With its sharp-nosed fuselage and sweeping, feathering tails, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo (SS2) makes for an imposing sight as it comes together in the Scaled Composites facility at Mojave, Calif. Measuring 60 ft. in overall length, the 42-ft.-span clipped delta-wing vehicle merges the proportions of a business jet with the sci-fi look of a Star Wars fighter. Yet there is nothing illusionary about this project or its suborbital ambitions as Scaled workers begin to close up the wing skins and complete the systems installation on the SS2.
The European Union has revised its contact list for non-EU operators attempting to comply with the region’s pending Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). Foreign carriers arriving at or departing from an EU airport must report their carbon dioxide emissions as well as obtain CO2 allocations through the member state. While the revised document no longer requires operators to report to countries in which they rarely do business, it does not address industry concerns about compliance issues surrounding aviation elements of the ETS that become effective in 2012.
United Airlines’ plan to shift credit card merchant fees onto 28 travel agencies sparks a call for congressional hearings. The fear is that United’s policy could spread to other carriers. A Sept. 1 press conference on Capitol Hill included representatives of travel industry trade groups and staff of Rep. Michael Arcuri (D-N.Y.). In addition to the merchant fee issue, they argue the shift would make agencies liable for credit card “charge-backs” by customers who do not receive the airline service they paid for by taking away United’s incentive to settle disputes.
Boeing’s decision to tap James Albaugh to run its Commercial Airplanes unit is generating mixed reviews in the investment community, where enthusiasm for his technical knowledge and management ability is offset by concerns about his lack of experience in the commercial aviation sector. Albaugh arrived in Seattle on Sept. 1 as the new CEO and president of BCA, having left the same post at Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, a unit he had led since its inception in 2002. He succeeds Scott Carson, who stepped down the day before and will retire at year’s end
Starting Sept. 9, Spanish flag carrier Iberia and its partner airlines will operate 336 daily domestic and international flights out of Barcelona Airport from the new Terminal 1 facility. Iberia will be joined by Iberia Regional Air Nostrum, Vueling and Oneworld Alliance partners American Airlines, British Airways, Finnair and Royal Jordanian Airlines, as well as code-share partners Avianca, El Al and Royal Air Moroc.
NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (Lcross) has survived a nasty blow to its fuel reserves and can complete its mission of hunting for evidence of water ice on the Moon, but it will have to be careful. The mission began with healthy margins of 306 kg. (675 lb.) of station keeping fuel, but it lost 140 kg. of them when an errant fault message prompted its attitude control system to switch to a backup, fuel-hungry star tracker for guidance. The fault was quickly corrected but fuel margins plunged as the spacecraft heads into its final month of life.
Shares in Singapore Airlines Ltd. (SIA) and Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. have rallied nearly 30% since the start of the year, tracking a long-term rebound in the broader stock markets. But investors may be getting ahead of themselves. A new analysis by Macquarie Research Equities analysts Wei Sim and Gary Pinge concludes that the rest of 2009 will remain rough for the two airlines. And while there are hopes of a recovery in 2010, the wild card is how strong it will be.
“The Defense Dept. is already pleased with the engine it has. The engine it has works. The Pentagon does not want—and does not plan to use—the alternate version.” This statement from President Barack Obama is echoed by the current and former secretaries of Defense, senior leadership of the military services and a bipartisan majority in the Senate. The alternate engine for the F-35 is unnecessary and, if funded further, will waste scarce resources needed for more critical warfighting capabilities.
In response to cost overruns and delays in major weapon programs, The Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act of 2009 became law to mandate competition through the entire life of major defense programs—including funding competing sources. The sheer magnitude of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program creates the perfect opportunity for acquisition reform—a multirole fighter aircraft replacing numerous models, with potential production for the U.S. Air Force, Navy, Marines and international customers to reach 5,000-6,000 aircraft in the next 30 years.
The U.S.-China High Technology Working Group—established to facilitate high-technology exports to civilian end-users in China but under U.S. export controls—will host a public meeting in Washington on Sept. 29. The topics include civil aviation-aerospace and information technology, according to the U.S. Commerce Dept., which is encouraging related companies to send representatives.
Virgin Galactic’s White Knight Two mothership shows off its agility and twin-boom fuselage configuration while banking at this year’s EAA AirVenture Convention at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wis. As well as providing the launch platform for Virgin’s SpaceShipTwo, the Scaled Composites-built aircraft will be used to support science experiments, and to train suborbital passengers for high and low g conditions. Virgin is on track to begin space tourism flights in 2011, opening a market that other space entrepreneurs are eagerly pursuing despite economic headwinds.
London needs to revisit its relations with Washington and Paris as a key element of any revision of its defense industrial strategy, say industry leaders.
A crew of six NASA astronauts and a Swedish space veteran from the European Space Agency (ESA) was well into the STS-128 mission to the International Space Station late last week after dodging Florida’s fickle summertime weather for an 11:59 p.m. EDT liftoff on Aug. 28. The space shuttle Discovery docked at the ISS over the Atlantic Ocean two days later, beginning an eight-day visit to continue setting up the orbital laboratory with the scientific gear necessary to keep its six-member crew busy as assembly ends and full-time research begins (AW&ST Aug. 24/31, p.
Skynet Asia Airways extended a component services agreement with SR Technics to include its fleet of eight aircraft. The five-year deal covers component maintenance, repair, overhaul and associated logistics. SR Technics will hold a consignment stock for Skynet at the airline’s Tokyo operating base.
When the emerging private human spaceflight industry finally takes to the skies and beyond, there will be a network of spaceports to serve its vehicles and—in the U.S., at least—regulations to make their risky sorties as safe as possible.
New communications satellites for the Japanese and Australian markets are moving to their operational positions following a successful dual launch Aug. 21 on an Ariane 5 ECA vehicle from Kourou, French Guiana. The JCSAT-12 and Optus D3 satellites lifted off at 6:09 p.m. EDT and achieved their geostationary transfer orbits in good working order after the 32nd successful Ariane 5 launch in a row, according to Arianespace. Built by Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems for Japan’s SKY Perfect JSAT Corp., the 4,000-kg.
The NTSB on Sept. 1 issued 19 recommendations to enhance the safety of Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) operations. Ten were directed to the FAA, asking that the agency address several issues, including improved pilot training, development of low-altitude airspace infrastructure and pilot use of night-vision goggles. Five similar recommendations were issued to 40 government-operated or public HEMS operators. Two recommendations to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services at the Health and Human Services Dept.
In the Feb. 15, 1917, edition of Aviation and Aeronautical Engineering—the forerunner of Aviation Week & Space Technology—editors published a photograph of about two dozen tuxedoed and mess-dressed executives and military officers sitting around a table arranged in the shape of an airplane. They had gathered at the famed Delmonico’s restaurant in New York to laud Orville Wright, the guest of honor.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is preparing to release a request for proposals this month to kick off new competitions worth up to $2 billion for ballistic missile targets for the flight-test program. The solicitation will be sweeping and include targets required through 2019 as well as spares, says Patty Gargulinski, MDA targets project manager. A new Integrated Master Test Plan, which outlines the profile for the entire ballistic missile defense system, calls for 166 test events and 88 flight tests over the next 10 years.
In response to the call for a “top-to-bottom review of flight safety focusing on issues usually ranked as unimportant, negligible, secondary or otherwise not deserving of attention” I don’t know what the French term would be but here in the U.S. we say: “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.”
Thales say it has completed phase four of Mexico’s nationwide air traffic management modernization program. The fourth phase included upgrades to control centers at Hermosillo, Puerto Vallarta, San Jose and Tijuana airports, which are now equipped with Thales’s Eurocat ATM system.
Your article about the work of Franck Lefevre (AW&ST Aug. 24/31, p. 18) discusses the unexpectedly short lifetime of the Mars methane detected by ground-based telescopes (notably, by Michael Mumma of NASA Goddard). NASA Langley’s 1976 Viking mission to Mars detected controversial evidence from its biology experiment consistent with life there, but the scientists concluded that the positive signal from the Viking Lander instrumentation could have been caused by an unknown strong oxidant in the Martian soil.
L-3 Communications’ Link Simulation & Training has completed the first phase of its F/A‑18C/D Roadmap Procurement Program for the U.S. Navy and has begun work on the second phase of the five-year initiative. The company has delivered six Tactical Operational Flight Trainers (TOFT) and has upgraded another 16 existing Navy and Marine Corps F/A-18 simulators to the new TOFT configuration. Phase two calls for delivery of one additional training system each to MCAS Iwakuni, Japan, and MCAS Miramar, Calif., as well as to the Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth.
Cabin crew fatigue issues, including work rules that incentivize pilots to fly when they are less than 100%, are surfacing again, this time at cargo carrier Amerijet.
Work on solid-fuel rockets propelled by a mixture of powdered aluminum and water ice may lead to in-situ production on the Moon and Mars, following a successful flight test using the environmentally friendly propellant. Engineers from NASA and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research used the ice-based aluminum propellant—dubbed Alice—to send a 9-ft.-long rocket to an altitude of 1,300 ft. in a test at Purdue University’s Scholer Farm in Indiana last month.
