The two winners of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) contest to demonstrate variable-cycle engine technology under its Adaptive Versatile Engine Technologies (Advent) program are to be selected by the end of July, say the contenders who submitted bids by June 1.
Michael A. Taverna (Paris), Douglas Barrie (London)
A revamped European treaty could kick-start negotiations for a concession to operate the Galileo satellite navigation system. Continuing U.K. resistance to any move to fund the entire system with public money, combined with parliamentary insistence that the European Union provide all the extra money, however, raises new concerns about how the system is to be procured.
With its Eclipse 500s beginning to roll out, DayJet, the Delray Beach, Fla., on-demand very-light-jet (VLJ) operator, is hiring and training the people who will fly and service the aircraft and those who will support DayJet’s customers. There are currently 140 employees, but the number is growing daily. At the same time, the company’s market and the scope of its operations are coming into focus. With a current roster of about 700 individual customers, or “members,” from 140 Florida companies, DayJet is set to pursue the market for business travel in Florida.
Civil Air Patrol Col. Mary S. Feik has won the 2006 Frank G. Brewer Trophy from the Alexandria, Va.-based National Aeronautic Assn. The trophy honors contributions of enduring value to aerospace education in the U.S. Feik had a long career of teaching aircraft maintenance and mechanics at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. She later became the first woman engineer in research and development in the Air Technical Service Command Div. and the first woman to earn the Charles Taylor Master Mechanics Award. Feik flew more than 6,000 hr.
The STS-117 mission was to conclude June 22-23 with an Atlantis landing at either the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., or Edwards AFB, Calif., after thundershowers forced postponement of the first two Kennedy landing attempts June 21. The shuttle's Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) firing toward a first landing attempt was waived off 60 min. prior to ignition for a 1:55 p.m. EDT touchdown when clouds and rain moved in as forecast.
A National Reconnaissance Office imaging satellite program thought to be called Misty was recently canceled after drawing major criticism from key lawmakers. Vice Adm. (ret.) Nicheel McConnell, the new director of national intelligence, canceled the Lockheed Martin program after protracted technology problems and cost issues, according to an industry consultant. The cancellation was first reported by the Associated Press.
For the first time, Boeing says it will conduct wake vortex studies on one of its big airplanes: the 747-8 Intercon-tinental. Vice President Randy Tinseth says three factors influenced the decision: the 747-8's wing is bigger than the 747-400 from which it is derived, it is a heavier aircraft, and its approach speed will be faster, although its landing speed will be comparable with current aircraft.
After months of pursuing an opportunity to make its case to Midwest Airlines' board of directors, AirTran Airways will finally get the chance to lobby for merging the two carriers on July 16, with Midwest's newly constituted board.
India's global IT services company HCL Technologies has signed a $15-million contract with Italy's Alenia Aeronautica to provide engineering services to support the C-27J Spartan production line. The Canadian Forces will use the twin-engine fixed-wing search-and-rescue aircraft to replace its older CC-130 Hercules and CC-115 Buffalos.
Aerospace and aviation industries could barely survive without Mitsui Seiki, even though many professionals have barely heard of this none-too-profitable maker of the machine tools that create the most precise parts in engines and airframes. It’s astonishing how efficiency in aviation can come down to a skilled technician shaping metal by hand at Mitsui Seiki’s Tokyo plant. Imagine an airline that enjoys stronger profits because it has introduced efficient new aircraft, whose advantage over the competition lies mostly in engine design.
Gil Michielin, who is vice president/ general manager of Paris-based Thales Commercial Aircraft Solutions, has been appointed president of EUROCAE, a non-profit organization providing a European forum to establish reference standards for airborne and ground-based electronic equipment and systems for air transport.
Political sensitivity surrounding British involvement in military operations in Afghanistan, and required Pakistani support, has resulted in London and Berlin cutting a high-level government deal over which country will lead the Eurofighter Typhoon bid in India. The two governments were wrangling over which will take prominence in supporting the Eurofighter offer to meet India's Multi-Role Combat Aircraft program. Earlier this year, industry and government officials suggested the two sides had compromised on a joint approach.
The Atlas V Centaur upper stage that shut down early June 15, placing two National Reconnaissance Office ocean surveillance spacecraft into the wrong orbit, fell short in both altitude and inclination. Although the NRO and the U.S. Air Force are keeping the planned and actual parameters secret, it has emerged that the spacecraft were supposed to have been fired into a 1,000 X 1,200-km. (620 X 745-mi.) orbit inclined 63.4 deg. to the equator.
Don't look for Boeing to conduct a flight demonstration of the 787 in July 2008 at the Farnborough air show. If its schedule holds, Boeing should be delivering the new jet by then and it could arrange to put one on static display. But a flight demonstration, such as the dramatic ones Airbus routinely puts on with its A380, is out of the question. Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Scott Carson doesn't see any payoff. Airlines don't buy commercial jets based on such flights.
Eager to do its part to alleviate noise-related growing pains in the air transportation system, NASA’s restructured Fundamental Aeronautics program has aggressive goals for making future subsonic and supersonic aircraft quieter. But with its slimmed-down budget, the aeronautics directorate is looking to other parties to bring its technologies to flight test and fruition.
Low-cost carriers are transporting 18% of the world's air traffic and continue to grow as the sector moves toward maturity in Europe and North America. The next target group is business fliers; the next step, how to connect with them. But the way is not smooth. LCCs are trying to differentiate their operations while coping with the threat of increasing regulations, according to statements made at The Institute of Economic Affairs' recent summit on budget airlines.
The FAA has certified the Embraer 190 for Category 3A approaches, rollout guidance and low-visibility takeoffs with a dual Head-up Guidance System--the first commercial aviation use of dual head-up displays more commonly used on military aircraft. JetBlue Airways' Embraer 190s will be the first equipped with the Rockwell Collins Flight Dynamics HGS-5600 system.
Last week's Paris air show set new records with more than 2,000 exhibitors and 42 countries represented. The biennial event featured several aerospace newcomers, including the Bell/Agusta 609 civil tiltrotor, the Royal Australian Air Force's KC-30B tanker, and, at least as a model, the Israel Aerospace Industries Heron-TP large unmanned aircraft. Order intake was brisk, with billion-dollar deals in the commercial aircraft, engine and business jet segments.
Congressional Democrats are unhappy about President Bush's refusal to meet with them to discuss NASA funding, leaving the job in identical form letters to his science adviser, outgoing budget director and NASA Administrator Michael Griffin. Sen.
Cheryl A. Stearns, Fred J. Cone, Roger K. Parrish and the late Elgin Roy Newell have been inducted into the Arizona Aerospace Foundation's Hall of Fame in Tucson. Stearns, who is a pilot for US Airways, was the first woman member of the U.S. Army's Golden Knights parachute team. In 1977, she won the first of many awards for parachute jumping, including the U.S. National Championship. Stearns has won 65 national and world women's competitions and holds 30 world records. Cone, a U.S.
SpaceX plans to fix seven other anomalies discovered during post-flight analysis, in addition to the control problem that caused the most recent flight of its Falcon 1 to fall short of orbit. Only then will the company launch its next scheduled flight, which will carry the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory's TacSat-1 spacecraft. During the March flight, the upper stage began a corkscrew motion about 90 sec. after liftoff, resulting in fuel sloshing that caused an engine flameout nearly 8 min. after launch (AW&ST Apr. 2, p. 55).
Thales Alenia Space will supply repeater payloads for Russia's Lutch 5A and 5B geostationary relay satellites, which are intended to serve the International Space Station and Russian Earth-observation spacecraft. The S/K u-band payload units, to be built by Thales's partner NPO PM, are to be launched in 2009-10. It's the first time the two companies have cooperated on a Russian government mission.
Australia has chosen the larger of two helicopter-carrying assault ships it was considering ordering for an A$3- billion (U.S.$2.5-billion) project. The design by Spanish shipbuilder Navantia displaces 27,000 metric tons and can carry 1,200 soldiers, eight helicopters and up to 150 vehicles. Australia plans to buy the Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II fighter, the version designed to operate from long runways, but not the F-35B version that will be capable of short takeoffs and vertical landings.
Aonix, a provider of solutions for mission-critical applications development, reports a Memorandum of Understanding between Fujitsu Ltd. and NRK Aviation America to provide products, service and support for applications related to real-time Java in Japan. Fujitsu is now considering applying Aonix Perc technology to future airborne computer systems.
