Sabena Technics of Belgium will soon begin an extensive 18-month overhaul and upgrade of a former Evergreen Aviation WC-130E Hercules. The aircraft, N130EV, arrived in Brussels on Apr. 8 following a transatlantic ferry flight that was delayed by a damaged propeller and bad weather en route. The ex-Evergreen WC-130E will be refitted to the C-130H standard used in the Belgian air force, and is to replace an aircraft that was destroyed in a hangar fire in May 2006 while in the care of Sabena Technics.
Singapore-based budget airline Jetstar Asia, in which Qantas holds a 49% stake, has halted plans to operate to India. The carrier withdrew from Bangalore due to high hotel prices--which made it difficult to drive leisure traffic, says Jetstar CEO Chong Phit Lian. In addition, low load factors caused the carrier to suspend flights last May to Kolkata, which it had been serving since September 2005. But Jetstar Asia started daily flights from Singapore to Ho Chi Minh City in March and plans to add two charter destinations in China this month.
The U.S. Air Force planned to unveil officially its controversial proposal to assume authority over all medium- and high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles during an Apr. 13 session with the Army, Navy and regional commanders at the Pentagon. Army officials have balked at the plan, saying they need to operate their own UAVs in order to provide tactical intelligence on a moment's notice.
Japan's Kobe Steel says it has invented the world's strongest aluminum alloy, with a tensile strength of 780 megapascals (113,000 lb. per sq. in.), compared with the 710-megapascal strength of Lockheed Martin's Weldalite alloy. Kobe Steel also says that the material will not break until stretched 14%, compared with 5% for Weldalite, the material used in Space Shuttle external fuel tanks. "We haven't actually started marketing the material, but believe it could be used for aerospace and high-performance vehicles," says a company representative.
Diamond Aircraft completed the first flight of its DA50 Super Star. The 3,670-lb. maximum-takeoff weight general aviation aircraft is powered by a 350-hp., full-authority digital flight-control-fitted Teledyne Continental TSIOF-550J. The aircraft was piloted by Diamond Aircraft CEO/owner Christian Dries on the Apr. 4 mission in Austria. The upgrade to the DA40 was conceived less than a year ago. Production is set to start in January.
Christopher J. Gikas (see photo) has become senior account manager for Pacific Cast Technologies, Albany, Ore. He was customer support manager for the Hamilton Sundstrand Co.
It was with great sadness that I read the news of the looming closure of the North American TWT in El Segundo, Calif. This facility represents a true historical landmark in addition to providing a service that is increasingly difficult to find on this side of the Atlantic.
Jonathan Aleck has been appointed head of the Legal Services Group within Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority. He was manager of CASA's Enforcement and Investigations Branch and was Australia's representative on the International Civil Aviation Organization Council from 1998-2003.
I could not believe the loss of $38 million due to water damage at Ft. Greely, Alaska, and Missile Defense Agency commander Lt. Gen. Henry Obering stating that neither the contractor nor the U.S. Air Force was to blame (AW&ST Apr. 2, p. 27). I guess it was someone from Mars or maybe Al Qaeda. Why were electronics installed inside a facility that was incomplete and not prepared for rain? I can understand being vulnerable to enemy actions, but rain should not be a big surprise even when it exceeds the norm. Someone should be held responsible and Obering looks like it.
Robert Wall (Manama, Bahrain, and Hamburg, Germany)
Concern is mounting that a surge in the size of the global transport aircraft fleet could lead to a maintenance capacity shortage that will drive up prices and undermine airlines' cost-efficiency drives. Record order intake at Airbus and Boeing, as well as the strong demand for used aircraft, are ingredients for a potential crisis situation, suggests acting Gulf Air President and CEO Ahmed Al-Hammadi. A shortage of maintenance bays and other capabilities means maintenance costs will likely be forced up, creating a "heavy burden" on carriers, he adds.
When they hear stories about stodgy government-owned businesses, exectives at India's Bharat Electronics Ltd. respond with a story of their own: They are in their sixth year of compound growth that's averaged 15%.
U.S. Army Brig. Gen. John E. Seward has become deputy commander for operations of the Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command, Peterson AFB, Colo. He has been commanding general of the 94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, Ft. Shafter, Hawaii.
Austria's purchase of Eurofighter Typhoons is further in trouble, with charges of corruption now inflaming political opposition to the deal, which has been under fire in Vienna for months. The head of the Austrian air force, Maj. Gen. Erich Wolf, has been suspended over concern that his wife's business received a payoff from an official linked to EADS. Moreover, first delivery of the aircraft has been delayed until November, reportedly because of software licensing issues.
A lot has been written recently about the flight of F-22s across the Pacific and the need to stop in Hawaii because of an alleged software problem with the international date line. It would appear the software developers had never heard of UTC. Traveling across time zones is why universal time is used and if I remember my years in the West German naval air wing in the early 1980s, UTC was very much in use at that time to facilitate flights across time zones, among other reasons. And that's why UTC is still used in virtually all aspects of international civil aviation.
India and Russia finally have agreed to terms on the purchase of an additional 18 Sukhoi Su-30MKI Flanker fighter aircraft. Part of the deal covers the return of 18 Su-30Ks delivered between 1997 and 1999. India had initially planned to upgrade the Su-30Ks to the MKI standard, but this approach was considered too costly.
The nascent national missile defense system was operational "for about 90 days" last summer, Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright reveals. The missile defense system was declared operational awhile back, but the Strategic Command chief says the system is constantly flip-flopping between testing and alert status. The three-month operational status was in response to the July 4, 2006, salvo of ballistic missile tests in North Korea, and Cartwright jokingly thanks Pyongyang for giving StratCom such extensive access to the system the Missile Defense Agency is developing.
USAF Maj. Gen. (ret.) Craig Cooning, vice president of Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems, says the company is working on a concept that would use the Iridium satellite constellation for mobile communications to rebroadcast and boost signals from the Global Positioning System (GPS). The concept is in its early stages. It would allow for more frequent updates to the GPS system through Iridium, and could help protect the GPS signal from some types of jamming, Cooning says.
Skills in Chinese aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul are rising rapidly, leading to companies completing jobs with fewer worker hours. The shift means that operators in China can avoid at least some of the loss of competitiveness they should be suffering from rocketing wages, though they still must face a relentlessly appreciating currency.
Ever since airframe corrosion emerged as a major safety issue in the 1990s, the industry has been searching for better ways to ensure that what lies beneath an aircraft's skin is healthy and remains so. Stanford University is leading studies of how manufacturers might embed sensors to constantly monitor an airframe's structural health that are more cost effective than the current approach of periodic inspections using non-destructive testing.
The launch of Germany's pioneering TerraSAR-X--the first commercial one-meter resolution radar imaging satellite--has been put off once again, because of manifesting problems with the Dnepr-1 booster. The mission, initially set for October 2006 and most recently for late March/ early April, will now slip until late May/early June, says German aerospace center DLR.
The FAA is now reviewing the House Transportation Committee report that urges the agency develop a process to identify pilots who falsify medical data for fear of being denied an Airman Medical Certificate.
Your recent article on the Age 60 issue, "Aging in Flying Colors" (AW&ST Feb. 5, p. 39) misses a couple points: This issue has confused types of flying; not all flying is the same. Routinely we read nonsense by some politician who says: "I can fly my Cessna around the pattern until I'm in my 90s." Airline pilots operate in a variety of flight situations. If one were tasked to fly mid-morning from LAX to SEA and then return in the afternoon, I'd guess we could all do that until Age 90. But that is not what we all do.
Dudley Sheffler has been named to the board of directors of the TransDigm Group of Cleveland. He is retired president/CEO of the Reltec Corp., a former division of Rockwell International.
The French government will back a Socate initiative to develop composite fuselage technologies using vacuum infusion processes in the Aerospace Valley research cluster program. The government will fund 66% of the €9.3-million ($12.5-million) cost.
China will assemble its proposed "jumbo" aircraft--probably a small widebody that could emerge next decade--in Shanghai and Xian, both traditional aerospace centers. The domestic market will be targeted first, then international buyers.
