Russia’s Soyuz TMA-19 capsule touches down Nov. 26 near Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, with International Space Station Expedition 25 Commander Doug Wheelock and Flight Engineer Shannon Walker, both of NASA, aboard, along with ISS Flight Engineer and Soyuz pilot Fyodor Yurchikhin of Roscosmos. All were in good shape after 163 days on the ISS.
In reference to several letters from readers over the last two months regarding global warning, an engineering background does help cut through the nonsense about the topic. Any thermal engineer knows that if you slow down heat transfer out of a system, it gets hotter. That’s what carbon dioxide does. Turning that into numbers has occupied many bright people for decades, and they publish their error bars, but the basics are accessible to anyone who knows calculus.
The FAA has returned Mexico to a Category-1 safety rating, which will remove restrictions placed on its carriers since the country’s rating was downgraded in July. The Category-1 rating was based on the results of an FAA review of Mexico’s civil aviation authorities last month. While Category-2 restrictions were in place, Mexican carriers could not add new service to the U.S. There were also restrictions placed on code-sharing between U.S. and Mexican carriers.
Graham Warwick (Washington), Amy Butler (New York)
The Pentagon is demanding lower prices for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, pressuring Lockheed Martin and engine supplier Pratt & Whitney to go below their most aggressive cost targets.
Air China plans to set up a subsidiary airline at Dalian with the aim of exploiting the economic development in northeastern China. Dalian Airlines would fly local, provincial and national routes, and also to major cities in Japan and South Korea, says an industry official familiar with a framework agreement that Air China and the city have signed.
Airbus may be pitching its strategy to reengine the A320 family as the “minimum change approach,” but the potential consequences for it and its supply chain and rivals could be anything but that. But for those on the sidelines of the A320NEO (New Engine Option), like Bombardier and Rolls-Royce, the competitive landscape looks far worse. Rolls faces big questions about its product strategy (see p. 29) and Bombardier’s CSeries, already hurting for orders, faces a new rival with far greater market pull.
Germany should strengthen its competitiveness in economically useful applications, ensure that European assets on the International Space Station are put to maximum use and protect Europe’s technological independence, particularly in launchers, according to a new strategic space road map. But the plan, unveiled last week, makes scant mention of lunar exploration or space transportation technologies—two elements that had been high on the German agenda—reflecting changing European budget realities.
Australia has placed the acquisition of Lockheed Martin AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles for its Boeing F/A-18A/Bs on its “Projects of Concern” watch list because of delays. Project AIR 5418 Phase 1, planned for an initial operational capability against land targets this year, is “running late and risks to capability remain,” says the defense ministry. A live-fire test from an Australian F/A-18 in the U.S., planned for June, is now expected late this year or early next year.
With Congress at an impasse over seemingly everything and only one or two bills expected to pass out of the chambers before the 111th session adjourns, advocates are pressing to add their favorite provisions to must-pass legislation. That means getting language added to bills that otherwise would seem unrelated, even inappropriate, in normal times. But these are strange days, and advocates are thinking positively despite the odds.
Opposition party members in the French Senate say rapidly deteriorating economic conditions require a sweeping review of France’s defense spending plan, along the lines of one undertaken by the U.K. a month ago.
It is the most useful spacecraft ever built for humans to fly, and the most dangerous. The product of a crisis in space exploration very much like the one unfolding today, the U.S. space shuttle has defined the state of the art in human spaceflight for 40 years. Now, as it flies its last missions to the International Space Station, mankind’s next step off the home planet, the space shuttle fleet offers at least two generations’ worth of lessons for future space explorers.
David Leblanc has been named chief operating officer and Cameron Burr executive vice president-corporate development and marketing at Avioserv San Diego . Leblanc and Burr were partners at JetCapital, whose projects included the founding of Pogo Jet with Robert Crandall and Don Burr. They also served as managing directors at Aerothrust Leasing.
Just as the Netherlands is embarking on a major defense review in light of a declining military budget, the country is facing up to a 20% spike in the projected program cost for the planned purchase of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. The latest cost estimates reflect increases in the core U.S. program, which are adding €1.4 billion to the Dutch bill for 85 aircraft.
USAF Brig. Gen. Teresa A. H. Djuric has been appointed deputy director of the Space and Intelligence Office within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics at the Pentagon. She has been commander of the Jeanne M. Holm Center for Officer Accessions and Citizen Development at the University of Air Education and Training Command, Maxwell AFB, Ala. Col. Christopher J. Bence has been nominated for promotion to brigadier general. He is deputy director of operations and plans at Headquarters U.S.
Southwest Airlines plans to convert some of its Boeing 737-700 orders to the 737-800—it is not yet saying how many—and expects to receive its first -800 in the first quarter of 2012. The low-cost carrier says it decided to “move forward with finalizing discussions” with Boeing regarding the substitution now that its flight attendants and pilots unions have ratified changes to their collective bargaining agreements to allow for the larger aircraft. Southwest, Boeing’s largest U.S. customer, currently operates 737-300, -500 and -700 series aircraft with 122-137 seats.
Seattle-area composite specialist Aim Aviation, which was featured in a Nov. 15 report (p. 60) on Boeing suppliers, has changed its name to Aim Aerospace.
Barely a week after Safran said it was abandoning plans to bid for French aerospace system supplier Zodiac, Zodiac executives have made a surprise offer to collaborate in electrical systems. Zodiac had rejected earlier overtures from Safran to explore a merger, which the big engine and equipment maker justified by the gradual shift in the aircraft industry from hydraulic to electric systems.
For every 30 or so Airbus A320s or Boeing 737s there is one full-flight simulator, but for all the thousands of civil helicopters worldwide there are fewer than 50 such machines in use for training pilots. This gap could narrow as the civil rotorcraft community works to improve its safety record. Simulation-based training has significantly increased the safety of fixed-wing aviation, but its use in rotary-wing training has lagged for reasons including cost, technology and regulation.
United Airlines Holdings is dismissing claims by its two pilots unions that it is breaching scope agreements by placing United-tailed 70-seat regional jets into hubs once served by 50-seaters operated for Continental Airlines before it merged with United The introduction of the 70-seaters has resulted in picketing by the company’s two Air Line Pilots Association chapters, and calls for an end to all regional contracts, a key part of United Continental’s domestic strategy.
Most NASA-watchers expect the lame-duck Congress to fund NASA with a short-term continuing resolution (CR) that would push pending changes in U.S. space policy into next year. But the outgoing chairman of the House subcommittee that handles the space agency says an omnibus bill reflecting more of the compromise policy hammered out between Congress and the White House is also a possibility. “I don’t know, and I don’t think anybody else does,” says Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W. Va.).
Leaders of 30 of the world’s space agencies want across-the-board cooperation in human and robotic exploration, and terrestrial sharing of the benefits of space technology, in the face of a “flattening” world and increasingly complex global challenges. A Nov.
Thailand is moving forward with its long-anticipated plan to add a further six Saab Gripens to its fighter modernization plan and also expanding its inventory of airborne early warning aircraft.
The U.S. airline industry is blasting many of the FAA’s proposed new rules to prevent pilot fatigue, declaring the cost for airlines would be much greater than the FAA estimates and complaining many of the proposals are not based on scientific research on sleep, fatigue and performance. The FAA calculates a 10-year cost of $1.25 billion for its proposal; the Air Transport Association (ATA) says its analysis shows a $19.6-billion cost without a commensurate increase in safety beyond the “core elements” of the rule the ATA supports.
USAF Maj. Gen. Harry D. Polumbo, Jr., has been appointed director of plans and programs at Headquarters U.S. Africa Command, Stuttgart, Germany. He has been director of plans and programs at Headquarters Air Combat Command, Langley AFB, Va. Polumbo will be succeeded by Maj. Gen. Michael R. Boera, who has been commanding general of the Combined Air Power Transition Force, NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan/Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan and commander of the 438th Air Expeditionary Wing, Kabul AB. Brig. Gen. Jeffrey B.
Thales Alenia Space is poised to ship the cargo carrier for a demonstration flight intended to prepare for the International Space Station’s commercial resupply, despite a slip in the scheduled launch.
