As Southwest continues to take delivery of new, longer range Boeing 737s, the nature of its operations continues to evolve. Even though the carrier reported 0.4% more traffic in July 2002 than in July 2001--measured in revenue passenger miles--it carried 8.5% fewer passengers on 1.8% fewer trips. The difference was in the length of a trip, which grew 9.8%, from 696 mi. to 764.
The pace of Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle preparations at Cape Canaveral are quickening as both the Boeing and Lockheed Martin vehicles complete final key tests toward their first launches. The French Alcatel Eutelsat Hot Bird 6 payload was mated to the Lockheed Martin Atlas V EELV last week and completed booster/payload electrical interface tests. The Atlas V is to be rolled from its 300-ft.-tall Vertical Integration Facility to Pad 41 on Aug. 20 to begin a two-day countdown planned to end with liftoff of the vehicle at 6:05 p.m. EDT on Aug. 21, weather permitting.
The FAA extended for yet another 60 days, through Oct. 16, its war-risk insurance support for U.S. airlines. The agency retained the cost formula it adopted in June, basing prices to an airline on how much coverage the carrier wants (AW&ST June 24, p. 36). The new extension will take FAA war-risk insurance support past one year--Congress authorized it last September after private insurers reduced coverage and increased prices following the terrorist attacks. The FAA and airlines are working on ways to move insurance back into the private sector.
Dale Kline has been named global business director for specialty fluids for Solutia Inc. of St. Louis. He was business manager for heat transfer and aviation fluids.
Air New Zealand is restructuring its domestic and international routes as it rebuilds after the collapse of its Ansett subsidiary last September nearly drove it out of business. The domestic reorganization will be built around the purchase last month of 15 Airbus A320s, with an option for 20 more to replace its Boeing 737-300 fleet. The sale is Airbus' first in New Zealand; delivery is to start in October and last through 2005.
The Air Force is taking another stab at a smart, small, air-launched decoy to spoof enemy air defenses. An earlier effort, Northrop Grumman's Miniature Air-Launched Decoy, was effectively canceled when USAF couldn't decide how to make the system that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency developed into an operationally useful piece of equipment. The service has now awarded five $300,000 study contracts, to Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and Accurate Automation Corp.--a Chattanooga, Tenn., NASA contractor--to prepare designs for the new decoy.
Having frozen the mold lines for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, Lockheed Martin designers are trying to optimize the cockpit layout to give pilots useful access to the vast amounts of information the aircraft can provide. The company has defined a basic layout that engineers believe facilitates man-machine interface to decrease pilot workload, improve situational awareness and avoid information overload.
USAF Lt. Gen. (ret.) Roger G. DeKok (see photo) has been appointed Colorado Springs-based vice president/deputy general manager of the Command, Con- trol and Intelligence Div. of TRW Inc. He was vice commander of the Air Force Space Command, Peterson AFB, Colo.
Time for a reality check: The U.S. Transportation Security Administration cannot meet the congressionally mandated Dec. 31 deadline to screen all checked luggage with bomb-detection systems without wreaking havoc on the aviation system and damaging security. Since this spring, 39 top airport executives have been trying to convince both TSA and Congress that the deadline, included in the legislation that created the agency, will do more harm than good. The House has passed Rep.
Advances in training technology planned for the Joint Strike Fighter could drastically change how the Pentagon educates pilots and maintainers. Training systems are frequently one of the most ignored aspects of any major weapons program, but for JSF it is a $750-million initiative during the development and demonstration phase alone. And just like more glamorous elements of the JSF project, the training system is being approached with an unusual focus on commonality among the services.
Russia is proposing to increase defense expenditures in 2003, but even these funding levels will fall far short of what is needed to launch and sustain its most ambitious program, the development of its fifth-generation fighter. Irrespective of the government's political commitment to a next-generation combat aircraft, known as the PAK FA, securing adequate financing to support this effort remains the critical challenge. Some sources said in the budget draft for 2003 that military expenditures account for 2.7% of the gross domestic product (GDP).
In ``Hyflying Missile Tests'' in the Aug. 5 Industry Outlook, Mike White was incorrectly identified. He is program manager for advanced vehicle technologies for the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory.
The commissioning of Air New Zealand's Airbus A320 fleet beginning this October means more than the introduction of a new type into the long-time Boeing customer's fleet. It signals the chance for ANZ Engineering Services to expand its capacity as a third-party maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) operator. ANZ hasn't decided whether to take the aircraft with International Aero Engines V2500 or CFM International CFM56 engines, but a choice of IAE would also introduce a new manufacturing base to its MRO lineup.
The Air Force and Lockheed Martin have decided to extend F-22 software development to overcome avionics problems and to add people and equipment to the flight test program to finally step up its pace. The maneuvers are part of a final push to get the stealth fighter ready for its graduation exercise, initial operational test and evaluation, next summer. USAF officials believe they are seeing results already, although the new measures have only been instituted recently.
United Space Alliance inspectors found multiple cracked bearings in the lifting mechanisms of the two 5.5-million-lb. crawler transporters that carry the space shuttle to and from the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center. The initial assessment is that by using spare bearings and cannibalizing parts from one crawler, the other can be kept operational to maintain the shuttle's return to flight schedule of late September or early October. This would also provide enough time to secure replacement bearings to put both units back in operation.
As of Aug. 12, Japan's nine airlines had operated 17 full years since the country's last fatal accident involving a Japanese carrier. That occurred Aug. 12, 1985, when a Japan Airlines Boeing 747 crash killed 520 of the 524 people on board. One Japanese carrier had one crash during the period, a DC-9 hard landing in 1993, but there were no fatalities.
Michael O'Leary (see photos) has been appointed director of avionics and Jan Calloway manager of business development at Thunder Aviation of St. Louis.
While recession-hit European and U.S. carriers keep their checkbooks closed, Asia-Pacific carriers are starting to update or expand their fleets. Latest on the list is Thai Airways International, which has in principle received approval from the Thai government to acquire 16 wide-body aircraft. Formal approvals are still required from the Thai government, which controls the carrier, but these are regarded as formalities. Deals are expected to be placed by the end of the year.
Julian M. Earls has been appointed deputy director of the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. He was deputy director of operations/acting director of acquisition.
Middle East Airlines is scheduled to take delivery in 2003-04 of six Airbus A321s powered by International Aero Engines IAE V2533 turbofans. The contract, signed last week, is MEA's first purchase of new aircraft since the 1970s and is expected to play a significant role in the Lebanese carrier's restructuring and quest for profitability. Its A321s will be equipped with 149 seats and a sophisticated inflight entertainment system. MEA also plans to lease three long-range A330-200s to replace aging A300/A310s.
The Army is looking overseas to give its stealthy RAH-66 Comanche helicopter a bit of extra protection with improved armoring. Perhaps even more importantly than the extra ballistics protection, it would weigh less than the current armor, the service hopes. Weight growth has been a challenge for the decades-old, yet-to-be-fielded Comanche. The initiative is one of the latest ``foreign comparative test projects,'' an effort to assess technology from foreign companies that provides one of the few avenues for offshore suppliers to sell wares to the Defense Dept.
Anticipating a shortfall of skilled aviation technicians, Air Canada Technical Services created a new unit, Tracor, to train technical and safety professionals. According to the company, industry studies show Canada alone has a requirement for 11,000 skilled aviation workers in the next five years. Tracor is expected to be up and running by late fall.
Laser weapons on fighters have moved closer to reality with modification of an F-16 simulator to include high-energy laser weapon computer models. Pilots of the New Mexico Air National Guard's 150th Fighter Wing at Kirtland AFB, N.M. (where Air Force directed energy efforts are headquartered) are testing one design for air-to-air combat and another for attacking ground targets.
Aeronautical engineer and designer Roy LoPresti died Aug. 7 of a heart attack. He was 73. LoPresti established LoPresti Speed Merchants which offers modifications to a broad range of general aviation airplanes to increase their speed and handling. His career in aviation began in the late 1940s when he won the Chance Vought Design Award while attending New York University. In addition, LoPresti developed the two-seat ``SwiftFire'' based on the Globe Swift aircraft.
