The World Radiocommunications Conference has concluded four weeks of discussion at the WRC-07 conference in Geneva with an unequivocal decision not to open up the 3.4-4.2-GHz. C-band to Wimax and other so-called International Mobile Telecom users. The decision will ensure satellite operators of uninterrupted use of the C-band spectrum and the promise of bandwidth in which to roll out new broadband services, particularly in Asia and Latin America.
Darryl M. Fraser (see photo) has been named vice president-business development and strategic initiatives for the Northrop Grumman Corp. ’s Mission Systems Sector, Reston, Va. He was vice president-Washington operations for Northrop Grumman’s Mission Systems and Space Technology Sectors.
General Electric reaffirms that, despite recent signs of rapprochement with Airbus over developing an engine for the A350XWB, it still refuses to consider a larger GEnx for the A350-1000 version and says the go-ahead for the rest of the family could hinge on the performance of the initial GEnx-1B on the Boeing 787.
Two undisclosed customers have spent $41 million for the Ehud air combat maneuvering instrumentation systems from Israel Aerospace Industries’ MLM Div. The latest version is the first to tightly integrate fighters, which train against enemy air defense systems, and anti-aircraft batteries that practice interception of hostile aircraft. The sale includes advanced ground-to-air and air-to-ground weapons simulations as well as the ability to simultaneously train against live and virtual targets.
Kris Ganase (see photo) has been appointed president of aviation products within New York-based L-3 Communications’ Products Group . He has been president of ACSS, a joint venture of L-3 and Thales.
The British Defense Ministry has postponed from Dec. 13 the release of its revised Defense Industrial Strategy document, to accommodate difficult financial decisions to be taken in the present planning round.
Mechtronix Systems Inc. says its new approach to designing lower cost simulators is allowing small airlines to use a single, dedicated unit to take care of most or all of their pilot training needs.
Greg Hyslop has been named Boeing ’s vice president/program director for Ground-based Midcourse Defense. He was vice president/program director for the Airborne Laser.
Martin McCarthy (see photo) has been appointed U.K.-based vice president-sales and marketing in Europe for Crane Aerospace & Electronics , Lynn- wood, Wash. He has been managing partner of Arden Technologies, which represents Crane.
China is designing its new rocket-building base in Tianjin to ultimately handle launchers with the diameter of the U.S. Saturn V, the largest ever used operationally. While the first project for the base is the Long March 5, with a diameter of five meters (16.4 ft.), the capability of the base can be expanded for rockets of diameters of 8-10 meters, says a Tianjin official. He also gives new details of the Long March 5 specification: a height of 59.4 meters, mass of 643 metric tons and a liftoff thrust of 1.82 million lb.
David A. Fulghum (Tel Aviv), Robert Wall (Tel Aviv)
The U.S. was monitoring the electronic emissions coming from Syria during Israel’s September attack; and—although there was no direct American help in destroying a nuclear reactor—there was some advice provided beforehand, military and aerospace industry officials tell Aviation Week & Space Technology.
The Pentagon will hold a top-level review of the Space-Based Infrared System (Sbirs) early-warning satellite program Nov. 28 during which a launch date for the first spacecraft will be outlined. The plan was to launch the first Sbirs spacecraft next year, but problems that arose earlier this year with flight control software have delayed this. This satellite is the next early-warning system to be launched after the successful launch this month of the final Defense Support Program spacecraft. Lt. Gen.
Saab researchers have introduced a family of Compact Integrated Defensive Aid Suites (Cidas) that can be upgraded to meet rapidly changing operational and technical threats to aircraft. The company’s latest electronic warfare capability is an expansion of its integrated defensive aids suite that provides radar, laser and missile warning with automatic dispensing of countermeasures decoys. A small version Cidas offers electro-optical sensors and a small component package to defend against shoulder-launched missiles and laser threats.
Boeing’s delegation of greater design and program responsibility to its 787 supplier network began rippling through the industry even before the airplane was launched in April 2004. The 787’s Tier 1 supplier network—particularly for its systems—mimics the spider web of relationships that Boeing established in giving design, development and production authority to them. Just as Boeing wanted to tap into their expertise, spread its risk and extend its manufacturing footprint abroad, the Tier 1 suppliers are doing the same with their subcontractors.
Northrop Grumman has deployed the first digitally-controlled arrestment system designed to improve the recovery of aircraft on the USS Ronald Reagan and completed its first arrestment at sea on Nov. 5.
First, Skunk Works, now Mooseworks—a group of Cirrus Design executives and engineers who meet weekly over pizza at a secret location near Duluth to barnstorm aviation ideas. The term Mooseworks, coined in 2003, was a natural in a region where moose sightings are commonplace. The group is “constantly hammering out ideas to make it [flying] more attractive,” says Alan Klapmeier, who with his brother Dale founded Cirrus Design in 1984.
Robert Wall (Gaza-Israel border), David A. Fulghum (Tel Aviv)
Israel is preparing for a major military operation in the Gaza Strip, but realizes that several factors would make combat there even more challenging than Lebanon proved to be last year. Israeli military planners are increasingly concerned about Hamas activities inside the Gaza Strip and are considering how to thwart rocket attacks on neighboring Israeli towns. Having observed Hezbollah build its Lebanese power base—which it used for attacks on northern Israel—Tel Aviv now sees the same situation developing with Hamas in Gaza.
This first of two Eurocopter Multi-Role Helicopters (MRH90s)—the Australian version of the NH90 helicopter—arrived at the Australian Aerospace facility in Brisbane on Nov. 14.
Quang-Viet Nguyen of the NASA Glenn Research Center’s Combustion Branch has received an R&D 100 Award from the editors of R&D magazine for developing a High Speed Electro-Mechanical Shutter for Imaging Spectrographs. The technology uses electronically synchronized slotted wheels (chopper blades) to gate pulses of light at durations as short as 10 millionths of a second. This short time gate permits the accurate measurement of very faint light signals generated by a laser using a technique called Raman scattering.
Your excellent article “Rapid Recovery” (AW&ST Oct. 29, p. 42) addresses major problems that passengers continue to pay for with money and wasted time. The propblems will continue to mount unless the root causes are properly studied. •Not many business passengers can finish their work to avoid rushing to the airport and being stuck in rush-hour traffic before complementing the wasted late afternoon with more wasted time on a rush-hour taxiway. Many passengers probably would rather wine and dine before heading to the airport after the evening rush hour.
“We are in a change mode,” says Markus Buergin, SR Technics’ vice president of group technical training: commercial aircraft with new technology, like the A380, are flying while older aircraft still operate, too, he notes.
Europe’s Ulysses solar observatory will spend another year making observations out of the plane of the ecliptic, following a unanimous decision by the European Space Agency’s Science Program Committee to continue its service life, using it until March 2009. That gives the spacecraft more time to work with NASA’s twin Stereo spacecraft, which move apart in heliocentric orbit to provide 3D views of coronal mass ejections and other solar phenomena as they interact with Earth.
The U.S. Marine Corps is spending $19.3 million on two battlefield air-targeting Micro Air Vehicle (Batmav) systems from AeroVironment Inc. The systems consist of two Wasp III micro air vehicles, AeroVironment’s advanced battery charger, spares and support services.
