After launching service Aug. 27 at San Francisco (SFO), Southwest Airlines is scheduled to add Los Angeles on Nov. 4 as a fourth destination from San Francisco. At that point, Southwest will operate 26 nonstop round trips per day from its two gates at SFO—eight apiece to LAX and San Diego, seven to Las Vegas and three to Chicago Midway. It also serves these airports nonstop from Oakland and San Jose, and has service to seven additional points nonstop from San Jose and 18 more from Oakland.
Lawmakers who oversee NASA will quiz astronauts, flight surgeons and top agency managers this week over reports of space crews’ preflight alcohol abuse, giving the issue of astronaut mental-health screening the attention those who drafted the original public account wanted it to get. Among witnesses scheduled to appear before the House Science space and aeronautics subcommittee on Sept. 6 is Bryan O’Connor, NASA’s head of safety and mission assurance, who was “unable to verify” the alcohol charges after extensive interviews with present and past astronauts.
U.S. military operations have centered on the Middle East and Southwest Asia for most of the last two decades. The result is a myopic focus on combat against insurgents and terrorists. But the Western Pacific and Eastern Asia offer another concern. Some of the world’s largest, economically fastest-growing and most industrialized nations are beginning to develop and flex their military muscle. The question for the U.S. and its partners, in particular Japan, is how to keep a lid on political tensions and the impulse to use military force to solve problems of state.
The Indonesian air force is to purchase three Sukhoi Su-27SKM and three Su-30MK2 combat aircraft. The air force already operates two single and two-twin seat Flankers.
Japan is unique in its proximity to worrisome neighbors that hold arsenals of cruise and ballistic missiles, nuclear bombs and other advanced weaponry. North Korea scares the average Japanese voter; China haunts Japan’s prime minister and military leaders, and U.S. planners are concerned about Russia’s new weapons. North Korea, with a severe case of “attention deficit” when it comes to missiles and nuclear development policy, continues to build and test ballistic missiles that could strike Japan.
Regarding David Hughes’ articles “N.Y.’s Delay Donnybrook” and “ATA Slams Bizjets” (AW&ST July 30, pp. 40 and 43), airlines claim they are giving passengers what they want. But the Air Transport Assn. and industry fail to disclose the choices, or even acknowledge the outcome.
Canadian aircraft builder Bombardier Inc. has taken a lot of heat in recent years for losing ground in the regional jet (RJ) market to rival Embraer, but things are looking up. Profit margins are improving, business jet sales are brisk, and even the company’s struggling RJ operation is winning enough new orders to support a modest increase in production rates.
Mike Hickey, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Fla., has been named to the board of directors of Space Florida. Hickey also is a professor of physics and director of ERAU’s TeachSpace program.
The Air Transport Assn. (ATA) is collaborating with the Aerospace and Defense Industries Assn. of Europe and the U.S.-based Aerospace Industries Assn. to align international technical publication data within the airline, aerospace and defense marketplace. The groups have agreed to advance the development and maintenance of the S1000D specification for technical publications by harmonizing commercial and military aviation documentation standards.
AeroTech Services of Reno, Nev., is offering a wing modification for Boeing 737 Classic aircraft—the -200, -300, -400 and -500 models—that it says can reduce airline operators’ fuel burn and carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 4%. The modification, which extends the trailing edge flaps slightly and fills the gap between the mid-flaps and the trailing edge, increases the wing area and camber, improving lift/drag and reducing fuel consumption during climb and cruise. The aft flap segments resume normal positions during flap deployment.
An article on Embraer showing a new business jet mock-up at the National Business Aviation Assn. conference this year (AW&ST Aug. 20/27, p.40) misstated the venue and time for the event. The gathering takes place this month in Atlanta.
Emirates has put the Airbus A380 through its paces with A380 MSN007 spending a week at Dubai to undergo airport checks and operate four flights during the busy morning hours at the airport (see photo). Emirates, the largest customer for the A380, is preparing to receive its first transport in less than one year. MSN007 is powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines, but the airline’s new jets will feature Engine Alliance GP7200s. In its mock airline operations the carrier set a 90-min. turn-time limit for the A380.
The Predator A has flown more than 300,000 hr.—more than 80% of that over combat areas, says General Atomics. The milestone was reached Aug. 13 while UAS P-137 was on an armed reconnaissance mission in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Finmeccanica has fallen short of its goal of attaining up to 10% of airframe work on the Airbus A350, with Chairman Pier Francesco Guarguaglini saying Alenia Aeronautica will only gain 3-4%. The reduction in the amount of work it will get is partly the result of Airbus restructuring plans.
As the industry waits to find out if the domestic market can sustain the capacity additions by Virgin America and Skybus, Southwest has recognized that, with its rising costs, it has to refine its product and tap new sources of revenue.
BT Fuze Products, a division of L-3 Communications, received a fixed-price contract from the U.S. Army Joint Munitions and Lethality Life-Cycle Management Command, Picatinny Arsenal, N.J., to produce M467A 1 training cartridges for the Stryker mobile gun system. The Army’s Brigade Combat Team uses the cartridge during target practice for training purposes. The award is BT Fuze’s fourth option under the current contract.
EDO Corp. is best known for the electronic jamming devices it supplies to block the signals used by Iraqi insurgents to detonate roadside improvised explosive devices (IEDs). But the company has a rich history of providing high technology products and services to the U.S. military and other government agencies. It was founded in 1925 as a seaplane components supplier by Earl Dodge Osborn, a one-time publisher and editor of Aviation magazine, which became Aviation Week & Space Technology.
Microsoft and NASA have combined their talents to produce a virtual reality exhibit of the space shuttles Endeavour and Atlantis using Microsoft’s new Photosynth virtual reality software (AW&ST Aug. 13, p. 18). This shows how far behind the curve both Microsoft and NASA are technologically. QuickTime VR technology, which is supported in both Windows and Mac, was developed by Apple in 1992, brought to market in 1995 and used by such NASA facilities as the Johnson Space Center to show off the new Mission Control Center and International Space Station.
A new GPS-guided 155-mm. Excalibur artillery round that uses pop-out canards to fly itself to designated target coordinates is proving so successful in Iraq that the U.S. Army plans to ramp up production to 150 rounds per month by year-end, up from 18 per month. The round can hit targets up to 40 km. from its artillery tube and it has a top-down approach to the target and can penetrate 8 in. of reinforced concrete before detonating. Accuracy in Iraq has been within 4 meters 92% of the time.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is having to change course once again in its long-standing quest to satisfy its demand for a ground surveillance system. With financial support from key members disappearing, NATO is scaling down its technology appetite and now considering an all-Global Hawk unmanned aircraft fleet to halve the cost of the undertaking.
Honeywell Aerospace and Sensis Corp. have teamed up on a new demonstration project that shows how runway incursion warnings can be sounded simultaneously for pilots and controllers. The partners have equipped two Honeywell test aircraft to show how warnings can be data linked to the cockpit when the Sensis ground-based Airport Surface Detection Equipment Model X (ASDE-X) system detects a runway incursion incident developing. ASDE-X is already designed to warn controllers of such a conflict.
The impact of low-cost airlines at Pittsburgh International Airport has caused fares to decrease 27% from 2000-06 and resulted in 360,000 additional passengers per year for a total economic impact of $1.8 billion, according to a study by Wilbur Smith Associates. In 2000 the average one-way fare was about $192—one of the highest in the nation—but fell to $140 while fares to Pittsburgh’s top 15 destinations dropped 32% to $120.
Alan Manara has become vice president-sales and marketing for Meggitt subsidiary Endevco Corp., San Juan Capistrano, Calif. He was director of business development for TT Electronics.
