The Japanese government has headed off rising worries over a cash crunch at Japan Airlines with a promise to support the airline. A government task force of corporate turnaround experts will help the airline draw up a restructuring plan to be finalized by the end of November. Separately, Japan will consider abolishing a special budget account for building airports, because the account has led to the building of unneeded airports. Those airports, in turn, demand services from the country’s airlines, contributing to the financial weakness of Japan Airlines.
The final draft of the Augustine panel’s report on the future of U.S. human spaceflight will not be ready until mid-month, and it could take two or three additional weeks before the Obama administration’s way forward is set. Don’t expect the final results to change from what was discussed in public over the summer (AW&ST Sept. 14, p. 36). A bigger hang-up may lie within NASA itself. Two competing camps have developed over which Augustine option to recommend to President Barack Obama.
The final draft of the Augustine panel’s report on the future of U.S. human spaceflight will not be ready until mid-month, and it could take two or three additional weeks before the Obama administration’s way forward is set. Don’t expect the final results to change from what was discussed in public over the summer (AW&ST Sept. 14, p. 36). A bigger hang-up may lie within NASA itself. Two competing camps have developed over which Augustine option to recommend to President Barack Obama.
Sea trials of the MiG-29K/KUB Fulcrum carrier-borne fighter are underway on board the Russian navy’s Admiral Kuznetsov, prior to delivery of the first batch of aircraft to India. Russian military and company test pilots performed landings and take-offs from the carrier on Sept. 28-29 in the Barents Sea. The single-seat MiG-29K and two-seat MiG-29KUB took part in the demonstration; Indian navy representatives observed.
The Iridium mobile satellite venture is a case study on how innovative technology can be confused with market innovation. The network of 66 interconnected low-orbit satellites was a marvel in the 1990s, enabling phone calls to be placed from any point on the globe. But Iridium’s backers did not foresee the explosion in the use of low-cost terrestrial cellular telephones that occurred while their satellites were being built and orbited.
I disagree with the assertion of superior engineering efficiency of the Boeing 747 relative to the 777 and 787 that Manfred A. Runkel touted (AW&ST Aug. 10, p. 8). The claim that faster is necessarily better is clearly not true. The original 777 was vastly superior to the 747 in several ways:
Reflecting on an amazing accomplishment that took place 40 years ago, one has to wonder how much more could have been achieved in space in the intervening four decades. After being held back for so long, just a few years ago NASA was given a meaningful direction, the Vision for Space Exploration, a mission to reach out to the Moon, Mars and beyond. The task was placed into the hands of competent, capable engineers like Wernher von Braun, rather than being disastrously micromanaged by politicians.
Douglas Barrie (London), Michael A. Taverna (Paris), Robert Wall (Paris)
Afghanistan is proving to be a harsh crucible for the NATO alliance. For the European partners, one of the many lessons is the initial and, some argue, continuing, lack of rotary capability.
U.S. government officials have been assured the delayed National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (Npoess) civil/military weather satellite constellation is finally on the path to recovery.
David A. Fulghum (Washington), Douglas Barrie (London)
Talks with the U.S. and five other concerned countries are replacing Iran’s broadside of missiles and defiant words that followed discovery of its new uranium enrichment facility near the north-central holy city of Qom. The missile firings last week, part of the Great Prophet 4 exercise, included a Shahab 3 variant, a Tondar surface-to-surface design derived from the SA-2 surface-to-air missile and Zelzal short-range missiles fired from a new dual launcher.
The NTSB’s preliminary statistics on 2008 U.S. transportation fatalities indicate aviation deaths increased slightly to 572 in 2008 from 550 in the previous year, with almost 87% or 495 occurring in general aviation accidents. The resulting GA fatal accident rate is 1.25 per 100,000 flight hours.
David A. Fulghum (China Lake Naval Air Warfare Center, Calif.)
A series of air corridors radiating from China Lake gives researchers here access to most of the key UAV-friendly facilities, training ranges and weapon test sites in the western U.S.
The International Space Station (ISS) is welcoming two new crewmembers and preparing to transition to Expedition 21 following the launch of Soyuz TMA-14 from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.
North Korea has avoided large-scale combat since 1954, but portions of its capabilities are now being updated with techniques, technology and tactics gleaned from the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among the top threats to the government in Seoul are North Korea’s 80,000 soldiers trained in special operations and recently schooled in the employment of enhanced improvised explosive devices (IEDs) whose use was refined in the Middle East.
Airbus will likely deliver 13 A380s this year after Singapore Airlines asked for its last handover to slide into 2010. That means the A380 delivery level will be the same as last year, and short of the 14-aircraft target Airbus had set this year—the second downward revision. The aircraft maker still plans to deliver more than 20 A380s next year, although a firm number hasn’t been established. Many of its customers are deferring some A380 deliveries to preserve cash.
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A leading Australian defense official reiterated his nation’s interest in the Joint Strike Fighter after touring prime contractor Lockheed Martin’s production line in Fort Worth this week. “The visit has reinforced my confidence that the JSF is the right aircraft to meet Australia’s future air combat needs and represents value for money for the Australian taxpayer,” says Greg Combet, minister for defense personnel, materiel and science. While the 2009 Defense White Paper confirmed Australia will buy about 100 JSFs, Combet also noted Sept.
While the missile-defense spotlight is still on Obama’s decision to cancel plans for 10 silo-based interceptors in Poland in favor of a mobile, SM-3-based architecture, a less prominent European ballistic missile defense effort is having its own problems. And, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is not helping Lockheed Martin’s effort to push forward with the Medium Extended Air Defense System (Meads), a missile- and air-defense system that incorporates a 360-deg. radar and new, more-capable missile than today’s Patriot systems. Marine Corps Gen.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the U.N. General Assembly last month that London is studying whether it could cut its fleet of next-generation ballistic missile submarines to three from four. The potential cut is being portrayed by the U.K. as a move toward encouraging other nuclear states to consider reducing their nuclear capabilities, while also offering an incentive to non-nuclear states.
In regard to Norman Augustine’s Viewpoint article “A Race to the Bottom” (AW&ST Aug. 24/31, p. 57), there is one avenue of potential educational changes that I have not yet seen addressed. At most universities, nontechnical-related courses are required. Economics, humanities and other subjects that do not directly contribute to a technical education account for about two years in a 4-5-year degree program. How about replacing these courses with technical classes that will get typical high school graduates up to an acceptable technical standard?
How ironic! The FAA will now force airlines to train pilots the way most military air forces do: by mentoring junior pilots and instituting professional development committees (AW&ST Aug. 3, p. 40). The next bastion to come down should be the seniority list; there is no room in any cockpit for incompetent pilots.
Efforts to rebuild the Iraqi air force will take a big step forward this month when Cessna AC-208 Combat Caravans are cleared to start shooting laser-guided Hellfire missiles. Rebuilding the service was always a tall order, and the task is even more difficult now that the coalition advisers have less time than initially envisioned to complete their activities.
Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) are developing a turbine-based combined-cycle propulsion system that could be flight tested in a Mach 6 demonstrator, filling the void left by the cancellation of the hypersonic Blackswift vehicle in 2008.
Space Systems/Loral has shipped Intelsat 14 (IS-14) from its factory in Palo Alto, Calif., to Cape Canaveral AFS for launch later this year on an Atlas V. With a hybrid C- and Ku-band payload for data, voice and video in fixed satellite services, IS-14 will replace Intelsat 1R at 315 deg. E. Long.
