Aviation and Airport

NASA working on sonic boom-less jets
Sonic booms are one of the major downsides of supersonic jets; they may not matter much over the battlefield, but are a hindrance in civilian aviation — the noise was sufficient to restrict the Mach-2 Concorde to subsonic speeds when over land
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Midwest states critical of DHS's Large Aircraft Security Program
In the large, sparsely populated states of the U.S. Midwest, many businesses rely on small aircraft transportation to get from here to there; Kansas is also home to general aviation manufacturers Cessna Aircraft Company and Hawker Beechcraft
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Smiths Detection shows active mm-wave detection system
Passive mm-wave detection systems pick up the mm-wave heat energy emitted by the body, which is used as a background reference point; active systems transmit mm-wave into the detection area to boost the level of energy overall, give a better return and a more detailed image
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N.Y. policeman illegally obtains, uses U.S. terror watch-list information
NYPD sergeant uses a colleague username and password to access the FBI terrorist watch-list; he then obtains information about an individual on the list — an individual locked in a child custody fight with a friend of the sergeant — and provide the information to the friend’s lawyer
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Atlanta's small airports bristle at security plan
DHS wants small U.S. airports to enact security measures; owners and operators of these airports criticize some aspects of the plan
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TSA in first public-comment meeting on large aircraft security measure
There are about 15,000 corporate jets in the United States, flying out of 315 small airports; until now, there has been no security scrutiny of these planes and the hundreds of thousands of passengers who use them every year; TSA wants to change that, and the owners and operators of these planes are concerned
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South Korean woman fools Japanese finger printing system
Japan spent more than $44 million dollars to install the biometric system at 30 airports; a deported South Korean woman was able to re-enter Japan by using fingerprint-altering special tape
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NIST's electromagnetic Phantom standardizes metal detector tests
An electromagnetic phantom — a carbon and polymer mixture that simulates the human body — is being readied by NIST as a standardized performance test for walk-through metal detectors such as those used at airports
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U.S. air travel database fails own privacy tests
DHS privacy report says the department is in violation of U.S. law and the DHS-EU agreement on the handling of Passenger Name Record (PNR) data
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FAA makes special flight rules around Washington, D.C. permanent
In order to keep Washington,D.C. safe from 9/11-like aerial attacks by terrorists while reducing the economic impact on the general aviation community, the FAA reduces the protective air envelope around the U.S. capital by 1,800 square miles of airspace
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Briefly noted
Feds get high marks for aviation security efforts…. Newest U.S. missile detection satellite may be failing… QinetIQ North America in $58 million TALON contract… Measuring effectiveness of emergency response
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Germany reconsiders millimeter wave scanners
Last month the European Parliament banned the use of millimeter wave scanner at European airports because the scanners’ sensitivity allow security personnel to see anatomically correct nude images of passengers; Germany wants to revisit the issue
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Making facial recognition technology more effective
Facial recognition technology holds the promise of identifying individuals in a crowd — and from distance; in real-world environments, however, the task becomes difficult, if not impossible, when the systems acquire poor facial images; NIST researchers offer a solution
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TSA, American Airlines launch paperless boarding
Paperless boarding pass will allow passengers to receive boarding passes electronically on their cell phones or PDAs
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Flexible, flapping flying machines may be on the horizon
Rigid wings and rotors have made aircraft very successful; nature, however, prefers flexible, flapping flying structures — just look at birds; indeed, the most efficient and acrobatic airfoils in nature are the flexible wings of the bat; Brown University researchers want to adopt the bat’s approach to flying for human use
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