South Korea has decided to buy Raytheon's AIM-9X next-generation Sidewinder, becoming the first overseas customer for the short-range air-to-air missile. Seoul would arm the F-15K that recently won the country's competition for a new fighter/attack aircraft; the aircraft also will carry Amraam medium-range air-to-air missiles. Raytheon has bid AIM-9X in several other competitions, mainly in Europe.
Japan's Space Activities Commission is using separate philosophies in privatizing the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science's M-5 launcher and the National Space Development Agency's H-IIA program. Production and operation of both are to be the responsibility of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (AW&ST July 2, p. 35). There had been some talk of killing the M-5 program, but it has been spared and will be industry-funded. The H-IIA is to continue to receive government development money to improve its reliability.
Philip A. Holt has become projects director for airport systems and services for Europe, Africa and the Middle East for Arinc, Annapolis, Md. He was consultant to the airlines of London Heathrow Airport, managing the implementation of Arinc's Muse common-use technology.
Fiscal 2004 budget decisions are expected to provide the first concrete insight into what direction the U.S. Navy wants to take under a new operational concept put forward by the service's military leadership. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark unveiled his Sea Power 21 vision last month, which is supposed to shape the service's future plans and represent a shift in focus from his earlier priorities, personnel and readiness, to modernization. But Clark's outline provided little detail on what it would mean for the Navy's spending on hardware. Now, Vice Adm.
Thales has won tenders to supply complete air traffic control systems for South Africa and Denmark. The award for the South African Advanced Air Traffic Control System (SAAATCS), the value of which was not disclosed, involves the supply of Eurocat ATC centers in Johannesburg and Cape Town that control flights over the country's entire airspace. The 60-million-euro ($58.8-million) Danish Air Traffic Management System contract covers the delivery of Eurocat facilities for Copenhagen, Billund and Roskilde. DATMAS is to enter service in 2007.
Leonard M. Greene, founder/chairman of the Safe Flight Instrument Corp., White Plains, N.Y., will be honored on Oct. 16 at the bicentennial anniversary celebration of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Greene has received more than 100 patents and is credited with saving thousands of lives through his inventions of stall and wind shear warning devices, which have been mandated for installation on aircraft by the FAA.
John J. Andros has been named vice president/general manager and Robert E. Cassidy director of enginering for the Specialty Fluorescent Lamp Div. of Voltarc Technologies Inc., Waterbury, Conn.
In a major shift designed to increase flight safety and boost airspace capacity, the FAA will revise the nation's nonprecision approaches to resemble those used with the Instrument Landing System. The agency and industry collaborated on the concept, which will use the flight management system (FMS) computer in the aircraft to create ILS-like precision guidance to every runway end, without the need for an ILS at the runway.
American Airlines formed executive teams to develop short- and long-term ways to increase revenue and cut costs in a marketplace that no longer values much of what full-service airlines offer, CEO Donald Carty told employees last week. ``Survival means adapting to the realities ahead . . . much as we did after deregulation in '78,'' he said in a recorded hotline message.
India's government-owned Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd. has signed a memorandum of understanding with Canada's CHC Helicopters International for collaboration on maintenance. In the next five years, Pawan Hans expects to add four light- and 10 medium-lift helicopters to its inventory of 29 helicopters.
Edward H. Bersoff has become a managing director in the Washington office of Quarterdeck Investment Partners. He will continue as chairman/CEO of the Re-route Corp.
Airbus has chosen Rockwell Collins to supply an avionics communications router for the A380, to provide software for datalinks from on-board systems to ground-based systems. Goodrich Corp.'s Aerostructures Div. will provide pylon aft fairings for the A380. Emirates has signed a $1.5-billion agreement with the GE-Pratt & Whitney Engine Alliance to purchase 88 GP7200 engines to power its A380-800 aircraft.
The Galileo spacecraft is going to make its first close pass by Jupiter's moon Amalthea this November, giving it an opportunity to take pictures with resolution many times sharper than the fuzzy shots already in hand. But don't be waiting breathlessly to see what these images might reveal. The plan at NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is to not take pictures at all. We suggest JPL put on its ``can-do'' hat and get the pictures. The objection has been one of cost, but we think the shots can be taken for much less than the originally proposed price.
The FAA and America West Airlines took swift action last week against a flight crew charged with the felony of operating an aircraft, an Airbus A319 with 127 on board, while intoxicated. The FAA last week sent the crew letters of emergency revocation nullifying their pilot licenses, and America West notified Capt. Thomas Porter Cloyd, who worked for the airline since 1990, and First Officer Christopher Hughes, who was hired in 1999, of its intent to terminate their employment.
Taiwan and Hong Kong, negotiating via Beijing, have averted a technical shutdown of their unusual air services agreement by signing a new pact. The agreement is as interesting for how it affects existing flights between Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, and Taiwan as it is for the potential of direct flights between China and Taiwan, which the Mainland regards as a renegade province.
Janet M. Clarke, president of consulting firm Clarke Littlefield, is one of four new members of the board of directors of Houston-based ExpressJet Holdings. The others are: Kim A. Fadel, chief counsel for BellSouth Small Business Services; Thomas E. Schick, former executive vice president-commercial aviation services/deputy to the president of the Boeing Commercial Airplanes Group; and L.E. Simmons, founder of SCF Partners.
Airbus will not lower its combined production rate and plans to deliver 300 commercial transports next year, 70 A330/A340 twin-aisle aircraft and 230 A320-series twinjets, said Chief Executive Noel Forgeard. The decision, viewed as a vote of confidence in the industry's recovery, was made after completing ``an extensive evaluation of all [customer] contractual commitments,'' according to a company statement. The production plan was ratified last week by Airbus' joint owners, EADS and BAE Systems.
Accident investigators and flight safety experts are puzzling out the nighttime midair collision, on the German/Swiss airspace border, of a DHL Boeing 757-200 and a Bashkirian Airlines Tupolev Tu-154M trijet. The airlines in question and the air traffic control of both countries remain at loggerheads regarding the cause. The July 1 midair collision, which occurred at 35,400 ft., shortly after both aircraft had been transferred by the Germans to Switzerland's air traffic control, killed all 71 passengers and crewmembers on board, including 52 children.
NASA's Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) spacecraft has successfully located and tracked typhoons, hurricanes and icebergs for three years, a full year longer than its planned two-year minimum mission. Managers at Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., which built the bus and provides mission control and operations support, expect QuikSCAT to operate ``well past a fourth year. The spacecraft is returning very high-quality data,'' said Chip Barnes, who oversees the program for Ball.
The newest U.S. pilot astronauts are in the midst of one of the most specialized flight instruction programs in the world--using Gulfstream II Shuttle Training Aircraft to practice landing the 125-ton orbiter glider on steep, one-shot approaches after reentry from space. NASA Johnson Space Center's four STAs have been equipped with elements of the new Multifunctional Electronic Display Subsystems (MEDS) glass cockpits like those being added to the four orbiters.
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has selected General Electric engines to power 13 Boeing aircraft, under a $250-million order. KLM ordered GE90-94B engines for four 777-200ERs, and is also leasing another six GE-powered 777-200ERs through International Lease Finance Corp. The order also includes CF6-80C2B5F engines to power three 747-400ER freighters.
WHEN A CATHODE RAY TUBE DISPLAY FAILS IN THE COCKPIT of Boeing 747-400 aircraft, operators could soon have the choice of replacing it with another CRT, or swapping in an active matrix liquid crystal display (AMLCD), without any modifications to the aircraft. Feedback from the airlines prompted Rockwell Collins, working closely with Boeing, to make the change possible using identical connectors and pin outputs. Formats, colors and reaction timing are difficult to tell apart, so airlines with mixed display cockpits make the change only when a malfunction occurs.
MICHAEL A. DORNHEIMMICHAEL A. TAVERNA ( LOS ANGELES PARIS)
Small man-portable reconnaissance drones are finally seeing action as the war on terrorism brings home ground troops' need to see over the next hill. Close-up on-ground battles in Afghanistan have pushed the services to order for the first time significant quantities of mini-unmanned aerial vehicles (mini-UAVs) for operational use. The U.S. Special Operations Command (Socom) has ordered over 80 mini-UAVs based on the AeroVironment Pointer, more than all prior Pointer orders combined since the hand-launched 8.4-ft.-span aircraft became available in 1989.
Spanish flag carrier Iberia will purchase three Airbus A340-600s to operate on routes from Madrid to Mexico and Buenos Aires. Rolls-Royce Trent 500 engines will power the aircraft ordered in three-class, 342-seat configuration. The -600s will be added to Iberia's fleet beginning in June 2003 and will replace three Boeing 747-300s now in service.
