February 2015 Remembering AIAA’s Jim Harford/page 4 FLEET ON YOUR Page 28 BILLION$ on no fault found $AVE BILLION$ time and parts ON YOUR FLEET Stop wasting Stop wasting time and parts on no fault found USAF’s Otto on ISR planes/24 Small sats, big plans/40 A PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF AERONAUTICS AND ASTRONAUTICS AIAA Progress in Astronautics and Aeronautics AIAA’s popular book series Progress in Astronautics and Aeronautics features books that present a particular, well- defi ned subject refl ecting advances in the fi elds of aerospace science, engineering, and/or technology. POPULAR TITLES Tactical and Strategic Missile Guidance, Sixth Edition Paul Zarchan 1026 pages This best-selling title provides an in-depth look at tactical and strategic missile guidance using common language, notation, and perspective. The sixth edition includes six new chapters on topics related to improving missile guidance system performance and understanding key design concepts and tradeoffs. ISBN: 978-1-60086-894-8 List Price: $134.95 “AIAA Best Seller” AIAA Member Price: $104.95 Morphing Aerospace Vehicles and Structures John Valasek 286 pages Morphing Aerospace Vehicles and Structures is a synthesis of the relevant disciplines and applications involved in the morphing of fi xed wing fl ight vehicles. The book is organized into three major sections: Bio-Inspiration; Control and Dynamics; and Smart Materials and Structures. Most chapters are both tutorial and research-oriented in nature, covering elementary concepts through advanced – and in many cases novel – methodologies. ISBN: 978-1-60086-903-7 “Features the work of leading researchers in List Price: $134.95 AIAA Member Price: $94.95 the fi eld of morphing fl ight.” 12-0169_update_2 Find these books and many more at arc.aiaa.org February 2015 Page 4 DEPARTMENTS EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK 2 Being exceptional Page 40 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 3 Air travel options; planetary defense APPRECIATION 6 Remembering AIAA’s Jim Harford INTERNATIONAL BEAT 6 European UCAV; supersonic business jets SCITECH 2015 8 Virgin Galactic’s space tourism plans; autonomous aircraft; honing business skills IN BRIEF 10 GAO: Webb telescope schedule faces risks Page 8 THE VIEW FROM HERE 12 Asteroids in the crosshairs ENGINEERING NOTEBOOK 16 Video from GEO HISTORY 20 NACA to NASA: Marking 100 Years of American flight research CONVERSATION 24 Page 12 Sharp intelligence, tight budget OUT OF THE PAST 46 CAREER OPPORTUNITIES 48 FEATURES A MADDENING, COSTLY PROBLEM 28 Page 6 Instances of no fault found are wasteful and potentially dangerous, which is why the airline industry has grown more serious about addressing the problem. by Debra Werner NO RUNWAY, NO PROBLEM 34 The Navy and Marines want a long-endurance unmanned plane that can operate from ships and outposts that lack airstrips. Blackjack aims to answer that call. by Keith Button SMALL SATS, BIG PLANS 40 Page 34 Companies are entering the Earth-observation market with small satellites that can be launched cheaply. The big question is whether these startups will have the staying power to compete with the established commercial-imagery players. by Natalia Mironova BULLETIN AIAA Meeting Schedule B2 AIAA News B5 AIAA Courses and Training B15 ON THE COVER 737-800 airliners at Boeing Field, Washington. Image credit: Boeing Aerospace America (ISSN 0740-722X) is published monthly by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. at 1801 Alexander Bell Drive, Reston, Va. 20191-4344 [703/264-7500]. Subscription rate is 50% of dues for AIAA members (and is not deductible therefrom). Nonmember subscription price: U.S., $200; foreign, $220. Single copies $20 each. Postmaster: Send address changes and subscription orders to address above, attention AIAA Customer Service, 703/264-7500. Periodical postage paid at Herndon, Va., and at additional mailing offices. Copyright 2014 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., all rights reserved. The name Aerospace America is registered by the AIAA in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. 40,000 copies of this issue printed. This is Volume 53, No. 2 ® is a publication of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Editor’s Notebook Ben Iannotta Editor-in-Chief Jack Wittman Associate Editor Greg Wilson Being exceptional Production Editor Jerry Grey Editor-at-Large The arrival of a new Congress seems likely to spark a fresh look at NASA’s Christine Williams raison d’être. There could be a temptation to focus the agency’s efforts more Editor AIAA Bulletin than ever on a single core mission: Getting humans into deep space. My view is this would be a big mistake, and here’s why. Contributing Writers Human space flight once symbolized America’s view of itself as exceptional, Philip Butterworth-Hayes, Keith Button, but it is now a tool, not an end unto itself. Human missions must contribute to Lawrence Garrett, Edward Goldstein, NASA’s often-unspoken overarching reason for being: To apply the nation’s aerospace Duane Hyland, Tom Jones, Natalia brainpower toward helping humanity reach its full potential. Mironova, Marc Selinger, Robert van der Linden, Debra Werner, Frank H. Winter People will define that potential differently, but I see it as living on a clean, sustainable, largely peaceful planet inhabited by people who are highly mobile Jane Fitzgerald and knowledgeable about their place in the cosmos. In the far future, the potential Art Direction and Design could include leaving Earth, but this should not be because we’ve ruined the place. James F. Albaugh, President It should be because pioneering is in our DNA. Sandra H. Magnus, Publisher Astronauts can do lots of things to contribute to that full potential, but they can’t Craig Byl, Manufacturing and Distribution do it all. They can’t build clean flying planes, supersonic transports or software to manage air traffic more efficiently. They can’t survey the solar system, grab a piece STEERING COMMITTEE Steven E. Gorrell, Brigham Young University; of an asteroid, swim under Europa’s ice or look back toward the Big Bang. That David R. Riley, Boeing; Mary L. Snitch, work will require unmanned probes and space telescopes. Lockheed Martin; Vigor Yang, Georgia All elements of NASA’s portfolio must compete with each other based on their Institute of Technology; Annalisa Weigel, costs and likely contributions to human progress. Human missions should not be Fairmont Consulting Group; Susan X. Ying weighted more heavily just because they involve astronauts. Proposals must be EDITORIAL BOARD judged by the knowledge they would produce, the problems they could solve and Ned Allen, Jean-Michel Contant, the economic value they might bring. Eugene Covert, L.S. “Skip” Fletcher, Would the human spaceflight endeavor crumble under such a metric? I don’t Michael Francis, Cam Martin, think so. There are likely to be valuable missions that can only be done by humans Don Richardson, Douglas Yazell working in situ, probably together with robots. These missions can’t be so expensive, ADVERTISING however, that NASA can’t afford to do anything else. Costs will need to be controlled Joan Daly, 703-938-5907 and the U.S. will need to pace itself. Done wrong, human space flight could end [email protected] up undercutting NASA’s core mission of contributing to human progress. Pat Walker, 415-387-7593 On the question of economic value, not every space mission has to promise a [email protected] tangible output, such as minerals from asteroids or pharmaceuticals developed in space, in order to have value. We’re living in the information age, which means LETTERS AND CORRESPONDENCE knowledge has been democratized. There’s a vast and growing market for it. Our Ben Iannotta, [email protected] smartphones and tablets are only as valuable as the amazing photos, news articles QUESTIONS AND ADDRESS CHANGES and conversations that course through them. There is no longer such a thing as [email protected] knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Information is now a commodity and it has economic value. NASA makes important contributions to this new economy. ADVERTISING MATERIALS Craig Byl, [email protected] We in the U.S. can’t just call ourselves exceptional. We have to actually be exceptional if we want to stake that claim. This will mean continuing NASA’s February 2015, Vol. 53, No. 2 numerous contributions to human progress, part of which is a vigorous human space flight program. It won’t be easy, but this is no time to let up. Ben Iannotta Editor-in-Chief Letters to the Editor Simpler planetary defense The article “Planetary Defense” [Janu- thruster control system is how to put it technologies in Mars exploration and ary, page 32] seems to have ignored in place. Technologies need to be de- eventual settlement. The fuel to use one very effective strategy for asteroid veloped for a manned mission to do and structure installation would also deflection. This is simply to attach a this. This could also push automation be new technologies to develop, good-sized thruster to the asteroid systems to reduce the high cost of which would also have application and with a scheme to do a little atti- manned missions. Asteroids have very for other missions. tude control or fire the thruster at small gravity so the cost is mainly And, yes, a dedicated Planetary given times so the asteroid could be long duration manned flight and tools Defense Agency — as you suggest in moved off path. This, if sized and they need. the January editorial — may be needed done correctly, would not only deter it These new technologies would to work with NASA to put in place an from hitting the Earth on its next orbit be needed for future Moon and Mars effective system that reduces impact but also be able to eventually shift its missions, so these new developments risks.