In November 2001, American Airlines Flight 587 crashed after the inflight vertical stabilizer separated shortly after takeoff from New York John F. Kennedy International Airport. The three-year National Transportation Safety Board investigation ruled pilot error was the cause and the wake vortex encounter was not a factor. This conclusion was incorrect.
Adm. Jonathon Band, chief of the British Naval Staff, is suggesting that the U.K. faces the need to raise its defense spending to 2.5% from 2.2% of gross domestic product if it wants to sustain its present defense capability in the medium to long term. Military expenditures are coming under scrutiny as part of the Labor government's Comprehensive Spending Review. There is concern within the senior military and industry that the present level of funding will not sustain the ministry's planned equipment acquisition program in the medium term.
Bell Helicopter Textron completed an extensive, nine-year airframe fatigue test program for the V-22 on Feb. 23 at its facilities in Hurst, Tex. The tests verified that the tiltrotor's structural integrity has a fatigue life equivalent to 20,000 hr. in the air, or two service lifetimes. About 70% of the tests focused on loads in the airplane mode, and 30% on helicopter mode.
Douglas Barrie (Basra, Iraq; and Kandahar, Lashkar Gah and Camp Bastion, Afghanistan)
The Royal Air Force is fielding around a tenth of its available front-line, fixed-wing fleet in operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Hardly, at first glance, a taxing number.
The Air Force has quietly revealed over the past couple of years that the active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars in its F-22 Raptor, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and E-8 Joint Stars aircraft (if the latter is upgraded with the now-canceled E-10's MP-RTIP radar) can do more than find small, even stealthy missiles. With some modification, these aircraft can use the radars to attack enemy air-to-air, surface-to-air and cruise missiles with false target information or bursts of high-power microwaves that may be able to damage electrical components.
Your articles on the vanishing aerospace engineer ignore a few important facts (AW&ST Feb. 5, p. 44). When comparing the engineering personnel situation in the U.S. with that in Europe, you are contradicting your position with one you held in the past. AW&ST has chided Europe for not being flexible enough with regard to personnel policy, in other words for not adhering to a rapid hire-and-fire policy. Now with a shortage of engineering personnel looming in the U.S., you envy the situation in Europe.
Paula P. Hochstetler, who is president of the Airport Consultants Council, has been elected president of the Aero Club of Washington for 2007. She succeeds Deborah McElroy, who is senior vice president-government affairs for Airports Council International-North America.
Singapore's Tiger Airways' plan to fly budget services in Australia, announced this month, is stirring up the market there. Domestic budget carrier Virgin Blue, which is expanding and drifting toward full-service standards, now says it may set up a pure low-cost airline. That's just a maybe, but Virgin Blue is moving to establish an international carrier under yet another brand to fly to the U.S. Since Qantas also has two brands, the country of just 21 million people will have six mainline carriers, if everyone's plans go ahead.
The British will withdraw 1,600 troops from southern Iraq in the coming two to three months, with a further 500 to follow in the third quarter. The remaining British forces will be concentrated at the Basra air station.
The United Arab Emirates is continuing to revamp its air force inventory, with a decision in principle to acquire Airbus A330-based tankers and the selection of the winners of its trainer competitions anticipated by year-end. Bidders for both basic and advanced jet trainer requirements were whittled down to six during the International Defense Exhibition, held here Feb. 18-22. The air force is aiming to acquire 24-30 basic trainers, and up to 40 advanced jet trainers. The contracts could be worth approximately $1.5 billion.
USAF Reserve Brig. Gen. Frank J. Casserino is among seven officers who have been nominated for promotion to major general. He is mobilization assistant to the Air Force undersecretary. The others are: Stephen P. Gross, mobilization assistant to the commander of the Aeronautical Systems Center, Air Force Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio; Clay T. McCutchan, mobility assistant to the commander, 18th Air Force, Air Mobility Command, Scott AFB, Ill.; Frank J.
Thales has opened a new customer service support center at Jebel Ali Free Zone in Dubai for its Air Systems division to service Thales products in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, as well as Egypt, Iran, Pakistan and Yemen. The center will provide maintenance services including technical assistance, spare parts and repairs management to both civil and military customers in the region.
The first ground demonstration of the engine for the Joint Standoff Weapon-Extended Range was completed at Raytheon's Tucson, Ariz., facility. The test was used to evaluate a flush inlet design and monitor overall performance of the 150-lb.-thrust engine. A free flight is planned for 2008 with production to begin in 2011.
MARKET FOCUS Investor caution keeps BAE's price below U.S. counterparts' 11 NEWS BREAKS Faulty solar arrays on early Boeing 702 satellites continue to haunt company 18 BAE to test potential sensors for its Herti long-endurance tactical UAV 19 IAI and Technion developing SunSailor unmanned solar-powered aircraft 20 Sea Launch hopes to resume service, be- gin Land Launch variant, both in '07 21 Obituary for ex-General Electric Aviation head Brian Rowe 21
Alenia Aeronautica has begun making the first production horizontal stabilizer for the Boeing 787, at its plant in Foggia, Italy. The stabilizer mimics the aircraft's composite wing. It consists of two monolithic co-cured composite boxes that are 66 ft. long that weigh nearly 1,200 lb. It's being cured in a single piece in an autoclave polymerization cycle that starts from 27 wet uncured complex components.
An airline that cancels more than 20% of its flights over a six-day period and strands hundreds of passengers for hours in aircraft on taxiways has problems with its operations and even bigger problems for its public relations apparatus. If the airline is JetBlue Airways, it tackles the problems head-on. Both campaigns had better work.
The commercial helicopter business is riding a wave of prosperity that shows no signs of slowing in the next few years, thanks chiefly to stable global economics and rising demand for vertical-lift assets to meet an increasingly diverse mix of missions.
France and Germany are throwing up hurdles to a NATO plan to purchase C-17s to bolster the alliance's much-needed strategic airlift capability. Their opposition is seen as stemming partly from a desire to protect their own industrial interests in the form of the Airbus Military A400M, even though that project continues to experience delays. The latest setback involves flight testing of the first TP400-D6 turbofan, which has slipped to the summer from the end of March, according to aircraft and engine-maker representatives.
Trying to steal some sleep under canvas after a long-shift, surrounded by duck-boards and mud, an ear cocked for the noise of an inbound rocket, isn't necessarily what recruits may have expected in signing up for the Royal Air Force. It is, however, now part of the package of expeditionary warfare.
Obviously, EADS's turbulent flight path requires its top executives to deeply revise their corporate governance. Recent events called our attention to such perennial problems as the group's inability to speak with a single voice. Despite the claims of the group's co-CEOs Louis Gallois and Tom Enders EADS is still striving to operate as a unified company, although this attempt remains largely unsuccessful.
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Denise Lynn (see photo) has been appointed vice president-global human resources services for American Airlines. She succeeds Debra Hunter Johnson, who has resigned. Lynn was vice president-people for American Eagle.
NASA and Virgin Galactic, the U.S. subsidiary of Richard Branson's Virgin Group, will explore possible collaboration on a number of technologies under an agreement negotiated through the U.S. agency's commercial "space portal" at Ames Research Center, Calif. Possible research areas include spacesuits, spacecraft thermal protection, hybrid-fuel rocket motors and hypersonic vehicles.
General Electric conducted its first test flight Feb. 22 of the GEnx-1B engine for the Boeing 787. Capt. Phil Schultz kept GE's 747-100 testbed in the air for more than 3 hr. as the engine was put through its first shakeout. Certification is set for the third quarter of this year.
Eutelsat Chairman/CEO Giuliano Berretta insists that he is no more likely to make a takeover move than before private equity partners sold out to a pair of infrastucture holding companies earlier this year. "We just chose to focus on profits rather than acquisitions," he said, suggesting Eutelsat may choose to resist consolidation in the satcom industry.
