SES is taking a step toward satellite standardization in an effort to improve mission flexibility, reduce lead time for new satellite procurement and cut costs.
I'm amazed that Airbus Military is allowing its engine testing contractor to further jeopardize the already delayed A400M airlifter program (AW&ST Apr. 23, p. 28). In your article, Marshall Aerospace itself points out many of the reasons that the too-small C-130 is a bad choice for flight-testing the very large engine and propeller: *Aerodynamic uncertainties about the flight behavior of the trials aircraft with the large heavy engine installed. *Integrating the engine on the aircraft will be a particular challenge.
The speckled nose of shuttle Atlantis's external tank shows some of the nearly 2,500 hail-damaged areas repaired in the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center, as the STS-117 stack moves out of the building and back to Pad 39A on May 15. Kennedy and United Space Alliance personnel at the pad were preparing late last week to transfer into the orbiter the S3/S4 solar array truss structure that has been elevated since late February in the Pad 39A payload changeout room. It was then that a hailstorm forced delay of the launch that had been planned for March.
Chinese conglomerate Citic Pacific says it is negotiating to sell its 25% stake in Air China Cargo to one of its partners, Air China, clearing the way for Cathay Pacific to move into the freight joint venture. The freight deal is part of a wider link between Air China and Cathay that also saw the transfer of Dragonair to the Hong Kong long-haul carrier.
Mark Adams has been named to the board of directors of Houston-based Spacehab. He is chairman/president/CEO of Advocate, MD Financial Group Inc. Adams succeeds Michael E. Kearney, a retired Spacehab president/CEO.
U.S. Army Lt. Gen. (ret.) Larry J. Dodgen, former commander of U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command and U.S. Army Forces Command, has become Huntsville, Ala.-based vice president-strategy for the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s missile systems business.
Flight tests are underway to implement short- and long-term improvements to the Eurofighter Typhoon. The Italian air force's first front-line Typhoon squadron has started testing the IRIS-T imaging infrared guided dogfight missile. The unit, based at Grosetto in northern Italy, may deploy with the missile to the test range at Decicmomanu in Sardinia in October for firing trials. Operational test pilots also will be involved.
Snecma has entered the first engine competition with its Silvercrest offering, but with no run-time on the powerplant, company executives are sanguine that even if success eludes them this time, there will be plenty of opportunities to prevail ahead. For the French engine maker, Silvercrest is an ambitious project to expand its product range. The engine family, slated to emerge in the coming years, is targeting business and smaller regional jets.
The NextGen ATC system, a program winding its way through the Washington labyrinth trying to be born, has lost its mojo. When the multi-agency Joint Planning and Development Office was created to pursue NextGen, the office was led by Charlie Keegan, who also was vice president for operations planning at the FAA's Air Traffic Organization (ATO). This clout gave the program a significant power base inside the FAA.
I was shocked to see the picture showing part markings engraved on a turbine blade, and to read that this sort of thing is being used in practice (AW&ST May 7/14, p. 19).
Michael A. Taverna (Little Rock, Ark. and Bordeaux, France)
Planners at Dassault Falcon Jet look to take advantage of a sharp ramp-up in completions of the Falcon 7X to expand use of Catia/Product Lifecycle Management tools to its other high-end models.
The Navy's Air Warfare Center Weapons Div. at China Lake, Calif., conducted the first successful demonstration--against a moving target--of what it contends is the world's smallest fire-and-forget precision-guided missile: the 5.3-lb., 25-in.-long Spike. The missile acquired, tracked and hit a 30-mph. target from more than 750 yd.
MBDA has bought Bayern-Chemie/ Protac, the maker of the motors for many of its missiles. Bayern-Chemie/ Protac was owned in equal parts by EADS Deutschland and Thales. The unit is being bought by MBDA's German arm.
Petr V. Balabuev, the former head of Ukraine's Antonov design bureau, died on May 17 after a long illness. He was 76. After graduating from the Kharkov aviation college in 1954, he began his career in Kiev in the aerospace sector and took part in the development of almost 100 aircraft models and modifications, including the Antonov An-124 Ruslan super-heavy airlifter. In 1984, Balabuev became head of the design bureau, a post he held 21 years.
Southwest Airlines--far and away the success story among U.S. airlines during the early-2000s economic downturn, terrorism shocks, disease scares and war--is approaching the end of a remarkable financial adventure that has fueled the past several years of its continuing profitability.
Mobile Satellite Ventures has ordered launches for two high-power L-band satellites that Boeing is building for the operator's planned mobile wireless service. International Launch Services (ILS) was tapped for a 2009 mission on a Proton/Breeze M vehicle flying from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Sea Launch Co. will launch a second satellite in 2010 from its floating pad at an equatorial position near Kiribati in the Pacific Ocean.
UNITED STATES Editor-In-Chief: Anthony L. Velocci, Jr. [email protected] Managing Editor: James R. Asker [email protected] Assistant Managing Editor: Michael Stearns [email protected] Senior Editors: Craig Covault [email protected], David Hughes [email protected] NEW YORK 2 Penn Plaza, 25th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10121 Phone: +1 (212) 904-2000, Fax: +1 (212) 904-6068 Senior News Editor: Nora Titterington
The Pentagon is trying to figure out how to judge the effectiveness of weapons that don't blow up targets or smash them on impact. To focus that effort, the Air Force has renamed its Air Intelligence Agency, headquartered at Lackland AFB, Tex., the Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency. Organizationally, the agency will move from Air Combat Command to the deputy chief of staff for ISR(A2), currently Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula, and it will be considered a field operating agency.
The U.S. Senate Commerce Commit- tee has approved a four-year FAA reauthorization bill without controversial user fees. The bill leaves in place current taxes and fees paid by airlines and their passengers, including the excise tax on tickets. The measure, if enacted, would phase out the airlines' $0.43-per-gal. fuel tax over five years while more than doubling business-aviation fuel taxes to $0.491 per gal.
Critical weeks lie ahead for EADS and its aircraft maker Airbus. The European aerospace giant's long-term fortunes have much resting on how a number of political, labor and industrial issues are resolved this summer.
The U.S. Army is planning to take a crawl-walk-run approach to fielding a new tactical signals intelligence system after having learned a host of lessons from the Aerial Common Sensor (ACS) program termination in 2005.
Oil-rich Kazakhstan plans to use some of its extra cash to upgrade its 87,000-member military with the latest space technologies, including space-based communications, navigation and mapping gear.
Scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) hope a technique they developed to generate the first map of an extrasolar planet can be applied to map Earth-like planets around distant stars, once the James Webb Space Telescope is operational. The planet known as HD 189733b is anything but Earth-like--it is a hot gas giant orbiting a star slightly smaller and cooler than the Sun that lies 60 light years away toward the constellation Vulpecula. But with 33 hr.
