The Airborne Laser (ABL) missile defense program may have been drastically cut, but it’s far from dead, says the head of the Missile Defense Agency. In fact, MDA plans to explore putting ABL technology on an aircraft smaller than its current jumbo jet platform, says Army Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly. The high-powered laser, designed to destroy an attacking missile shortly after launch, flies on a modified Boeing 747-400 freighter now.
Pilots caught in the time warp of being older than 60 but younger than the FAA’s new mandatory retirement age of 65 are suing to get back in the air. But it’s unclear if they’ll find relief in court. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals asked why they are suing in San Francisco rather than in Washington. One unstated answer is the perception that the FAA has a home court advantage in the nation’s capital.
Comments from retired airline pilots in recent issues reveal a number of underlying factors were out of kilter on Colgan Air Flight 3407, including one to which our compulsively politically correct culture turns a blind eye.
Jeff Hartlove, who is Airborne Laser (ABL) deputy program manager for the Northrop Grumman Corp., has received a U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Technology Pioneer Award as one of six government and industry team members recognized for developing and integrating technologies that would enable ABL to engage in boost-phase ballistic missile defense. Hartlove was honored for his role in activating, testing and tuning the megawatt-class Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser.
NASA is set to launch its long-awaited Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter June 17, carrying a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) similar to one that already is returning tantalizing data from its perch on India’s Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter. The LRO and its piggyback Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (Lcross) impactor are ready to go on an Atlas V as early as 3:51 p.m. EDT, with subsequent windows at 4:01 p.m. and 4:11 p.m. EDT on June 17, and more opportunities on the 18th.
The first Boeing 787 is undergoing a last phase of intensive ground simulation, or “gauntlet,” work before it starts taxi tests and revs up for the long-anticipated first flight.
A cockpit windshield heater was the cause of a small fire on a Jetstar Airbus A330-200 that resulted in the crew declaring Mayday and making an emergency landing at Guam on June 11. Qantas, which owns Jetstar, states than an electrical connector of the heating element malfunctioned, producing sparks and smoke. A Jetstar representative says small flames accompanied the smoke, on the right side of the cockpit near the windshield. The pilots extinguished the fire.
Anthony Albanese has been promoted to vice president from assistant vice president of the Systems Technology Business Area of the Syracuse (N.Y.) Research Corp. (SRC) . Joanne Shumaker has been named Hanover, Md.-based federal market account director. She was president of SciTech Services Inc. Tom Wilson has been named vice president/chief strategy officer of subsidiary SRCTec. He was SRC’s vice president-systems technology.
All eyes are on Bell Helicopter as it strives to reinvent itself after a fateful phase that almost culminated in the company’s sale by struggling parent Textron.
Australian Defense Minister Joel Fitzgibbon has resigned after it was revealed that the major general in charge of defense health services was ordered to discuss possible health insurance savings with Fitzgibbon’s brother, who is the head of an Australian insurance company, and with a U.S. insurer that the brother represented.
Declaring that trials last August proved successful, Japan Airlines began using preferential routing flights from Tokyo to the Australian cities of Brisbane and Sydney as of June 4. JAL estimates it will save 1 million lb. of fuel worth about 24 million yen ($250,000) annually on its daily round-trip flights to Australia by basing routes on best weather patterns rather than predetermined flight paths. JAL began using continuous descent arrivals for late night/early morning arrivals at Kansai International Airport as another fuel-savings effort.
Thomas L. Carter (see photo) has been appointed Washington-based vice president-government relations for Elbit Systems of America . He is a former deputy assistant Defense secretary for legislative affairs and was president of Commonwealth Consulting Corp.
Last week marked a grim milestone in defense procurement—the U.S. Navy canceled the VH-71 presidential helicopter. It was the first big formal step in a series that Defense Secretary Robert Gates proffered two months ago to shake up a military-industrial culture that has become too slow and too costly. The breadth of programs affected is wide, cutting across air, land, sea and space (see p. 22).
Now restored, Cessna’s sole remaining SkyCatcher 162 resumes flight-testing this month in Kansas. The aircraft was heavily damaged Mar. 19 after the test pilot was unable to recover from a spin and deployed the aircraft’s ballistic parachute. The plane set down safely in a field, but the pilot could not then release the chute before the wind caught hold and dragged the airplane some distance, causing considerable damage.
Norman Augustine again demonstrates his deep knowledge and understanding of the aerospace and defense acquisition process. Time and again during my 60 years in the field, attempts have been made to reconfigure the acquisition process to be more efficient, but have come to naught. I can only hope Defense Secretary Robert Gates can pull it off and is smart enough to use the background of people like Augustine and Jacques Gansler to support him.
Almost all Japanese airports are in the red, according to a report by an independent research group. Among 41 airports that the Aviation Policy Research Assn. examined, only three made money in 2005, the focus year of the study: Kobe, Itami (at Osaka) and New Chitose. Even if depreciation charges were discounted, only 10—not quite a quarter—were in the black. The study included Tokyo Haneda but not Narita, Kansai or Central Japan International; their figures are separately reported to public shareholders.
Technological progress demonstrated by the fielding of high-altitude, large-payload UAVs is revitalizing the concept of Boost Phase Intercept (BPI) —the tactic of striking enemy ballistic missiles within the first minute or so after launch.
As businesses look for signs of when the global economy will stop sinking, investors already have called the bottom for commercial aerospace stocks. It occurred at the beginning of March, when the price of a share of Boeing Co. was as little as $29.05. Since then, aerospace stocks have staged a strong rally, though they remain far below their peak prices of the fall of 2007.
RAF ambitions to bring the General Atomics Reaper UAV into the core equipment program went unfilled during funding Planning Round 09. So far at least five Reapers are believed to have been purchased by the U.K. through the urgent operational requirement route, though not all remain operational.
Gary Hebb has become vice president-innovation and strategy of EMS Satcom of Atlanta. He was general manager and will be succeeded by Joanne Walker. She was Ottawa-based corporate vice president-business operations.
Indonesia is looking at withdrawing international status from some of its 27 airports. The transport ministry plans to restrict some of the facilities to domestic operations, especially if there is no international air service agreement that covers them.
Boeing has proposed the A160T Hummingbird long-endurance unmanned helicopter for the U.S. Marine Corps’ immediate cargo unmanned aircraft system demonstration program, which could lead to a deployment in Afghanistan. Lockheed Martin and Kaman have proposed the Unmanned K-Max with increased system redundancy for operation in austere and extreme environments. A contract is scheduled to be awarded in July. The goal is to demonstrate delivery of 2,500 lb. of cargo per day between two forward operating bases in less than 6 hr. per day, for three consecutive days.
June 15-19Simtech 2009: “Simulation, Concepts, Capability and Technology.” Adelaide (Australia) Convention Center. See www.siaa.asn.au/simtect/2009/2009.htm June 15-21—Paris air show. Le Bourget. See www.paris-air-show.com June 23-24Technology Training Corp.’s Unmanned Aircraft System Payloads Conference. “Needs, Capabilities & Opportunities.” Also, June 25-26—Defense Export Controls Conference. Both at Holiday Inn Hotel and Suites, Alexandria, Va. Call +1 (310) 563-1223 or see www.ttcus.com
