The incongruous sight of a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 sitting by a gas station forecourt after overrunning the runway at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, Calif., in 2000, or the more recent images of a burning Airbus A320 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, are vivid reminders of the constant danger posed by runway excursions.
In an effort to set a single safety standard for majors and regionals, the FAA is asking carriers to adopt voluntary reporting programs “without delay” and is seeking to revise flight- and duty-time rules. The moves are among the near- and long-term strategies that emerged from the FAA/Transportation Dept.’s June 15 “call to action” safety summit here. The meeting was called after the investigation of the Feb. 12 Colgan Air/Continental Connection Flight 3407 crash near Buffalo, N.Y., uncovered numerous safety concerns.
Both teams vying for a massive U.S. Air Force contract to build refueling tankers appear to be taking on a more collegial tenor as they await release of the Pentagon’s requirements next month, but this newfound spirit could be the calm before the storm in a third attempt for the service to select a new design.
Pratt & Whitney’s next-generation “GEN2” geared turbofan development for future single-aisle aircraft looks increasingly certain to drive a wedge between the International Aero Engines (IAE) partners and Rolls-Royce.
Leslie Riegle has become director of regulatory affairs for the Alexandria, Va.-based American Assn. of Airport Executives . She was a legislative and public policy adviser on aviation affairs at the Washington law firm of Arnold & Porter.
Lynn Brubaker and Heinrich Loechteken have become senior advisers to New York-based Seabury Aviation and Aerospace . Brubaker was vice president/general manager for commercial aerospace at Honeywell International, while Loechteken was chief investment officer of AerCap.
The FAA has approved a flight instructor safety stand-down program designed by Cessna Aircraft Co. The program, a first for any aircraft original equipment manufacturer, according to Cessna officials, is a training seminar aimed at certified flight instructors (CFI) and commercial pilots interested in becoming CFIs. The 18-hr. program covers new technologies aimed at improving safety of flight and serves as an FAA-approved flight instructor refresher course. For more information go to www.cessna.com/training
The U.S. NTSB is seeking efficient ways to prevent birds from downing another airliner as Canada geese did to US Airways Flight 1549 on Jan. 15—including on-aircraft technologies and revamping of engine certification standards for bird ingestion.
Two major airline alliances—Star and Oneworld—are looking at how they can best adjust to help their members through an industry downturn. The Star Alliance hopes to streamline its decision-making process even as it adds more members, after a major change in its corporate governance structure. Rival Oneworld also is expanding and looking to boost cost-saving efforts.
Sen. John Faulkner, a highly regarded figure in the Australian government, will take over as defense minister following the resignation of Joel Fitzgibbon. Unusual for a defense minister, Faulkner is from the left wing of the ruling Labor Party. He was minister for defense science in the mid-1990s and later proved an effective performer in opposition.
It’s the year 2050. Latest-technology aircraft are fueled by an endless supply of a gas substitute that does not add to CO2 emissions. Engines hardly produce any noise. Passengers travel in the highest comfort and consider flying beneficial to their health. And the best part of it is that developments in the past years have led to lower operating costs for airlines.
About ten years ago, a senior FAA executive exhorted his managers to renew their focus on safety. “Think about the things you’ll do tomorrow if an aircraft crashes due to something involving your area of responsibility,” he said. “Then go back to your office and do them today!”
German aerospace center DLR has selected EADS Astrium to study the feasibility of demonstrating a precision soft landing of a lunar spacecraft on Earth. If the nine-month study, to begin this month, is conclusive, it would be followed by landing demonstrations in Germany. The first test flight could take place in 2012.
Gary H. Lantner (see photo) has been named president, Robert C. White (see photo) vice president-airport services and Sandra C. Gonzalez director of business development of the Houston Airport System Development Corp.
Intelsat will replace five aging spacecraft serving the Asia-Pacific region. Three are satellites launched in 1998-2001 that were initially earmarked for renewal in 2010-12, but early this year were targeted for early replacement. Intelsat will acquire the other two satellites, Intelsat 17 and 18, to replace a pair of older spacecraft, Intelsat 702 and 701, which were launched in 1993-94.
America designed and built the world’s most renowned jet trainers in the 1950s: the Cessna T37 Tweety Bird and Northrop T-38 Talon. Almost 60 years later, it is time for U.S. airframers to start a U.S.-designed-and-made supersonic jet trainer to teach F-22 and F-35 pilots. Relying on a foreign-designed advanced supersonic trainer would be a mistake like relying on a foreign-designed tanker.
Michael A. Taverna (Paris and Cannes, France), Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington)
As NASA attempts to pick up the pieces of its Earth observation strategy, following the failure of its Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) A-Train mission, the European Space Agency—recovering from a crippling loss of its own—is starting to move its Earth Observer program into higher gear. Coordination of Earth observing (EO) programs among different nations, including Japan, is also increasing.
While Rockwell Collins’s new CORE product will be used on both commercial and military aircraft simulators (AW&ST June 8, p. 37), CTC Aviation Training Group uses only commercial simulators.
Scientists hope to gain new insight into solar magnetoconvection phenomena following a pace-setting balloon-borne telescope mission completed last week. The first of a series of such missions, Sunrise, took off from the Esrange launch site near Kiruna, Sweden, on June 8 and was expected to touch down in northern Canada on June 12. Equipped with a 1-meter mirror and capable of observing structures on the Sun as small as 35 km.
Eric Dautriat has been named executive director of the Brussels-based European Commission’s Clean Sky Joint Technology Initiative . He was vice president-quality for Paris-based Safran.
The coverage of the Integrated Sensor Is Structure airship in “Persistence Pays Off” (AW&ST May 18, p. 54) was excellent but I have to take exception with the focus on hybrid airships for long-duration surveillance missions.
Air cargo traffic, a leading indicator of economic growth, has fallen off a cliff and is not expected to recover until the fall. That bodes poorly for a long-awaited surge in passenger traffic, which typically lags the overall economy—and thus airfreight volume—by several months.
Swe-Dish Satellite Systems AB, a DataPath company specializing in mobile satellite communications (satcom) equipment, has been awarded approval for the Suitcase CCT120 ultra-portable terminal to operate on the Skynet satellite system. The Suitcase CCT120 is a compact, quick-to-air broadband satellite terminal, featuring a 1.2-meter antenna and advanced CommuniCase Technology (CCT), according to the company. Skynet approval assures that the Suitcase CCT120 is deployable on Paradigm’s next-generation satellite.
Two key U.S. senators are warning Obama administration officials about future high-power intelligence satellites. Sens. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Kit Bond (R-Mo.) say, via a Senate defense appropriations hearing June 9, that they are deeply troubled about a new plan for future overhead imaging capabilities, which calls for multiple high-end satellites under the National Reconnaissance Office. The NRO falls under the Defense Dept., but also is part of the 16-agency intelligence community (IC) headed by the director of national intelligence (DNI).
