In this case, a sweetheart deal negotiated in secret to allow a developer to set up subdivisions of McMansions, because the US Forest Service will redefine logging in the national forests roads as residential ones, and pave them.
Month: July 2008
Crooks and Liars » Congressional Races: Things Are Looking Up For Democratic Candidates
Here is a rundown of where the Congressional elections are sitting, note that the races in red are moving toward Repuplicans, the other ones are moving toward Democrats.
Likely Democratic to Lean Democratic: PA-11, FL-08
Likely Republican to Lean Republican: FL-21, PA-03, WV-02
Solid Republican to Likely Republican: AL-03, CA-46, FL-09, FL-18, IA-04, ID-01, IN-03, KY-02, MN-02, NC-10, NE-02, NJ-05, NV-02, OH-07, PA-05, PA-15, TX-07, TX-10, VA-05, VA-10, WY-AL
Toss Up to Lean Democratic: NY-13, NY-25
Happy dance.
Pervez Musharraf Arranged Nuclear Tech Transfer to North Korea
Pakistani nuclear weapons scientist and dealer AQ Khan is now waying that the Paklistani military, then headed by Pervez Musharraf, signed off on the shipment of uranium enrichment equipment to the DPRK.
Musharraf is done. In fact, Khan may have signed his death warrant.
Fed Loses $1B…..So Far on Bear Bailout
The $ 30 billion in assets that the Federal Reserve took ownership of as a result of the Bear Stearns bailout now have a fair market value of only $28.9 billion as of June 26.
That’s about 3% of value in about 3 months. Anybody wonder why I call it crap for cash?
How Democrats Should Act
Dan Froomkin notes that when Democrats push back, Bush’s signing statements get withdrawn:
Robert Brodsky writes for Government Executive: ‘The White House and congressional leaders have announced most of the appointees to the long-awaited Commission on Wartime Contracting. The bipartisan team is charged with investigating virtually all war-related contracts, including funds devoted to reconstruction, logistical support for coalition forces, and security and intelligence functions.
‘The commission is the brainchild of Sens. Jim Webb, D-Va., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. The freshmen senators co-wrote the provision creating the panel, which was included in the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act and signed into law in January. . . .
‘The White House’s cooperation with the panel is an about-face from its earlier public stance.
‘Shortly after signing the defense authorization, Bush issued a signing statement that said he did not have to abide by four provisions in the legislation, including the one creating the commission. At the time, Bush said the provisions could inhibit his ‘ability to carry out his constitutional obligations to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, to protect national security, to supervise the executive branch, and execute his authority as commander in chief.’
“Webb immediately pushed back, criticizing the statement as an ‘impingement on the rights’ of Congress and said the Senate would ‘march forward in an expeditious manner’ to create the panel. Webb’s office said the White House seems to have dropped its objections and plans to cooperate with the panel. . . .
“The commission is modeled after the Truman committee, which conducted hundreds of hearings and investigations into government waste during and after World War II.”
For more about that signing statement, see my Jan. 30 column, Bush Thumbs Nose at Congress.
I’m not a big fan of Webb. I think that he’s too conservative.
That being said, he has a spine.
Because Lead Paint and Children’s Toys Go Together Like Republican Donors and Evil
The commission itself has only 2/3 of its seats filled, and his staff has been cut by ½, so it’s no wonder that we are seeing increasing numbers of severe problems with products from toys to shower curtains.
Another Private Equity Deal Blows UP
The deal to take Penn National private just foundered on the shoals of the credit crunch.
India Goes for Embraer Airframe W/ Swedish Radar for Smaller AEW&c
It will use the EMB-145 airframe with a SAAB Erieye phased array radar (see below), and will supplement the larger AEW Il-76s with the Israel with Elta Phalcon phased-array radar (bottom).
This should amount to signifiant improvement in their airborne command and control capabilities.
5 Face Manslaughter Charges in Concorde Crash
5 Face trial in Concorde crash that killed 113 in France
A prosecutor said Thursday that Continental Airlines and two of its employees had been ordered to stand trial on involuntary manslaughter charges related to the crash of a Concorde supersonic airliner in 2000 near Paris in which 113 people died.In addition to Continental, the prosecutor also filed involuntary manslaughter charges against two employees of the Concorde program and an employee of the French civil aviation authority.
….
Truth be told, I’m conflicted on the filing of charges. There is an argument to be made that when the criminal justice system is involved,it makes investigations by the safety authorities that much more difficult.
Additionally, I don’t think that the errors here show a callous disregard for human life, which is the standard in the US for manslaughter.
GE Patents Pulse Detonation Core for Turbofan
While this is a good idea, it seems to me that this is also a pretty obvious idea, using a PDE, or more than one to smooth out the pulses, as a substitute for the HP compressor, HP turbine, and combustors.
After the PDE works as its own compressor and combuster, though a PDE, a constant volume combustion, is theoretically more efficient than a combustor, which is constant pressure combustion.
Hmmm…After a quick examination of the patent, it appears that some of the PDEs actually rotate, which is not obvious, at least not to me.
Supersonic Business Jet Maker Looks at Sonic Boom Mitigation
Arion is looking at using differences between air pressure and density to fly at speeds of up to Mach 1.2 without a boom. (Paid Subscription Required)
Basically, the speed of sound goes down as altitude goes up, and if the shock wave enters air where the speed is no longer supersonic, it cuts off.
Needless to say, the implementation would be problematic. You would need accurate real time temperature and barometric data to ensure that your shock would not hit the ground:
“We see no difficulties in its application,” says Richard Tracy, Aerion’s chief technology officer. “It requires atmospheric information, which is available over populated areas where it is needed. It’s a matter of accessing that data from the aircraft.” To ensure the sonic boom never reaches the ground, the company has picked a Mach cutoff altitude—the height at which the shockwave goes subsonic—of 5,000 ft., to provide a wide margin for uncertainty caused by aging or gaps in the data.
Based on temperatures and winds at or near the surface, the aircraft would be flown at a GPS speed relative to the airmass that ensures its shockwave never intersects with the surface. “With no wind, in a standard atmosphere, we could fly at Mach 1.15-1.16,” says Tracy. But the exact speed would vary with winds, season, time of day and direction of flight. “The Mach number in the cockpit could be Mach 1.03 to 1.3 or so.”
If supersonic flight was to be permitted over the U.S., Aerion calculates Mach cutoff would slice 1 hr. and 18 min. off a New York to Los Angeles flight compared with a conventional Mach 0.85 business jet, and trim 40 min. if compared with the Aerion SSBJ’s Mach 0.99 subsonic overland cruise speed.
India Putting Tejas Light Fighter on Fast Track
It appears that the Indian defense establishment has noticed that something is wrong when a small, relatively austere fighter program enters its 25th year without any fielded aircraft. (Paid Subscription Required)
Development started in 1983 for a very unambitious program, as compared to the 1981 for the F-22 with a formal entry into service in 2004, and India still needs to use a foreign engine, the F-404, to power the the aircraft, because the indigenous engine the Kaveri, is still not ready for prime time.
It’s somewhat reassuring to see a procurement process more screwed up than that of the good old USA.
Eurofighter and Dassault Tell the Dutch to Pound Sand
Both companies have refused to provide the Dutch updated technical information because they believe that the game is fixed, and the JSF will be selected.
Let’s look at the rundown:
- The Dutch have been full partners in JSF development since the late 1990s.
- They have already dumped something in excess of €500 into the JSF.
- The “independent” evaluation will be conducted by, from Dutch defense research institute TNO Defense, Security and Safety; the country’s National Aerospace Laboratory (NLR); and RAND Europe,” but both TNO and NLR are already hip deep in JSF development work.
The only reason that SAAB is taking the competition seriously is because their numbers are so much better than those of the JSF (or the Typhoon or Rafale) that they have a chance of winning, or getting some orders in a high-low procurement.
Curt Weldon Now Officially a Russian Agent
You may recall that while he was in Congress, his daughter’s offices at Defense Solutions, an arms trading firm working for the Russians, were raided by the FBI.
Well, Curt Weldon is now a senior executive for the firm, working to smooth deals in Iraq, Libya, by banned arms exporter Rosoboronexport.
Even the Poles Recognize a Lame Duck*
Well it appears that the Polish have rejected the Bush Administration’s missile defense deal, saying that they, “have not reached a satisfactory result on the issue of increasing the level of Polish security.”
Essentially, I think that they realize that the potential damage to their relationship is not worth what the US is offering, and they believe that any US good will from accepting will expire when Bush and His Evil Minions™ leave office.
When the Poles recognize Bush’s lame duckitude, it’s game over.
*I am not minimizing Polish intellect. It’s merely that they are currently the most vociferous knee jerk supporters of the US in Europe right now.
Dutch to consider Gripen NG for F-16 replacement
Well, the Kabuki dance that is the Dutch F-16 replacement selection has added a few new steps, with them adding the Gripen NG into the mix and deselecting the Super-Hornet and Raptor for being too large and to expensive respectively.
Honestly, if I were working for Eurofighter, Dassault, or SAAB, I wouldn’t bother.
The Dutch have already sunk around €550 million into the F-35 JSF, and I think that pretty much locks them into two alternatives, the JSF, and upgrading its existing F-16s.
Of course, I was wrong on the tanker deal, so YMMV.
Spiroid Wingtip Anyone Heard of Them?
It appears that Aviation Partners is claiming that they are the neatest thing since sliced bread, claiming something on the order of a 10% reduction of drag at cruise.
Truth be told, it looks kind of heavy and it will increase wetted area, and hence skin drag, but you can’t trust your eyes on such things.
USAF Wanted to Deploy F-22 to Iraq
But SecDef Bob Gates shot the idea down.*
Gates was right. The F-22 would be as useful in Iraq as tits on a bull.
There is no sophisticated air defense system, no opposing air power, and the aircraft need to get as low as possible in order to minimize collateral damage.
My guess is that the USAF wanted to deploy some Raptors in order to pitch them to Congress as “combat proben”, and Gates was having none of that.
When you also consider the fact that Iran would undoubtedly consider the F-22 being in theater as a prelude to a sneak attack, it would further destabilize the region.
*Pun completely intended.
How the F-35 Will Go Together
Stephen Trimble, of Flight International, got an approved for public release Powerpoint snap shot of the manufacturing process for the F-35.
It was too large to post, but I managed to work around Microflaccid’s image export utility without editing the registry (the trick is that you change the page size to ginormus), and so you can look at the full chart as a gif (994K) by clicking on the image.
As the good Mr. Trimble notes, this process is how thousands of JSFs are supposed to be manufactured over the next few years.
Sweden Tying Procurement of Gripen to Aggressive Export Program
Sweden is planning to transition from its earlier model Gripens to the more capable E/F models, (Paid Subscription Required) with improved payload and range capabilities.
The idea is that SAAB will find it easier to sell the aircraft abroad if the line is already for the Swedish military.
I still think that this aircraft is a winner simply because it so much cheaper to own and operate than its competition.
By mid next year, they should be testing the AESA radar, improved avionics, and the ability to carry larger external tanks.