The successful launch of a Delta IV with the GPS IIF-5 spacecraft Feb. 20 indicates fixes added to the launcher's engine-processing procedures worked as planned, even though final reports on the 2012 Delta IV anomaly that generated low thrust in its RL-10B-2 upper-stage engine are not expected until April. The big rocket carrying the timing and navigation satellite lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 8:59 p.m. EST, right on time after a five-month delay, while the issues raised by the 2012 launch were addressed.
Peter Bradfield has been named communications adviser to the U.K.-based Baltic Air Charter Association. He held similar positions with the Royal Aeronautical Society and European Regional Airlines Association. Honors And Elections
The maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) industry is gearing up to service an increasing number of airliners employing a much higher share of composite materials. The introduction of the Boeing 787, the Airbus A350 and—less expectedly—the A320neo and the 737 MAX is causing MRO service providers to invest in new equipment and technician training. The changes, however, remain evolutionary rather than revolutionary, as many MROs have developed a high level of expertise since the 1970s.
Alongside the spending blueprint for fiscal 2015-19 coming out this week, the Obama administration is expected to publish its latest Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). It will lay out a painful course change for a nation accustomed to having a military sized to go anywhere and do anything, simultaneously in different places.
Dennis Tito's ambitious plan to send a married couple on a fast near-term tour of the inner Solar System is losing lift in the face of technical and fiscal reality, but his can-do spirit and choice of working partners is paying off in technology. A deeper dive into mission requirements ruled out the space-tourism pioneer's hope that his personal wealth could seed a two-person Mars flyaround in 2018, and his revised plan for a 580-plus-day trip to Mars via Venus is a long shot.
Amy Butler (Washington), Michael Bruno (Washington)
The Pentagon is trying to balance demands for restoring readiness and pushing for next-generation technologies in its fiscal 2015 budget request, despite congressional spending limits imposing a $45 billion cut to its expected plan.
Rebecca Rhoads, president of Raytheon Global Business Services and chief information officer, has been inducted into the California State Polytechnic, Pomona, College of Engineering's 2014 Hall of Fame.
By printing the recent Viewpoiont on SAMs, Aviation Week has reached a professional low: running an unpaid advertisement for a specific piece of equipment. Oxnard Calif.
As poor countries develop, air travel expands much faster than incomes. But as people become richer, that gearing ratio tends to fall: Air travel still grows faster than incomes, but not so much faster. And then the economy itself slows, as its game of catch-up takes it closer to the leading edge of advanced countries. For Chinese commercial aviation, that may be just as well. After experiencing the most powerful episode of airline expansion in history, the country is straining to provide infrastructure for the sector.
Sikorsky Aircraft is bringing oil and gas platform operations into the 21st century with a new satellite-based approach system that takes the human calculation and guesswork out of legacy rig approaches in instrument conditions and at night. The system offers operators an automated arrival tool to reduce crew loading while increasing situational awareness.
Wayne Gilbert West has been appointed executive vice president/chief operating officer of Delta Air Lines. He will succeed Stephen E. Gorman, who plans to retire. West will remain head of Airport Customer Service and Delta TechOps.
Petroleum Helicopters Inc. Sikorsky S-92A departs an oil-drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico. The company recently began using a Sikorsky-developed automated rig approach system to reduce the workload and increase the safety for S-92 pilots in night or low-visibility conditions. A special report starting on page 38 examines how trends in the oil-and-gas industry and the search-and-rescue business are impacting helicopter operations. The Petroleum Helicopters photo was altered to obscure details of the offshore rig.
Peter A. Antonenko has been promoted to chief operating officer from executive vice president of the Jetcraft Corp., Raleigh, N.C. Honors And Elections
A military fly/drive vehicle inspired by miniature “multicopter” unmanned aircraft is being prepared for its first flight. Advanced Tactics Inc.'s (AT) Black Knight Transformer is the technology demonstrator for a casualty-evacuation and cargo-resupply vehicle that can drive on or off road and fly like a helicopter, manned or unmanned.
The pilots of the UPS Airbus A300-600 that slammed into a hill just short of the runway in Birmingham, Ala., on Aug. 14 appear to have had difficulty programming the aircraft's navigation system, according to an NTSB investigative hearing on Feb. 20. Information from the flight data and cockpit voice recorders shows that the captain of Flight 1354 had intended to fly a “profile approach” into Birmingham, a non-precision arrival created in the aircraft's flight management system (FMS) to provide the autopilot with lateral and continuous vertical guidance to the runway.
For Sikorsky, demonstrating the S-97 Raider high-speed helicopter is even more important now that the U.S. Army has decided to retire its armed scout helicopters and not replace them, at least in the near term. The company, which is building two Raider prototypes on industry funds, believes there is still room, and time, within the Army's long-term budget to acquire a small fleet of new armed scouts before it begins the heavy expenditure of replacing its large fleets of medium-utility and attack helicopters.
USAFR Maj. Gen. (ret.) Ralph S. Clem Jacksonville, Fla. (Nantes, France )
The recently released report by the National Commission on the Structure of the Air Force (AW&ST Feb. 3, p. 12) captures many of the key issues raised and discussed by that body, especially as they relate to the need for optimizing the mix of forces among the three components of the service (Active Duty, Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard) in light of shrinking budgets, declining manpower and new mission areas.
The U.S. Air Force has finally given its newest aerial refueler, Boeing's developmental KC-46, a name. Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh announced Feb. 20 at the Air Force Association's Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla., that the aircraft will be dubbed the “Pegasus,” after the winged stallion from Greek mythology. The aircraft, however, has yet to fly. The first Boeing 767-2C, a commercial jetliner outfitted with plumbing and wiring for the military refueling modifications, is slated to roll out of the factory this summer.
