The Australian government is signaling its intent to become a player in the space business by announcing plans to set up a formal national space policy, steered by a small group to facilitate the fledgling venture.
Philip Lewin has been named country manager for India for American Airlines . He was Zurich-based business development manager for Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Russia/CIS.
Raytheon’s quest to instill an interest in math and science in young audiences has taken a new twist at Disney’s Epcot Center theme park in Florida. As of last week, guests of any age can customize a thrill ride via a touch-screen table and a robotic simulator. The “Sum of all Thrills” guides participants to pick a theme, including roller coaster or jet plane, and using engineering-based tools, such as rulers and speed dials, customize a ride by adding corkscrews and inversions.
The parent company of Go and majority owner of Mokulele reached an agreement to combine the jet operations of the two Hawaii interisland carriers, both of which have struggled to be profitable. The joint venture agreement between Mesa Air Group and Republic Airways could take some of the lowest fares out of a market that has seen price wars and create a stronger challenger to Hawaiian Airlines.
The sudden and severe downturn that hit the business and general aviation industries forced Cessna Aircraft to lay off nearly half its workforce, temporarily shut down production lines and cancel development of the Columbus Citation executive jet. In an interview at Cessna’s Wichita, Kan., headquarters, Chairman, CEO and President Jack Pelton told Aviation Week Deputy Managing Editor for Business Aviation William Garvey and Senior Business Editor Joseph C. Anselmo that he is seeing signs of stabilization, but he cautions that the road to recovery will be a long one.
The Obama administration is on board with a U.N. conference set for 2012 to craft an international Arms Trade Treaty. A sticking point for Washington dating back to the George W. Bush administration had been whether the treaty would be by consensus or majority rule.
BEI Duncan Electronics’ brochure covering position sensor solutions for aerospace and defense industries highlights the company’s original goal of producing military-grade, precision wire-wound potentiometers for position sensing. The position sensors operate in a wide range of environmental extremes where the ability to withstand high vibration and shock is required. These include commercial and military aircraft, missiles and guided projectiles, helicopters, autonomously guided vehicles (AGVs), military vehicles and spacecraft, according to the company.
An astronaut, a cosmonaut and a circus clown returned to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) early Oct. 11, capping a standard ISS tour for the two spaceflight professionals and what may be the last space tourist flight for awhile. Canadian Guy Laliberte, the billionaire founder of Cirque du Soleil, joined Russia’s Gennady Padalka, outgoing commander of ISS Expedition 20, and Expedition 20 flight engineer Michael Barratt of NASA in the landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan. Their Soyuz TMA‑14 touched down at 12:32 a.m. EDT, after a nominal return from the ISS.
Three weeks after it was used to strike a stationary vehicle from the air, the Boeing/U.S. Air Force Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) damaged a moving target at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. High-powered chemical laser ATL was carried by a C-130H flying out of Kirtland, AFB, N.M. ATL’s energy is directed by a beam control developed by L-3 Communications/Brashear. Its mission is to destroy or damage targets on battlefields or in urban environments with little or no collateral damage. Last week, the vehicle, traveling about 30 mph., was unoccupied and remotely controlled.
Both Joyce Lyndon-Rodgers of the GE/Rolls-Royce team and Thomas E. Farmer of Pratt & Whitney present eloquent arguments in support of their companies’ goals to build F-35 engines (AW&ST Sept. 7, pp. 52-53). However, there is a viable alternative in lessons from the Tomahawk missile program.
Preparations for shipment of South Korea’s first multimission geostationary satellite are beginning following the completion of mechanical and thermal testing last week. The three-axis stabilized Communications, Oceanography and Meteorological (COMS) satellite is being developed by EADS Astrium and the Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), and underwent its test campaign at a new KARI facility in Daejeon. It will be launched from Europe’s spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana, next spring.
In the midst of a deeply entrenched identity crisis, the U.S. Air Force is turning to technology as the potential answer to some of its problems. Air Force Chief Scientist Werner Dahm is conducting a sweeping “Technology Horizons” study to lay out technological opportunities that could produce useful applications for the service.
Scientists at NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., are using Airship Ventures’ Zeppelin Eureka to sample the San Francisco Bay’s atmosphere for aerosols and gas constituents. The 246-ft.-long Eureka, normally used for sight-seeing tours, also is doing photosynthesis studies of the salt ponds that dot the southern bay and investigations of algae blooms that threaten sea birds and fish in the Monterey Bay.
Norbar’s torque measurement, calibration, data archiving and management system, T-Box, is powered by the company’s torque data management systems software. The compact system calibrates torque wrenches, stall tools, pulse tools, hydraulic torque wrenches and clutch tools. It performs detailed analysis of tool performance and joint characteristics. The software even prompts the return of tools at their required re-calibration intervals, according to the company. Preloaded tool templates are included, or an integral tool template creator for non-Norbar tools is available.
Sagem says it has completed installing mechanical structures to support the large light amplifiers that will be employed in France’s giant Megajoule inertial confinement fusion facility. Similar to the U.S.’s National Ignition Facility in Livermore, Calif., and expected to enter operation in 2014, Megajoule will serve to validate models used to simulate the reliability and safety of the country’s nuclear arsenal without resorting to testing (AW&ST July 17, 2006, p. 122).
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus unveils sweeping changes to his department’s energy policy. And he says the way the Navy and Marine Corps award contracts will change as a result. The lifetime energy cost of building and powering a system will be mandatory elements of future competitions, as will a company’s own commitment to energy efficiency, Mabus says. He proposes a Great Green Fleet, an environmentally friendly strike group comprising nuclear vessels, surface combatants equipped with hybrid electric systems operating on biofuels and aircraft powered solely by biofuel.
Pierre Sparaco, in his European Perspective “Leveling the Field” (AW&ST Sept. 21, p. 49), contrasts the government support Boeing and Airbus receive in terms of the typical European orthodoxy: Airbus receives direct government assistance as launch aid while Boeing Commercial Airplanes enjoys indirect support in research grants from the U.S. Defense Dept. and NASA.
After the Pentagon’s double failure to conclude orders for next-generation refueling tankers, the U.S. Air Force hopes “three” will be its lucky number. This extraordinary competition illustrates the harsh aspects of the Boeing-Airbus duopoly—even though the European airframer is hardly mentioned, since it is hidden within the Northrop Grumman/EADS team. Impressive numbers draw attention to what’s at stake. The program’s first phase covers 179 KC-X aircraft; but in the longer term, more than 400 tankers could be acquired to replace 50-year-old KC-135s.
The engineering test unit of a key instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope is ready for integration, marking a key milestone in the NASA-led international observatory program (see related story, p. 70).
German aerospace center DLR and the European Space Agency have agreed on intellectual property rights for laser data relays that are to equip Sentinel satellites earmarked for ESA’s Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) program. ESA thinks a dispute over patent ownership has caused member states to hold up approval of the German-led European Data Relay System (ERDS), which is supposed to permit near-real-time download of data from GMES and other Earth-observation satellites.
Thales Alenia Space and EADS Astrium expect to submit the first commercial bids for their Alphabus 12-18-kw., 6-8-metric-ton large telecom satellite by the first or second quarter of next year, and to have an initial order by mid-to-late 2010, according to Thales Alenia officials. Backed by funding from the European Space Agency and French space agency CNES, Alphabus is aimed at helping the European satellite makers compete with top-of-the-line U.S. telecom satellites like Boeing’s 702 and the Space Systems/Loral FS1300, which can serve requirements up to 20 kw.
A partially built Citation Sovereign sits on a shutdown production line at Cessna Aircraft Co. in Wichita, Kan. A series of articles beginning on p. 54 examines the dramatic toll that the business jet industry’s severe downturn has taken on Wichita, how politicians in Washington have exacerbated the downturn, the industry’s prospects for recovery and developments that could make China the next big market for business aviation. Junebug Clark/Cessna Aircraft photo.
Russia’s state-supported Rosavia Airlines is completing negotiations with Boeing on delivery of narrow-body aircraft worth more than $2.5 billion, according to Igor Zavialov, deputy general director of part owner Rostechnology Corp. Rosavia earlier this year announced a tender for 65 narrow-body aircraft it plans to acquire. Zavialov, however, has not excluded the possibility that Airbus could also supply aircraft.
Boeing has not flight-tested two aircraft at once since the 757/767 combo in 1982. It has never tested two wide-bodies at the same time. The pending 787-8 first flight, which will probably begin in early December, and the 747-8 Freighter, now set for “early 2010,” will require crews and support for nine flight-test airplanes once both programs are fully underway. In his blog, Boeing Vice President Randy Tinseth says the 787 will be based initially out of Boeing Field in Seattle, the company’s traditional site.
The dam holding back Chinese business aviation is breaking, giving manufacturers the hope of selling large volumes of aircraft in a market that has always had great potential but frustratingly little immediate value. The authorities are now accepting flight plans just 3 hr. before takeoff as a standard policy, whereas previously they often needed to receive them the day before.
