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By Alex Villarreal
Washington
27 October 2007
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Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have successfully attached a new room to the station. They completed the task during the first of five spacewalks planned during their two-week mission. VOA’s Alex Villarreal reports from Washington.

Crew members of the U.S. space shuttle, Discovery, embarked Friday on the mission’s first spacewalk.

During the more than six-hour excursion, the Discovery and International Space Station crews used the station’s robotic arm to move a new module, named Harmony, from the shuttle to a temporary location on the space station.

Space Station Flight Director Derek Hassman called the day a success. “It’s not very often that I can report that a day goes exactly as we planned, but this is probably about as close as we get to one of those days. And this is one of those days where you really appreciate all the months and years of planning that go into these missions,” he said.

The Harmony module, the size of a bus, will provide docking ports for Japanese and European scientific laboratories to be installed on the space station. It will be moved to its permanent location after the shuttle departs.

Space Station program manager Kirk Shireman said the module is a welcome addition. “Today, the International Space Station is 18 percent more volume than it was yesterday with the attachment of Harmony. We went to..we were 15,000, about 15,000 cubic feet. Today we’re 2,600 feet, cubic feet more. So we’re glad to have the extra volume on board ISS.”

Spacewalkers also worked Friday on a massive solar power structure that will be relocated during future spacewalks and retrieved a broken antenna to be returned to Earth.

So far, the mission has not encountered major problems. After Discovery docked on Thursday, NASA engineers analyzed photos of the shuttle for damage. NASA officials say the engineers found nothing to warrant more focused inspection.

Discovery launched on Tuesday and is expected to return to Earth on November 6.

By Trish Anderton
Jakarta
22 October 2007
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The Indonesian government says the pilot in a fiery plane crash earlier this year ignored repeated warnings to abandon his landing attempt. The March 7th accident in Central Java claimed 21 lives. Trish Anderton reports from Jakarta.

The report from Indonesia’s National Transport Safety Committee, issued Monday, says the pilot of the Garuda plane tried to land, despite 15 warning alarms and his copilot’s calls to abort the attempt.

It also finds the plane was traveling faster and descending more sharply than normal. The plane skidded across the Yogyakarta runway into a rice field and burst into flames.

Peter Gibson of Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority says pulling out of a landing if you are having problems is one of the essential rules every pilot learns.

“You must have a stabilized approach and that means, literally, the aircraft is configured for landing, and everything is proceeding smoothly, and if anything is giving the pilot concern, the training says go around and do it again,” said Gibson.

The report also called the airport’s emergency plan less than effective, and said delays in putting out the fire may have contributed to the death toll.

Transport officials say the report is designed to help prevent future accidents.

But Danang Parikesit of the Indonesian Transportation Society says it should have made detailed recommendations on how to improve elements such as communications and emergency response.

“The report does not address specific intervention or specific measures that need to be carried out by those three most responsible organizations in airline safety: first, the government, second, the airport authority and the third is the airline company,” said Parikesit.

The pilot and copilot survived the crash, and remain suspended from duty. The government says, by law, the report may not be used as part of any possible criminal case against the men.

The accident was the second major air crash in Indonesia this year. On New Year’s Day, an Adam Air jetliner plunged into the sea off the island of Sulawesi, killing everyone aboard.

The United States has declared that Indonesia does not comply with international air safety standards. In June, the European Union banned all Indonesian airlines from its airspace.

Airbus Delivers First A380 to Singapore Airlines
By Kate Woodsome
Hong Kong
22 October 2007

Airbus has delivered its new A380 super jumbo jet to its first customer - Singapore Airlines. The delivery is a huge relief to the European plane-maker after a troubled start to the industrial project. Kate Woodsome at VOA’s Asia News Center in Hong Kong has more on this and other business stories from Asia.

In a handover ceremony in Toulouse, France last week, Airbus presented Singapore Airlines with the world’s largest plane - 18 months later than planned.

Airbus stalled delivery of the A380 after wiring problems spiraled into a financial crisis that toppled the management and led to 10,000 job cuts.

Airbus chief executive officer Thomas Enders thanked Singapore Airlines for its patience.

“For more than a decade, we have appreciated your great cooperation, your support, your confidence in the A380 program and today is our chance to thank you for challenging us and for sharing your ambitious dream, creating the world’s largest, most efficient, most comfortable commercial aircraft,”

said Enders.

The first commercial flight from Singapore to Sydney will take off October 25. Full service begins October 28.

Singapore Airlines’ Silkair says it has reduced its services to Burma because of a drop in tourism after last month’s bloody military crackdown on pro-democracy protests. Silkair has cut its weekly flights from 14 to 12. It says it will run just 10 flights a week starting next month.

In Japan, Nomura Holdings Incorporated, the country’s largest securities firm, says it will leave the U.S. market for residential mortgage-backed securities due to losses suffered in the sub-prime mortgage crisis. It plans to cut more than 400 jobs, 30 percent of its U.S. workforce.

French food giant Groupe Danone SA says it is selling its entire 20 percent stake in Shanghai-based Bright Dairy and Food for $127 million. Danone plans to sell its 104 million shares to Shanghai Milk Group and to S.I. Food Products Holdings Limited. No reason was given.

Danone also has joint ventures with China’s biggest milk producer, China Mengniu Dairy Company, and a troubled partnership with Chinese beverage maker Wahaha Group.

A new study by the U.S. investment bank Merrill Lynch and the professional services group Capgemini shows the number of U.S. dollar millionaires in the Asia-Pacific region has grown by 8.6 percent to 2.6 million people this year.

More than 70 percent of them live in China and Japan. The number of millionaires rose 21 percent in Singapore, more than 20 percent in India and 16 percent in Indonesia.

In Macau, casino gambling revenue has surged in the third quarter to $2.5 billion. That brings total gambling revenue this year to $7 billion.

Macau’s Gaming and Inspection and Coordination Bureau says that is 47 percent higher than earnings from the same period last year, and bigger than gambling revenues for all of 2006.

By VOA News
A Scottish court has begun hearing a new appeal from a former Libyan intelligence agent convicted and imprisoned for the deadly 1988 bombing of a U.S. airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland.

Lawyers for defendant Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi based their appeal on a court ruling earlier this year that said a miscarriage of justice may have occurred in the original trial.

Megrahi - a former Libyan intelligence agent - is currently serving a life sentence for his role in the mid-air bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie on December 21, 1988. All 259 people aboard the London to New York flight were killed, along with 11 people on the ground. Megrahi has always denied involvement.

In Thursday’s procedural proceedings, defense lawyers asked the court for documents that were unavailable to defense lawyers in the original trial.

The court gave prosecutors six weeks to respond to the request.

The key document relates to the type of timer used to detonate the mid-air bomb. The original jury heard testimony that the bomb’s digital timer was manufactured by a Swiss firm that had supplied several of the samples to Libya in the mid 1980s.

But defense lawyers have long argued the timer was a type used by an Iranian-backed militant group in Syria. Defense lawyers have suggested the bombing was an Iranian-financed plot to avenge the shooting down of an Iranian airliner earlier that year by U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf.

Moscow Air Show Demonstrates Russian Commercial, Military Ambitions
By Peter Fedynsky
Moscow
24 August 2007

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President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday opened the Moscow International Aviation and Space Show, the eighth such event in the Russian capital since 1993. At the opening ceremony, Mr. Putin emphasized the need to develop his country’s high technology for commercial as well as military applications. VOA Correspondent Peter Fedynsky has this report from the once-secret Zhukovsky air base near Moscow.

Much of the six-day Moscow Air Show is devoted to the sale of commercial aircraft. They include Russian helicopters for rescue operations, a specialized plane for low-level flight over water and frozen tundra, jet engines designed in Ukraine and produced by Russia, and American Gulf Stream jets, which are being heavily advertised for Russian businesspeople.

The air show’s festive atmosphere and demonstration flights by old-time biplanes underscore the sheer pleasure of flying.

Russian military aviation is also on display, though much of the country’s air force, including the TU-160 strategic bomber, has been grounded since the Soviet collapse in 1991.

On August 17th, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the resumption of his country’s strategic aviation. “I have made a decision to renew the flights of strategic aviation on a permanent basis and today, at midnight, 14 strategic bombers of Russia, together with support planes and refueling tankers, took off from seven airfields in various parts of Russia. It was the beginning of combat air patrol with 20 aircraft taking part,” said the president.

The announcement is one of several signs of recent Russian military muscle-flexing. They include military exercises with China and other members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a presidential visit to a radar installation near Saint Petersburg, and the Kremlin’s suspension of the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty.

Many Russians welcome such moves. Alexander Zasorin, a helicopter maintenance engineer, offers this assessment of his country’s military potential since the period of late-Soviet reforms known as perestroika. “After perestroika, when the Russian economy stagnated, I would have said at the time our potential was weak. But now it’s being reborn.”

American and other foreign observers at the Moscow Air Show give Russian military technology high marks. They add, however, it is too early to assess the country’s overall high tech potential. Colonel Manuel Murato is the Spanish military attaché in Moscow. “Russia has been making a big effort during the last years, and according to my colleagues, it seems that this is something that will be improving in the following years,” he says. “It’s too early to assess this potential, but I’m sure that in a few – maybe not in a few years, maybe a few months – we can say some words about it.”

The first commercial deals reported at the Moscow Air Show involve the sale of Russian passenger planes to Cuba and Iran. The two contracts are worth more than $350 million.

By VOA News
18 August 2007

Turkish media say two men who tried to hijack a Turkish Cypriot flight to the Middle East Saturday did not have a bomb as they claimed.

Reports quoting Turkish authorities say the so-called bomb the hijackers used to threaten the plane’s 136 passengers and six crewmembers turned out to be modeling clay. However, police say at least one of the hijackers had a knife.

Both men later peacefully surrendered to police after most of the people aboard the aircraft either escaped or were released during a refueling stop at Antalya Airport in southwestern Turkey.

Authorities also detained one passenger as a suspected accomplice.

The two hijackers seized control of an Atlasjet flight traveling from northern Cyprus to Istanbul early Saturday, demanding to be flown to Iran or Syria. Passengers interviewed after the incident on Turkish television said the hijackers claimed to have ties with al-Qaida.

The motive for the hijacking is not clear.

Authorities say one suspect is Turkish. The other has a Syrian passport, but is believed to be Palestinian.

Officials say some of the passengers and crew who fled the plane suffered minor injuries when they jumped from the aircraft’s open door to the Antalya Airport tarmac. The pilots escaped through the cockpit windows, and they shut off the plane’s power to prevent the hijackers from taking off.

Cyprus has been divided into a Greek Cypriot south and a Turkish Cypriot north since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded the island in response to a Greek-backed military coup in Nicosia. Only Turkey recognizes a Turkish Cypriot state.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.

US Disputes Russia’s Claim of Intercepted Military Flights
By VOA News
09 August 2007

The U.S. military is disputing a Russian general’s claim that American fighter planes intercepted Russian aircraft over the Pacific, near a U.S. military base.

A military spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii says Thursday U.S. forces were prepared to intercept two Russian TU-95 bombers flying toward the island of Guam this week, but that no such action took place.

The American spokesman says Russian aircraft never came close enough to a U.S. Navy ship or to Guam to warrant an interception. U.S. radar monitored the Russian bombers, but the spokesman says the American and Russian aircraft were not close enough to see each other.

Earlier Thursday, a senior Russian air force official Major-General Pavel Androsov, said the Russian exercise marked a resumption of long-distance military flights to areas patrolled by NATO and the United States. Moscow had suspended such exercises since the breakup of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.

Androsov, who is Russia’s long-range military aviation chief, said the Russian bomber crews “exchanged smiles” with American fighter pilots who flew to intercept them.

Honeywell Synthetic Vision Selected to Reduce Black Hawk Helicopter Accidents Caused by Desert Brownouts

Integrated Primary Flight Display Technology Selected for DARPA’s
Sandblaster Program

PARIS, June 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — PARIS AIR SHOW — Honeywell
(NYSE: HON) announced today that it has been selected by Sikorsky Aircraft
Corp. to develop and integrate synthetic vision technology to improve
helicopter landings in brownout conditions as part of the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Sandblaster program.
Under the terms of the $6.9 million, 18-month contract, Honeywell will
design and demonstrate a synthetic vision system for the Black Hawk
helicopter cockpit that enhances situational awareness and reduces the
workload for pilots operating aircraft in degraded visual environments.
“Taking-off and landing in arid desert terrain during brownouts can
lead to obscured vision, disorientation and accidents,” said Vicki
Panhuise, Vice President, Commercial and Military Helicopters, Honeywell
Defense and Space. “This technology development program addresses vital
warfighter needs to help ensure safer helicopter missions.”
Honeywell’s technology will integrate radar-based sensor information
with terrain and obstacle data to provide a highly detailed
three-dimensional graphic view of the landing environment on a primary
flight display, regardless of outside conditions. The synthetic screen,
overlaid with advanced symbology indicating current and predicted flight
conditions, will help pilots land the aircraft without using outside visual
reference points.
Panhuise added, “Honeywell has been a leader in helicopter safety for
50 years. Developing this technology for the Sandblaster program is one of
the many ways we are investing in new technologies to make flying safer,
easier and more effective. Our goal is to continue reducing both military
and civilian helicopter accidents.”
Honeywell plans to market its synthetic vision technology commercially
by 2010.
Honeywell International is a $33 billion diversified technology and
manufacturing leader, serving customers worldwide with aerospace products
and services; control technologies for buildings, homes and industry;
automotive products; turbochargers; and specialty materials. Based in
Morris Township, N.J., Honeywell’s shares are traded on the New York,
London and Chicago Stock Exchanges. It is one of the 30 stocks that make up
the Dow Jones Industrial Average and is also a component of the Standard &
Poor’s 500 Index. For additional information, please visit
http://www.honeywell.com.
This release contains forward-looking statements as defined in Section
21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements about
future business operations, financial performance and market conditions.
Such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties inherent in
business forecasts as further described in our filings under the Securities
Exchange Act.
Media Contacts:
Jim O’Leary Bill Reavis
602.365.5930 602.365.2055
jim.o’leary@honeywell.com bill.reavis@honeywell.com

SOURCE Honeywell

For those of you who may have been convinced that this is a right leaning blog, we offer this post. OMG, we are voicing our opposition to the reported argument of the GOP on collective bargaining and the TSA. Does that mean we agree with the Dems? In a word, no. This is another one of those political fights that is simply political. Dems on one side, GOP on the other. And go figure, MoreWhat.com agrees with neither party when it is strictly political.

The central theme of the GOP on opposing union representation for the TSA officers is that it will allow terrorists to get over on us. How much experience do any of these politicians have when it comes to the topic of unions? Hey, Senators, did you ever belong to a union? If you did, it was not in this century. And even if it was late last century, by your position on this issue you give evidence that you don’t know how things have changed.

Let us help you out. Have you heard of the management rights clause? Have you heard of the phrase ” up to and including discharge?” Have you interviewed union employees for evidence that no matter what, if you are in a union and work rules are in force that dictate how one responds to extreme requirements of the job, you better follow the rules. And as far as the simple point provided by the Dems, it is a point. Are firefighters and police unionized? Are nurses and other first responders unionized? Get your collective heads out of your collective butts and argue about something that matters.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

Republicans against TSA union

By Robert Gehrke
The Salt Lake Tribune
WASHINGTON - Utah’s Republican senators said Thursday they will vote against legislation seeking to implement the reforms of the 9/11 Commission unless language is stripped out that would allow airport security workers to unionize.

Ok, here’s one time the mainstream media is out of control. And if there really is an extraordinary amount of complaining by the “flying” public then they are guilty as well. Due to the extreme pounding of the weather story this week and related air travel coverage there should be no need to review details in this post.

The point is if you had to travel anywhere by any other means, you suck it up and deal with the problems posed by weather. Where else do you here people complaining about transportation? This certainly gives Americans another dose of bad reputation for being spoiled. Newsflash folks, aircraft do not fly well in the weather presented this week in many parts of the country. It’s not the damn end of the world if you were stuck on a plane on the tarmac for “seven hours.”

Oh, we demand a passenger’s bill of rights they exclaim. Get over yourselves. If you don’t like what happens when you fly then don’t fly. Along with any reasonable criticism of the airlines, they do not control the weather. Maybe the reason so many airlines struggle or fail is they are trying to meet the excessive demands of the public. Why can’t people just by the damn ticket, get on the plane and shut up. You don’t need a meal. You don’t need someone waiting on you. Most flights are at best a few hours long. How much attention do you need in a few hours. If it is that bad, take a train, a boat or a car. Walk if you have to or don’t go but stop the incessant whining about the airlines. Geez!!!

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

Not every criticism that one party levels at the other qualifies as a smear campaign regardless of the Boston Herald’s opinion. Some of the earlier reports on this topic indicated former Speaker Hastert used a 12 seat aircraft and that Speaker Pelosi was eyeing a C-130 to accommodate more than 40 people. The same Boston Herald story indicates Pelosi returned home on a C-37A claimed to carry 12 passengers. Which brings us to the basic question of whether any Speaker of the House, Hastert, Pelosi or anyone else, needs to use taxpayer money to fund travel between Washington and home districts or anywhere else? In the press briefing excerpt below, it would appear the Whitehouse is okay with all that. But then Speaker Hastert had a 12 seater and maybe Speaker Pelosi will use a 12 seater, so why would the President want to engage this no-win argument when he has so many others from which to choose? If one can accept part of an AP report that Tony Snow indicated the arrangements were between the House Sargeant at Arms office and the Pentagon with no “direct involvement” of Pelosi or her office, one needs to know why Snow did not limit the description to “no involvement”? That’s how arguments happen.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com
from the press briefing by Tony Snow on Feb 8, 2007 at 12:16pm EST

Q You called the Pelosi plane issue a “silly story” this morning. Shortly thereafter the RNC put out a statement saying — calling it “Pelosi’s power trip” and that she’s “non-stop Nancy seeks flight of fancy.” Are you calling that –

MR. SNOW: Well, I’ll reiterate our position. The question — the RNC has put out a statement on Speaker Pelosi and travel arrangements, and I’ll just repeat our position, which is, as Speaker of the House, she is entitled to military transport, and that the arrangements, the proper arrangements are being made between the Sergeant of Arms office in the House of Representatives and the U.S. Department of Defense. We think it’s appropriate, and so, again, I think this is much ado about not a whole lot. It is important for the Speaker to have this kind of protection and travel. It was certainly appropriate for Speaker Hastert. So we trust that all sides will get this worked out.

Q So, Tony, is it inappropriate for the RNC then to make an issue out of this, and say — I mean, ridiculing her as “non-stop Nancy, flights of fancy”?

MR. SNOW: Jonathan, you know what my position is. I will let you draw whatever conclusions you may, but our position is pretty clear on this one.

T&I Aviation Subcommittee Cancels Hearing on USAirways-Delta Merger

February 1, 2007
By Jim Berard (202) 225-6260

The demise of a proposed merger between USAirways and Delta Air Lines has prompted the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Aviation to cancel its scheduled hearing on the potential impact of such a merger on the airline industry. The hearing had been scheduled for Thursday, February 15.

Although the US Ariways and Delta merger is currently abandoned does not indicate other mergers will not be proposed. It may be productive to gather the knowledge necessary to develop a strategy on these matters before the next one. You know, be prepared to make an intelligent decision with less special interest influence. The American people may like for you to base decisions on fact instead of how it will impact special financial interest.

Stop the blame.
End the game.
Do the right thing

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

Lidle Had 2 Passions _ Pitching, Flying

Forbes, NY - 1 hour ago By BEN WALKER , 10.11.2006, 06:24 PM.

Cory Lidle put together a successful career as a major league pitcher by living on the edge. …

As a low time pilot, I always lament another pilot’s choice when it ends like this. There are times when for no other reason than it did not feel quite right, I made a no-go decision. For instance, I was not immediately interested in conquering Class B airspace after receiving my private pilot certificate. My experience to that point made it clear to me I should not venture into airspace alone in which at best I would embarrass myself and annoy ATC and other pilots by my inexperience.

Forgetting to raise your flaps before takeoff on a touch and go is one thing. Having your instructor laugh at you in training for leaving the tie down attached to the tail of the aircraft before taxi is another. Venturing into complex airspace solo with limited experience is risky. When things begin to go wrong and errors accumulate, it can be deadly.

If the initial reports were accurate and there was an 1800ft ceiling in airspace with much traffic and many obstacles, there was significant risk at the beginning. If, in addition to that, there was radio contact about a problem followed by a near miss and evasive action, it would not be difficult for the situation to deteriorate quickly. And finally, if one witness account is even remotely accurate, stall recovery may have been the overwhelming finale. I had a similar reaction to JFK Jr.’s final flight. Both incidents are sad and tragic and avoidable.

Stanford Matthews