The recent letter lamenting the loss of engineering subject matter expertise (SME) points out that system engineering isn’t a substitute for detailed technical knowledge (AW&ST June 9, p. 10). As a practicing system engineer, I couldn’t agree more.
EchoStar Corp. reportedly has filed an application to build and fly a C-band satellite at 84.9 deg. W. Long. The company has yet to name a satellite manufacturer. EchoStar Corp., which was spun off from Dish Corp. earlier this year to develop its fixed satellite service business, currently offers capacity on three FSS spacecraft, all in Ku/Ka band (AW&ST Mar. 3, p. 37). The units, two of which are owned by SES Americom, are located at 85, 105 and 121 deg. W. Long., respectively.
A 20% hike in hardware spending and a doubling of the military space budget are among the highlights of a new defense plan to be submitted to French lawmakers this week.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has announced that two Sky Warrior Block 0 unmanned aircraft systems are in Iraq supporting U.S. Army ground forces. The first mission for WY-201 occurred on Apr. 18 and lasted 10.5 hr. The second UAS, WY-202, was deployed at the end of April. Block 0s feature the same airframe design, diesel engines and highly redundant avionics as the anticipated Block 1s and data from these missions will support their development. Seventeen Block 1s are set to be produced—four for deployment; nine to serve as test program assets.
The International Astronomical Union, which knocked Pluto off its official list of planets in 2006 (AW&ST Sept. 4, 2006, p. 16), has decided to name the whole class of dwarf planets in the trans-neptune region “plutoids.” They are objects orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune with enough gravity to assume a near-spherical shape, but not enough to clear the “neighborhood” around their orbits; so only Pluto and Eris fill the bill as plutoids at the moment. “It is expected that more plutoids will be named as science progresses and new discoveries are made,” the IAU states.
Russia’s major airlines are showing little sign of being affected by the slowdown in passenger volume hitting many other carriers. Traffic figures from the first five months show Aeroflot boasting a 16.8% growth in volume, with S7 airlines recording an increase of 32.7%. AiRUnion traffic is up 23%, Rossya Airlines 16.5% and Utair 24.8%. Transaero Airlines was up a staggering 47% through the first four months.
Engineers are developing a relatively lightweight emergency airbag system for NASA’s Orion crew exploration vehicle, in case circumstances force it to return to Earth on dry land instead of hitting its nominal target in the ocean off the California coast.
USN Capts. Jerry K. Burroughs and Paul A. Grosklags have been nominated for promotion to rear admiral (lower half). Burroughs has been named chief engineer directorate of the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, at San Diego. He has been program manager for special operating forces and undersea mobility in the Program Executive Office for Submarines in Washington. Grosklags has been appointed commander of fleet readiness centers at NAS Patuxent River, Md.
Northrop Grumman strongly defended its X-47B naval unmanned combat air system (UCAS) demonstrator late last week as the U.S. Navy threatened to remove funding for the program from its Fiscal 2010 budget. The program, which calls for the first autonomous carrier landings in 2011, “is on plan, on schedule and on cost,” the company says, adding, “and more than $1 billion has been invested in this program after many stops and starts during J-UCAS.” Navy UCAS is intended as a carrier-based persistent, reconnaissance and strike platform that could enter service around 2025.
Japan Airlines, All Nippon Airways, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Society of Japanese Aerospace Cos. and Boeing will participate in a radio frequency identification workshop this week to validate the value proposition of the technology.
The FAA is providing Military Airport Program (MAP) funding to seven facilities that are scheduled for conversion to civilian or joint use. New to the MAP initiative is Roosevelt Roads International Airport in Ceiba, Puerto Rico. It joins six airports previously selected: Griffiss Airpark, Oneida County, N.Y.; Okaloosa Regional Airport, Valparaiso, Fla.; Phoenix-Mesa Gateway, Mesa, Ariz.; Chippewa County International, Sault St. Marie, Minn.; March Inland Port, Riverside, Calif., and A.B. Won Pat International, Agana, Guam.
A small air-to-surface missile developed as a private venture by Raytheon has been deployed on the Predator UAV by an unidentified U.S. customer. The Griffin munition is a 45-lb., 42-in.-long, tube-launched missile with semi-active laser guidance and provides the Predator with an organic, self-targeted direct attack capability and the potential to reduce collateral damage. Up to three of the low-cost missiles can be loaded for every Hellfire the Predator now carries.
Development of Israel’s anti-rocket air defense umbrella is getting ready to kick into high gear, and already program officials have designs for expanded employment of the system with an eye on the international market.
Boeing’s decision to abandon the narrow-body aircraft replacement study, due to insufficient technology developments to gain a 20% improvement in efficiency, raises some interesting questions. We are talking about 20-plus-year-old aircraft built mostly of aluminum, with somewhat antiquated engines. A 10-15% improvement in weight/efficiency could be made with composite structures alone. Another 20% or more could be achieved with a blended-wing body design (sooner or later Boeing and the airlines will be forced to give up some of their precious windows).
David Ryan, head of Bombardier Flight Operations, has resigned as confirmed by Bombardier Business Aircraft. The departure comes three months after Robert Agostino, the previous head of the flight unit, left to join LJ Aviation in Latrobe, Pa. Agostino and Ryan produced the Bombardier Safety Standdown for more than a decade.
ITT will begin grinding and polishing the blank glass telescope mirror for GeoEye’s next-generation Earth imaging satellite later this summer, after receiving the blank for the 1.1-meter mirror last month. The companies also are working on sensor electronics for the spacecraft’s camera, which GeoEye has contracted ITT to build. GeoEye-2 is expected to launch by 2012, and selection of a satellite builder is expected later this year.
Congressional auditors say the beleaguered U.S. civil/military National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) could see its price tag rise another $1 billion, to $13.5 billion. The original budget was $6.5 billion.
Space shuttle orbiter Discovery, piloted by STS-124 astronauts Navy Cdr. Mark E. Kelly and Ken Ham, assisted by flight engineer Ron Garan, flares for touchdown at 190 kt. about 2,600 ft. along Runway 15 at the Kennedy Space Center on June 14. Mission specialist Karen Nyberg was also on the flight deck for the end of the Japanese Kibo delivery mission to the International Space Station. Mike Fossum and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, along with original STS-123 crewmember Garrett Reisman, was in the middeck.
The swollen Cedar River has not hurt avionics maker Rockwell Collins at its home base in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, nor have inundated roads prevented shipping, the company reports. Collins, which employs 8,600 people, is centered in a hilly area north of the city’s flooded downtown. But while the company was spared, many employees were impacted, a spokeswoman said. Only one company building is downtown and had to be evacuated. The company ships most of its avionics products by air. The Cedar Rapids airport has not been damaged.
Given the amount of tracking of aircraft life—hours, cycles—it seems odd for aviation expert Edmund S. Greenslet (AW&ST May 19, p. 19) to generalize and apply the “dog years” standard to airliners, in this case multiplying calendar years by three to get an idea on life stage. Venerable DC-3s and B-52s are 150-180 years old, according to his standard, and are dead by most biological standards. As any of us past Greenslet’s “prime of life” standard of 36 can tell you, it’s not the years that tell the story. It’s the mileage and maintenance.
David F. Stafford (see photo) has been appointed Washington-based corporate vice president-federal agencies for the Northrop Grumman Corp. He was vice president-maritime and tactical systems for the company’s Integrated Systems Sector.
Airline industry analyst Edmund Greenslet says carriers can cope with the rising cost of fuel if they adopt a variation of Dow Chemical Co.’s solution—raise prices by 20%. Greenslet’s point: “There is nothing new under the Sun, and the airline industry will survive by doing what it had to do in earlier times.” He reviewed historical information to make comparisons. In 2007, the top eight airlines in his ranking paid about 30% ($27.3 billion) of their total costs for fuel. This year they can expect to pay 60% more ($16 billion) if consumption remains steady.
The resurrected China Aviation Industry Corp., to be created by re-merging Avic 1 and Avic 2, will be inaugurated next month. Having two separate companies has resulted in redundant projects and is an obstacle to integrating resources, the government says.
If anything, astronomy teaches us about perspective. With the success of the Phoenix Mars lander, and multiple devices on and around Mars, the International Space Station coming together, Cassini and the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, these are exciting times for astronomy and space technology. I also am excited about the Hubble Space Telescope repair mission—probably the last space shuttle voyage not for station assembly or repair. Of course the elephant in the room is the retirement of the shuttle and the transition to the new Orion systems.
Korean Air budget carrier Jin Air will begin flying on domestic routes next month, with the aim of breaking even by 2010. The company says it expects to fly internationally by September 2009.
