Former President George H.W. Bush may have a future as a Johnson Space Center flight director. During a brief stint on a console at JSC, he marveled at shuttle and International Space Station crewmembers turning somersaults inside the spacious new Harmony pressurized node, and then admonished them for goofing off on government time. “Back to work now, back to work all you guys,” Bush said, once Orbit 2 Flight Director Mike Moses showed him how to use the push-to-talk handset.
An infrared seeker supplied by BAE Systems guided a defending missile to a direct hit against an incoming ballistic missile target during a recent test of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) system near Kauai, Hawaii. U.S. Missile Defense Agency and Lockheed Martin, prime contractor and system integrator for Thaad, conducted the trial at the Pacific Missile Test Range.
Before the year is out, NASA’s Orion crew exploration vehicle team expects to answer the long-standing question of whether the capsule will be recovered on land or from the water when it returns crews to Earth. A key design trade is whether it’s worthwhile for Orion to carry the 1,500-lb. airbag system that would be required for touching down on land all the way to the Moon and back, says Jeff Hanley, manager of the agency’s Constellation program to build all of the space vehicles needed for a lunar return.
NASA Constellation program assignments to the agency’s field centers for manned lunar system development will define lunar program manpower requirements.
Brazilian regional aircraft manufacturer Embraer is making a big push into business aviation and very light jets (VLJs), launching five new offerings—the Phenom 100 and 300, Legacy 600, Legacy Shuttle and the Embraer 190-based Lineage 1000—and proposing two more. Luis Carlos Affonso, who runs the company’s executive jets business, recently spoke with AW&ST Senior Business Editor Joseph C. Anselmo. Excerpts follow.
Sea Launch Commander and the Odyssey floating launch platform have left Long Beach, Calif., with the Thuraya-3 communications satellite on board, sailing to the equatorial Pacific for a Nov. 13 launch date. The 5,180-kg. (11,420-lb.) Boeing-built spacecraft is destined for an orbital slot at 98.5 deg. E. Long., where it will help Thuraya Satellite Telecommunications Co. begin offering service in the Asia-Pacific satellite market as early as January 2008.
Pierre Chao, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington and a longtime aerospace industry thought leader, is amazed at how disciplined airlines have been at holding down capacity and staying focused on their financial health. Delta Air Lines Inc. recently posted record revenues, while Northwest Airlines had its best quarter in a decade. Both of those carriers began the year in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Aurora Flight Sciences has acquired Payload Systems of Cambridge, Mass., known for its science and engineering services to NASA. Payload Systems will operate under its existing name as part of Aurora’s Science Applications Div. Aurora is recognized for its development of the small GoldenEye vertical takeoff and landing UAV for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and for building major assemblies for the Global Hawk UAV. Javier de Luis, CEO of Payload Systems, will become Aurora’s chief scientist and its president.
The Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet is more than a match for the Sukhoi Su-30, the Australian Defense Ministry says. “If a Super Hornet were to meet an Su-30 in the next 5-8 years and I had to bet my life on the outcome, I’ll sit in the Super Hornet F/A-18F cockpit every time,” says Group Capt. Steve Roberton, the officer in charge of the introduction of 24 Super Hornets into Royal Australian Air Force service. The order for 24 Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornets has become an issue in the campaign for the country’s Nov. 24 election.
A new term “Silver Tsunami” has emerged to describe concerns about the pending retirement of Baby Boomer aerospace workers. Boeing Vice President Steven D. Goo, the company’s program management guru, told Aviation Week’s A&D Programs conference last week that 27% of the aerospace workforce will be eligible to retire in 2008. That’s when it turns 62. The issue has become so acute that “it’s common to raid other programs” looking for management talent. “But that’s like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic,” says Goo.
Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk made its U.S. flying debut in a domestic mission to provide AN/GSQ-272 Sentinel imagery of the wildfires in Southern California.
China will need to overcome a shortage of technical staff as it develops technologies for its second lunar probe, officials say, even as their first such spacecraft executes with clockwork precision the maneuvers that will take it to the Moon. Amid a blaze of publicity that has captivated China’s population with space exploration, the country’s space engineers are giving unusually frank details about their plans and problems.
The first Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite is ready to enter environmental testing, starting with acoustics, following completion of baseline tests on the new protected communications satellite Oct. 23. Those tests, which started July 27, established a baseline of performance from the integrated satellite. This baseline will be used when the satellite enters environmental testing. Acoustic trials are slated for mid-December, with thermal-vacuum tests following about one month later.
USN Vice Adm. (ret.) James D. McArthur, Jr., has been appointed vice president of the Bethesda. Md.-based Lockheed Martin Corp. ’s Center for Innovation. His last Navy position was commander of the Naval Network Warfare Command.
Nov. 10-11—Las Vegas Air Show: Aviation Nation. Nellis AFB, Nev. See www.aviationnation.org Nov. 12-14—American Astronautical Society National Conference: “Celebrating 50 Years—But, What’s Next?” South Shore Harbour Resort, Houston. See www.astronautical.org Nov. 13-14—International Space Security Conference: “Scope and Prospects for Global Cooperation.” Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses, New Delhi. Call +44 (775) 964-5213, fax +44 (136) 725-2565 or see www.spacesecurityprogramme.org
The U.S. general aviation community experienced 314 fatal accidents during the 12-month period ending Sept. 30—a 5% decline from the previous year compared with the FAA’s initial goal of not more than 331. The number of fatalities decreased to 564 in Fiscal 2007 from 676 in 2006. Nicholas A. Sabatini, FAA associate administrator for aviation safety, attributes this to the community’s dedicated commitment to improving safety, sophisticated technology such as GPS and glass cockpits as well as training.
Bombardier Aerospace will be shapinghe next-generation aircraft in the Learjet family in the coming year under a development program launched Oct. 30. The clean-sheet aircraft, temporarily dubbed the “Learjet NXT,” is positioned between midsize and super-midsize. It will seat eight passengers in a stand-up cabin and is targeted for a high-speed cruise speed of Mach 0.82 and range of 3,000 naut. mi. Due to competitive concerns, however, Bombardier will not disclose the powerplant, says company official Danielle Boudreau.
NASA is deciding whether to release the results of a controversial pilot survey, but FAA is cautioning against reading too much into the survey. Several media outlets are reporting the NASA survey reveals more runway incursions and airborne near-misses than official reporting channels, but NASA declined to release the results publicly. FAA officials say they had concerns as early as 2004 about the methodology used in the NASA survey.
EADS CASA C-212 The C-212, once known as the Aviocar, made its first flight in March 1971. Initial deliveries occurred in May 1974. It is built in Spain by EADS CASA and under license in Indonesia by Indonesian Aerospace (IAe). Some 471 C-212s were built through 2006. The C-212 is an unpressurized, 21-28-passenger regional turboprop. The C-212-200 is powered by two Honeywell TPE331-10R-511C/512C engines rated 900 shp. each. The C-212-300 used two TPE331-10R-513C turboprops, also rated 900 shp. each. The new C-212-400 uses two TPE331-12JR-701C engines rated 925 shp. each.
Evaluators at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) expect more cost growth and schedule slips in procurement of the next generation of geostationary weather satellites, despite improvements in the program’s management. Testifying before the House Science and Technology subcommittee on energy and the environment, the GAO’s David Powner says the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has “made progress” in procuring the R-series Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES-R).
The leading U.S. Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.), is calling for an increase in overall U.S. robotic exploration, but not necessarily manned exploration of the Moon. A policy paper on her proposed space and technology strategy punts on the issue of whether NASA’s program to return astronauts to the Moon would receive White House support. In fact, Clinton is pointedly avoiding the mention of any U.S. manned lunar program under her administration, should she win the presidency.
Satellite communications supplier Vizada (owned by Apax Partners France) is offering Inmarsat SwiftBroadband aeronautical services to its airline, business aviation and government customers. The data link supports safety communications, weather and flight-plan updates as well as e-mail, Internet and telephone services. The high-speed data rate up to 432 kilobits per sec. per channel provides communications links to both cabin and cockpit.
Fifty to 60 mph. Santa Ana winds prevented early deployment of fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft to suppress fires sweeping across hillsides and canyons north of Los Angeles to the Mexican border last week. But as conditions improved, aircraft played a major role trying to prevent property damage and loss of life. For most of the week, it was a losing battle. By late last week, more than 1,600 structures were lost as fires burned across 700 sq. mi. Hundreds of thousands of people were reported evacuated, and damage estimates topped $1 billion.
The A330 twin-engine, wide-body commercial passenger transport was developed by Airbus to replace aircraft such as the A300, DC-10-10 and L-1011. An A330 prototype first flew in November 1992. Deliveries began in December 1993. Customers have a choice of turbofan engines in the 68,000-72,000-lb.-thrust class: the GE CF6-80E1, Pratt & Whitney PW4000 or Rolls-Royce Trent 700. Two A330 models are available. The A330-300 seats 335 passengers in two classes or 295 in three classes. The A330-200 seats 293 in two classes or 253 in three.
This pressurized, single-turboprop corporate/utility transport aircraft first flew in May 1991, and received Swiss and U.S. certification in 1994. It has seating for nine passengers in its standard layout. The engine is the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-67B turboprop flat-rated to 1,200 shp. for takeoff. Assembly of green aircraft, as well as the manufacture of certain components, is performed by OGMA of Portugal. A total of 674 were built through 2006. In October 2006, Pilatus announced the Next Generation PC-12, an enhanced version powered by the PT6A-67P engine.
