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All News

October 08, 2005

Countdown To The Cup: Day Two (Friday) Part Two

Personal Spaceflight Symposium Launches The Event

by Aero-News Senior Correspondent Kevin R.C. "Hognose" O'Brien The events of Day Two, as previously recounted here, mostly took place in the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo, NM. The museum and the X-Prize Foundation billed this "X-Prize Education Day," and it was a chance for kids to see -- and, here is the cunning bit, be inspired by -- all kinds of space exhibits.

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Countdown To The Cup: Day Two (Friday) Part One

Where Rockets Going Up Unexpectedly Interfere With Rockets On Schedule

by Aero-News Senior Correspondent Kevin R.C. "Hognose" O'Brien The second day of the Countdown to the X-Prize Cup dawned early -- 0700 Mountain Time, Jim had a deep, deep, deep, background briefing at Las Cruces International with one of the exhibitors.

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Countdown To The Cup: Day One (Thursday)

Personal Spaceflight Symposium Launched The Event

by Aero-News Senior Correspondent Kevin R.C. "Hognose" O'Brien The first day of the X-Prize Cup was the First International Symposium on Personal Spaceflight, which went down exactly as previewed here at Aero-News. Jim Campbell of Aero-News attended most of the panel sessions and was most impressed with Erik Lindbergh's speech. He got many photos, which are available for press use through the X-Prize Cup organization.

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NASA And Zero-G Test Space Shuttle Runway Program

NASA and Zero Gravity Corporation, known as ZERO-G, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., have announced the firm's participation in a pilot program. It will demonstrate expanded access to and use of the space shuttle's runway and landing facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., for non-NASA activities.

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Ka-CHING! UAL Gets $3 Billion In Financial Backing

That's A Big Step Toward Bankruptcy Exit

United Airlines, long mired in federal bankruptcy court, may now have a way out. JP Morgan and Citigroup have signed on to arrange $3 billion in financing to help the beleaguered carrier emerge from federal debt protection as planned in February.

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AOPA Sends National Pilot Alert

Asking Members To Oppose "Burdensome" Air Defense Identification Zone

The AOPA this week took the highly unusual step of mailing a National Pilot Alert to its members, asking them to actively oppose the FAA proposal to make the restrictive Washington, DC, air defense identification zone (ADIZ) permanent.

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Red Bull World Series Set For 'Golden' Showdown

Mike Mangold Favored In Meet Before Home Crowd

American Mike Mangold goes into the final leg of the 2005 Air Race World Series in San Francisco Saturday the firm favorite to secure the inaugural ranking crown in front of his home fans.

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The Rockets Of The Countdown

Countdown To The X-Prize Cup, Of Course...

By Aero-News Senior Correspondent Kevin R.C. "Hognose" O'Brien One of the coolest things about the original X-Prize was the sheer breadth of innovation it spawned, the colorful variety of responses people had to the challenge of a reusable suborbital space vehicle. Many commentators noted the unconventionality of the ultimate winner, the SpaceShipOne/White Knight combination, which resembled the Mercury/Maya combination of a bygone day in concept, but added a bunch of new wrinkles, most importantly "shuttlecock recovery" or as Burt Rutan calls it, "carefree reentry." (By the way, the idea came to Burt as he woke in the middle of the night).

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USAF: Catastrophic Events Caused U-2 Crash

A catastrophic, cascading sequence of events, beginning with the inflight failure of the power takeoff shaft, caused a U-2S surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft to crash June 22 in Southwest Asia, killing the pilot, according to Air Force investigators.

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ALPA Response to FedEx Announcement on Mediation

Disappointed But Not Surprised

Captain David Webb, chairman of the FedEx unit of the Air Line Pilots Association, Int'l (ALPA), issued the following statement following FedEx management's decision to request the assistance of the National Mediation Board in the pilots' ongoing contract negotiations.

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Aero-News Clarification: Deland Pilot Not Charged In Skydiver's Death

Police Recommend Manslaughter Count Be Filed

Aero-News erroneously reported this week that the pilot of a DeHavilland DHC-6 Twin Otter (file photo of type, below) has been charged with manslaughter in the death of a skydiver who had just jumped from his plane over Deland, FL. Instead, Deland Police recommended to the Florida State Attorney's Office that charges be filed, but the State Attorney's Office has yet to act on that recommendation.

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Styrian Spirit Signs For Bombardier CRJ900

First Operator In Europe To Announce CRJ900 Order

Bombardier Aerospace announced Friday that Styrian Sprit of Graz, Austria has signed a contract to acquire one Bombardier CRJ900 jetliner.

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NASA'S Shuttle Endeavour Comes To Life

Powered Up For First Time In Two Years

Engineers cheered as electricity coursed through Space Shuttle Endeavour Thursday for the first time in two years, signaling the end of the orbiter's major modification period at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

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Gone West: Ray Siegfried II

GAMA Mourns Passing Of NORDAM Chairman

The General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) reports the loss of "a leader and visionary within the aviation community," Ray Siegfried II, Chairman of the NORDAM Group.

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MD Helicopters Will Bid For Army's Light Utility Helicopter Competition

MD Says Explorer Is The Only Aircraft That Meets Specifications For Army Program

MD Helicopters (MDHI) is bidding its MD Explorer for the US Army's $1.3-billion Light Utility Helicopter Program. "From the beginning, it has been clear that the MD-900 Explorer is the single helicopter that meets the specifications of the LUH program on both variables of performance and price," said Lynn Tilton, Chief Executive Officer and founder of Patriarch Partners, LLC, an investment advisor who manages the funds that own a controlling interest in MDHI. "And, there has never been any doubt that we were going to go all-out to win this program in order to deliver to the US Army a helicopter widely known for its safety features and price/performance benefit."

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Lockheed Martin Completes Live Fly Demonstration of JTRS Prototype

Says It Can Be Done

Lockheed Martin says it has successfully completed a live fly demonstration of the Airborne, Maritime and Fixed Station (AMF) component of the military's Joint Tactical Radio Systems (JTRS) program. The demonstration featured airborne, ground-based and simulated maritime units collaborating in real time across an integrated airborne IP network to rapidly find, identify and strike a time-sensitive target.

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Northrop Grumman Receives US Air Force Military Support Contract

Will Provide More Technical, Engineering Support

Northrop Grumman says it's been awarded a contract to expand the US Air Force's staff of qualified mission-support personnel for technical and engineering support and for increased air defense of the United States.

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Boeing and Lockheed Martin Cooperate in SDB II Competition

Strange Bedfellows?

Boeing and Lockheed Martin have signed an exclusive teaming agreement to compete for the Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) Increment II Program.

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Aero-News Quote Of The Day (10.08.05)

"I don't think you could find anyone of any means in sky diving who would call this anything other than a tragic accident. I don't feel a charge like that is really warranted." Source: Richard Schachner, the southeast regional director of the USPA, speaking to the Orlando Sentinel about the Deland Police Department's recommendation that pilot William Buchmann be charged with manslaughter in the death of skydiver Albert "Gus" Wing III. The Florida State Attorney General's Office has not yet decided whether charges should be filed.

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