The U.S. Navy is testing models of its F-35C version of the Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter at the U.S. Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Center near Tullahoma, Tenn. A 12% scale model has undergone aerodynamic loads tests in the facility's 16-ft. transonic wind tunnel. In addition, AEDC has been testing the F-35's Pratt & Whitney F135-PW-100 engine in a test cell environment. AEDC is conducting other evaluations of F-35C models in the 4-ft. transonic tunnel.
Safran expects this year to turn around its troubled Defense Security division, which has been buffeted by program performance problems and accounting irregularities that combined to force an adjustment to 2005 results and led to a €101-million ($131.3-million) operating loss for the segment last year. Overall, Safran suffered a 60% drop in net income to €177 million, even though its propulsion business has been performing strongly.
That the FAA is moving to remove the discriminatory Age 60 Rule is good news. Some obstructionists argue that the proposed Age 65 limit is also arbitrary, so no change should be made. Indeed, the nation's policy on such matters, as stated in the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, is that no employment will be terminated at a chronological age, but only on the basis of ability to do the job. Airline pilots are already the most frequently tested employees in the world, and their ranks are regularly thinned by this process.
Douglas Barrie and Neelam Mathews (Bangalore, India)
Pending bidders for India's potential bumper fighter buy are struggling to straighten out political and procurement snags prior to the eventual release of a request for proposals.
Southwest Airlines is providing power outlet stations at Dallas Love Field to allow passengers to charge electronic devices while waiting in the gate area. Each station has five receptacles and there is no fee for using the electricity. According to Southwest, the test program will continue for six weeks to analyze customer response. If demand warrants, plans call for installing outlets at all 63 airports served by the carrier.
Robots that NASA plans to send as early scouts for humans on the Moon could wind up as the "bill payer" for International Space Station resupply costs after the space shuttle retires. The need will be particularly acute during a space-access gap that may be extended by proposed cuts in the agency's Fiscal 2007 spending.
Art Stephenson and David Rosener, both vice presidents of the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Space Technology Sector, El Segundo, Calif., have been assigned as vice presidents and deputy program managers of the U.S.'s National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System program. Stephenson will be responsible for day-to-day program operations and execution, while Rosener will focus on development of the Visible Infrared Imaging Sensor by subcontractor Raytheon Co.
Cindy Y. Lam has been appointed Toronto-based director of sales development for Canada for South African Airways. She was an executive with Cathay Pacific Airways.
Chinese delegates will have some explaining to do in Vienna later this month, when they sit down with representatives of other spacefaring nations to adopt international guidelines designed to mitigate the growing problem of man-made space debris in Earth orbit.
Finnair is promising better operating results in 2007 after suffering a pre-tax loss of €14.7 million (19.11 million) in 2006, says CEO Jukka Hienonen. He expects the combination of the carrier's restructuring plan, which is being implemented, and stable fuel prices to result in a "significant improvement" in financial performance. The effects of the restructuring should begin to emerge in 2008, and this year will see continued efforts to fix the troubled air services unit.
Regarding the letters from First Officer Thomas Burgan and Capt. Dean Matcheck (AW&ST Jan. 29, p. 6), I fly for a Part 121 carrier and on Feb. 26 will reach the magic Age 60 about which they waxed so eloquently.
The tangle of regular-budget and supplemental-budget funding for Iraq, Afghanistan, the global war on terrorism and who knows what else, is changing its appearance in the Bush administration's Fiscal 2008 and related proposals. But underneath it's the same old flimflam.
Plans to begin flying Soyuz rockets from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, may slip a bit because of problems in building a giant flame deflector under the new launch pad (AW&ST Jan. 15, p. 420). According to Yannick d'Escatha, director-general of French space agency CNES, which is supervising the launch site construction for the European Space Agency, removal of large granite blocks and consolidation of loose soil not detected during site exploration has delayed construction of the deflector.
NASA will review psychological screening procedures for current and potential astronauts following the Feb. 5 arrest of Lisa Nowak, who flew on the space shuttle Discovery last summer as one of two main robotics operators for the STS-121 space station assembly mission. Nowak, 43, was charged in Orlando, Fla., with attempted murder and attempted kidnapping after she allegedly stalked and threatened a 30-year-old Air Force captain who was dating William Oefelein, another astronaut. Free on bail, Nowak will be replaced as capcom on the upcoming STS-117 mission.
Beginning in March, Virgin Atlantic will become the latest airline to offer Verified Identity Pass's Clear Registered Traveler card to passengers. Verified ID has begun enrolling travelers for Clear cards at Air France's Terminal 1 at New York's JFK International Airport, with lanes scheduled to open next month. Clear cards already are in use at Orlando (Fla.), Indianapolis, Cincinnati and San Jose (Calif.) airports, and at British Airways' Terminal 7 at JFK.
One of the new members of the Senate Armed Services Committee is putting Defense Secretary Robert Gates on notice that moving contract numbers around is no longer a good way to avoid scrutiny. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) says she will delve into numerous defense contracts that were let through other agencies and weren't competitively bid. "We can't tell how much of the money being spent through interagency contracts is being spent competitively," McCaskill, a former county prosecutor and state auditor, tells Gates during a hearing on the Fiscal 2008 budget.
Air Marshal Fali Homi Major has been appointed India's chief of air staff, effective Mar. 31. He has been air officer commander-in-chief of the Eastern Air Command. He will succeed Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi, who will be retiring.
NASA has its share of budget woes (see p. 32), but it won't be able to fix them by retiring space shuttles early. The agency has tentatively decided to ground Atlantis following the Hubble servicing mission scheduled for late next year, since after that the orbiter is slated for overhaul and maintenance that could last almost until the fleet is retired in 2010.
Lockheed Martin was awarded a $748.3-million contract modification for a combined engineering change proposal for U.S. and international F-16 users. The plan deletes two existing modification kits and incorporates requested configuration changes for several customers. Boeing won a $136.9-million add-on contract for war replacement AH-64D attack helicopters. The company also gathered an $80.9-million contract for CH-47 helicopter parts.
"Find a Way" is a wonderful article about a wonderful guy, Alan R. Mulally (AW&ST Jan. 1, p. 50). I think it goes far beyond Boeing, far beyond airplanes--cars even. What if certain government functions could be rocked off the dead center of zero-sum politics and turned into a win-win game for all of us? Consider your editorial "Six Issues That Demand Action in 2007" in the same issue. Find a Way.
President Bush has unveiled his proposal for a $2.9-trillion budget for Fiscal 2008, and Congress is beginning this week to wade into the details. Over the next 10 pages, AVIATION WEEK editors analyze the proposal's probable impact on defense, space and aviation--showing how it would affect dozens of federal programs and explaining how players outside the Bush administration will try to change the White House's spending plan as it moves forward in Washington.
BEGINNING EARLY THIS MONTH, US HELICOPTER is increasing its shuttle service between New York's East 34th Street Heliport, JFK International Airport and Newark (N.J.) Liberty International Airport. According to the company, increasing demand for shuttle flights in Manhattan's midtown area is driving the expansion. There will be 10 flights to and from both airports in the afternoon, with each flight taking about 8 min.
