Alliant Techsystems test-fired a four-segment reusable solid rocket motor for NASA Nov. 1, generating data for both the space shuttle program that uses the motors operationally today and the Ares launch vehicle program that plans to use five-segment versions of the motors in the coming decade under the Constellation program. The roughly 2-min. test carried 32 objectives, including measuring acoustics to aid Ares I design, and determining how well the thrust-vector control system works with only one of its two Hydraulic Power Units running.
Judy McFarland (see photo) has been named vice president of the Human Resources Service Center of the Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman Corp. She was director of human resources for the Defense Mission Systems Div. of the Northrop Grumman Mission Systems Sector.
Fast-growing Indian carrier Jet Airways is working with Brussels Airlines to create an international network linking India, Europe, North America and Africa.
Jim Cannon has become chairman of the advisory board of CareJet Services of Atlanta. He is chief pilot for the ABM Group there and was a member of the board of directors of the National Business Aviation Assn.
Rolls-Royce expects to gain FAA approval by year-end for the RR300 turboshaft, a new turbine engine in development for Robinson Helicopters’ R66 Turbine, the company’s first non-piston-powered product. Robinson launched the R66 this year as a direct competitor to the Bell 206. The R66 Turbine, wider than the R44, will be the first Robinson to have a baggage compartment.
Moshe Keret, long-serving chief of the then-Israel Aircraft Industries, was banned from entering any company facility in 2005 after 18 years at its helm. It was a humiliating experience that “hurt my pride,” he says. But Keret now feels vindicated by what he considers an extremely fast end to the government’s investigation of alleged corruption.
Over the next 20 years, space-based ballistic missile defenses are likely to prove expensive and—especially in the case of laser weapons—technologically risky and relatively easy for an opponent to defeat, finds a report from the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA). The report comes as lawmakers and defense officials debate space-based weapons in light of cost and program issues, U.S. military dependence on satellites and other nations’ efforts to counter them.
The European Space Agency has transmitted its first-ever commands to a Chinese satellite. The signals, which were picked up by China’s Chang’e-1 Moon mission, were sent by the agency’s Maspalomas 15-meter ground station in Spain. The first receipt of telemetry from the mission occurred at ESA’s 35-meter-deep space antenna in New Norcia, Australia, on Nov. 1, 2 hr., 39 min. prior to signal transmission. An hour later, signals were picked up and transmitted by the ESA station at Kourou, French Guiana.
Northrop Grumman has fabricated the first single-piece, all-composite inlet duct for the first production F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (AF-1). This signals the Phase One start of low-rate initial production. The company said it also completed the center fuselage for the first reduced-weight Air Force F-35 conventional takeoff and landing variant.
Malaysia has finally agreed to liberalize air services between its cities and Singapore—but not much. Budget carrier AirAsia will be allowed just two flights a day between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, with the latter’s Tiger Airways expected to get a similar allowance. The current joint monopolists, Singapore Airlines and Malaysian Airline System, together operate 13 flights daily between the two cities, many with wide-body aircraft.
AleniaAeronautica completed a second round of flight trials of the Sky-Y unmanned aircraft at the Swedish Vidsel range. The program included seven missions, culminating in an 8-hr. flight, which the company claims is an endurance record for a 1-metric-ton-class UAV.
Northwest Airlines reported a third-quarter pre-tax profit of $405 million—a 57% improvement over the same quarter in 2006—and predicted continued strong results as it starts the second half of a $6-billion refleeting plan. Northwest has added 32 Airbus A330s, and will acquire 72 76-seat Embraer 175s plus Bombardier CRJ900s. It will continue to shrink its fleet of 103 DC-9s, and buy 18 Boeing 787s.
Honda Aircraft Co. and FlightSafety International (FSI) have signed a Master Training Services Agreement whereby FSI will provide factory-authorized pilot and maintenance training for the HondaJet business aircraft currently under development. FSI officials say the training will be offered initially at Honda Aircraft’s facilities in Greensboro, N.C. Plans call for the HondaJet to enter service in 2010.
The FAA is scheduled to issue a final rule effective Nov. 5 for certain non-moving jet engine parts that were not previously considered to be life-limited components. The regulation specifies new airworthiness standards within FAR Part 33 to replace guidance on life-limited parts. Although the new rule continues to mandate cycle limits, it expands the definition to include non-moving components such as rotor and major static structural parts whose “primary failure is likely to result in a hazardous engine effect” such as a fire, according to the agency.
The first set of Eurofighter Typhoon avionics for the Tranche 2 build has begun flight trials. The first Tranche 2 aircraft is to fly before year-end, but a modified Tranche 1 model last week began tests at BAE Systems’ Warton, England, facility. The new avionics and mission computer are at the heart of Tranche 2.
David A. Fulghum (Washington), Robert Wall (Paris), Douglas Barrie (London)
Israel pulled out all the stops technologically in its recent raid on Syria, employing several new intelligence-gathering and strike systems in a chain of events stretching from satellite observations to precision bombing of a target thought to be a nuclear facility. Syria’s internal politics might have contributed to the apparent success of the Sept. 6 mission. The target was so highly classified in Damascus that the military wasn’t briefed and, therefore, air defenses were unprepared, says an Israeli official.
Business travelers in Belgium, France, Germany, Spain and Italy are not particularly worried about their security when traveling by air, according to survey data compiled by Unisys. Among Europeans, the Unisys Security Index also found that 73% of Dutch business travelers said they were not concerned at all. By comparison, three-fourths of U.S. consumers surveyed say they would support the deployment of new technologies such as biometrics to improve aviation security. But only 29% of U.S.
With less than 15 months left for the Bush administration, Washington is deep into lame-duck season. John Douglass, himself a lame duck who leaves his job as CEO of Aerospace Industries Assn. within weeks and consults until the end of the year, comments that he visited the Pentagon recently, where everyone was slaving over Program Objective Memorandums for the Fiscal 2010 budget. “Do you think anybody on the Hill cares what [current Defense Dept. staffers] think about 2010?” Douglass asks rhetorically at a farewell session with reporters.
Here’s another solution to passenger bumping (AW&ST Sept. 17, p. 98). There is an inherent financial value. Airlines should sell passengers the ability to be bumpproof. They could even auction off bumpproof tickets on eBay. By limiting the supply of bumpproof “guarantees,” airlines might be able to greatly improve their profits.
The most spectacular night launch of an all-liquid-fueled booster since the Apollo 17 Saturn V in 1972 is set here for Nov. 10, with the planned liftoff of a United Launch Alliance/Boeing Delta IV Heavy. The triple-body, 232-ft.-tall vehicle, flying only its second mission, is to propel the final Northrop Grumman Defense Support Program (DSP) missile warning satellite directly into geosynchronous orbit. The 33-ft.-tall spacecraft is expected to function on a missile-warning and intelligence-gathering mission until 2022.
European Aviation Safety Agency certification of the Grob Aerospace SPn utlity jet may slip again. The aircraft maker is evaluating the schedule after a delay in adding the third aircraft to the flight test program. The aircraft became critical after the second prototype crashed in 2006. First flight of the third SPn occurred Oct. 29 at the company’s airfield at Tussenhausen-Mattsies, Germany.
France is preparing to assume command of sea and land components of the NATO Reaction Force and is readying its air command to handle high-intensity conflicts. The new moves come amid growing debate over whether the country should reintegrate the alliance’s military command structure, as well as the future of the NRF itself.
The second of two major launches designed to test the Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) Near Field Infrared Experiment (Nfire) satellite’s IR collection capabilities is set for March after having missed an October launch window. While officials await the March IR test, MDA is conducting a series of satellite-to-ground experiments designed to characterize the laser communications module’s performance.
Joris Janssen Lok (Leeuwarden Air Base, Netherlands)
The Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) aims to field two new high-performance sensors on its Lockheed Martin F-16s deployed at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, in the next few months. They are the RecceLite airborne reconnaissance system from Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and the new Block II version of Northrop Grumman’s Litening AT targeting pod, developed in partnership with Rafael. The equipment recently passed a combined operational test and evaluation (OT&E) at Leeuwarden Air Base.
Russia’s Proton launch vehicle returned to service Oct. 26 after a two-month shutdown with a mission from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying three new Glonass M navigation satellites. The Proton K launch, which was delayed one day for Kazakhstan’s Republic Day celebration, followed an agreement by Russia to compensate Kazakhstan for environmental damage from a Sept. 6 Proton M/Breeze M failure that destroyed the 4.5-ton JCSAT-11 Japanese communications satellite. The mishap spread 220 tons of toxic propellant over the Kazakh steppe.
