Pierre Sparaco’s column, “The Kolk Machine Flies On” was interesting but he may have left an erroneous impression (AW&ST July 30, p. 45). Sparaco mentioned American Airlines several times along with Cyrus Smith and Frank Kolk. However, Sparaco omitted the fact that the first U.S. operator of the Airbus was Eastern Airlines, in mid-1977. This “broke the ice” and Airbus was firmly ensconced in the North American market.
Cessna Aircraft has delivered the first Citation Mustang to a European customer. Of more than 350 orders for the entry-level jet, one-third are from European buyers, according to Cessna.
New York airspace redesign may be as complicated legally as it is technically. The FAA gave its stamp of approval Sept. 5 to the massive project, confirming as expected an alternative that should significantly ease traffic flow into and out of New York and Philadelphia airports. However, the record of decision may not be the final word, as local communities are likely to challenge the redesign in court.
FAA certification of Lynx Aviation has been delayed beyond the scheduled startup date of Oct. 1. Denver-based Lynx is a subsidiary of Frontier Airlines. Lynx’s president, Tom Nunn, says he’s frustrated by the lag in the certification process but is pleased with progress made in forming the new company. Lynx is acquiring Bombardier Q400 turboprop transports but will rely on Frontier’s Airbus A319, Embraer 170 and Bombardier CRJ700 jets to serve its initial routes to Wichita, Kan.; Rapid City, S.D.; Sioux City, Iowa; Albuquerque, N.M., and Billings, Mont.
TerreStar, a U.S. mobile satellite service startup, has issued an Authorization to Proceed to EADS Astrium for an S-band MSS spacecraft to serve Europe. TerreStar has yet to complete licensing or financing arrangements for the hybrid satellite/terrestrial system, targeted for a 2011 startup. The company has acquired two units from Space Systems/Loral for a U.S.-Canadian service expected to begin in December 2008.
Frank Thompson (see photos) has been appointed group vice president-supply chain and Joan Clark group vice president-human resources for Parker Aerospace, Irvine, Calif. Dennis Rice has become general manager of Parker’s Electronic Systems Div., Smithtown, N.Y. Thompson was supply chain director for the Air and Fuel Div. Clark was director of human resources for the Control Systems Div., while Rice was his division’s chief compliance officer.
Mark Weir (see photo) has been named senior director of the Sabreliner Corp.’s Ste. Genevieve, Mo., operation. He was a senior operations manager at Boeing’s San Antonio facility and a production operations manager for the E-6B program in Jacksonville, Fla.
More than half of all orthopedic implants may be detected by airport security metal detectors, says a new report from Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The study asked 129 volunteers with a total of 149 implants to walk through an M-Scope three-zone metal detector at two sensitivity settings. The overall detection rate was 88% for prosthetic replacements compared with 32% for plates. All total hip replacements and 90% of knee replacements were detected at the low-sensitivity setting.
Era Corp. has received a patent on Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast and multilateration techniques in which redundant transponder signals can be filtered and time-stamped before aircraft tracking information is forwarded to air traffic control centers and other users. This will allow users to manage massive amounts of real-time aircraft transponder data using a plethora of data links and networks with a variety of bandwidths. The technology has both military and civil applications.
MIT scientists have devised a software tool to measure visual clutter that could lead to more user-friendly displays and maps as well as a means for designers to add an attention-getting element. Visual clutter is a challenge to fighter pilots picking a target and for people seeking specific information in a graphical interface. Ruth Rosenholtz, a principal research scientist in MIT’s Brain and Cognitive Sciences Dept.
In his letter on weapon planning and high-speed penetration (AW&ST July 23, p. 6), G.D. Goldshine says “the military made bad decisions on the B-58 and F‑111 programs.”
Homeland Security Dept. officials say the idea behind the planned National Applications Office—to coordinate requests for access to satellite-gathered intelligence by nonfederal agencies—is nothing new. The office, set to start work Oct. 1, is said to be no more than a clearinghouse to systematize what’s been taking place for decades on an ad hoc basis: allocating classified satellite imagery to help monitor borders, forest fires and hurricanes.
After a push last year from the White House to lighten the payload for the first National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System spacecraft, the Bush administration now says it may restore one of the sensors dropped from the first operational satellite. The combined military-civil weather satellite program’s cost has ballooned from an original $7 billion to its most recent estimate of $12.5 billion.
The federal government is forecast to spend 33% of the Fiscal 2007 budget for information technology in the final months of the fiscal year. According to Input, a Reston, Va.-based market analysis company that tracks federal IT spending, the $20 billion that agencies plan to invest in IT in the final quarter follows a trend over the past decade during which outlays in that category are heavily concentrated in the last months of the year.
The writer of “A Call for Sound Science” repeats a common refrain in the debate over climate change: Only climatologists can opine on the issues surrounding global warming. However, while the problems may well be as important as he/she states, the writer ignores the fact that the political, economic, technological and social decisions relating to global warming involve many more people than climatologists.
In the wake of increased exploitation of the Internet by insurgent groups, the U.S. military is reviewing how modern war-fighting should be conducted. Boeing has signed a three-year cooperative R&D contract with the U.S. Joint Forces Command (JSFCOM) to analyze emerging and future joint warfighting concepts and capabilities, in concert with JSFCOM’s joint innovation and experimentation directorate. Plans call for using modeling and simulation techniques while combining live and virtual experiments.
Northrop Grumman is providing its TouchTable technology to the FAA to help the agency respond to and counter cyber security threats and attacks against its information technology network. Multiple users can collaborate with the system, which is run by an 84-in. touch-sensitive computer screen at the FAA’s Cyber Security Incident Response Center. Northrop Grumman has supported the agency’s network security programs since 2004 and provides around-the-clock monitoring of FAA computer systems.
Douglas Barrie (Zhukovsky, Russia), Alexey Komarov (Zhukovsky, Russia)
Russia’s guided-weapons manufacturers face a war on two fronts—a battle to sustain and expand their position in the export market, and a fight to retain and attract specialist staff at home. Future success in the export arena will hang on the air-launched weapons now in (sometimes prolonged) development for the Russian air force. The Moscow air show, held here Aug. 21-26, provided an insight into major programs, including a key tactical air-to-surface weapon for a modular missile family.
German officials arrested three men last week and were seeking more in what police categorize as a successful move to break up planned terrorist attacks on facilities frequented by Germans and Americans. Officials indicated that aviation facilities and Ramstein Air Base may have been targeted. German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schauble says the investigation still needs to show if the Frankfurt airport was at risk.
As the Air Force attempts to strengthen its ability to respond to a growing number of bid protests quickly, its acquisition corps is facing huge challenges. Two major problems loom. First, the number of skilled procurement officers is shrinking thanks to personnel cuts across the Air Force. So, fewer officials are available as the service continues to overhaul its entire fleet of aircraft and satellites. This is taking place at a time when USAF’s need for highly complex systems is growing along with the requirment for more technical expertise.
Bombardier’s proposed CSeries airliner will benefit from engines with bypass ratios around 10:1, a figure unheard of for a narrow-body airliner and only recently heard of for widebodies. The company says each of the three engines it’s reviewing—from Rolls-Royce, Pratt & Whitney and CFM International—offers such a high bypass ratio. It hopes to choose one of them, or maybe two, by year-end as it works toward a launch decision on the 110- and 130-seat aircraft within 12 months.
Struggling government airline Garuda Indonesia is in preliminary talks with Airbus for 20 A320s to be delivered in 2009-10. Garuda ordered 25 Boeing 737‑800s in March.
Private equity firm Apex Partners has closed a deal to acquire Telenor Satellite Services. The company will be combined with France Telecom’s former mobile satellite communications unit and folded into a new satellite service provider, Vizada. Telenor’s satellite broadcasting unit is not included.
