U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper last week informally declared himself de facto manager of the F-22 test program at Edwards AFB, Calif., with the support of Air Force Secretary James G. Roche. Senior Air Force officials are ``dissatisfied with the plodding pace'' of the official test program and the reluctance of Edwards officials to speed up the process, an Air Force official said. Jumper and Lockheed Martin officials contend there are more efficient ways to get through the test points.
The Air Transportation Stabilization Board has provided beleaguered US Airways with a measure of hope, conditionally approving a $900-million federal loan guarantee last week that would maintain the seventh largest U.S. airline as it restructures. The three-man board recognized US Airways' ``disciplined and comprehensive approach'' to its restructuring. To qualify for the loan, which would cover 90% of its financing package, US Airways will be required to meet three conditions. The first is completing cost-cutting labor agreements that are testing CEO David N.
The U.K.'s Ministry of Defense has formed a link with the Exostar Web-based trading exchange, which corporate officials think will lead to de facto standards for e-commerce between government and the private sector. The link was the result of a six-month effort by Exostar and the Cap Gemini Ernst & Young management and infotech consulting organization, and involved defense contractors such as Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems. Cap Gemini Ernst & Young has a 10-year public-private partnership with the ministry to provide e-commerce and e-business services.
Lockheed Martin Naval and Electronics and Surveillance System in Akron, Ohio, is under contract to develop Medusa, (multifunction EO defense on U.S. aircraft). It may use the company's Eagle IR-countermeasures family, which utilizes a laser and an infrared camera. IR cameras in the closed-loop systems identify the missile from laser reflections inside the seeker. A complex jam code is synchronized to the missile's scan patterns (AW&ST May 21, 2001, p. 43).
The largest U.S. airlines eased up a bit more during June on the brake they've applied to capacity since Sept. 11. The marketplace didn't reward them. Not counting Southwest Airlines, which has continued to take 737 deliveries and increase capacity almost without interruption, the big carriers ended June closer to year-earlier capacity levels, in percentage terms, than they have been in the first half of 2002. Some of them were closer in traffic, too.
The traffic-alert and collision avoidance system (TCAS), somewhat maligned and misunderstood in the wake of the July 1 midair collision in Europe, provides more protection than is commonly understood. Pilots generally have a high regard for TCAS, and its European counterpart ACAS (airborne collision avoidance system). From the cockpit they are perceived as a safety net when the air traffic control system fails to provide safe separation.
Meanwhile, a confrontation over F-22 is brewing for September. Stephen Cambone, new head of the Pentagon's program analysis and evaluation office, will make recommendations on how many of the new stealth fighters the Air Force will need. The possibilities range from the current 339 to a truncated force of 180. However, a team led by Air Combat Command's director of plans and programs, Maj. Gen. David A. Deptula, will call for a total force of 762 fighters, two squadrons for each of the 10 AEFs to replace 2.5 squadrons of F-15s.
Carl-Heinrich Freiherr von Gablenz, who has been chairman of the management board of Frankfurt-based CargoLifter, will now sit on the supervisory board. The management board members will be: Wolfgang Schneider, formerly of Airbus Deutschland; and Karl Bangert, cofounder of CargoLifter with von Gablenz.
The gloves are coming off on Capitol Hill as President Bush's $10-billion emergency request for Operation Enduring Freedom and related functions works its way through the wickets. ``I have seen a fair number of requests for blank checks in my time, but this one takes the cake,'' fumed the Democrat boss of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Robert C. Byrd (W.Va.). Byrd charges that the money could be used for almost any purpose--including an invasion of Iraq--without congressional approval.
The Pentagon has begun what is expected to be a multiyear, multimillion-dollar effort to restock and modernize its MH-47 Army special operations Chinook helicopters. The U.S. Army last week awarded Boeing an $8.8-million contract for long-lead items for the MH-47G, the first of the newest version of the modified Chinook. The Army's special ops aviators have been using their MH-47s heavily in Afghanistan and other areas, but the toll has been that the inventory is down more than 20% due to aircraft lost in accidents or damaged.
In a safety crackdown on Asian carriers, the FAA has imposed penalties on Malaysia Airlines and Hainan Airlines for violating U.S. Transportation Dept. regulations covering transport of hazardous materials. The largest fine--$247,500--was assessed against Hainan Provincial Aviation, parent of Hainan Airlines, for improperly shipping an undeclared chemical oxygen generator on a passenger aircraft on July 19, 2001, for transport to the U.S.
The Kennedy Space Center will be getting a new control tower for the space shuttle landing facility next year, and many features will have been determined by NASA Ames' FutureFlight Central tower simulator, which creates a 360-deg. out-the-window view (see photo). Using a model of the Kennedy Space Center terrain, the location, orientation and height of the proposed tower were adjusted for better visibility than the current tower under a range of visibility and weather conditions simulated by the FutureFlight Central tower (http://ffc.arc.nasa.gov).
The Romanian Ministry of Defense will receive two multimission surveillance radar systems from Lockheed Martin under a $12-million contract. The radars, with a 100-mi. air-surveillance range, are intended as gap-fillers to complement five existing fixed FPS-117 surveillance radars for civil ATC and military use. The new radars are a variant of a transportable radar developed for the U.S. Marine Corps that can be set up by three people in 30 min.
David Cote, who has been president/ CEO of Honeywell International Inc., Morris Township, N.J., also will be chairman. He will succeed Lawrence Bossidy, who is scheduled to retire.
Effective Aug. 1, Air Canada will eliminate revenue-sharing and adopt a new capacity purchase arrangement with its regional carrier, Air Canada Jazz. Under the plan, Air Canada Jazz will be paid on a per-flight basis to operate services on behalf of the mainline carrier, a method adopted by many U.S. majors and their regional partners. The move marks the first time Air Canada has entered into such an arrangement with one of its regional carriers.
Russian Volga-Dnepr Airlines, the largest outsized-cargo carrier, has obtained a $29.9-million, 10-year loan from International Finance Corp. to finance completion of Antonov An-124-120 heavylifter manufacturing at the Ulyanovsk-based Aviastar-SP plant. The new aircraft, scheduled to fly in 2003, will bring the number of An-124-120s operated by Volga-Dnepr to 10.
Per Tegner has been elected chairman of the European Space Agency council. He is director-general of Sweden's national space board. Tegner succeeds Alain Bensoussan, chairman of the CNES French space agency.
Wendy Wenjie Wang has received a 2002 scholarship funded by Loral Skynet, Bedminster, N.J., as selected by the Society of Satellite Professionals International. She is a second-year student at the University of San Francisco in an MBA program in telecommunications management and policy.
The Italian government, which aims to reduce its share in Alitalia to a mere 30% in 2003, formally announced its plan to float an additional stake of the airline. The Economy Ministry plans to maintain its 62.4% controlling share until the effort to raise needed capital, 1.432 billion euros ($1.418 billion), is completed. One-half of the funding is to come from issuing new shares and the other half from convertible bonds. For each existing share there is the right to buy a new share and a convertible bond.
Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Co.'s structural test laboratory is conducting full-scale testing of P-3C Orion structures in an effort to assess and extend the operational life of the maritime surveillance aircraft. Data generated by the project will be used by the U.S. Navy, Canadian forces, the Royal Australian Air Force and Royal Netherlands Navy to keep their P-3C fleets flying, possibly until 2015. Many of the critical P-3 fatigue tests have already been concluded, given that disassembly and instrumentation of the test aircraft began during the summer of 1999.
Chalk it up to pragmatism. State-owned domestic carrier Indian Airlines and its privately owned rival, Jet Airways, have announced domestic ticket discounts of more than 50% on selected routes for Aug. 1-Oct. 31, a lean travel period in India. The cuts reflect two facts: travel is down, and a ticket on an air-conditioned train has been a better bargain. The new tickets are viewed as an attempt to meet competition from India's well-developed rail network head-on.
Throughout his life Gen. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., was a fighter. As a soldier, he fought for the rights of the men under his command. As an airman, he fought against fascism. And as a man, he struggled with his own countrymen to end the discriminatory practices that measured the value of a person by the color of his skin. Born into an Army family in 1912, Davis attended the U.S. Military Academy.
Larry Kelley is watching, helplessly, as his business withers. Beacon Flying Service, a flight school established in 1937 and purchased by Kelley for $20,000 in 1994, is in limbo. That's because Hyde Field Airport is closed again, shut down by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in May, only two months after it had been reopened in March for the first time since Sept. 11. Kelley is running out of options--he has already sold two of the five aircraft in his fleet. ``That's what breaks my heart.
The U.S. Defense Dept. will require new simulation-based training systems for developing combat forces to deal with terrorist threats, according to a new Frost & Sullivan analysis. Total market revenues for simulators, training and distance-learning systems are forecast to possibly reach $4.78 billion by 2008. In 2001, the industry generated $3.51 billion. Companies eyeing this growing market segment should focus on interoperability and products that can be upgraded, the firm recommended (http://Aerospace-Defense.frost.com).
