The NTSB is intensifying efforts to promote a public awareness campaign about the dangers of carrying lithium batteries on airliners (AW&ST Dec. 10, 2007, p. 47). Safety board recommendations issued Jan. 7 ask both the FAA and Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to establish a process that would provide “wider, highly visible and continuous” guidance to travelers and flight crews on the safe carriage of rechargeable lithium batteries, or electronic devices containing these batteries.
The U.S. Army-led requirement for the future Joint Heavy Lift helicopter’s internal carriages has increased to 29 from 20 tons, a Boeing official says. The Army is in the early phases of exploring requirements for a vertical-lift transport that will shuttle vehicles around battlefields. The change was necessary to accommodate growth in Future Combat System vehicles.
Air Canada, which hopes to complete its major fleet renewal this year, is reporting a record 78.8% load factor for December for combined mainline and regional affiliate Jazz, six percentage points higher than the same month last year. The mainline flew 2.3% more revenue passenger miles (RPM), with a 1.6% capacity increase. Jazz flew 3.8% more RPM based on a 2.5% increase. The full-year consolidated load factor of 80.6% is also a record, for the fourth year in a row, according to Air Canada.
Cruise-missile defense has long been a stepchild in the Pentagon’s air-and-missile defense community, with some officials feeling the Defense Dept. is not organized properly to deal with the growing threat of a cruise-missile attack abroad or, especially, on U.S. territory. Now that may be changing. “They are beginning to talk seriously” about a new approach to the cruise-missile defense problem, says Dave Kier, Lockheed Martin vice president for missile defense.
The first two Marine One helicopters have formally entered flight test at NAS Patuxent River, Md. The two VH-71 test vehicles will undergo structural and propulsion experiments. They will also be used for early pilot training.
David Hughes (Washington ), Michael Mecham (San Francisco)
Boeing says it will be able to prove compliance with special conditions set by the FAA for the 787’s computer networks when the 250-300-seat jet’s flight-test program begins this spring. The goal is to assure that the aircraft’s network design is secure from intrusion by hackers. The review is among 10 special conditions the FAA published Jan. 2 in the Federal Register to cover the 787’s advances in design, materials and systems beyond already written certification rules.
Spain has added to its Eurocopter order book, with deals for 11 more rotorcraft to go to the defense and interior ministries. The military is buying two Cougars for its army airmobile force under a €40-million ($58.8-million) contract, while the military emergency unit has signed for three helos of the type in an award valued at €76 million. The latter arrangements also include mission and logistics support. Also, the interior ministry is procuring two EC135s and four AS355NPs for the directorate general for Traffic for an estimated €20 million.
A British Royal Navy Sea King helicopter crew that saved the life of an injured swimmer from a coastal cave has been selected as this year’s recipient of the Breitling Award for Aviation Heroism. The crew, led by Lt. Cdr. Matt Shrimpton, was scrambled on July 2, 2007, as part of a search-and-rescue effort to locate and recover two missing people: a Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) lifeguard and a female swimmer. The two individuals were thought to be trapped in a cave in the Newquay area of the Cornwall coast in southwest England.
Air China is poised to become the world’s sixth-largest airline, outranking Northwest Airlines and British Airways, as its parent prepares to bid for control of struggling China Eastern. The parent company says it plans comprehensive cooperation between the two airlines, not a full merger, but analysts note that integration of the businesses is the most logical and likely outcome, even if the separate brands survive, as is the case with Air France-KLM.
Europe’s low-fare airlines are starting to see increasing turmoil after years of speculation that their overabundance will lead to a shakeout as the contenders struggle for financial viability.
Airbus has revamped its design and program management process for the A350XWB to ensure the project doesn’t suffer the same problems that bedeviled earlier attempts (see pp. 44). One new feature is the use of a single digital mock-up (DMU). Lisa Caputo and Hans Michaud of the AW&ST Art Dept. created the cover from Airbus’s A350 concept drawings that illustrate how DMU is being employed to create the twin widebody.
The European Space Agency has tentatively scheduled three days of proximity operations at the ISS with its Automated Transfer Vehicle beginning Mar. 6 and winding up with the 20-ton space freighter docked to Russia’s Zvezda service module on Mar. 15. The whole schedule, beginning with launch from Kourou, French Guiana, no earlier than Feb. 22, will depend on getting the space shuttle fleet flying again (see previous item), but plans call for the first approach and test of the vehicle’s automatic escape maneuver on Mar. 6. On Mar.
Meanwhile, a USAF C-17 flew an 11-hr. relief mission from Christchurch, New Zealand, to drop 150 lb. of engine parts and tools to a British fishing ship, the Argos Georgia with a 25-person crew, that has been stranded off the Ross Ice Shelf at Antarctica since Christmas Eve. The ship had suffered engine failure while negotiating ice.
Astronomers are trying to figure out why a relatively hot spot in the clouds at the south pole of Saturn is duplicated at the north pole, where it’s been wintertime since 1995. Scientists measured the spot—actually a frigid 84K (‑310F)—with the Composite Infrared Spectrometer on the Cassini probe, which produced this false-color image of the north pole covering temperatures as high as 72K (‑330F). Oxford University’s Leigh Fletcher, lead author of a paper on the discovery in the Jan.
In a bid to keep up with strong commercial satellite demand and an improving outlook for government business, Arianespace is looking at further launcher purchases and accelerating production ramp-up plans.
Alexander Seger has been appointed director of operations in Toulouse for Avtech , which also has major operations in Stockholm. Lars-Peter Peltomaa has become chief technical officer of Avtech-AviaQ, Capt. Anna Sundberg a quality auditor, Britt Eklund a cabin safety expert and auditor, Capt. Michael Agelii senior operational expert, Julius Sokolowski a simulation engineer, Serdar Akalinli a wind and product analyzer engineer and Sven Jakobsson a senior expert.
Indonesian budget airline Lion Air says it will set up affiliates in Australia and Thailand to develop a franchise business like that of Singapore-based rival Tiger Airways. The Australian airline will fly six Boeing 737-900ERs; the Thai operation will have four.
Commercial aviation is an indispensable component of the global economy and a major growth engine in emerging economies. Directly and indirectly, aviation constitutes 8% of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), supports 29 million jobs and transports 40% of interregional exports of goods, by value.
Eugene Francis Kranz has received the NASA Ambassador of Exploration Award for his involvement in the U.S. space program. He worked on NASA’s Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space missions, and was lead flight director during the Apollo 13 mission. An explosion on board the spacecraft during Apollo 13 required Kranz and other team members to help resolve the crisis and bring the astronauts back to Earth.
Lockheed Martin’s Multiple Kill Vehicle (MKV) is on track for flight testing in the 2012-14 timeframe, officials said in a teleconference Jan. 9. The program is in the development phase with a focus on component testing. Lockheed officials noted several successes in testing of the Advanced Divert and Attitude Control systems and said the company will continue work on testing the additional subsystems required to make the flight test a reality.
The British government is denying any discussions between London and Washington over the possible siting of ballistic missile defense interceptors in the U.K.
Finnair will begin a share buy-back program after Feb. 5, when annual results are posted. The airline says traffic is strongly up, but yields were down in the last quarter. The purchase of up to 600,000 shares will end no later than Apr. 1. The shares are being used to support the group’s stock-incentive scheme covering 2007-09. Meanwhile, the group also has shed its last ATR 72 turboprops. Estonian subsidiary Aero sold three to Russia’s Utair, which hopes to take delivery of them in the coming months. The value of the deal was not disclosed.
Michael A. Taverna (Le Plessis-Robinson, France), Robert Wall (Le Plessis-Robinson, France)
France says it will use its turn at the helm of the European Union later this year to push for greater integration of Europe’s defense effort. Speaking at the inauguration of a new MBDA facility here last week, French Defense Minister Herve Morin reaffirmed French plans to help boost European defense, in particular by reinforcing the fledgling European Defense Agency.
Results of CFM56 engine tests of several alternative fuels, carried out last December at GE Aviation’s Peebles, Ohio, facility, are being evaluated. Virgin Atlantic Airways, Boeing and GE Aviation are sponsoring the trials, which are run-ups to flight tests using alternative fuels in a CF6. An airline representative says Virgin has committed to a biofuels test in the first half of this year, five months ahead of what had been predicted.
Ill will and open wounds are set to dominate congressional-White House relations as the Democrat-controlled 110th Congress returns to Capitol Hill over the next two weeks. It is not even clear whether President Bush’s veto of Congress’s defense authorization bill—via a calendar quirk known as a “pocket veto”—was technically legit. Backbenchers on the Armed Services Committees from both political parties say the bill should be revised or stripped of the Iraqi-funds provisions Bush finds offensive, but otherwise the measure should be enacted (AW&ST Jan. 1, p. 19).
