The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has boosted funding to Boeing and Lockheed Martin for work on the ballistic missile defense national teams. Boeing received a $125-million follow-on contract for leading a team working on system engineering and integration; the Lockheed Martin team working on battle management, command and control and communications capability received another $108 million. The contracts should fund the teams through 2003.
A stronger commitment to unmanned aircraft and better access to intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) systems are needed for the U.S. Air Forces in the Pacific to overcome shortfalls they have experienced in recent months, according to USAF's commander for the region. For Pacaf, the past months have been a balancing act between supporting forces in the Middle East with aircraft, munitions and personnel, and retaining sufficient assets to conduct counterterrorism operations in the Philippines, maintain a high level of alertness in Korea, and watch China.
As Boeing headed for a potential strike last week by its 26,000 machinists beginning on Sept. 2--which is Labor Day in the U.S.--the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) threw a curveball into the negotiations by ``requesting'' that the two sides come to Washington on Sept. 4 to discuss a 30-day extension of their contract talks. That request fell in line with the International Assn. of Machinists & Aerospace Workers' (IAM) drive for Boeing to keep negotiating. But even as the union agreed to mediated talks, it urged members voting Aug.
The U.S. plans to use at least two nonlethal technologies if it goes to war with Iraq, information warfare (IW) and directed energy. IW includes mining a foe's computers for intelligence and implanting false targets in air defense systems. Directed energy would scramble battlefield computer memories, which is seen as particularly important in shutting down the production, storage and use of chemical and biological weapons. While noting that directed-energy weapons, including high-power microwaves, are in ``varying early stages,'' Defense Secretary Donald H.
Propulsion engineers at NASA's Marshall and Glenn field centers have started studying military and commercial jet engines that could give a reusable rocket first stage greater range for a return to its launch site. Working with General Electric and Pratt & Whitney, the Space Launch Initiative (SLI) Propulsion Office is studying engine options that would generate more than 100,000 lb. of thrust to get the flyback booster home in one piece while its reusable second stage heads on to orbit.
Atlantic Research Corp. will provide a ramjet motor for the Navy's High-Speed Anti-Radiation Demonstration project. Alliant Techsystems also competed for the $10-million contract to explore the value of turning the Harm anti-radar weapon into a higher speed missile.
An Ariane 5 booster has launched a Eutelsat telecom satellite and Eumetsat's first second-generation geostationary weather spacecraft, MSG-1. The Eutelsat unit, Atlantic Bird 1, will provide Ku-band TV, telecom and Internet coverage in Europe and the Eastern seaboard of the Americas. Manufacturer Alenia Spazio had initially intended to orbit the spacecraft on a Chinese Long March rocket, but was forced to shift to the Ariane 5 when a U.S. export license was denied.
The Eutelsat/Alcatel Hot Bird 6 direct broadcast satellite launched Aug. 21 on board the first Atlas V Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle is using its own propulsion to maneuver from its initial transfer orbit to a geosynchronous orbit slot at 13 deg. E. Long., where it will serve 93 million households in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Initial checkout in geosynchronous orbit is expected to be complete by mid-September.
Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Electronic Systems will equip C-130 transports operated by the U.S. Air Force Air Mobility Command with a laser-based infrared countermeasures system for protection from heat-seeking missiles. The new equipment is a laser-based version of the company's Nemesis lamp-based, directional infrared countermeasures system.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the U.S. Navy plan to air-launch a powered, prototype hypersonic missile off the coast of California in late 2004 as part of a technology development and validation effort that eventually could lead to the procurement of a production version of the weapon later in the decade. The proposed Mach 6 missile would be carried by surface ships, submarines and aircraft initially to combat highly mobile, time-sensitive surface targets like mobile Scud launchers.
Pilot failure to ensure an adequate fuel supply for the flight caused the May 21, 2000, crash of a British Aerospace Jetstream 31, N16EJ, at Bear Creek Township, Pa., according to the NTSB final accident report. All 17 passengers and two flight crewmembers were killed onboard the aircraft operated by Farmingdale, N.Y.-based Executive Airlines (AW&ST May 29, 2000, p. 18). An insufficient fuel supply led to fuel starvation of the right engine and intermittent stoppage of the left engine.
FedEx and UPS have shoved the U.S. Transportation Dept. into a cross fire over their continuing allegations that rival DHL Airways is controlled by the German post office, Deutsche Post, and should not be classified as a U.S. certificated carrier. The two express and freight carriers have filed petitions asking for a formal hearing including fact-finding into DHL's citizenship status. The move follows a move by Deutsche Post last month to buy full ownership of DHL, including Lufthansa's big 25% stake (AW&ST July 29, p. 54).
The Russian/U.S. Expedition 5 crew on board the International Space Station has completed the two extravehicular activities (EVAs) planned for their 4.5-month mission. On Aug. 26, station commander Valery Korzun and flight engineer Sergei Treschev conducted a 5.5-hr. EVA to install, among other components, a frame on the Zarya module that will be used by future EVA crews as a temporary hardware storage site.
Investigators have recovered the upper and lower parts of the aft cargo door of China Airlines Flight 611 still connected to the surrounding fuselage. A middle portion of the door hasn't been recovered yet. Even though both pieces are attached, Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council (ASC) has not ruled out the door as a cause, and in fact ``we are paying more attention to it now than before,'' said Kay Yong, ASC managing director.
If that sounds like ``a match made in Hollywood,'' a row between MirCorp, which is representing Bass, and its competitor, Space Adventures, gets more to the point of what the rocker's flight is really about. Bass was photographed in mid-August flying on a Russian zero-g training aircraft that was also carrying Space Adventures paying customers. MirCorp accused Space Adventures of wrongly using the picture of Bass floating to market its wares, demonstrating publicity and money are paramount.
Air Canada Technical Services, a division of Air Canada, announced a $66-million agreement for maintenance and repair of Canada's National Defense Department fleet of Airbus A310s. The deal, which became effective last month, includes five one-year options for contract extensions, with the potential of bringing the contract length to 10 years and possible revenue of $160 million. Maintenance work on the five A310s will be performed at the company's Vancouver and Montreal sites and at Canadian Forces Base facilities in Trenton, Ontario.
Peter V. Price has been appointed senior vice president-finance/chief financial officer of the Integrated Systems Div. of L-3 Communications, Greenville, Tex. He held those positions at L-3's Link Simulation and Training Div., Arlington, Tex.
Alitalia last week took delivery of the first of six Boeing 777-200ERS (see photo) which are to become the mainstay of the carrier's long-range fleet, replacing 747-200s. The carrier, which recently committed to a 1.9-billion-euro ($1.86-billion) fleet modernization, has five other 777s on order, which are to be delivered by the end of April 2003, and holds another six options. Alitalia's 777s have a 291-seat configuration, with 42 business-class seats.
Thales ATM will manufacture and supply ground-based, low-power distance measuring equipment (DME) to the FAA during the next five years. According to Thales, the 415 SE DME has been designed specifically for the U.S. market, and will be installed in conjunction with both new and existing instrument landing systems. The contract calls for 375 DME systems. Thales ATM also has supplied the FAA with more than 100 Mark 20A ILS systems.
A U.S. District Court judge in Miami has fined SabreTech $500,000 for its role in the May 1996 crash of a ValuJet DC-9 operating as Flight 592 in Florida that killed all 110 onboard. The NTSB concluded that the probable cause of the accident was an operational oxygen generator that started a fire in the cargo hold. The fine was imposed after a federal appeals court upheld a single conviction that the company had failed to train employees in the handling of hazardous materials.
Thailand's Korat AB has begun taking delivery of five upgraded F-16s from the U.S. Air Force's Ogden (Utah) Air Logistics Center's upgrade facility. The aircraft, which came out of storage at USAF's Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center in Tucson, Ariz., have upgrade structures and Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-220E engines that match other Royal Thai AB F-16s. Thailand took delivery of 36 F-16A/Bs from 1988-96 and has surpassed the 55,000-flight-hour mark.
Byron Callan's thought-provoking report on the investment impact of a U.S. attack on Iraq focuses on the defense and aerospace sector and contrasts the current situation with that of the pre-Persian Gulf war period. The Merrill Lynch analyst identified some key differences as the current low level of regional and international support for an invasion of Iraq and the potential this time for urban rather than desert warfare. Current defense stock valuations are at record highs, compared with low valuations then, and the U.S. spending trend is up while then it was down.
NTSB Chairman Marion Blakey's nomination to be FAA administrator will go before the Senate Commerce Committee Sept. 3. The panel scheduled a hearing a month ago but had to postpone it because the Senate broke for its summer recess a day earlier (AW&ST Aug. 5, p. 21). The agency's longtime acting deputy administrator, Monte Belger, currently the acting administrator, has delayed his retirement until mid-September.
The FAA is considering banning general aviation aircraft and charter operators from flying below 18,000 ft. within 30 naut. mi. of the Sept. 11 crash sites in New York, Washington and Somerset, Pa., during several commemoration ceremonies next Wednesday. For the New York area, officials are also considering a ban on general aviation and charter aircraft weighing less than 12,500 lb. from Sept. 11-13 due to a United Nations General Assembly meeting there. An earlier plan to prevent non-U.S.
The discussion about nonmilitary piloting almost always turns to compensation. Senior pilots at major airlines make major money, more than $200,000 for the most senior pilots flying the heaviest aircraft. It's a sore point for the National Business Aviation Assn., whose members are seeking comparison not between corporate pilots at Company A and Company B but pilots compared with pilots, regardless of whether flying for a regional or major airline or for a corporate flight department.
