Mooney Airplane Co.'s M20TN Acclaim is a Texas-bred speedster that takes single-engine performance to the next level, with cruise speed, long range and cabin comfort that competitors will find hard to match for the money. The M20TN Acclaim is the result of nearly 60 years of design evolution that began in the 1920s with company founder Al Mooney, whose talent for designing fast and efficient airplanes is legendary. Today's Mooney engineers have maintained that tradition and the Acclaim is a tribute to the company's never-ending quest for more speed.
Indonesia's largest airline, Garuda, has ordered 25 Boeing 737-800s, weeks after the government responded to safety incidents by calling for the country's carriers to operate aircraft no older than 10 years. A government review of aviation safety finds that none of the country's airlines fully meets international standards, though some met lesser requirements it described as minimal.
Steve Slusarczyk (see photo) has been named vice president-maintenance for Flightstar Aircraft Services, Jacksonville, Fla. He was director of operations at Timco Aviation Services.
U.S. Army Aviation Director Brig. Gen. Stephen Mundt says the helicopter industry is reacting too slowly to the Pentagon's needs for war-replacement aircraft. "While the military may be on a war footing, our nation's industry is not," he said last month. Mundt says he's lost 130 aircraft--a combat aviation brigade's worth of helicopters--since the U.S. military began operations in Afghanistan. Deliveries on orders placed with war supplemental funds are only now taking place. "They create a good product, but I sure need them a whole lot faster," Mundt says of industry.
Simon Ramo (see photo) acknowledged applause from employees at the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Space Technology Sector, Redondo Beach, Calif., during a ceremony marking the company's 50th year in space. Ramo's many achievements were recognized during the ceremony, which featured the formal dedication of a street named in his honor at the company's Space Park campus. Ramo was a co-founder of Space Technology Labs and TRW Inc. (the "R" in TRW, acquired by Northrop Grumman in 2002).
John C. Willis, 3rd, has been appointed chief operating officer and Charles L. Curry vice president-operations and product development for SkyPlus Technologies, Jacksonville, Fla. Willis was president of Raytheon Aircraft Services, where Curry also was an executive.
Australian budget carrier Virgin Blue is setting itself up for long-planned services to the U.S. with an order for six Boeing 777-300ERs, an agreement to lease a seventh and options on six more. Rival Qantas Airways has ordered nine A320s for its budget unit, Jetstar, for delivery by 2009 and is beefing up its own domestic capacity by shifting four 767-300s from international operations. The 767s had been earmarked for sale.
Bombardier Safety Standdown Director Robert Agostino As head of flight operations for Bombardier Business Aircraft in Wichita, Kan., Bob Agostino's job is to make sure his demonstration pilots are competent, prepared and thoroughly knowledgeable about the aircraft they fly. But first and foremost, he must ensure that they operate safely.
Readers have questioned two facts reported in the "50 Years of Spaceflight" articles in the Mar. 19/26 issue. On p. 59, the date for the Apollo 8 "Earthrise" photo is given as Dec. 29, 1968. That is the date that the color photograph was released by NASA, two days after Apollo 8 landed. On p. 78, the duration of the Gemini 7 should have been cited as 13 days, 18 hr.
Karl Kettler suggests that few, if any, academic management theories have ever been translated into effective applications. In his view the isolated world of the academic is at least partly to blame. I agree that life in academia is extraordinarily isolated, not much removed from that of the monasteries that spawned the prototype universities. However, there is another culture clash between application and theories espoused by academia.
The Europeans (not just EADS and Airbus) appreciated the warm welcome given to the A380, both in New York and Los Angeles, when Lufthansa and Qantas Airways operated route-proving flights involving the mega-transport's first landings in the U.S. Looking beyond the uncertainties surrounding the A380's business plan--and the endless U.S.-European Union battle over state aid--the U.S. media's balanced and generally upbeat reporting acknowledged the emergence of a new era in air transportation.
MARKET FOCUS Fuel prices, consolidation cooldown put damper on airline stocks 24 NEWS BREAKS F-35A in first takeoff with afterburner, ninth flight in test series 35 RAF Eurofighter Typhoon in its first firing of an Asraam 36 Boeing unveils first structure that one of its own factories has made for the 787 37 Operators of CFM56-powered aircraft replacing thousands of fuel filters 38 Japan orders urgent check of its Dash 8s after nose gear fails to deploy 38 WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS
President's Message 7 Letters 10-14 Who's Where 18-22 Industry Outlook 27 Airline Outlook 29 In Orbit 31 News Breaks 35-38 Washington Outlook 39 Classified 119 Contact Us 120 Aerospace Calendar 121
Fifty years ago, the launch of Sputnik 1 marked a pivotal moment in human history. To commemorate the anniversary, AW&ST editors on three continents have prepared a special package of essays, starting on p. 51, that traces the first half-century of spaceflight. The editors explore how the ability to send machines and humans beyond the atmosphere has altered our culture and economy in ways no one could have foreseen in 1957. Depicted on the cover are Sputnik 1 (upper right); the International Space Station as it should appear on the Oct.
PIAGGIO AERO INDUSTRIES HAS DELIVERED TWO P.180 Avanti II business aircraft to Italy's Border Patrol Agency. The airplanes are equipped with FLIR for monitoring and interdicting immigration and smuggling activities and an ambulance kit for emergency medical missions. The P.180 is capable of flying 1,800 naut. mi. at 400 kt. and is powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-66B turboprops. The Border Patrol also operates 12 Piaggio Aero P.166s.
Being in full agreement with both writers on the subject of unmanned aerial vehicles and civil airspace (AW&ST Feb. 26, p. 6; Feb. 12, p. 46), I must say there has always been a big difference between a UAV and a remotely piloted vehicle. I have always associated UAVs with military or intelligence operations and when the time comes they will be used anyway. For non-military use, I prefer to use an RPV and think now is the time to create an RPV pilot license.
Europe's Herschel infrared telescope has completed a series of crucial tests intended to verify the performance of its vital cryostat. The 2.5-meters-high, 2-meters-wide cryostat must keep Herschel's instruments at 1.7 K (-271.3 C) so they do not emit infrared signals that can interfere with telescope measurements. Following bakeout to remove residual water and other volatiles, the cryostat went through a simulated launch campaign, followed by tests to monitor its behavior in ambient and deep-space conditions.
Retrofit of Eclipse 500 very light jet aircraft with an enhanced aircraft integration system, Avio NG, should begin this summer, when the new system is expected to be certified. Eclipse Aviation and original system supplier Avidyne parted ways in late February for reasons the two parties agreed not to discuss publicly. Eclipse, which is footing the bill for retrofitting, says the switchover will be seamless to customers and not affect the Eclipse 500's $1.52-million price tag.
NetJets Europe posted its first net profit, a trend that should continue, Warren Buffet tells Berkshire Hathaway investors--Berkshire Hathaway owns NetJets Europe. The business jet operation added 589 clients last year, bringing its total to 1,300. Client flights for 2006 were up 33% to 62,000. Fleet expansion will continue, with 24 aircraft to be added this year for a total of 138. The largest markets for NetJets Europe were the U.K., France and Switzerland, with Germany, Eastern and East-Central Europe and Russia all recording growth of 40% or more.
U.S. Central Command released an annotated electro-optical image from the Block 10 Global Hawk of these suspected improvised explosive devices (IEDs) at Aviation Week & Space Technology's request. The mounds of earth, photographed Jan. 22 near a highway outside of Tikrit, Iraq, are thought to contain the deadly IEDs. The Defense Intelligence Agency degraded the resolution, using an algorithm, prior to release.
MARKET FOCUS Meggitt aims for No. 2 rank in aircraft brakes and wheels 10 NEWS BREAKS Thousands of Airbus employees march in Toulouse to protest job cuts 18 Israel Air Force accepts Heron unmanned aircraft into service 19 Final wind tunnel tests nearing completion for F-35 Lightning II 20 New award advances efforts to develop small geostationary satellite platforms 20 Satellite captures partial eclipse that could not have been seen from the ground 21 WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS
The U.S. Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Center is completing final wind tunnel tests of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, helping to set the stage for production of the multi-role Joint Strike Fighter.
I was troubled by the letter entitled "FAA, Disaster Is in the Making" (AW&ST Feb. 19, p. 7) from a Boeing 777 captain with a major U.S. airline whose name was withheld by request.
The Thales Group reports net income increased 16% to €388 million in 2006 from €334 million ($438 million) in 2005 as operating margins improved to 7.3% from 7%. Order intake rose to €12.7 billion from €10.8 billion, and backlog increased slightly to €20.6 billion from €20.2 billion.
Change the way you look at combat aircraft, Navy officials say. Active electronically scanned array radars being introduced on F/A-18Fs, F-22s and F-35s "are really sensors that are forward in the battlespace collecting information and putting different effects on targets," says Capt. Donald Gaddis, program manager for the Super Hornet. These effects eventually will include data streams, energy bursts and offensive algorithms. Gaddis identifies the electronic warfare officers in the back seat as perhaps the busiest men in the Navy.
