Eurocontrol has issued a safety notice to aircraft operators and air navigation service providers after an incident involving an error in the use of Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC). It allows controllers to send ATC clearances to pilots via data link rather than relying exclusively on voice radio communications. But recently a pilot logged onto the CPDLC system in flight using the incorrect aircraft identification, and that turned out to be the identification of an aircraft already using the flight data processing system that had not logged on yet.
Boeing, Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin last week resubmitted bids for the U.S. Air Force’s controversial program to buy 141 Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR‑X) helicopters. The revised bids were allowed after repeated protests over loss of the competition by a Lockheed Martin/AgustaWestland team with a US101 variant and a Sikorsky-led team proposing an S-92 derivative. They were defeated for the $849-million development contract in the fall of 2005 by Boeing with its Chinook-based design.
Steve Hanvey, founder and president of SATSair, saw opportunity in creating a regional network of light, charter aircraft operating as affordable, point-to-point air taxis. He put his idea to flight in 2004, and the South Carolina-based company has grown steadily ever since. The unique operation has become the model many very light jet operators aim to emulate.
Singapore’s Changi Airport has opened a S$1.75-billion ($1.22-billion) terminal that takes passenger capacity to 70 million a year. The terminal itself can handle 22 million passengers a year.
One hundred eighty-two of the U.S. Air Force’s F-15A-Ds remain grounded because of unreliable primary structures that service officials recently discovered were poorly manufactured in the 1970s. The upper right-side longeron supporting the cockpit of a Missouri Air National Guard F-15C failed Nov. 2, causing the fighter to break in half behind the cockpit during a typical combat maneuver in training. The pilot ejected from the cockpit when it was inverted, and he survived with injuries.
Northrop Grumman’s next phase of the U.S. Navy’s vertical takeoff and landing tactical unmanned aerial vehicle MQ-8B FireScout development program is underway. The first flight test used a trial and training control segment—a shelterized iteration of the consoles and other equipment being integrated on Littoral Combat Ships for operational use of the UAV. The flight, which also featured the production control segment that integrates Raytheon’s Intelligence and Information Systems Div.’s software, took place Dec. 15 at the Patuxent River (Md.) Naval Air Station.
Water that spilled from a first-class galley shut down all electrical power except the emergency battery backup on a Qantas Boeing 747-400 on Jan. 7, luckily when the aircraft was just 15 min. from landing at Bangkok after a flight from London. The water came from a blocked drain, according to one media report, and flowed through a cracked drip tray that should have stopped it. A generator control unit then short-circuited, the Australian airline says. The aircraft has been fixed and is back in service.
Thales has secured contracts to upgrade both the Gripen and Tornado fighters. The arrangement with Saab is to allow Gripens to comply with NATO’s Mode 5 Interrogation Friend-or-Foe (IFF) standard. Sweden will fit 68 Gripens with the Thales IFF Combined Interrogator Transponders (CIT), while 75 further aircraft of the type are to see their CIT equipment enhanced. In addition, Thales has been tapped to outfit German Tornados with TRA 6030 Saturn secure radios. The company already supplies radio sets for the German air force, navy and army.
Douglas M. Steenland, who is Northwest Airlines president/CEO, has been elected chairman of the Washington-based Air Transport Assn. of America for a two-year term as ATA chairman. He succeeds American Airlines Chairman Gerard Arpey.
Space shuttle managers have outlined a tentative return-to-flight schedule for the fleet, pending verification that the Atlantis STS-122 external tank on Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center is indeed ready for launch on a mission to carry the European Columbus laboratory to the International Space Station. Engine cutoff (ECO) sensor system testing continues, however (see p. 13). If test data are favorable, the Atlantis launch will be officially scheduled for as early as Feb.
The U.K.’s Institute of Corrosion is offering a free seminar addressing the discipline of risk-based software inspection of assets. The event is slated for Jan. 28 at the Paddington Hotel in Warrington, Cheshire. See www.icorr.org for more information.
USN Vice Adm. (ret.) Stanley R. Szemborski (see photo) has become vice president-corporate strategy for the Northrop Grumman Corp. , based in the company’s Washington office. His last naval position was principal deputy director of program analysis and evaluation in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
Researchers will flight test a novel “belly-flap” on a blended-wing body (BWB) within the next few weeks to verify control improvements that could be critical to the success of the all-wing concept.
The 787’s deadlines are being squeezed as Boeing institutes self-imposed delays on the second airplane while it struggles to get the first one out the door. The second flight test article, originally due at Boeing’s Everett, Wash., plant in late December, will likely arrive late this month. It’s unclear when the four other flight test aircraft are due. They were expected by Jan. 31.
While the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (Global Hawk and Predator) over Southern California’s forest fires has helped show the variety of uses for UAVs, it is hardly cost-effective (AW&ST Nov. 5, 2007, p. 18).
John Shannon, mission management team chairman on STS-118, and NASA engineers evaluated the threat from a gouge in the shuttle Endeavour’s thermal protection system in August 2007, and made the real-time call that it probably would be riskier to attempt untried repair techniques than to land without taking action. Their decisions combined the lessons of Columbia with world-class analytical skills to make the mission as safe as such a risky undertaking can be.
The Chinese commercial aircraft company to be formed from Avic 1 and Avic 2 will be responsible for design and assembly of the country’s proposed large airliner, which would have a takeoff weight of more than 100 tons, state media say. This means component work will be done by other companies, so the new business will not encompass the whole Chinese civil aircraft sector.
The latest results from the Corot orbital observatory are convincing scientists that the French-led planet-finding/asteroseismology mission will be able to obtain even more startling data than predicted.
Veteran public servant Guy Bujold will head the Canadian Space Agency for the next year or so as interim president after former Telesat Canada CEO Laurier Boisvert left the post nine months into an expected three-year term. Bujold, formerly an assistant deputy minister at Industry Canada, quietly assumed the job on New Year’s Day, after Boisvert stepped down Dec. 20 “for personal reasons.” Speculation in Canada centered on a link to the unexpected announcement that the Alliant Techsystems (ATK) would buy MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates.
Australia’s new defense minister, Joel Fitzgibbon, has confirmed that he will ask the U.S. to allow the country access to the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, even though Canberra has made no decision that it wants to buy the aircraft as it reviews alternatives to its 2007 order for Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornets.
The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency has cleared Lockheed Martin to start Phase Two of its generalized integrated learning architecture (GILA) under a one-year, $5.2-million contract. GILA learns the skills of veteran air controllers who handle a mix of manned and unmanned aircraft and weapons in combat, and then passes that knowledge to inexperienced personnel. The system will also help create Airspace Control Orders to manage and deconflict crowded airspace.
Delta Air Lines pilots are preparing for consolidation attempts, meeting last week in Atlanta to set union strategy. The Delta Air Lines Master Executive Council (Dalmec) opened its Strike Operations Center and mobilized its Strike Preparedness Committee, the latter being ready to organize the kind of picketing and lobbying efforts that helped stop US Airways’ recent takeover bid for Delta. “Consolidation may be at our door,” notes Dalmec Chairman Lee Moak in a Jan.
Italian general aviation manufacturer Oma Sud has started flight trials of its Skycar twin-engine aircraft. First flight took place Jan. 10 at the Capua airport in Naples. The 45 min. flight, with Alenia Aeronautica test pilot Maurizio Cheli at the controls, was used to assess basic handling and performance. The unpressurized Skycar is powered by two Lycoming 10-360-C1E6 engines in a pusher configuration, delivering 200 hp. each and driving three-blade composite propellers.
