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Week ending November 16, 1997
+++ Boeing 737-700 certified at last +++ NATO delays decision on Ground Surveillance system +++ Airlines react on Amsterdam Schiphol airport flight restrictions +++ AB Airlines to fly Berlin-London +++ ESA and NASA discuss future cooperation +++ Hughes Training and Lufthansa Technical Training sign accord +++ Boeing receives contract to upgrade NATO E-3 AWACS +++ NASA completes X-33 Critical Design Review +++ Solar Mystery Nears Solution with Data from SOHO Spacecraft +++ First Observation of Space-Time Distortion by Black Holes +++ News in Brief +++
Boeing 737-700 certified at last
FAA-Zulassung für die Boeing 737-700
The Next-Generation 737-700 earned ist type certification from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on November 10 - about a month later than originally planned. The Next-Generation 737-700 embarked on its seven-month flight-test program Feb. 9, 1997. Since then, the four 737-700 flight-test airplanes have conducted approximately 1,550 flights, 2,220 hours of ground testing and 2,000 hours of flight testing. Major testactivities included:
- Aerodynamics: Measuring the airplane's performance during takeoff and landing, and its fuel consumption during cruise.
- Stability and control: Testing the airplane's flying qualities under varied conditions and weights.
- Auto flight controls: Verifying the autopilot, flight director, autothrottle and flight management system.
- Structures: Testing the structural dynamic response to "flutter" testing, and verifying loads on the airframe.
- Systems: Checking avionics, electrical, air conditioning, brakes and all other systems.
On the day of the 737-700 certification, Boeing also announced that Alaska Airlines is launch customer for the new 737-900, taking 10 orders and 10 options. The Next-Generation 737-900 will be the longest member of the newest 737 family, with a length of 138 feet 2 inches. It will carry up to 177 passengers in a two-class configuration. Alaska has configured its 737-900 to carry 174 passengers. The 737-900 will have the same wing span of 112 feet 6 inches as other Next-Generation 737 models.
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NATO delays decision on Ground Surveillance system
Entscheidung über Gefechtsfeldaufklärer vertagt
On November 6, the National Armaments Directors of NATO member countries have directed their Provisional Project Structure "to intensively search for fresh concepts and acquisition options to meet the complete Alliance Ground Surveillance capability, and to report their findings by April 1998. In so doing, they reaffirmed the intention of nations to find a successful way ahead to support the Ministerial decision to pursue a minimum essential NATO-owned and operated core capability supplemented by interoperable national assets", the statement released in Brussels read.This outcome of the meeting means that the "fast track" option for the initial loan of two E-8C Joint STARS offered by the US Government is now no longer available. Accordingly, Northrop Grumman declared itself "disappointed" by the decision, but pledged to find new crative solutions for an affordable solution. Other offers will now be studied in detail as well, probably including the business jets offered for the UK ASTOR competition. A main hurdle, as ever, is finance, and in particular the German inability to contribute a meaningful amount for the time being. Nonetheless, the need for a ground surveillance system remains one of NATO top priorities.
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Airlines react on Amsterdam Schiphol airport flight restrictions
Scharfe Reaktionen auf Flugbeschränkungen in Amsterdam Schiphol
The proposed restrictions in flight operations at Amsterdam Schiphol airport will "seriously affect the continuity of the aviation industry in the Netherlands, the development of Schiphol into a European main airport and the climate for investment in the area", Dutch flag carrier KLM said. Martinair, Transavia Airlines and Air Holland reacted in a similar way. Plans recently published in order to meet noise limits foresee an amount of no more than 360000 take-offs and landings in 1998. Airlines at Schiphol had applied for 400000 aircraft movements. Compared to the 353000 movements being expected for 1997, the new limits would mean an increase of 1,9 percent only. The increase from 1996 was nine percent. The average growth in air traffic worldwide is between five and six percent. Back to the top of the page / Zurück zum Anfang der Seite
AB Airlines to fly Berlin-London
Newcomer auf der Route Berlin-London
AB Airlines of the UK is to take over the Berlin-London route just vacated by both Deutsche BA to Gatwick and Lufthansa to Heathrow. AB will operate from Berlin-Schönefeld airport to London-Gatwick, Europe's fourth busiest airport. Flights will operate on a dailay basis with an increase at the start of the 1998 summer season in the spring. Two-class BAC 1-11 jet aircraft will be used initially, the airline said. The AB flight continues from Gatwick directly onto Lisbon. Services at Berlin start on December 2nd. The initial lead-in economy return fare is DM 259. Meanwhile, Lufthansa CityLine started services from Frankfurt am Main to London City airport. The flight operates three times a day with an Avro RJ85 aircraft. London City airport is located in the city center of London.Back to the top of the page / Zurück zum Anfang der Seite
ESA and NASA discuss future cooperation
ESA und NASA sprechen über zukünftige Zusammenarbeit
At a recent meeting NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin and ESA Director General Antonio Rodotà in Paris future possibilities of cooperation between the two agencies were discussed. According to a ESA statement both agencies intend to avoid redundancies especially with future Mars projects. Also user concepts for the International Sapce Station ISS were on the agenda of the meeting. A next meeting is scheduled for January 1998. Back to the top of the page / Zurück zum Anfang der Seite
Hughes Training and Lufthansa Technical Training sign accord
Zusammenarbeit zwischen Hughes und Lufthansa
On November 11 Hughes Training Inc. and Lufthansa Technical Training announced they have signed a memorandum of agreement to pursue technical and customer service training opportunities with airlines, maintenance organizations, aviation original equipment manufacturers and other aviation suppliers worldwide. The teaming agreement between the two companies integrates Lufthansa Technical Training's world-class aviation technical training background with Hughes Training's experience in developing complex aviation-related training systems.The Hughes Training and Lufthansa Technical Training team will be able to provide any kind of training focused on support functions, operation and maintenance of most Airbus, Boeing, Canadair and Douglas aircraft. Instruction will be delivered either at customer sites or at Lufthansa Technical Training's training centers at Fuhlsbuttel Airport in Hamburg, Germany, and Rhine-Main Airport in Frankfurt, Germany.
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Boeing receives contract to upgrade NATO E-3 AWACS
AWACS-Modernisierung unter Vertrag
On November 13, Boeing has received a contract worth approximately $450 million to develop and test a mission systems upgrade for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) fleet of 17 E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft. Under the NATO Mid-Term engineering, manufacturing and development (EMD) contract, which runs through 2001, Boeing -- supported by subcontractors from participating NATO nations -- will integrate major system-related enhancements to computers, displays, communications, navigation and target identification.Retrofit of the entire AWACS fleet will be implemented during a follow-on contract.The enhancements include state-of-the-art flat panel situation displays with a Windows-like environment to support the interaction between operators and sensor systems. Replacing the mission computing system with an open system architecture. Installing digital communications systems to improve crew access to available radio links and provide automatic record and replay of all communication and display data. Satellite communications will be integrated into the mission system. Adding broad-spectrum VHF radios that will support increased operations with Eastern European nations' air and ground forces.
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NASA completes X-33 Critical Design Review
NASA gibt X-33-Entwicklung frei
NASA has completed its Record of Decision (ROD) on the X-33 Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), and announced it intends to proceed with the preferred X-33 flight test program as described in the Final EIS issued October 3rd. Also the project passed the Critical Design Review and development can now fully go ahead. This marks the end of a 12 month assessment period for the X-33, a subscale technology demonstrator prototype of a Reusable Launch Vehicle that could lead to the development of the VentureStar. According to NASA's recent statement all 15 test flights of the X-33 will be conducted from the launch site at Haystack Butte on the Eastern portion of Edwards Air Force Base, California, to landing sites at Michael Army Air Field, Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, and Malmstrom Air Force Base near Great Falls, Montana. A third landing site, Silurian Lake, a dry lake bed near Baker, California, had been considered for use as a short-range landing site. However, flights into Dugway's airfield some 450 miles from Edwards better match the initial flight demonstration requirements, NASA said.
The X-33 environmental study considered issues such as public safety, noise, impacts on general aviation, and effects on biological, natural and other resources. Two launch sites and five landing sites were evaluated for potential use. Overall, environmental impacts of the program are expected to be low at all operational sites.
The X-33 is being developed under a cooperative agreement between NASA and Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, Palmdale, California, which began July 2, 1996. NASA has budgeted $941 million for the X-33 program through 1999. Lockheed Martin will contribute at least $212 million in the X-33 program. First flight is scheduled for July 1999. Through demonstration flights and ground research, the X-33 will provide information needed for industry to decide by the year 2000 whether to proceed to the development of a full-scale, commercial single-stage-to-orbit reusable launch vehicle.
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Solar Mystery Nears Solution with Data from SOHO Spacecraft
SOHO deckt Geheimnisse der Sonne auf
A likely solution to one of the major mysteries of the Sun has emerged from recent observations with the European Space Agency/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) mission. According to a NASA statement the new findings seem to account for a substantial part of the energy needed to cause the very high temperature of the corona, the outermost layer of the Sun's atmosphere. Since the corona's temperature was first measured 55 years ago, scientists have lacked a satisfactory explanation for why that temperature is three million degrees while the visible surface of the Sun is only 11,000 degrees Fahrenheit or about 6,000 degrees Celsius. It is physically impossible to transfer thermal energy from the cooler surface to the much hotter corona, so the energy transfer had to be in the form of waves or magnetic energy, but no measurement to date had found adequate energy to account for the coronal temperature.
Energy flows from the loops when they interact, producing electrical and magnetic "short circuits." The very strong electric currents in these short circuits are what heats the corona to a temperature of several million degrees. Images from the Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) and the Coronal Diagnostics Spectrometer (CDS) on SOHO show the hot gases of the ever-changing corona reacting to the evolving magnetic fields rooted in the solar surface.
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First Observation of Space-Time Distortion by Black Holes
Entdeckung: Zeit- und Raumverschiebung durch "Schwarze Löcher"
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Astronomers using NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) spacecraft have observed a black hole that is literally dragging space and time around itself as it rotates, NASA announced. This bizarre effect, called "frame dragging" is the first evidence to support a prediction made in 1918 using Einstein's theory of relativity. The phenomenon is distorting the orbit of hot, X-ray emitting gas near the black hole, causing the X-rays to peak at periods that match the frame-dragging predictions of general relativity. "If our interpretation is correct, it could demonstrate the presence of frame dragging near spinning black holes, said Dr. Wei Cui of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "This observation is unique because Einstein's theory has never been tested in this way before." Black holes are very massive objects with gravitational fields so intense that near them, nothing, not even light, can escape their pull. This effect shrouds the hole in darkness, and its presence can only be inferred from its effects on nearby matter. Many of the known or suspected black holes are orbiting a close "companion" star. The black hole's gravity pulls matter from the companion star, which forms a disk around the black hole as it is drawn inward by the black hole's gravity, much like soap suds swirling around a bathtub drain. Gas in this disk gets compressed and heated and emits radiation of various kinds, especially X-rays.
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NEWS IN BRIEF / KURZMELDUNGEN
Because a computer shut down the cryogenic Vulcain engine of Ariane 5 at flight 502 almost seven seconds sooner than planned the launcher did not reach the scheduled orbit. ESA and CNES officials also want to determine the cause for the loss of the two solid boosters. They were to have been recovered but instead sank, probably because the recovery parachutes did not fully deploy. Still the payload, Teamsat on the telemetric plttform Maqsat H, was ejected into orbit and everybody involved rated the launch a success. The next flight of Ariane 5 will also be a qualification flight with the Atmospheric Re-entry Demonstrator on board and is scheduled for early 1998.+++
The 250th Delta expendable launch vehicle successfully carried five satellites into orbit on November 10 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Boeing Delta II rockets have launched five of the seven IRIDIUM missions over the past six months. To date Deltas have placed 25 of the system's satellites into orbit.
+++
Brazilian range officials at Alcantara destroyed the first Brazilian Launcher VLS on November 2, only 65 seconds after launch because the launcher went out of control, probably because one of the four solid-boosters failed to ignite. With the launch vehicle Brazil's SCD-2A environmental satellite also was lost.
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US carrier Delta Air Lines on November 12th announced new services from Germany to the US. Starting on May 16th, 1998, Delta will introduce a daily nonstop service from Hamburg Fuhlsbüttel airport to Delta's main hub Atlanta, Georgia. And beginning on March 3rd, a new route with a daily flight from Stuttgart to New York's JFK airport will be implemented. A new route from Stuttgart to Tchech's republic capital Prague will also be offerd. On all these flights, Delta will operate a Boeing 767-300ER aircraft.
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Dornier Satellite Systems, a Daimler-Benz Aerospace company, has received an order for two Flexbus satellites from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission. The contract is worth $30 million.
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On November 14, Boeing has resumed production on its 747 jumbo jet assembly line, though efforts to solve production problems are not complete. Boeing's announcement ended a 20-day shutdown during which the production of 747-400's was halted and that of 737's was slowed at a cost of 2.6 billion U.S. dollars. The company now will resume turning out four 747s a month, and is expected to increase its capacity to five a month by mid-1998.
+++
Twenty successful missions and more than 60 million miles under her belt, America's Space Shuttle orbiter Atlantis arrived home to the Boeing Orbiter Major Modification Facility atop a Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft for a nine-month, approximately $70 million makeover highlighted by the installation of a new, state-of-the-art cockpit and a cutting-edge satellite-based navigation system. During its once-every-three-year orbiter major modification (OMM), Atlantis will receive a comprehensive structural inspection and more than 100 modifications designed to reduce program maintenance costs and improve operations, safety and reliability. Included are upgrades that will enable Atlantis to support construction of the International Space Station (ISS).
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On November 11 the crew on Mir resumed in full scientific experiments without having to attend to repair works the press service of the Mission Control Centre has said. However, Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyov and Pavel Vinogradov don't have an opportunity to have a good night sleep, as time has come for scheduled experiments on the peculiarities of human dreams. They must wake up several times during the night in order to take a reading
of their medical and biological data. During the day, they make photos of oceans and perform physical experiments called "Relaxation" and "Neutron".
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Eurofighter prototype DA1, which flies from Manching in southern Germany, has now reached a top speed of Mach 1.94 - the fastest of the new fighter so far. In the next weeks, weapons tests with AIM-9L Sidewinders will start as well as flights with auxiliary fuel tanks. Meanwhile, the fatigue testing at Munich has reached 15000 simulated flight hours.
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Air France and Crossair have signed a code-sharing deal for flights between Paris and Basel-Mulhouse, Bern and Lugano. Crossair does no longer serve the Basle - Paris route under the agreement.
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Deutsche Airbus will increase turnover from 3,4 billion DM to nearly 5 billion this year, managing director Gustav Humbert has said. There will be an operating profit of in the "sizeable millions" range, he added. Booming business will not lead to much more jobs, though. Outsorcing and overtime will do, Humbert explained.
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To cope with route expansion plans to Southeast Asia and direct air links with mainland China, Far Eastern Air Transport of Taiwan has ordered five Boeing 757-200s and two MD-83s. It also took options on five 757. Deliveries are set for 1998 through the year 2000.
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Previous updates are still available:
Die News der letzten Wochen ist nach wie vor abrufbar:
November 9, 1997
November 2, 1997
October 26, 1997
October 19, 1997
October 12, 1997
October 5, 1997
January to September 1997
September to December 1996
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Copyright 1997 by Motor-Presse Stuttgart. All rights reserved.
Last updated November 16, 1997
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