Overcoming a protest by incumbent Raytheon, Parsons has received an FAA contract potentially worth $1.25 billion for technical support services. Lockheed Martin is the principal subcontractor to Parsons, whose forte is construction and program management services. The initial award is a four-year, $481-million contract, with two three-year options. Included in the contract are upgrades to equipment and systems for control towers, air route traffic control centers, runway landing systems and navigation systems.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. authorized American Airlines to operate seven weekly flights between its Dallas/Fort Worth hub and Buenos Aires. The department limited American's authority to two years, however, noting ``economic uncertainty'' in Argentina and statements by Continental, Delta and United indicating interest in serving Argentina in the long run. It said it hopes to start a proceeding to award permanent authority in late 2003 or early 2004. American plans to launch its newly authorized service by November.
The shuttle Endeavour is set for launch this week to the International Space Station on a 12-day mission marked with extensive Russian, French, Italian and Canadian involvement. ``Every key component of this flight involves non-U.S. partners,'' said Bill Gerstenmaier, ISS deputy program manager. ``It is a strong example of international cooperation in space.'' STS-111 mission commander Ken Cockrell and copilot USAF Lt. Col. Paul Lockhart are to fly Endeavour on a three-day ISS rendezvous chase following a scheduled May 30 liftoff.
The V-22 is slated to resume flying next week after being grounded since December 2000 following two fatal crashes that year. The tiltrotor was slated to fly earlier this month, but additional inspections were required.
Although Dassault Aviation plans to deliver the first Falcon 7X trijet no earlier than early 2006, it has already received commitments for more than 40 aircraft. The new aircraft is the forerunner of a rejuvenated product range. In an innovative arrangement, the French manufacturer's partners and main suppliers combined their engineering teams at Saint-Cloud, near Paris, to achieve optimal coordination and efficiency.
The PC-21 advanced military trainer is expected to significantly increase Pilatus' share in a promising niche market, according to company executives. Air forces are increasingly sensitive to pilot-training costs and should be attracted by the major savings promised by the next-generation turboprop-powered trainer, they added. The newly completed PC-21 prototype, which is scheduled to make its maiden flight in early July, will be followed next year by a second development aircraft. Delivery of the first production aircraft is scheduled for November 2004.
Commercial Global Positioning System hardware is handling the primary attitude-determination task on the International Space Station, sparing the program the cost of an expensive star tracker. The Space Integrated GPS/Inertial Navigation System (SIGI) uses four GPS antennas mounted in a 1.5 X 3-meter rectangle on the S-Zero truss segment (see photo) installed during last month's ISS assembly mission.
UPS Airlines will be the launch customer for a new cockpit display that will integrate traffic information from traffic-alert and collision avoidance systems (TCAS) and from automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast. ADS-B-equipped aircraft transmit their GPS position, heading, velocity and identification continuously using Mode-S radar transponders. The new AT2000 cockpit display is produced by the airline's sister company, UPS Aviation Technologies.
Raytheon Aircraft Co. plans to deliver up to 50 Premier I business jets this year, including 12 in Europe, and is expanding flight tests of the super midsize cabin Hawker Horizon to achieve certification in 2003. The Premier I and the larger Hawker Horizon represent the future for the Wichita, Kan.-based airframe manufacturer, and form the foundation for a planned family of advanced business jets aimed at strengthening the company's position in the marketplace.
With only days to go before a high-level review of electronic warfare, the U.S. Air Force is signaling that it may be ready to narrow its differences with the rest of the Pentagon and embrace the need for a new standoff jamming aircraft. USAF planners had long argued that the service's EW requirements are changing and that the introduction of more stealth aircraft and active electronically scanned radars--which can be used to jam narrow frequencies--may eliminate the need for a jamming aircraft. But now service leaders acknowledge they are not there, yet.
In a surprise move that could further complicate the European A400M airlifter's long-overdue launch, Alberto Fernandez, chief executive of EADS' Spanish unit, has resigned. Earlier this month, in an indication of his growing disagreement with EADS' strategy, Fernandez had resigned from his role as Airbus Military Co. chief executive. He is succeeded by Francisco Fernandez Sainz, previously head of Airbus Espana.
Cathay Pacific Airways expects to return to service all five of the passenger aircraft and one of the freighters (out of two) that it has furloughed back into service in August as it restores more services to their pre-Sept. 11 levels.
Boeing Co. expects to build eight fewer wide-body aircraft in 2003 but deliveries for next year remain in the 275-300 range. Chairman and CEO Phil Condit believes ``it will take a relatively long time for air travel to come back.'' Separately, Boeing may use part of the $3 billion in free cash flow it expects to generate annually to make acquisitions and stock buybacks, according to Condit. The company has authorization to buy back 44 million shares on top of the 41 million it purchased prior to Sept. 11.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China has banned all flights after midnight and placed ``strict controls'' on approval of extra or charter flights following two recent crashes--a China Northern crash near Dalian on May 7 that killed 112 and an Air China crash in Busan, South Korea, on Apr. 15 that killed 129, according to the Chinese media. Neither flight was a redeye, however.
With White House officials warning that more terrorist mass murder is inevitable, a new road map urges the U.S. and Russia to forge a global coalition and move quickly to round up nuclear, chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction everywhere, including their essential ingredients. Going well beyond the pact for a 60% reduction in nuclear weapons that the U.S. and Russia signed last week in Moscow, the action plan set forth by Harvard and the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), co-chaired by former Sen.
Gary Driggers, vice chairman of Midcoast Aviation of St. Louis, has been elected chairman of the board of directors of the Alexandria, Va.-based National Air Transportation Assn. New members of the board are: Joe Crawford, president of Abilene (Tex.) Aero; Wynn Elliott, president of Elliot Aviation, Moline, Ill.; and Elizabeth Haskins, president/CEO of Signature Flight Support, Orlando, Fla.
In response to a parliamentary inquiry, the Japanese defense ministry said it is ``theoretically possible'' that it will be forced to shoot down a hijacked civil transport or terrorist-flown general aviation/business aircraft in order to prevent a Sept. 11-like occurrence. On May 9, Premier Junichiro Koizumi told the parliament that shooting down a civil transport would be practically impossible, even if it was clearly hijacked.
Rockwell Collins' Kaiser Electronics will supply the cockpit display suite for the new F-15K aircraft that Boeing is building for South Korea. The suite includes three 5-in. color and four 6-in. multipurpose displays. All use active matrix LCD technology and all will be compatible with USAF and international F-15 displays. The wide-field-of-view head-up display will be coproduced by LG Innotek Co. Ltd of South Korea.
Gregory T. Taylor has been appointed senior vice president-planning for United Airlines. He was senior vice president of US Airways and president of US Airways Express.
Top Transportation Dept. officials last week stole headlines with a decision to halt efforts by pilot unions to allow guns into the cockpit as a last line of defense from terrorists. Less noticed, but possibly more significant, was their proclamation at the same hearing that explosives trace detection systems (EDTs) are on par with FAA-approved explosive detection systems (EDS) in the job of finding deadly contraband in checked luggage. ``I am totally satisfied that the equivalency, in terms of security, is there,'' said Transportation Secretary Norman Y.
Airbus has agreed to set up a Moscow engineering center in cooperation with the Kaskol group of Russia. To be staffed with 50 engineers initially, the center will develop components and subsystems for Airbus aircraft programs, including the A380 ultra-wide-body transport, and manage subcontracts with Russian firms. Kaskol holds shares in combat aircraft maker Sokol, landing gear specialist Hydromash and helicopter manufacturer Rostvertol.
The intelligence community's research and development may be headed for an overhaul. To undertake the massive task of sifting through R&D plans at the CIA, National Security Agency, National Reconnaissance Office and other entities, the Senate Intelligence Committee proposes a national commission to review intel R&D and report by Sept. 1, 2003.
Payloads projected for launch to Earth orbit in the coming decade took a dramatic drop from last year's count, according to the Teal Group, a consultancy based in Fairfax, Va. Teal counted a total of 2,160 payloads proposed for launch in the period 2001-10, but only 1,547 for the 2002-11 decade. In its breakout, Teal found there are 220 fewer commercial payloads planned than it found in 2001, and 645 fewer than counted in 2000. The bulk of payloads continues to be destined for low-Earth orbits of 1,000 km. (540 naut.
Denmark on Tuesday is slated to formally sign a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. to join the Joint Strike Fighter program. Denmark is signing as a Level-3 member in the 10-year development project. It plans to eventually team with Norway, but Oslo still hasn't given its final political okay. The two partners will contribute about $500 million to the project.
Shuttle astronauts and instructor pilots flying steep orbiter night approaches in NASA's Gulfstream II Shuttle Training Aircraft (STA) are evaluating new xenon floodlights for the 15,000-ft. shuttle runway at the Kennedy Space Center. Parts needed to repair the more complex xenon floodlights used for the past 20 years on the approach ends of the runway have become hard to find. The new lights are more cost efficient and easier to repair, but have somewhat different lighting characteristics, which are being evaluated as part of normal shuttle approach training in the STA.
