Pinpointing the cause of the Dash failure was a relief for the H-IIA program and helped gain it a customer. Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and its Meteorological Agency appear likely to designate the H-IIA as the launcher for their replacement MT-SAT weather and air traffic control satellite in the summer of 2003. Naturally, the Transport Ministry wanted the Loral-built spacecraft to be launched by a Japanese rocket, but held an Ariane in reserve while the H-IIA proved itself.
Even though the Arthur Andersen/Enron debacle has exposed the pitfalls of conflicts of interest, the Pentagon doesn't seem to think it's such a bad idea. After all, the Missile Defense Agency last week awarded Boeing and Lockheed Martin contracts for heading the Missile Defense National Team that will help guide the future direction of missile defense efforts. Both companies have deep financial interests in the field, but Pentagon officials contend the contractors will oversee architecture issues and have no say in who eventually develops the anti-missile shield.
The vertical stabilizer fell from an Airbus A300-600R on the morning of Nov. 12, 2001. Why the tail sheared off in flight shortly after American Airlines Flight 587 departed New York JFK International Airport remains the focus of intense investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. The FAA last week released transcripts of ground, local and New York departure controllers' exchanges with flight crews operating out of JFK International at the time of the accident. No new accident data was revealed.
Immediately after the terrorist attacks on Washington and New York, airlines and airport operators throughout the world stepped up security. Asia was no different. Although authorities across the region assert that their security met the industry's highest standards before the attacks, many have made more of a public show of reminding passengers of the need for strict security since the attacks. A greater presence of armed guards has been evident, although armed guards were more prevalent in many Asian countries before the attacks than they were in the U.S.
A Sukhoi Su-24 Fencer was reported missing Feb.19 by the Russian air force when the aircraft failed to return from a training flight. The Fencer was being flown over the Pskov region near the border with Estonia over thinly populated forest region.
In a surprise move, Air China is looking for a foreign strategic partner as it prepares for a listing on the Hong Kong and New York stock exchanges next year. Airline officials did not say how much foreign investment they are seeking, but the goal is to make the stake a part of the carrier's privatization plan. The intent is to make the listing more attractive to investors.
Vistagy Inc.'s FiberSIM software, which is widely used to design and produce composite parts, has found its first application in a maintenance, repair and overhaul operation. The Delta Technical Operations Center of the Atlanta-based carrier will use it for evaluating and repairing composite parts for its fleet of 588 aircraft. The software will be applied to such activities as overhauling and testing the part and producing repair details--processes that are now heavily dependent on manual work. Delta is interested in offering its composite repair capability to others.
France has launched a program to add a long-range naval cruise missile capability to its family of air-launched standoff weapons in a move designed to enhance Europe's deep-strike capability. The goal is to develop naval variants of existing air-launched weapons for France's future multimission frigates and its new Barracuda-class nuclear submarine fleet.
Emcore Corp. has picked up the solar cell business of Tecstar Inc. in a $21-million bankruptcy sale, enabling it to add solar panels and cover interconnect cells (ICI) to its product line. The Somerset, N.J.-based semiconductor manufacturer already builds a radiation hard solar cell with a beginning efficiency of 27.5%. The sale is subject to approval of the Delaware Bankruptcy Court judge overseeing the Chapter 11 reorganization of Tecstar, which has provided spacecraft solar panels for the past 40 years.
During the first weekend of the Winter Olympics, U.S. Air Force Reserve F-16 fighters intercepted three aircraft that had strayed into an expanded 45-mi. ``no-fly'' zone around the venue near Salt Lake City. North American Aerospace Defense (Norad) command officials said the intrusions and intercepts were ``low-key events, with no malicious intent.'' In two cases, private jets had not received proper FAA clearance to enter the special airspace. No details were available about the third incident, but it was considered benign.
Flight privileges will be restored by month's end for hundreds of general aviation pilots at three small Washington area airports under a measure endorsed last week by President Bush. The lofty approval process--a seemingly local issue requiring the nod of the commander-in-chief--signifies the concern at the highest government levels raised by the airports' nearness to what one FAA official called ``the constitutional assets of the U.S.''
Guy Johnson has been named executive vice president-sales and marketing and Larry Pesce vice president-product management and strategic planning for New York-based Sirius Satellite Radio. Johnson was senior vice president-sales and product management for the Americas and Pesce general manager of business development, both for Thomson Multimedia.
In an abrupt reversal of course, American Airlines and British Airways have given up their quest for transatlantic antitrust immunity and will try to develop their alliance further, however less profitably, without it. Bowing to a convergence of setbacks, the partners asked the U.S. Transportation Dept. Feb. 13 to dismiss their immunity application. Only eight days earlier, they had opposed--successfully--virtually the same motion from Continental, Delta and Northwest airlines, which fought the application every step of the way.
The battle by U.S. defense giant Lockheed Martin to further cordon off its present share of the European fighter market moved closer to reality on Feb. 9 with the Netherlands decision to opt for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The determination was a body blow to Europe's indigenous fighter manufacturers, who had hoped to loosen Lockheed Martin's grip on its present European F-16 customers.
Arthur Lucas has been named senior vice president-engineering for Pratt&Whitney, East Hartford, Conn. He was senior vice president-research and engineering for Bell Helicopter. Lucas succeeds David E. Crow, who is retiring.
MITRE CORP. HAS ACQUIRED A LICENSE for its fourth Total Airspace&Airport Modeler (Taam), used for fast, gate-to-gate simulation, from Boeing subsidiary Preston Aviation Solutions in Melbourne, Australia. Taam is widely used by civil aviation authorities and research establishments, like Mitre, to analyze operations, redesign airspace, optimize the use of existing facilities and plan for the future.
America's leading aerospace and defense companies are back at it in their perennial lobbying campaign for easier and simpler controls on military exports. The CEOs of 39 companies, including Boeing and Raytheon, are pressing the White House to get behind their drive to speed up the ongoing review of the Munitions List, and impose strict export curbs only on technologies that are truly crucial to the preservation of national security.
The standoff between India and Pakistan continues to perturb U.S. intelligence officials, who fear the situation could explode into armed conflict that might escalate into the use of nuclear weapons.
SAAB WILL BE USING A SILICON GRAPHICS INC. Onyx 3400 graphics system to improve its presentation and maneuvering simulator for the JAS 39 Gripen fighter aircraft. The simulator in Linkoping, Sweden, is used in development work on the human-machine interface, with the goal of improving the flight experience of pilots during future upgrades. The Gripen is the first fourth-generation multirole fighter in service worldwide, according to Saab.
The war on terror and Pentagon-induced turmoil are once again creating a stir in the military's unmanned aircraft community. The Marine Corps now plans to send its Pioneer unmanned aircraft to the Afghan conflict, to complement the Air Force's Predator and Global Hawk UAVs and provide the first truly tactical system. Also, the Air Force wants to add the LR-100 electronic intelligence payload to all its Global Hawks to help find targets. The lone aircraft equipped with the subsystem crashed.
A 250,000-lb.-thrust hybrid propellant rocket motor, using both solid fuel and liquid oxygen oxidizer, fires at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi during a mid-January test. The project is a joint effort between NASA and industry to develop safer solid propellant systems that remain inert until liquid oxygen is injected at the time of firing. Current solid rocket motors for both space launch and tactical and ballistic missiles must be handled carefully and protected against static electricity because the fuel and oxidizer are an inherent part of the propellant grain.
Researchers using the orbiting Chandra X-ray telescope have imaged a million-light-year-long gas jet erupting from the turbulence surrounding a supermassive black hole at the center of the quasar PKS 1127-145 (see image). At the same time, absorption of X-rays from the quasar by an intervening galaxy has allowed a separate research team to calculate the amount of oxygen in that distant galaxy when the Sun was being formed.
Like many single moms, Lanee Walsh held an office job. Then, in 1993 she was laid off from her marketing position. She had three children at home, no skill to fall back on and the need to get on a different track in terms of work and career.
EADS Co-CEO Philippe Camus has confirmed that talks are ongoing with Finmeccanica to establish a modified version of their planned aeronautical joint venture, Emac, encompassing only military aircraft activities. Speaking at the Davos World Economic Forum in New York, Camus said an agreement on the new setup is still ``several weeks'' away. The initial plan, which also included Finmeccanica's civil aerostructures and cargo conversion work, was modified following the civil aviation crisis.
