Jeremiah F. Creedon, who has been director of the NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., has been appointed associate NASA administrator for aerospace technology, effective June 15. He will succeedSamuel L. Venneri, who will continue as NASA's chief technologist. Theron M. Bradley, Jr., a retired Navy nuclear engineer, has been named chief engineer. Charles T. Horner, 3rd, has become assistant administrator for legislative affairs. He was principal deputy assistant Army secretary for financial management/ comptroller.
The May 15 flight of two Chinese environmental spacecraft on the same Long March booster has kicked off China's initiative to launch 30 spacecraft through 2005 (AW&ST Nov. 12, 2001, p. 56). The Long March 4 mission from the Tiayuan launch center south of Beijing carried the 950-lb. Fengyun-1D polar-orbit weather satellite and the smaller Haiyang-1 marine survey spacecraft. The weather spacecraft has a 10-channel scanning radiometer and will replace the Chinese FY-1C polar-orbit satellite that has been aloft for three years.
After an 11-week civil court trial, a Seattle jury last week dismissed the claims of 26 flight attendants who said toxic cabin air in Alaska Airlines' MD-80 aircraft made them seriously ill. The attendants sought $4 million in damages from Boeing, the aircraft manufacturer, and Honeywell, the parent company of AlliedSignal, which makes the MD-80 auxiliary power unit. The attendants claimed a defective seal on the APU caused toxins from engine exhaust as well as hydraulic and lubrication fluids to leak into the cabin.
U.S. Air Force Maj. Clarence Chenault (see photo) has become Dayton-based Southwest Ohio regional director of the Ohio Aerospace Institute. He has been chief of the Aeronautical Sciences Laboratory at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.
Supply chain software vendor Manugistics has purchased Western Data Systems for an undisclosed amount. WDS is a maintenance, repair and overhaul specialist with a defense contractor core of clients.
Defense Dept. managers plan some early testing in the Space-Based Infrared System-High early warning satellite network in an effort to get the troubled program back on track. Peter B.
The U.S. Defense Dept. is spearheading an interagency efficiency drive that could see hypersonic weapons technology evolving into air-breathing first stages for space launch vehicles. Ultimately, the push could extend into other dual-use items like sensors, communications and space nuclear power. Ronald M. Sega, a former astronaut who serves as director of defense research and engineering, is pushing a ``National Aerospace Initiative'' (NAI) that aims to draw on research across the federal government to meet military needs.
A German Tornado crashed about 20 mi. north of Holloman AFB, N.M., during a night mission on May 15. One crewmember was found and transported to a hospital the next morning, but a second was killed. The Tornado was assigned to the German Air Force Flying Training Center at Holloman.
The collapse of the roof of the Russian Energia/Buran shuttle and N-1 moon rocket assembly building at the Baikonur Cosmodrome May 12 killed up to eight workers and could seriously disrupt use of the facility by the French Starsem commercial Soyuz booster venture. Planned use of the Starsem facility for processing of the European Mars Express mission in 2003 is an unresolved issue. The damage to this huge relic of the cold war will have no direct operational impact on the Russian space program, however.
The threat of doubling the aviation-security surcharge on tickets in the U.S. seems to have vanished following intense congressional lobbying by U.S. airlines. The supplemental appropriations bill in the House included a provision for raising the security fee to $5 per flight segment from $2.50, and the maximum per trip to $20 from $10. The idea was to further help finance the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which was created in the wake of Sept. 11 and is turning out to be more costly than anticipated (AW&ST May 13, p. 23).
The International Space Station Expedition 4 crew is in the home stretch of a six-month flight that has substantially broadened current science operations on the 250-ton multinational outpost. While managers are concerned that cost-related crew size restrictions could limit future ISS research, station crews are already involved in substantial Earth science, medical and industrial technology studies. Expedition 4 crewman Russian air force Col. Yuri Onufriyenko and astronauts Navy Capt. Dan Bursch and USAF Col. Carl Walz are completing the 25 U.S.
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. has delivered the first of 14 single-seat, Block 50-series F-16s to the U.S. Air Force. The fighters are equipped for suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD) and feature upgrades including a new modular mission computer, color cockpit displays and F110-GE-129 engines. Final deliveries are set for December 2002.
Dhanlreddy R. Reddy has been named chief of the Turbomachinery and Propulsion Systems Div. of the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. He was head of the center's On-Board Propulsion Branch. Reddy succeeds Ned Hannum, who has retired.
Singapore's supreme court has denied an appeal of a ruling that favored SilkAir by the families who lost relatives in the 1997 crash of a SilkAir Boeing 737 in Indonesia that killed all 104 on board. Singapore Chief Justice Yong Pung How said there was insufficient technical evidence to ``conclusively reveal the cause of the crash.'' The ruling said that by filing their suit the families had forfeited the $200,000 compensation per victim that SilkAir, a regional affiliate of Singapore Airlines, originally offered.
The auxiliary power unit installed in the Alenia Aeronautica C-27J Spartan is a Hamilton Sundstrand Power Systems T-62T-46-C16 unit, not a Honeywell APU (AW&ST Apr. 29, p. 73).
The FAA intends to award a contract to Gallium Software of Ontario, Canada, to continue work on the Air Traffic Control Advanced Research Simulator at the agency's Mike Monroney Technical Center in Oklahoma City. The work will implement the scenario generator the company developed in the first phase, which will be used for human factors research for air traffic controllers at the center's Civil Aeromedical Institute. The software will speed the ability to make changes in the control sector characteristics for the en route environment, which are now done manually.
Denis Jacob has been appointed senior vice president-air transportation of Montreal-based Transat A.T. Inc. He was president/CEO of Air Transat. Jacob has been succeeded by Allen B. Graham, who was executive vice president-operations and maintenance/chief operating officer.
Boeing is reducing the ``footprint'' of its facilities and real estate within the company's commercial aircraft division by 24% during a six-year program scheduled to be completed in 2004. The reduction to a total of about 50 million sq. ft. would result from eliminating a cross section of facilities at all of the division's operating locations in the U.S. including Wichita, Kan.; Long Beach, Calif.; and the Puget Sound area of Washington state. Some of the reductions have been made possible by new ``lean'' aircraft production techniques.
ITT Industries' Avionics Div. has won a $45-million contract to supply the U.S. Army Special Operations Command with advanced aircraft survivability equipment including the AN/ALQ-211 suite of integrated radio frequency countermeasures.
The U.S. Army is looking to expand its arsenal of UAVs through the addition of unmanned Cobra helicopters, Predator-Bs, A-160 Hummingbirds and other systems. Much of the flurry of UAV activity is focused on experimenting with vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) systems and weaponizing the aircraft. But it also marks a change in the Army's attitude toward these systems from a cautious approach to a much more aggressive demeanor.
Despite the apparent loss of political face, the latest round of bilateral strategic weapons cuts likely will provide welcome respite to elements of the Russian armed forces as they attempt to reshape their respective strategic and sub-strategic arsenals. In the case of the Russian air force's strategic strike capability, it is faced with at least revamping its Kh-55 (NATO code name AS-15 Kent) air-launched cruise missile inventory, the nuclear warheads of which now have a limited shelf life.
Jonathan Lewis Etherton has been promoted to vice president-legislative affairs from assistant vice president for the Washington-based Aerospace Industries Assn. He succeeds Thomas N. Tate, who has retired. Patrick McCartan has become director of legislative affairs. He was manager of communications for KPMG.
George Nacarra has been named federal security director for the Transportation Security Administration at Washington Dulles International Airport, Bruce Botman at Louisville (Ky.) International Airport, Charles Lutz at Orlando (Fla.) International Airport and Edward Gomez at San Francisco International Airport. Nacarra, a retired U.S. Coast Guard rear admiral, was commander of the First Coast Guard District. Botman was a senior executive special agent of the FBI, and Lutz was director of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
