To understand fully why the U.S. government brought down 4,546 aircraft within 3 hr. on the morning of Sept. 11, all you need to know is this: The second of two hijacked airliners is flown into the World Trade Center at 9:03 a.m. EDT. Minutes later, the FAA's air traffic control command center in Herndon, Va., tells field facilities to advise it of any aircraft that aren't in communication or are flying unexpected routes. The facilities report 11 such aircraft. Hijackers fly one of them into the Pentagon at 9:41. Ten are left.
Hispasat has ordered a pair of X-band military telecommunications satellites from Space Systems/Loral, primarily for use by Spain and the U.S. The XTAR EUR, a 12-transponder spacecraft, will be operated over the Indian Ocean starting in 2003 by XTAR, a Washington-based venture of Hispasat and Loral Space&Communications (AW&ST July 23, p. 36). SpainSat, with 12 X-band transponders and one Ka-band unit, will be flown at 30 deg. W. Long. from 2004 by Hisdesat, owned by Hispasat and other Spanish firms.
Boeing Delta II ignites at dawn on Dec. 7 at the beginning of a successful mission to deliver the joint NASA/French Jason 1 oceanography satellite and NASA's Timed (Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics) spacecraft to their polar orbits. The launch from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., came at 10:07 a.m. EST, placing Jason 1 into an 830-mi. circular orbit and Timed into a circular orbit 388 mi. up, both inclined 74.1 deg. to the equator (AW&ST Dec. 3, p. 34).
The market for new business jets is holding up better than Honeywell Aerospace President Bob Johnson would have expected, given the considerable turbulence that has buffeted the sector since Sept. 11. ``The soft market we're experiencing now isn't very different from what we projected before Sept. 11,'' he said. ``There have been no order cancellations, and we're still supplying subassemblies and other products to airframe manufacturers on an expedited basis. Nobody has told us to slow down. If anything, the message is, `speed up.'''
DREW STEKETEE, PRESIDENT/CEO OF THE ''BE A PILOT'' program, said interest in learning to fly plummeted after the terrorist attacks in September, but has rebounded in the past three months. The initiative, aimed at increasing the number of student pilots in the U.S., reported 31,000 responses to advertising for the first 10 months of this year compared with 35,000 for all of 2000. Prior to Sept. 11, leads were up about 10% over last year, according to Steketee.
Airbus deliveries could take an even more drastic decline in 2003, another aftereffect of the airline industry's severe downturn, according to EADS Co-CEO Rainer Hertrich. ``The crisis' second year could be even more difficult than the first,'' Hertrich warned. EADS is, for the first time, facing a situation where its main profit-making affiliate, Airbus, is facing a market fall.
THE FLIGHT SAFETY FOUNDATION'S (FSF) CORPORATE Advisory Committee is studying whether Flight Operational Quality Assurance (FOQA) programs should be adopted by business aviation flight departments. Using quick-access recorders (QAR), these programs collect routine data on each flight which is later analyzed to detect any unsafe trends that could lead to accidents. Major U.S.
NETJETS, THE FRACTIONAL OWNERSHIP DIVISION of Executive Jets Inc., has redesigned its Web site: www.netjets.com. New features include more comprehensive information about the company and its services as well as insight into fractional ownership. The site also allows viewers to quickly locate key information by using improved navigation tools and a more intuitive layout, according to Kevin Russell, Executive Jet senior vice president.
Boeing has suffered another major set back in developing a key component of the National Missile Defense (NMD) system. The ground-based interceptor, which is supposed to launch the missile shield's kinetic kill vehicle, failed on Dec. 13 (see photo) in its second launch test from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. The failure occurred about 30 sec. after booster ignition. In the previous test, there was a vehicle roll anomaly during operations of the first-stage Alliant Techsystems GEM 40-VN booster.
The Aerospace Industries Assn. believes U.S. industry sales will drop 4.4% in 2002--5.3% in constant dollars--as commercial transport manufacturers and their airline customers reel from depressed demand. But the AIA sees ``robust'' civil aviation growth late next year or early in 2003, so long-term prospects are good, President and CEO John Douglass says in a year-end review. Meanwhile, he adds, it's time to deal with three ``structural issues''--NASA needs more R&D money, the Pentagon needs more procurement money and the State Dept.
Russia has launched a Ukrainian Zenit II heavy booster from the Baikonur Cosmodrome carrying a 2.5-ton Meteor 3M polar-orbit weather satellite with an instrument complement including the 167-lb. NASA Langley Research Center SAGE III Stratospheric Aerosol Gas Experiment. The mission also carried four other small satellites, including the Russian Kompass geodetic spacecraft, the Reflektor space-debris-detection spacecraft, the Pakistani Badr-B technology demonstration satellite, and the German/Moroccan Maroc-Tubsat Earth-observing spacecraft.
The Assn. of European Airlines (AEA) is concerned airlines will be forced to help underwrite the funding of Galileo, the proposed satellite navigation system. The AEA sent a letter to all European Union transport ministers raising its concerns after a PricewaterhouseCoopers-prepared business plan outlined commercial aviation benefits that the AEA views as unrealistic. The association seeks guarantees that the airlines will not be forced to subscribe to the funding, either directly or indirectly via contributions from air traffic service providers.
ENECO HAS DEVELOPED A SOLID-STATE semiconductor device that combines thermoelectric and thermionic technologies for converting heat directly to electrical energy. The preliminary results appear very interesting, according to an official for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which funded the effort. Heat recovery is the first possible application for the thermal diodes. Packaged like small tiles, the devices could surround an exhaust and generate electricity from the heat of engine exhausts.
The first four of seven composite layup molds for the Airbus A380 wing center section skin were recently shipped to Airbus-Nantes in France from UCAR Composites in Irvine, Calif. The A380 will have the first composite wing center section box on a transport aircraft. The first mold, shown here, is 14.4 X 8.5 ft., and was designed and built in 14 weeks. The molds are made of Invar 36 metal alloy, which has low thermal expansion to match the graphite fiber material during oven cure cycles.
Software adapted from the Pentagon is being used to make topographic elevation maps of Mars. The maps are being produced by Malin Space Science Systems using Harris Corp. software based on code developed for the National Imagery and Mapping Agency. Malin designed the camera system for NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and operates the spacecraft for NASA. The Harris software produces about 250,000 elevation points from each stereoscopic image pair, which cover about 45 sq. km. . . . Higher speed satellite Web links for aircraft continue to appear.
Europe's new Silex laser-optical intersatellite link has successfully transmitted initial images between the Artemis technology satellite and Spot 4 imaging spacecraft. The Silex terminals, developed by the European Space Agency, French space agency CNES and Astrium, can exchange high-definition imagery at 50 Mbps., with bit error rates in the range of 109-1010. The novel link offers significantly increased communications availability for low-Earth-orbit satellites, constellations and deep-space probes.
Skymark Airlines, one of Japan's discount domestic carriers, has revised its forecast for the fiscal year that ended Oct. 31 from a modest profit of 200 million yen ($1.6 million) to a pretax loss of 890 million yen. Japan Airlines (JAL) and All Nippon Airways (ANA) already have forecast future losses because of the airline recession that began early this year and the plunge in international traffic that followed the Sept. 11 attacks. Both major carriers are looking to domestic travel as a balm for their international woes.
Bell Helicopter Textron delivered the first UH-1Y helicopter to the U.S. Marine Corps on Dec. 13. First flight is tentatively scheduled for late this month. Bell is converting 100 UH-1N aircraft to the UH-1Y configuration as part of the Marines' H-1 Upgrade Program.
Engineers will find the new 6.0 version of the Fluent computational fluid dynamics (CFD) program has improved interactivity with other programs, as well as having more internal features. Fluid flow is calculated at a number of points that form a mesh. Some CFD programs attempt to ease computation by putting constraints on the geometry of the mesh. But this can cause high efforts in devising proper meshes that fit the parts being modeled. Several months can be spent building a complex structured mesh, said Gregory Stuckert, U.S. aerospace business manager for Fluent Inc.
The Transportation Dept. is late delivering safety upgrades deemed necessary by its task force only two months ago, according to the Coalition of Airline Pilots Assn. The union, which represents more than 27,000 pilots, issued a 60-day ``report card'' that says ``little progress'' has been made by the department since Sept. 11 on finalizing scores of recommendations to bolster commercial aircraft security.
It hasn't been the smoothest process, but the Royal Australian Air Force last week formally accepted the C-130J-30 into operational service. The Lockheed Martin transport has undergone two years of testing in Australia. The RAAF has already retired its C-130Es and was relying heavily on its 12 C-130Hs while the J-model was being prepared for operational use.
James J. Didion has been named a member of the board of directors of GenCorp, Sacramento, Calif. He is an independent investor and was chairman of CB Richard Ellis Inc.
