The U.S. General Services Administration has granted XTAR, the Loral Space & Communications and Hisdesat joint venture, a contract usable by any U.S. federal, state or local agency for X-band transponders. XTAR Chief Operating Officer Denis Curtin, who has been trying to interest the U.S. armed forces in XTAR since its launch in 2005, calls the award “significant,” noting he expects military, homeland and border security agencies badly in need of added bandwidth to be the most likely users. Despite extensive U.S.
I am a pilot at a major airline, and I couldn’t agree more with the idea of a passenger bill of rights. I see every day how passengers are treated, and it’s atrocious. But don’t blame the airlines. An airline can’t maintain excess capabilities to handle contingencies, because that will bring a a competitive disadvantage. Airlines overbook for the same reason. A bill of rights would provide a level playing field. I once had a passenger—who wanted to get off the airplane after sitting on a tarmac for 5 hr.—ask me how long we could legally keep him on the airplane.
To all the readers like Curt Woodall who want to see airlines penalized “real money” for passengers stranded on the tarmac, ponder this: If a passenger bill of rights ever passes, airlines will not put themselves at risk. They will hold passengers in a terminal during ATC delays for weather or traffic saturation. All flights likely will be further delayed or canceled. Passengers then will find themselves stranded inside a terminal with standing room only, restaurants out of food, and bathrooms clogged and dirty. Costs will be passed on to, guess who?
U.S. Air Force Gen. Norton Schwartz, head of U.S. Transportation Command, is breaking, unofficially, with the service’s plan to close the Boeing C-17 production line in 2009. In a Nov. 6 letter to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Schwartz says a fleet of 205 C-17s and 111 modernized C-5s is the “sweet spot” for his strategic airlift fleet. Schwartz’s letter came only after Levin asked for his “personal and professional” opinion in advance of a House-Senate conference on the Fiscal 2008 budget.
High demand for commercial and military aircraft is driving production of titanium to record levels and prompting development toward in-house processing of the corrosion-resistant metal. Production on a global scale is forecast to increase 34% to 107,000 metric tons in 2010, up from 80,000 tons in 2006. Airframes and engines will consume about half of the output as titanium is applied to new aircraft because of its compatibility with composite materials.
China’s Chang’e-1 lunar probe may survey the Moon for longer than its designed one-year operational life thanks to unexpectedly precise navigation that has saved an estimated 200 kg. (441 lb.) of fuel. Following Chang’e-1’s so-far successful mission, the Chinese space agency plans to let private companies as well as universities and research institutes work on the next lunar project, Chang’e-2. “With the expansion of China’s space exploration, we’d like to encourage private enterprise to join space technology development,” a spokesman says.
Scott F. Large has been appointed director of the National Reconnaissance Office . He was principal deputy director and had been director of source operations and management in the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
Your article on preventing runway overruns (AW&ST Oct. 8, p. 42) highlights that consideration should be given to placing pilots in full control of thrust reversers and lift-dump spoilers during landings and takeoffs. These are now interlocked with throttle positions, squat switches, wheel spin-ups, etc., to protect them from damage and inadvertent deployment in flight.
An eight-month investigation into fraudulent use of security badges at Chicago O’Hare International Airport has netted two officials of an employment agency and 33 of its workers, each an undocumented alien. Immigration and Customs Enforcement charged the employment agency officials with harboring illegal aliens for financial gain and misuse of Social Security numbers. Officials say one of the pair had a box containing 20 phony airport security badges.
When Discovery astronaut Scott Parazynski reentered the International Space Station (ISS) Nov. 3 after 7 hr. and 19 min. of extravehicular activity, he had done far more than repair a torn solar array that wouldn’t deploy correctly. He also had pulled NASA’s chestnuts out of a fire that threatened to consume the agency’s principal programs for a decade or more.
Jean-Pierre Morteux, president/CEO of CMC Electronics, was elected to a one-year term as chairman of the Aerospace Industries Assn. of Canada . He succeeds Don Campbell of CAE Inc. Also elected to the AIAC executive committee are: vice chairman, Paul Kalil, president of Avcorp Industries Inc.; Peter Smith, AIAC president and CEO (interim); honorary secretary, Tony Burgess, president of TDM Technical Services; and honorary treasurer, Dave Caddey, executive vice president of the MDA Corp.
Southwest Airlines has named Las Vegas its eighth crew base. The Dallas-based carrier initially will locate 394 pilots and 460 flight attendants in a 14,200-sq.-ft. facility on the lower level of Las Vegas McCarran International Airport. It plans to open a 25,000-sq.-ft. facility in 2009. Since the carrier’s first bet on Vegas traffic in 1982, when it offered five daily nonstop departures to Phoenix and Houston, Southwest has seen the gambling mecca turn into its busiest airport in terms of daily departures. It now has 232 daily nonstop departures to 53 cities.
Asiana Airlines of South Korea will begin twice-weekly flights between the Cheongju and Beijing with 177-seat Airbus A321s. The connection reflects the strong business and tourist links between China and South Korea.
Banking the orbiter Discovery into a steep 195 deg. right overhead turn, STS-120 Mission Commander USAF Col. (ret.) Pam Melroy landed the space shuttle Discovery into a stiff headwind at 1:01 p.m. EST Nov. 7 on Runway 33 at the Kennedy Space Center. She was assisted by copilot Marine Col. George Zamka and both were aided by astronaut Stephanie Wilson, the center seat flight engineer for the landing.
Chuck Gallagher (see photos) has been appointed executive director for regulatory compliance of New York-based FlightSafety International . He was manager of the company’s San Antonio Learning Center. Gallagher has been succeeded by Gil Viera, who was assistant manager of the Houston Learning Center.
Michael J. Brophy has been appointed vice president-corporate communications for Midwest Airlines . He has been a communications director for Aurora Health Care and was director of corporate communications for the Miller Brewing Co.
The U.S. Aegis missile defense system successfully executed its first intercept test against two ballistic missile threats launched nearly simultaneously, according to the Missile Defense Agency. Both were unitary targets, and the test took place on Nov. 6. The USS Lake Erie cruiser detected the target missiles and launched two SM-3 Block 1A interceptors, both of which destroyed their targets more than 100 mi. over the Pacific Ocean.
Ameco Beijing plans to complete a new maintenance hangar facility for Airbus A380s at Beijing Capitol International Airport in March. The facility should be operational by August when China’s capital city hosts the summer Olympic Games. The hangar, with 758,200 sq. ft. of floor space, will be Asia’s largest, accommodating six wide-body and four narrow-body jets. A similarly sized hangar will be built beside it.
Canadian operator CHC Helicopter Corp.’s Heli-One support division has ordered 12 S-92 medium-lift helicopters from Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. Deliveries are slated to begin June 2009 and continue until 2012. CHC will use the twin-engine aircraft for transportation to offshore oil and gas platforms and other installations worldwide, as well as for commercial search-and-rescue operations for the U.K.’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA). CHC has an interim contract from this year until 2012 to provide the MCA with aircraft, Sikorsky says.
Clive Seal has been promoted to vice president/general manager from vice president-flight operations of Pinnacle Airlines . George A. (Buddy) Casey has become president/general manager of Pinnacle subsidiary Colgan Air Inc . He was director of Pinnacle’s Corporate Education Center. Michael J. Colgan, who is president/CEO of Colgan Air Inc., will also be Pinnacle’s group vice president-sales and product.
Israel and Iran, each in its way, are fanning the flames of the U.S. debate about Iran’s nuclear potential. Israel’s military intelligence research division chief, Brig. Gen. Yossi Baidatz, posed this worst-case analysis to the country’s parliament: Iran’s conservatives are gaining power and the country could obtain nuclear weapons by 2009.
NASA officials say they need more money to find potentially deadly asteroids in order to meet deadlines set out in NASA’s 2005 authorizing legislation. The space agency is required to find and catalog 90% of near-Earth objects (NEOs) 140 meters (460 ft.) or larger in diameter by 2020. While not an extinction-level event, a 140-meter object strikes Earth every 5,000 years with an explosive force equal to 100 megatons of TNT.
Hong Kong Express Airways expects to maintain its current growth rate throughout 2008, adding Southeast Asian connections to draw more traffic to its main business serving secondary Chinese cities.
Jet Aviation Group has sold its airline and cargo-handling business to Dubai-based Dnata Airport Services. The sale, which did not include Jet Aviation’s fixed base operations in Geneva and Zurich, will let the company focus on general and business aviation customers. And the acquisition will permit Dnata to expand outside its existing Asia-Pacific base. In addition to Dubai, the company serves Singapore, Manila, Australia, Pakistan and China.
