Indonesia’s Batavia Air started operations at Singapore Changi Airport last week, becoming the 14th carrier offering service between Singapore and cities in Indonesia. The carrier will operate two daily flights each to Jakarta and to Indonesia’s fifth-largest city, Semarang. Despite the weak economy, passenger traffic between Singapore and Indonesia increased 4.3% in the first 10 months of the year, compared with the same period the in 2008.
In a bid to find its own niche and shed its loss-making past, Gulf Air is embarking on a strategic remake that will see the airline focus on regional and short- and medium-haul operation, giving up much of its long-distance network and fleet. Such a move had been anticipated since former Royal Jordanian Airlines Chief Executive Samer Majali took over. Last week, he rolled out the realignment plan.
A solid-state, rechargeable lithium-air battery developed at the University of Dayton Research Institute addresses a safety hazard that prompted the Air Line Pilots Assn. to call for a ban last summer on shipments of other types of lithium rechargeable batteries, UDRI engineers say. A key difference in the new battery is its use of a stable glass-ceramic material, which replaces liquid electrolytes that “are corrosive and can leak,” says Binod Kumar, a leader of UDRI’s electrochemical power group.
The FAA has certified the Textron Lycoming IO-390-A3A6 piston engine and awarded a supplemental type certificate (STC) to retrofit older Mooney M20E, M20F and M20J, powered by the IO-360, with the upgraded powerplant. The approval is the second achieved by the Williamsport, Pa.-based company as part of its Echelon STC program to replace aging engines with new or remanufactured units. The first Echelon STC was developed for the Cessna 177 RG Cardinal. The IO-390 features increased horsepower and improved climb and cruise performance compared with the IO-360 series.
Having cut a deal, the British Defense Ministry and the government’s finance department are now trying to thrash out how the ministry will spend an additional £300 million ($500 million) agreed to as “recuperation” costs for combat operations. The extra funding is intended to help return the U.K.’s operational capability to its level prior to British involvement in recent combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. The funding is being drawn from the reserve, rather than the Defense Ministry having to absorb the cost.
More than 10% of the current Boeing 747-400 fleet is now laid up, the largest number since they first were grounded in the aftermath of 9/11. Aircraft are either in storage, facing permanent retirement or awaiting conversion to freighters. Some 64 aircraft are now parked, four times as many as at the start of 2009 and three times more than in 2004 when the inactive 747-400 fleet peaked at 4.1%.
Air China and Air China Cargo want repairs on Pratt & Whitney PW4000 fan thrust reversers completed in-country to reduce turnaround times and cost. To accomplish this, Ameco Beijing, a joint venture between Air China and Lufthansa, and Lufthansa Technik Shenzhen will develop the PW4000 fan thrust reverser capability and provide technical and material support. PW4000 engines power the airlines’ Boeing 747 and 767 aircraft.
Russian military operators apparently will be using the Kosmos 2455 military satellite launched Nov. 20 for electronic intelligence. While Russian defense ministry officials did not release any details on the payload launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on a Soyuz-U booster, the Kommersant newspaper identified Kosmos 2455 as a next-generation electronic reconnaissance satellite of the Lotos type. In combination with the yet-to-be launched Pion satellite, the new spacecraft will form the Liana orbital intelligence system.
Intelsat flight controllers are checking out Intelsat 14, the newest telecommunications satellite in the company’s fleet, and were set for the Nov. 29 launch of Intelsat 15 as well. Across the Atlantic, Eutelsat was setting up its W7 satellite following a Zenit launch from Kazakhstan.
Boeing has delivered two more trainers for the U.S. Air Force’s C-130 Avionic Modernization Program (AMP) to Little Rock AFB, Ark. The 314th Airlift Wing there will be the government’s sole location for training aircrews on that model’s upgraded avionics.
GE Aviation has purchased Naverus Inc., a privately held Seattle-based company that designs Required Navigation Performance (RNP) procedures for aircraft operators, airlines and air traffic control agencies around the world, including the U.S., China and Australia. Financial details of the buyout, announced Nov. 23, were not disclosed.
Five, four, three . . . two . . . one . . . the Space Training Simulator STS-400 “mother ship” releases the spaceflight/reentry vehicle and the space traveler feels a kick in the seat of the pants as the powerful engine boosts the vehicle 68 mi. above Earth for a suborbital flight.
Site clearance work is getting underway at North Charleston, S.C., on Boeing’s second 787 assembly line, while preliminary work to prepare the first aircraft for its long-delayed maiden flight has also begun in Everett, Wash. Flight-test engineers are believed to have conducted a safety-of-flight review of ZA001’s landing gear on Nov. 22-23, though Boeing declines to confirm “day-to-day” status on aircraft No. 1. The pre-flight system gauntlet tests, which will mark the start of the roughly three-week preparation toward first flight, have yet to begin.
Dudley Cate is right about skipping the KC-X procurement altogether (AW&ST Nov. 16, p. 10). In this era of limited budgets, ordering minor airframe overhauls and avionics updates for the KC-135 fleet makes sense. Furthermore, the Pacific theater tanker shortfall—which suggests the need for a Boeing-777/Airbus A330-size aircraft—could be addressed inexpensively by converting surplus DC-10-30s. That idea worked when the U.S. Air Force modified Boeing 707s into the E-8 Joint Stars.
Amy Butler (Washington), Graham Warwick (Washington)
The Pentagon appears to be willing to boost funding for the $300-billion Joint Strike Fighter program in an attempt to shore up the flight-test effort and minimize cost growth and projected delays.
Pilot trainees fly the Embraer 135/145 regional jet full-flight simulator at a FlightSafety International Learning Center. FSI provides more than one million hours of simulation-based training yearly for pilots of commercial as well as business and military aircraft. An intense industry debate is centered around airline pilot training methods and hiring requirements (see p. 52). FlightSafety International photo.
Spare parts delivered by the space shuttle Atlantis should help the International Space Station operate long after the shuttle fleet retires, stretching its service life with extra gyros, pumps and other hardware that inevitably will wear out. Atlantis was headed home for its next-to-last landing late last week after more than six days docked to the ISS. The six-man shuttle crew delivered two pallets of spare parts and performed a host of maintenance tasks in and outside the station.
Airbus says the 28-month delay to the Boeing 787 flight-test program is bad news for the European manufacturer and the industry at large. “It does not do us or the industry any good when a program is as troubled as we were with the A380,” says Airbus Americas Chairman Allan McArtor. “Suppliers are hurting when a big program is delayed, so we’d like to see that program get going.”
A proof-of-concept experiment with radiation-resistant carbon nanotube-based memory devices has demonstrated that they can be operated in space regardless of the rigors of launch. The wafers of carbon Nanotube Random Access Memory (NRAM)—similar to the one at right being examined by a technician—performed as well after reentry into the atmosphere as they did in benchmark tests before launch. Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, Calif., and Nantero of Woburn, Mass., conducted the experiment on last May’s STS-125 mission of space shuttle Atlantis.
Boeing and General Dynamics are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the long-standing case between them and the Pentagon over cancellation of the U.S. Navy’s A-12 stealthy attack aircraft in 1991. The saga has focused on whether the Pentagon had the right to cancel the program for cause. This year, a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the government and last week refused to reopen the case. The verdict would force Boeing and General Dynamics to pay the government $2.8 billion plus interest, which has become a huge bill.
Blue Origins, the space-tourism startup developing the New Shepherd vertical-takeoff-and-landing suborbital vehicle, has picked three scientific experiments to ride the vehicle as early as 2011. Although the three will be carried on an unmanned flight, the company plans to offer rides to “researcher astronauts” who will need to tend their experiments during the roughly 3 min. of microgravity it will provide.
The Canadian Air Transportation Security Authority (Catsa), under a C$27-million ($25.7-million) contract with Smiths Detection, plans to install 140 advanced checkpoint X-ray systems at the nation’s airports by February. Major airports—the first being Vancouver, host to the Winter Olympic Games Feb. 12-28—will receive the Advanced Threat Identification X-ray (aTiX) units. The order includes training costs and involves two sizes of scanners, the HI-SCAN 6040 and the slightly larger HI-SCAN 7555, which can accommodate big objects such as strollers.
A Boeing 737NG full-flight simulator in Texas is to be used to test whether actual flight-recorder data can be employed for improved pilot training. The U.S. military is fronting the research, but its results could have significant ramifications for civil aviation as it moves to training based on performance standards instead of prescriptive tasks.
Industry groups want to make sure aviation is not forgotten if another bill to stimulate the economy and create jobs is drafted by Congress. A coalition of 19 aviation associations has written to lawmakers urging them to include funding for air traffic control modernization in any such bill. “Congress should seize this opportunity to expedite NextGen capabilities and to provide a platform for domestic job creation,” the letter says. Separately, Airports Council International-North America is calling for Congress to consider airport infrastructure projects.
Astronomers plan to use data from NASA’s upcoming Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission for decades to come as a pointer to objects in the sky that deserve closer study.
