The U.S. Army is exploring options to put wide-area staring sensors for “persistent surveillance” in Iraq and Afghanistan on unmanned aerial vehicles, says Tim Owings, deputy Army project manager for the unmanned aircraft system (UAS). Day-only versions of these sensors are now deployed on manned Army Constant Hawk aircraft and day-night options are in development by the U.S. Air Force for future use on Hawker Beechcraft King Air 350s.
On Feb. 3, United Airlines became the third U.S. carrier in a three-week period to encounter a bird strike—and third in which all occupants survived. Shortly after United Flight 77’s departure from Denver with 151 people on board, a bird hit and disabled the Boeing 757’s right Pratt & Whitney PW2000 engine. The 757 returned to the airport for a safe landing.
The Senate Armed Services Committee has approved the Obama administration’s nominations for high-level Defense Dept. leadership. The SASC on Feb. 5 forwarded the nominations of William Lynn, 3rd, to be deputy secretary, Robert Hale chief financial officer, Michele Flournoy undersecretary for policy and Jeh Charles Johnson to be the Pentagon’s top lawyer. The full Senate will decide whether to confirm the nominations. .
With India’s fledgling independent airlines cash-strapped, foreign airlines no longer view them as smart investment moves. But some still regard code-shares as a way to boost their presence in the domestic market. India’s policy of limiting foreign direct investment in domestic airlines to 49% is one reason outside carriers are cautious about sinking money into the country’s airline industry.
Fuel hedging is starting to look attractive again to some European airlines, even though others placed bad bets that have left them paying higher-than-needed prices at the pump.
Baruch Mevorach (see photos) has been appointed corporate vice president-planning and strategy for Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) . He was deputy vice president/assistant to the president. Jehezkel Grizim has been named corporate vice president-special projects. He was corporate vice president/general manager of the Military Aircraft Group. Grizim has been succeeded on an acting basis by Aharon Segal, who has been vice president-operations at IAI subsidiary Elta Systems Ltd. And, Yair Sherman has become deputy corporate vice president-security matters.
After years of delay, the F-22 is finally going to appear at the Paris air show (see p. 24). The stealth fighter was supposed to wow the Europeans in 2003, but the Bush administration quashed that plan when the French wouldn’t sign up to invade Iraq. There was also the long-standing pique about the extended and intensive “customs” inspection when the F-117 visited Paris for an earlier show. More recently, the French air force was criticized for collecting intelligence on the Indian air force’s Su-30MKIs during a 2008 Red Flag exercise at Nellis AFB, Nev.
The Feb. 2 Washington Outlook (p. 18) mischaracterized the Next-Generation Jammer (NGJ) program. The Navy’s NGJ is an active electronic warfare (EW) system to be installed internally in fighter-size aircraft or in external pods. It is to replace the current ALQ-99 tactical jamming system on the EA-6B Prowler and EA-18G Growler or, possibly, an EW variant of the F-35 or an unmanned combat aircraft. The idea would be to allow fighters to penetrate next-generation air defenses.
The U.S. Army has exercised a $41.7-million option for an additional AeroVironment RQ-11B Raven small unmanned aircraft system, which typically includes three of the 4.2-lb., hand-launched aircraft, two ground control stations and spares.
And in another Boeing/USAF arrangement, the service has tapped the manufacturer for upgrades relating to the B-1 long-range heavy bomber. It is Sustainment Block 15 of a program that began in 2003. Under the $45-million follow-on, avionics software will be upgraded on the fleet’s 66 B-1s. Boeing engineers in Long Beach, Calif., and Oklahoma City produce the software. The multimission B-1 has been carrying the largest strike payload in the Air Force inventory since its combat debut in 1999.
The air force has resumed MiG-29 Fulcrum flights, following a grounding after a fatal crash in December, according to news agency Novosti. Tail-section corrosion is the suspected cause.
J.A. Donoghue, director of publications for Flight Safety Foundation, has won the 2008 Lauren D. Lyman Award for achievement in aviation journalism, which is administered by the Arlington, Va.-based Aerospace Industries Assn. The award is named for Lauren (Deac) Lyman, a Pulitzer-prize winning aviation reporter for The New York Times who later was a public relations executive for United Aircraft, a predecessor to the United Technologies Corp. The prize goes to a journalist or public relations professional in aviation who exhibits Lyman’s standard of excellence.
Thank you for your bold, confident vision of the future. Your pragmatic approach to the many challenges facing our nation is the only approach: We must roll up our sleeves, stop complaining and get moving on solutions.
The first Aviation Partners Boeing (APB) winglet-equipped 757-300 is set to enter service with Continental Airlines following delivery from Seattle to Los Angeles on Feb 3. The airline, which operates 17 of the stretched 757 models, declines to say where the upgraded variants will be deployed, though they are widely expected to be featured on both transcontinental U.S. and transatlantic routes. Continental also plans to lease four additional 757-300s from Boeing Capital Corp., and expects to place these aircraft in service in the first half of 2010.
At Bagram AB, the destination for much of the Manas-generated traffic, USAF blocked the main runway for two days after landing a $200-million C-17 with the wheels up. Using a 120-ton crane and six 26-ton airbags, the transport was lifted high enough to lower the wheels.
Four new science teams are joining the official list of observers for the Lcross lunar-battering-ram experiment. The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite is a companion to NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) that is due for launch in late April. The Northrop Grumman-built Lcross and its Centaur upper stage will be fired from lunar orbit into a polar lunar crater that’s in permanent shadow, in the hope observers on the ground will be able to spot water ice or other volatiles that may lurk there in the resulting debris plume.
Virgin Galactic’s Scaled Composite WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) carrier aircraft resumed flight tests at Mojave, Calif. on Feb 5. The flight, which lasted 1.5 hr., comes 47 days after the unconventional aircraft’s maiden flight in late December. Flight testing originally was due to resume in early January and although Scaled Composites does not comment on development programs, it is thought the prolonged break was due to flight control surface modifications aimed at improving directional stability. Initial space tourism flights are planned to start in 2011.
Spain has emerged as the most likely candidate to take over Italy’s role in Simbol-X, a high-energy X-ray mission led by France, say officials at the French space agency CNES. A Spanish proposal to take a large stake in the €300-million ($384-million) twin-satellite undertaking is to be submitted for approval by the Center for Technological and Industrial Development this month. Italy recently decided to cut its participation in Simbol-X to € 50 million from €150 million, forcing France to delay the start of full-scale development, initially set for late last year.
Thales Alenia Space finalized a contract to build two large satellites, Yamal 401 and 402, for Russia’s Gazprom. It also won an order to supply Arabsat 5C and 6B satellites to be launched by Arianespace, in partnership with EADS Astrium.
The strong resurgence enjoyed by turboprop makers is ebbing as lower fuel prices and airline problems augur a difficult period ahead. But even if activity is slowing, aircraft makers aren’t giving up on their long-term plans. ATR is considering establishing a final assembly line in China to help drive demand. Meanwhile, Bombardier and ATR both are pressing ahead with new product developments.
Russia’s first space launch of 2009 is setting up a rare scientific mission for Moscow. Liftoff of the Tsyklon-3 rocket used to loft the 4,200-lb. Coronas-Photon spacecraft came at 8:30 a.m. EST Jan. 30 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia, sending the satellite toward a 342-mi.-high semi-Sun-synchronous polar orbit. Mission managers delayed the flight a day to correct a technical problem, according to Russian press reports.
The Euromed Aviation Project (EAP) and French BEA accident investigation bureau are working with Mediterranean/Middle Eastern countries to adopt the European Coordination Center for Accident and Incident Reporting System (Eccairs) as soon as possible. The move came out of a seminar held late last month in Amman, Jordan, on conducting competent accident investigations that are in accord with International Civil Aviation Organization Annex 13 and Europe’s “94/56” directive.
The Pentagon’s Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) Task Force—created last year to get ISR systems into Iraq and Afghanistan quickly—is being criticized by some for being too diligent about time. The group is so focused on fielding systems within a 90-day requirement, it loses out on technologies that “could be ready on Day 91,” says one industry official. But the Army could have a remedy. Part of the problem has been the limited availability of test aircraft, says Tim Owings, the Army’s deputy project manager for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).
