A new flight for old times’ sake

FORT WAYNE – The average age of the residents at Coventry Commons, an assisted-living community on Covington Road, is 88.

So when you sit down for lunch at one of the tables in the dining room, you really have no idea what sort of life story the person across the table might have to tell.

Carl Hornberger discovered that just a few days ago. Hornberger’s father, Richard, 87, moved into Coventry Commons a little more than a week ago, so his son decided to have lunch with him to see how he was adjusting.

Carl Hornberger also had a surprise for his dad. A World War II era B-17, a Flying Fortress, is flying into Kendallville on Sept. 2, so he’d bought a couple of tickets and was going to take his dad, who was a bombardier in WWII, for a ride on it.

During the conversation, Hornberger looked at another man sharing their table and asked him if he’d ever been in the service. Sure, Frank Peterson said. He was in the Army Air Corps and flew 37 missions, some as a tail gunner and some as a nose gunner.

As they say, who’d ’a thunk it? Two World War II fliers who’d been in bombers sitting at the same table?

When you think of it, though, that’s not that unusual. When you start looking at people in their late 80s or early 90s, particularly men, there are few who weren’t in the military in WWII, so one shouldn’t be too surprised that a couple of old fliers ended up at the same table.

Many of them have stories that are seldom told. Like Hornberger, who was stationed at bases all over the United States and taught to fly fighters before finally being made a bombardier. The war ended before he was shipped overseas, but he was still a flier.

Then there’s Peterson, who started out as a tail gunner in B-17s and B-24s before being switched to the nose, a job that paid about $25 a week.

“It’s a good place to sit,” Peterson said. “You see everything first.”

Peterson has some souvenirs from the war, too. He’s still got the telegram sent to his mother that reads, “The secretary of war desires me to express his deep regret that your son Staff Sergeant Frank W. Peterson has been reported missing in action.”

Peterson’s bomber had been shot down on the Russian border. He was rescued by Russian forces, who he says treated him like a king.

The coincidence gave Carl Hornberger an idea. He and his brother-in-law, who had also bought a ticket to take a flight on the plane, would split the cost and buy Peterson a ticket, too.

Next Friday, the two old fliers could take one more trip after 65 years.

Are they excited? Sure, Peterson said.

“I’m 87,” Hornberger said. “I’m not excited about anything any more.”

But you know he has to be looking forward to it.

Speaking of coincidences, the visit by a B-17 is one of just two that will take place in early September.

On Sept. 6-7, another B-17 will visit DeKalb County Airport in Auburn and will offer rides, too.

The trips aren’t cheap. Tickets are $465 each if you want to fly, but that’s a lot less than the price some people paid to fly in the planes 66 years ago.

Frank Peterson (left) and Richard Hornberger (right), both bombardiers during World War II

-journalgazette.net

Air Force to throw welcome party for F-35s

Eglin Air Force Base will host a welcome part for the F-35 on Friday. The event celebrates the arrival of two F-35 aircraft at Eglin. The first touched down at the base on July 14 and the second arrived about a week later.

The welcoming ceremony will be hosted by Gen. Edward Rice, commander of the Air Education and Training Command. Other guest speakers include Lockheed Martin executive Larry Lawson, general manager of the F-35 Program, and 33rd Fighter Wing Commander Col. Andrew Toth.

The F-35 Lightning II is a multirole fighter and attack aircraft that will be used by the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, as well as several foreign militaries. Eglin will be a primary training center for F-35 flight crew and maintenance personnel.

Eglin’s two F-35 aircraft have been grounded since Aug. 2 when engineers experienced a major engine problem with an F-35 test aircraft.

Source: pnj.com

Other Taiwanese officials say US won’t sell F-16s

SINGAPORE — Some Taiwanese defense officials are continuing to argue that no final decision has been made on whether the U.S. will sell the island nation Lockheed Martin F-16C/Ds. But others in the government are starting to come out publicly and say what people in the U.S. defense industry have suspected all along: President Barack Obama will not sell the country new F-16s.

Taiwan’s parliamentary speaker, Wang Jin-pyng, told the China Times newspaper that the U.S. has changed its mind about selling F-16s to Taiwan and that the campaign is “all but hopeless.” Wang added the U.S. plans to sell Taiwan equipment to upgrade its F-16A/Bs. Wang is a senior member of Taiwan’s ruling Kuomintang Party.

The defense ministry’s spokesman, David Lo, and some in the U.S. government have been downplaying the prospect that Taiwan’s bid for F-16s will fail. They say “no final decision” has been made and point out that the U.S. has until Oct. 1 to decide. Whether the decision is final or not, industry executives tell Aviation Week it is unlikely the U.S. will sell new F-16s to Taiwan, but they say the U.S. may allow Taiwan’s F-16s to be upgraded.

Some of the upgrade equipment that Taiwan is seeking, and may succeed in obtaining, includes active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radars and new targeting pods. But this has caused consternation among some industry observers. An Aug. 19 editorial in The Asian Wall Street Journal says if Taiwan gets AESA radar and the other equipment it wants for its F-16s, the aircraft could end up being more technologically advanced than the U.S. Air Force’s F-16s. But the newspaper says what Taiwan needs is more fighter aircraft, rather than a small number of highly advanced fighters. If war breaks out between Taiwan and China, the editorial asserts, then Taiwan will be overwhelmed by the number of Chinese aircraft, and the advanced technology on Taiwan’s F-16s could end up in Chinese hands.

Another danger is that China may succeed in gaining the AESA radar technology through its network of spies in Taiwan. The issue of espionage has come to the fore in recent weeks. Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou said earlier this month that the island needs to actively prevent any leak of secrets to China and must stop infiltration attempts by beefing up its counterintelligence. His remarks came after a Taiwanese army general and an intelligence officer received life sentences for spying for China.

Meanwhile, on Aug. 17, Ko-suen (Bill) Moo was repatriated back to Taiwan after completing a 6.5-year prison sentence in the U.S. for seeking to export defense equipment – including a GE F110 engine for an F-16 – from the U.S. to China. Moo is a former sales agent for Lockheed Martin in Taiwan. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security statement says Moo was sent back to Taiwan on Aug. 17.

 

-aviationweek.com

Nearby residents complains about noise in MCAS Beaufort

A full complement of F-18 Hornet squadrons at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort has caused a recent uptick in noise complaints, air station officials say.

For the first time in more than a year, all six of the air station’s F-18 squadrons are home and vying for flight time in the skies over Beaufort, those officials said. The increased activity at the base’s airfield has generated more noise complaints from nearby residents.

Lt. Sharon Hyland, base spokeswoman, said the air station’s public affairs office typically fields one or two noise complaints a month The office has been averaging 5 or 6 complaints a month this summer, she said.

“It’s been a really long time since we’ve had all of our squadrons back on deck,” said Hyland. “For the longest time, we’ve always had one or two of them doing something. All of the squadrons are back, though they won’t be for long. We’ll have some squadrons deploying soon. During the short time that they’re all here, they’re fighting for that flight time out there.”

While jet noise may be jarring to some area residents, Hyland said the flight training it generates is essential.

“Our training is never done in vain,” Hyland said. “A lot of times people forget that the noise you hear is directly associated with our training and our training is directly associated with how successfully we’re able to complete our mission.”

Hyland said the base tries to mitigate the effects of F-18 jet noise on nearby neighborhood by flying earlier in the day though that task becomes harder in the summer.

“We have to train during the day and during the night,” Hyland said. “When the sun goes down, we don’t land our jets. Not everything bad happens during the day time. It does make it harder in the summer because the sun goes down a lot later and we have to wait until later to start that night training.”

-islandpacket.com

Navy’s Osprey completes successful biofuel test flight

The Navy and Marine Corps team reached another milestone toward achieving the Secretary of the Navy’s energy goals by successfully flying a Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey on biofuel Aug. 10, at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md.

“This is the first Marine Corps and tilt rotor aircraft to fly on biofuels,” said Navy Secretary Ray Mabus. “This brings us one step closer to reducing our dependence on foreign oil and becoming more energy secure and independent.”

The “Blackjacks” of Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (HX) 21 flew the Osprey tilt rotor aircraft at altitudes of up to 25,000 feet on a 50/50 blend of camelina based and standard petroleum based JP-5 (aviation) fuel. The camelina sativa plant is a U.S. grown, non-food feedstock plant.

The MV-22 is a multi-mission aircraft, flown by the Marine Corps, and combines the functionality of a helicopter with the long range and high speed of a turboprop aircraft.

“The MV-22 testing builds upon our successful test flights of the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet, F/A-18 C/D legacy Hornet, MH-60S Seahawk as well as extensive testing in the Navy’s Patuxent River fuels lab in demonstrating that Navy and Marine Corps aircraft can safely operate on fuel produced from renewable sources,” said Rick Kamin, the Navy Fuels lead.

Story and photo from navair.navy.mil

UAV Sense-And-Avoid Systems Would Have Avoided Collision

A ground-based sense-and-avoid system being prototyped by the U.S. Army would have prevented the mid-air collision of a C-130 Hercules airlifter with RQ-7 Shadow unmanned aircraft at a forward operation base in eastern Afghanistan on Aug. 15, a service official says.

“Had we been operational with GBSAA [ground-based sense and avoid] we would have completely averted the incident,” says Tim Owings, deputy project manager for Army unmanned aircraft systems.

But a software glitch and the recent FAA furlough have delayed Army plans to test the radar-based GBSAA prototype installed at General Atomics Aeronautical Systems’ El Mirage, Calif., training center for the service’s MQ-1C Gray Eagle UAV.

The system uses ground radars at three airports to detect and track aircraft entering a surveillance volume centered on El Mirage when Gray Eagles are transiting through civil airspace to and from nearby restricted airspace used for training.

The first three night-training flights using GBSAA were conducted in April, but a software anomaly on the third flight forced a halt to testing. The glitch has been fixed, but a post-furlough backlog at FAA has prevented tests from resuming, says Mary Ottman, deputy product director for UAV airspace integration.

With 11 hr. of testing complete, another 28 hr. of FAA-monitored testing must be performed before the system can be approved for operational use. This requires the presence of three FAA personnel at El Mirage and is a “big commitment” for the agency, Ottman says, as it works to recover from the furlough.

Investigation showed the radar system was tracking all aircraft as planned, but a program that generates a simulated track to test the system produced an incompatible message. The Army has approved revised software following regression testing using a manned aircraft.

“We began meeting with the FAA in July, and planned to return to flight in August, but then the FAA furlough hit,” Ottman says. Dialogue has resumed since the FAA returned to work, but she does not have a date for a return to flight for the GBSAA at El Mirage.

FAA is working through a backlog of applications for certificates of authorization to operate unmanned aircraft in national airspace that were delayed by the furlough “and we are not the highest priority,” she says.

The C-130 landed safety after the collision with the RQ-7 in Afghanistan, and is repairable in the field, but the incident underlines that “even with procedural controls there is a need for active deconfliction,” Owings says.

Investigation is under way, but “the [Shadow] was where it was supposed to be, doing what it was supposed to,” says Col. Robert Sova, UAV capabilities manager at Army Training and Doctrine Command.

The Shadow was in a holding pattern 4,500 ft. off the end of the runway, where it had been directed by air traffic control, when the C-130 “flew right through,” Owings says. “The manned aircraft did not do what it was procedurally supposed to, nor were they where they thought they were,” Sova says.

 

-aviationweek.com

RQ-4 Block 30 Global Hawk reached IOC

The U.S. Air Force Air Combat Command has declared that the unmanned RQ-4 Block 30 Global Hawk built by that the Northrop Grumman has reached its initial operational capability (IOC). IOC is declared when a development program completes initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E), and is cleared to support real-time operations.

While IOC was recently declared, the Air Force determined there was a critical need to implement Block 30 Global Hawks earlier this year. The Block 30s were moved to operational status prior to the IOT&E report being released and have provided critical intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance in support of disaster relief efforts in Japan, NATO operations over Libya and are replacing Block 10 aircraft in Central Command operations.

“The men and women of Northrop Grumman are proud to provide Global Hawk’s unprecedented capabilities to support critical missions all over the world,” said George Guerra, HALE vice president, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems.

Block 30 Global Hawk is a high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial reconnaissance system which provides military field commanders with high resolution, near real-time imagery of large geographic areas

“The basic requirement for Block 30 IOC is to support one continuous Block 30 24-hour orbit for 30 days,” said Gen. William M. Fraser III. “There are enough assets and infrastructure in place to support the one continuous Block 30 orbit requirement for IOC.”

There are currently nine Block 30 Global Hawks stationed abroad.

Source: ASDNews, airforce-technology.com

Russian Transaero signs MOU for eight A320neos

Transaero Airlines confirmed Tuesday it signed an MOU with Airbus for eight A320neos, plus four options, making it the first Russian carrier to commit to the re-engined narrowbody aircraft.

The airline told ATW it hopes to firm the MOU within 60 days; it is slated to take delivery of its first A320neo in 2017. It did not announce an engine selection between CFM International’s Leap-X and Pratt & Whitney’s PW1100G.

“It was very important for Transaero Airlines to become the first A320neo customer in Russia, the CIS and Eastern Europe,” said CEO Olga Pleshakova. “The operation of these newest, very efficient aircraft will allow us to create optimal conditions for passengers on the expanding network of domestic and international destinations.”

Russia’s second-largest carrier historically is a loyal Boeing customer and currently operates 65 aircraft, comprising 17 747s, eight 777s, 13 767s, 24 737s and three Tupolev 214s. It did operate an Airbus A310 from 2000-2002.

 

-atwonline.com

C-130 collides with RQ-7 over Afghanistan

An Air Force C-130 cargo plane collided with a drone in Afghanistan, a potentially serious mishap that could give ammunition to critics wary of allowing pilotless aircraft to operate in civilian airspace.

A spokesman for the military in Afghanistan, Capt. Justin Brockhoff,  confirmed that a C-130 cargo plane made an emergency landing Monday at a base in eastern Afghanistan after colliding with an RQ-7 Shadow, an unmanned aerial vehicle that is usually operated by the Army and the Marine Corps.

“The C-130 received light damage during the incident and the aircrew was unharmed,” Capt. Brockhoff said. “We have no reports at this time to indicate any injuries or damages were caused when the Shadow impacted the ground,” Capt. Brockhoff said.

Over the past decade, the U.S. military has built a large fleet of remotely piloted aircraft, including armed Predators that can fire antitank missiles and Global Hawks that take detailed pictures from high altitudes. Even so, collisions between manned aircraft and pilotless spy planes have been rare.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

South Korea: F-35 could meet F-X Phase 3 program deadline

The South Korean air force rates all of the Western competitors for its F-X Phase 3 fighter program, including the F-35 Lightning, as capable of meeting the in-service date of 2016, an assessment that appears to raise the chances of the Lockheed Martin aircraft.

The air force does not express the same view on the fourth and most recent competitor for the planned 60-aircraft order, the Sukhoi PAK FA.

The Eurofighter Typhoon is in service and can therefore meet the schedule, the air force says in an unpublished briefing paper. And although it notes that the F-35 and the Boeing F-15SE Silent Eagle are not fully developed, the air force says they can be ready in time.

That judgment is less important for the F-15SE than for the F-35. The Boeing fighter would be modified for the SE version mainly by introducing fly-by-wire flight controls, adapting its conformal fuel tanks to house weapon bays and by canting the tail fins with a straightforward structural change—objectives that should be achievable well before 2016.

But for the Lightning the air force’s assessment seems to sweep aside concerns that, while the stealth fighter is especially well suited to the air-to-ground part of the F-X Phase 3 requirement, its repeatedly delayed development schedule has become uncomfortably tight for South Korea’s needs.

The U.S. Air Force does not expect its F-35As to be operational until 2018. Its definition of initial operational capability is more demanding than South Korea’s, but the U.S. schedule offers little reassurance for potential buyers that would need the aircraft earlier.

Even if the South Korean air force’s assessment is not realistic, the expression of that view at least means that the service is willing to proceed as if the F-35 complies fully with its requirements. And if the air force is bending the rules for the F-35, then it seems to be showing a preference for it.

On the other hand, the F-X Phase 3 program could be delayed, giving more time for Lockheed Martin to meet the schedule. The company has said it could deliver aircraft to South Korea in 2016—but that is not the same as establishing an operational capability.

In the briefing paper, the air force is silent on the question of whether the PAK FA would be ready in time. The failure to endorse the Russian fighter’s schedule can only raise concerns that the aircraft, a late entry into the race, is regarded as only a stalking horse for the Western fighters.

 

-aviationweek.com