June 2014 A wildfire’s newest enemies Commercial airtankers take shape with no time to waste page 28 Air Force chief Welsh’s budget survival plan 22 WiFi on airliners 34 3D printing heads for space 38 A PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF AERONAUTICS AND ASTRONAUTICS Suitable for all reading levels, the Library of Flight series encompasses a wide variety of general-interest and reference books, including case studies. Appropriate subjects include the history and economics of aerospace as well as design, development, and management of aircraft and space programs. FEATURED TITLES Eleven Seconds into the Unknown: A History of the Hyper-X Program Curtis Peebles 342 pages This is the highly-anticipated sequel to Peebles’ first book on the X-43A/Hyper-X project, Road to Mach 10: Lessons Learned from the X-43A Flight Research Program. A central theme of the Hyper-X story is how disparate groups and organizations became a unified team working toward a common goal. ISBN: 978-1-60086-776-7 “Perfect for those interested in high-speed flight, aerospace List Price: $39.95 AIAA Member Price: $29.95 history, the organization and management of technological projects, and the future of spaceflight.” Skycrane: Igor Sikorsky’s Last Vision John A. McKenna 136 pages The Skycrane was the last creation of aircraft design pioneer Igor Sikorsky. In SKYCRANE: Igor Sikorsky’s Last Vision, former Sikorsky Aircraft Executive Vice President John A. McKenna traces the development of this remarkable helicopter from original concept and early sketches to standout performer for the military and private industry. ISBN: 978-1-60086-756-9 “An inside look at the continual innovation and perseverance List Price: $39.95 AIAA Member Price: $29.95 required for the creation and development of one of the world’s most unusual helicopters.” – Michael J. Hirschberg, Managing Editor, Vertiflite magazine 12-0168_update3 Find these books and many more at arc.aiaa.org June 2014 DEPARTMENTS EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK 2 A conversation worth having LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 3 Page 8 An X-Prize for firefighting planes INTERNATIONAL BEAT 4 Europe seeks better tracking, black box tech WASHINGTON WATCH 8 Mantis shrimp spending delivers surprising payoff THE VIEW FROM HERE 12 Explaining the asteroid mission Page 18 ENGINEERING NOTEBOOK 18 Bearing heavy loads CONVERSATION 22 Gen. Mark A. Welsh III: A leader for lean times BOOKS 26 Biography of a pioneer OUT OF THE PAST 44 CAREER OPPORTUNITIES 46 FEATURES PUTTING OUT THE FIRES 28 An in-depth look at the Forest Service’s efforts to reconstitute a large fleet of commercial airtankers in time to make a difference this year. Page 12 by Debra Werner WIFI GOES AIRBORNE 34 How satellite technology and aircraft upgrades will revolutionize connectivity for air travelers, provided a sound business plan can be found. by Natalia Mironova Page 38 JUST HIT PRINT 38 A manufacturing revolution is unfolding in the area of additive manufacturing and 3D printing. by Edward Goldstein BULLETIN AIAA Meeting Schedule B2 AIAA News B5 AIAA Courses and Training B15 Page 34 ON THE COVER A DC-10 operated by 10 Tanker Air Carrier drops retardant in Greer, Ariz. (U.S. Forest Service photo) 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 [703/264-7577]. Subscription rate is 50% of dues for AIAA members (and is not deductible therefrom). Nonmember subscription price: U.S. and Canada, $163, foreign, $200. 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 52, No. 6. ® is a publication of the American Institute of Editor’s Notebook Aeronautics and Astronautics Ben Iannotta Editor-in-Chief Patricia Jefferson Associate Editor A conversation worth having Greg Wilson Production Editor Jerry Grey Editor-at-Large The state of U.S. firefighting aircraft always shocks me this time of year. Wildfires Christine Williams destroy property and regularly kill Americans, including 19 Hotshots in the Editor AIAA Bulletin 2013 Yarnell Hill, Arizona, blaze. Yet, last June, the very same month of the Yarnell fire, the U.S. awarded a mere $158 million in contracts to convert former Contributing Writers airliners and military planes into airtankers. I say mere, because the total Lauren Biron, Philip Butterworth-Hayes, expenditure on those aircraft would buy you a single state-of-the-art fighter plane. Jim Canan, Craig Covault, Edward As powerful as private aircraft like the 10 Tanker DC-10 and Coulson’s Goldstein, Tom Jones, Natalia Mironova, Erik Schechter, Marc Selinger, C-130Q are proving to be, they are not the product of a long-term, strategic Robert van der Linden, Debra Werner, plan for combating wildfires, which are an inanimate foe that kills Americans Frank Winter as surely as terrorists threaten to do. The nation’s aerial firefighting capabilities are better than in 2002, when two airtankers failed in midflight, killing their Jane Fitzgerald Art Direction and Design crews, but that doesn’t mean the country has done enough. Why not make these refurbished planes supplements to new airtankers James F. Albaugh, President that would be built from green airframes, similar to the way the Navy’s P-8A Sandra H. Magnus, Publisher Poseidon maritime surveillance planes are derived from the Boeing 737-800? Craig Byl, Manufacturing and Distribution I might have thought I was alone in wondering this, but then the letter on STEERING COMMITTEE the facing page landed in my email. It comes from an AIAA member who Steven E. Gorrell, Brigham Young University; lives in San Diego, one of a growing list of ground zeros in what’s becoming David R. Riley, Boeing; Mary L. Snitch, the decade of the wildfire. The writer hopes to start a dialogue about the merits Lockheed Martin; Vigor Yang, Georgia of building new firefighting planes that would be embedded in an overall fire- Institute of Technology; Annalisa Weigel, fighting strategy. Fairmont Consulting Group; Susan X. Ying It’s a crazy idea in these budget times, right? Maybe not. It’s worth EDITORIAL BOARD remembering that the U.S. still spends $40 billion a year on Homeland Security, Ned Allen, Jean-Michel Contant, $70 billion on the intelligence community, and $600 billion on national Eugene Covert, L.S. “Skip” Fletcher, defense. The debate and dialogue over how to allocate that funding should Michael Francis, Cam Martin, be ongoing and it should be adjusted as the threats change. The conversation Don Richardson, Douglas Yazell shouldn’t be hamstrung by bureaucratic lines, including the fact that firefighting ADVERTISING is considered a Department of Agriculture and Forest Service role. Fighting fires Robert Silverstein, 240.498.9674 is so similar to military and homeland security operations in terms of precision [email protected] technology and networking equipment that it would be a mistake not to include Russell Brody, 732.832.2977 [email protected] it in the same conversation. It’s time to have the dialogue that the letter writer suggests. LETTERS AND CORRESPONDENCE Ben Iannotta, [email protected] Ben Iannotta Editor-in-Chief QUESTIONS AND ADDRESS CHANGES [email protected] ADVERTISING MATERIALS Craig Byl, [email protected] June 2014, Vol. 52, No. 6 Letters to the Editor An X-Prize for firefighting planes After 30 years in the industry and 25 as If we could harness the imagination evidence for yourself….The glaciers an AIAA member, I am moving into re- of the university faculty and students have shrunk back, and there is forest tirement with a sense of pride as to and meld this with a ready market to en- growing now where it was not able to what I have witnessed but also sadness tice industry participation, perhaps a grow before. The soil is thawing as to the future of aerospace engineer- new “X-Prize” might be launched to de- enough to allow trees to grow.” Hick- ing in this country. I would like to sug- sign and build the fire fighting system of erson writes that the decision comes gest a program that could rekindle the the future. down to this: “Do you believe the sci- spirit of producing vehicles designed It is obvious there is a need; the ence coming from our government, to meet the country’s needs and per- question is can we rise to the challenge our universities, and scientists around haps restart a strong partnership be- to invent and produce a new system. the world or that coming from the Oil tween academia and the industry. David V. Siriano and Gas industry that have an invested Simply put, I have spent most of my San Diego reason to keep you using their prod- career in southern California. As this uct?” David Ardila of Pasadena, area enters another year of severe Calif., writes that “these presumably drought and the recent forecasts on Healthy in deep space: Regarding technically-oriented readers are con- global climate change do not bode well our June cover article, “Cancer and fusing reality with ideology. The prob- for the future here, wildfires will be- deep spaceflight,” Claudio Bruno of lem is that, at the end, reality always come more frequent and catastrophic. Glastonbury, Conn., writes that “it wins.” He advises skeptics to examine The tools available, particularly aircraft, was about time” someone dug into the CO2 records gathered by NOAA to meet this growing challenge are anti- the topic.