The NTSB has determined that inappropriate actions by American Airlines pilots and maintenance personnel probably caused the Sept. 28, 2007, inflight fire and emergency landing of an MD-80 at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. At an Apr. 7 hearing, the safety board said maintenance workers used unapproved and inappropriate manual engine-start procedures. This, in turn, led to the uncommanded opening of the left engine air turbine starter valve and subsequent engine fire that erupted during the aircraft’s climbout from Lambert.
The president of the European Business Aviation Assn. (EBAA), Brian Humphries, is also temporarily resuming his former duties as CEO, replacing Eric Mandemaker. The change is not linked to the downturn in business aviation, an industry official says, noting that it had more to do with the direction of the organization. However, the downturn has caused EBAA to postpone seeking a new CEO. Humphries is expected to hold both positions for at least a year as EBAA looks to develop internal talent.
University of Arizona-Tucson astronomer Erick Young, a specialist in designing science instruments, has been named science mission operations director for NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (Sofia). A converted Boeing 747SP, Sofia is scheduled to undergo “open-door” flight tests of the cavity that houses its 2.5-meter infrared telescope in July and August, leading to its first imaging flight in December. Science missions are set to begin early next year.
“Pay me now or pay me later” is how Army Brig. Gen. John Davis, deputy commander of Joint Task Force Global Network Operations, assesses current U.S. cybersecurity. Defense Dept. networks are attacked thousands of times a day, according to senior combat commanders in the field, and defending its Global Information Grid from cyber attacks has cost the military more than $100 million in just the past six months. “It would be nice to spend that money proactively,” Davis says, “rather than cleaning up after the fact.” Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton, chief of U.S.
The time has come again to express serious concerns about the world’s flight safety community: It is besieged by mounting unfairness and injustice. The latest development, the worst since unwarranted accident criminalization first appeared, comes from Italy. Four years after a Tuninter ATR 72-200 twin turboprop ditched into the sea off Sicily, a court in Palermo has sentenced seven pilots, airline executives and technicians in absentia to terms up to 10 years.
Continental Airlines and the Star Alliance carriers are one step closer to forging a partnership that would control the largest share of transatlantic traffic, thanks to an initial go-ahead from U.S. regulators. This move is part of a major shake-up of the Atlantic market that sees U.S. and European carriers maneuvering into three giant competing entities.
While U.S. policymakers fret over the latest North Korean missile launch and Iran’s role, Israel announced on Apr. 7 another successful test of its Arrow Weapons System, an anti-missile system designed to shield the country from a missile attack by Iran. The Arrow II interceptor, developed by Boeing and Israel Aerospace Industries, struck a simulated Iranian Shahab-3 ballistic missile. Israel also is working on a higher-end interceptor to be able to attack longer-range Iranian ballistic missiles with higher closing velocities.
Orbital checkout is underway for the U.S. Air Force’s second Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) spacecraft. Built by Boeing at its factory in El Segundo, Calif., WGS-2 lifted off at 8:31 p.m. EDT Apr. 3 on board a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 421 rocket. A ground station in Dongara, Australia, received the military communication satellite’s first signals 44 min. later, and Boeing confirmed that the satellite is functioning normally. After a series of in-orbit maneuvers and tests, WGS-2 will be turned over to the Air Force.
FAA and China have signed a memorandum of understanding to share best environmental practices at airports in the U.S. and China. The deal to mitigate aviation’s impact on the global environment was made Apr. 7 at the U.S.-China Aviation Symposium, which also focused on ways to improve air safety and modernize air traffic control.
Having been soundly pummeled for months by legislators, commentators, the Man on the Street and the Man in the White House, business aviation has begun to land a few punches of its own. The National Air Transportation Assn. and National Aircraft Resale Assn. have scheduled mass member visits to Capitol Hill. And Cessna Aircraft and Hawker Beechcraft have begun advertising campaigns in general media that advocate business aircraft use as particularly appropriate for challenging economic times.
Singapore Technologies Aerospace and its local Chinese partner have broken ground on an engine shop at Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport that will join in the increasingly intense competition to overhaul CFM56 turbofans in the country. The new business, to be known as Statco, will initially support CFM56-5Bs and CFM56-7Bs for the Airbus A320 family and the current series of Boeing 737s, states ST Aero. Capacity will be 300 engines a year and the $78-million plant will have a test cell rated at 90,000 lb. thrust, enough for all but the largest 777 engines.
Five of the 21 members of the Star Alliance flying to London Heathrow will shift to Terminal 1 this summer as the group continues its drive to operate “under one roof” at Europe’s busiest hub. When completed, the move will mean Star’s members are nearly evenly divided between Terminals 1 and 3. Full consolidation out of Terminal 3 is not expected until 2013. Making the move to Terminal 1 from Terminal 2 are Austrian, Croatia Airlines, Lufthansa, Swiss and TAP.
A virtuous cycle of ample capacity, high profits and low rates has space insurers smiling, but debris risks and the arrival of new suppliers with spotty track records could spell trouble.
Air Force Maj. Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski, known for her sound management even of such troubled programs as the Airborne Laser and Transformational Satellite, will be temporarily in charge of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), which buys and operates classified satellites, effective Nov. 18. NRO Director Scott Large, in office since October 2007, notified Gates of his resignation Apr. 8.
The U.S. Navy is bringing into service the next generation of aircraft, payloads and networking capabilities (see p. 50). This illustration by Boeing artist Doug Yamada shows, from the top: a proposed EP-X design to replace the EP-3E; the Scan Eagle, which is being redesigned for air-launch to extend intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance footprints; P-8A Poseidon, which has been chosen to replace the P-3C patrol aircraft; and the Navy’s EA-18G Growler, which replaces the EA-6B that is passing into exclusive Marine Corps service.
Boeing has upped the ante for international defense contractors doing business in India with the opening of Boeing Research & Technology-India in Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore). The center will coordinate the work of more than 1,500 technologists, including 100 dedicated to advanced research, and is only the third such facility that the Seattle manufacturer has opened outside the U.S. The others are in Europe and Australia.
The U.S. Navy’s selection of a European airframe for the VH-71 presidential helicopter four years ago was a symbolic watershed. One former Pentagon official said the pick of a Lockheed Martin Corp.-led team using a platform built by the AgustaWestland unit of Italy’s Finmeccanica SpA. was “the most crystalline illustration of how the transatlantic industrial base should work.”
Unmanned air vehicles are to become a larger part of U.S. Navy and Marine Corps operations with the launch of a competition to develop a small tactical unmanned aircraft system (Stuas) following an 18-month delay while the services hammered out differences in their requirements.
Belarus could become the first export customer for the Russian Almaz Antey S-400 (SA-21 Growler) surface-to-air missile system, according to Russian news agency RIA Novosti. It cites a senior air force official as suggesting the S-400 will be supplied as part of a broader agreement to create an integrated air defense network covering the two countries.
In contrast to Singapore Airlines’ unpaid leave actions, the restructuring of the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore is leading to a recruitment drive for 400 managers, executives and technical officers. As of July 1, CAAS, which owns Singapore Changi Airport, will be split into the NewCo, which will act as Changi’s administrator, and NewCAA, which assumes responsibility as the city-state’s regulator of aviation safety, airworthiness, air traffic services and various administrative responsibilities.
Commercial and military aviators are not the only folks interested in birds. Fishermen want to find birds, not avoid them. Finding flocks of feeding birds, typically smaller than Canada geese, is critical for over-the-horizon location of schools of surface-feeding tuna. The birds congregate over the same bait that attracts the tuna. Visit a commercial fishing electronics trade show and you will find manufacturers touting their radars’ abilities to identify birds from many miles. Perhaps some of those algorithms could be applied to aviation radars.
NASA has chosen the Avcoat ablator system, which was used to protect Apollo capsules during reentry, as the thermal protection system for the Orion crew exploration vehicle. Made of silica fibers with an epoxy-novalic resin filled in a fiberglass-phenolic honeycomb, Avcoat was used both on Apollo and on select regions of the space shuttle in its earliest flights. It was put back into production for NASA to reevaluate.
EADS Chairman/CEO Louis Gallois says a decision by the U.K. to withdraw from Europe’s A400M airlifter program would be “a serious blow” to the multinational initiative, but “not necessarily a show-stopper.” Nevertheless, Gallois insists no effort will be spared to try and keep Britain in the program, noting that the U.K.’s technological contribution to the A400M is significant and that its 25 orders would be hard to replace.
I’m in Boeing’s P-8A Poseidon mission crew mock-up on the ground in Seattle. My tutor is a long-time P-3C veteran. Already I can see it’s nothing like my days and nights in a P-3A. There are no ashtrays full of cigarette butts or half-empty paper cups of the world’s worst coffee.
