Regarding the reader query about a spirit level, I would like to recommend watching the cockpit video (available via YouTube) of Bob Hoover's Shrike Commander acrobatic routine in which an open pitcher of tea remains perfectly level throughout barrel-roll maneuvers. What the Air France Flight 447 crew needed was an Angle-of-Attack gauge such as those Delta Air Lines installs on the primary flight displays of its Boeing 737NGs, 767-400s and 777s. Marietta, Ga.
Russian fighter producer Sukhoi has started flight tests of a T-50 prototype equipped with active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radar. The AESA, developed by Tikhomirov NIIP, is installed on the third prototype of the so-called fifth-generation fighter. This aircraft made its first flight on Nov. 22, 2011, in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, in Russia's Far East, then it flew to Zhukovsky, near Moscow, where the radar installation took place. Besides the main X-band radar with a 700 X 900-mm array, T-50 will carry additional L-band arrays located in the wings' leading edges.
USAF Col. (ret.) Michael R. Gallagher (Hillsboro, Ore. )
The dark humor of the concept of adding a precision-guided capability to a nuclear bomb—with a yield of up to 10 times that of the Hiroshima bomb at a cost of $1.2 billion over the $10 billion just to keep the weapon in the inventory—could be the subject of a sequel to the movie “Dr. Strangelove” (AW&ST Aug. 6, p. 36). At a time when many people believe precision-guided conventional weapons have nearly rendered nuclear weapons obsolete relics of the Cold War—and with serious budget cuts just over horizon—there is no need for precision nukes.
Small backpack-carried UAVs with still cameras can create large-area, three-dimensional digital maps with better resolution than satellite imagery, and in far less time than traditional techniques. That is the lesson of a just-completed series of tests at a 13,000-ft.-elevation archaeological site in Peru—and researchers say the same technology could be used for crisis management and disaster relief.
The EADS X3 compound helicopter written about in “Show and Tell” (AW&ST July 30, p. 30) seems to be a promising design concept for a high-speed rotorcraft, but I hope the planners are setting their sights on the most important military rotorcraft priorities: payload and ground accessibility, agility, range, speed, mechanical simplicity and aerodynamic elegance.
“Mam” Puangthip Chotipantawanon (see photo) has been promoted to director of operations from events manager at the Pacific Asia Travel Association, Bangkok. She was senior manager of events management and developments at Queen Sirikit National Convention Center.
Bipartisan supporters of the so-called Cybersecurity Act in the Senate are exhaling after the bill was saved from a Republican-led filibuster. The bill could have died Aug. 3 if not for a procedural maneuver by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) that allows him to push it again after Congress returns from its August break.
Vince Northfield (see photo) has joined Pall Corp., Port Washington, N.Y., as president of Pall Aerospace and senior VP of Pall Corp., succeeding Jim Western, who will retire in October. Northfield was VP-global manufacturing of ESAB Welding and Cutting Products at Colfax Corp.
OLT Express Poland was forced to shut down earlier this month, after its parent, Plichta's Amber Gold finance company, could no longer afford to support the airline
Troy Dawson (see photo) has been named president of Boeing subsidiary Spectrolab, Sylmar, Calif., replacing Dave Lillington, who has retired after more than 28 years with the company. Dawson was director of satellite bus products at Boeing.
A botched Russian launch junked two multimillion-dollar satellites last week that were to provide Indonesia and Russia with telecommunication services, adding to a series of failures that have dogged its once-pioneering space industry. Reuters reported that Russia's space agency acknowledged the failure of the upper stage of the launcher atop its workhorse Proton rocket. The error after takeoff from the Russian-leased Baikonur launch pad in Kazakhstan replicates a mishap that scrapped the $265 million Express AM-4 satellite last summer.
Orbital Sciences Corp. says it is “two to three weeks” away from taking possession of the launch pad at Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Va., which will give it the green light to complete preparations for the first demonstration flight of its Antares rocket. The first static test fire is slated for this month, with the first test flight on track for late September.
Alitalia doubled its losses in the first half of 2012 compared with the same period last year. But the Italian carrier believes it has reason for hope, although profits are likely to be elusive this year. CEO Andrea Ragnetti says it has been “one of the most difficult semesters in the European airline business ever, but the worst is behind us.”
The Pentagon has already begun deploying the Raytheon SM-3 Block IAs, optimized to intercept short- and-medium-range missiles, in Aegis ships patrolling abroad; Japan is also buying the weapon. Meanwhile, the test campaign for Aegis has shifted to the SM-3 Block IB, which will provide an improved seeker and propulsion/guidance system. SM-3 will eventually be added to land-based batteries, in accordance with President Barack Obama's Phased Adaptive Approach, to protect parts of Europe and, eventually, the U.S. East Coast.
