navy and Marine Corps helicopters and tiltrotor aircraft from both dumb and smart weapons. The two remaining competitors are Lockheed Martin and the team of Alliant Techsystems (ATK) and BAE Systems.
The desire for the U.S. Navy Next- Generation Jammer (NGJ) to perform many missions may rekindle interest in a sensitive, tactical computer network attack program that was developed by the Air Force and tested in Iraq. Contractors are looking at offering a Suter-like technology—designed initially for the electronic attack of integrated air defenses—as an add-on application to NGJ.
Jim Veler has been named president/CEO of Abrisa Inc. , Santa Paula, Calif. He was vice president/general manager of Agilent Technologies’ Wireless Manufacturing Organization, Santa Rosa, Calif. Jim Hooker and Kevin Liddane have been appointed Eastern U.S. and Western U.S. sales managers, respectively.
The U.S. Army’s modernization program will not include a Class IV unmanned aerial vehicle, according to the service’s official notice of cancellation to Congress Jan. 11. The Class IV UAV, which was to be a Northrop Grumman Fire Scout, “is no longer required,” say Army documents. “The current force Shadow [UAV] can meet future Army requirements with product improvements.” The Class IV UAV was a remnant of the defunct Future Combat Systems, retooled as Brigade Combat Team Modernization.
NASA is hunkering down for the coming Fiscal 2011 budget release, which is expected to contain the agency’s marching orders for future human spaceflight. Jeff Hanley, head of the Constellation program that is developing the next generation of human exploration vehicles, had accepted an invitation to speak on the subject at a Space Transportation Assn. breakfast in Washington Jan. 15. But NASA’s management scuttled Hanley’s appearance.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is dispatching its Gulfstream IV research aircraft to the Pacific with an aim to improving winter storm forecasting for North America. The twin-engine turbofan jet will be stationed at Yokota (Japan) AB through February and then reposition to Honolulu in March.
Many of the tools for airborne electronic warfare and attack are aging and lack flexibility. At the same time, new off-the-shelf technologies used by irregular and conventional foes—ranging from low-power command-and-control communications to advanced, long-range anti-aircraft missiles—are increasingly sophisticated, making it more expensive and time-consuming to find, analyze and counter them.
Engineers at Johnson Space Center will run four days of testing this week with three different versions of NASA’s planned new spacesuit as they begin making the suit compatible with the Orion crew exploration vehicle that is also under development there. Astronauts and engineers will don the prototype Constellation suits to compare their utility for a number of tasks in a mockup of the latest configuration of the Orion crew cabin. Scheduled for testing are a prototype built by David Clark Co. Inc. for Oceaneering, the prime contractor for the new spacesuit.
Honeywell subsidiary UOP received $25-million from the Energy Dept. to construct a prototype unit in Hawaii for the manufacture of green transportation fuels. Des Plaines, Ill.-based UOP will erect the demonstration plant at the Tesoro Corp. refinery in Kapolei. A rapid thermal processing technology, developed by Ensyn Corp., will be used to heat biomass at ambient pressure to reap high yields of liquid pyrolysis oil.
It is largely thanks to the ramp-up of Phenom 100 and Phenom 300 very light and light jets that Embraer delivered 244 aircraft last year, two more than anticipated. Although a record, the aircraft maker suffered a big drop in commercial aircraft deliveries to 122 units from 162, with its year-end backlog down to $16.6 billion from $20.9 billion at the end of 2008; 265 commercial airliners remain in the backlog.
China says it has successfully tested an anti-missile system for mid-course intercepts. The trial achieved the predicted results, the government says, stressing that the test was defensive in nature and not directed at any country. It produced no lingering space debris, says the Foreign Affairs Ministry. Details of the system were not disclosed.
Space shuttle and International Space Station managers will try to keep Feb. 7 as the target launch date for the shuttle Endeavour on the STS-130 mission to the ISS, despite a problem with ammonia jumper hoses for the Tranquility pressurized node the mission will deliver to the station. The launch date was cast in doubt when a hose designed to link the node’s cooling system with the station system failed during a pressure test.
Not all is gloom in the world of aviation services. ASA Group, which provides security, ground handling and concierge services for VIP business flights at Hong Kong International Airport, says it has had to add additional staff since mid-December to keep up with flights from North America, the Middle East, Europe and the rest of Asia.
