European defense officials are trying to convince their transport colleagues of the strategic importance of the Galileo satellite navigation system in an attempt to sway opinion before the latter meet again in March to vote development funds. Gen. Daniel Gavoty, who heads the space bureau of the French general staff, said senior brass from France, Italy, Spain and other countries have begun the arm-twisting campaign in belated recognition of the impact a negative vote might have on defense cooperation.
After five months of the war on terrorism, munition stocks are running low, aircraft are aging rapidly, and military aviation's safety record is deteriorating. ``Global tasking and the war against terrorism continue to stress our aviation force readiness,'' Navy Secretary Gordon R. England told the Senate Armed Services Committee last week. ``As a result, the F/A-18 has been flown well in excess of planned utilization rates,'' he said. The same is true for SH-60 helicopters, F-14s and other aircraft.
Michael Girps has been named general manager of Jet Aviation Engineering Services, Spring Branch, Tex. He was group leader of systems engineering and acoustics development for Jet Aviation, Basel, Swit- zerland.
Finmeccanica/Alenia Aeronautica is joining Boeing's technology development program, setting the stage for the Mach 0.98 Sonic Cruiser. The Italian group last week signed an agreement involving research in structural materials. Alenia, Boeing's longtime European associate, produces airframe subassemblies for the 717, 757, 767 and 777 twinjets. Nevertheless, it recently signed on as a 4%-risk-sharing partner for Airbus' A380 mega-transport.
In the latest round of ``chicken,'' pitting a major airline against organized labor, unionized mechanics represented by the International Assn. of Machinists last week rejected a contract offer from United Airlines that would have boosted salaries by 37% over the next five years. (The mechanics have gone without a pay raise since 1994.)
MBDA has successfully fired the vertical-launch version of its Mica air-air missile, developed for naval air defense applications. The test firing was intended to validate the VL Mica's fully autonomous firing unit, designed to enable the missile to be installed in small combat vessels such as corvettes. The first units are to be delivered to a Middle Eastern client in 2004. A short-range, land-air defense version is being considered to protect high-security French targets from terrorist attacks.
Chastened by serious cost increases on several space programs, U.S. Air Force officials want to avoid a repeat performance as they develop a new space-based radar.
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe picked a retired three-star Marine general who manages the safety, reliability and quality assurance contract at Johnson Space Center to be the Houston center's new director. Shannon Lucid, one of the nation's most experienced astronauts, will be the agency's new chief scientist.
John Lincoln, an influential expert in the field of aircraft structures, died Feb. 10 in Dayton, Ohio. He was 73. Lincoln was technical adviser for aircraft structural integrity for the Aeronautical Systems Center Engineering Directorate at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. He also initiated and recommended structural research and development activities for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. As chief of the Structures Div., Lincoln directed major structural assessments of every aircraft in the Air Force inventory.
About halfway through its year-long deliberations, the U.S. Aerospace Commission plans to issue an interim report urging the government to restore what industry thought it already had gained--a financially healthy 10-year aviation system modernization program at the FAA, and export control reforms adopted in 2000.
Suzanne K. Chambers has been appointed director of external affairs for Washington-based Arianespace Inc. She was head of business development for Parabon Computation.
Construction projects costing $3-4 billion to refit U.S. airports for the mandated high level of security await a rash of decisions expected in coming months from the just-formed Transportation Security Administration.
Bruce Hitchens, Ray Luce, Chris Vukelich and Michiel Verhaagen have been named to the board of directors of Washington-based Universal Air Travel Plan Inc. Hitchens is manager for Travelcard for Air New Zealand, and Luce is director of multinational sales and revenue program planning for Continental Airlines. Vukelich is general manager for global distribution for British Airways, while Verhaagen is vice president-global business for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.
BOEING WILL UPGRADE THE RADAR ON FRENCH AWACS aircraft to put them on a par with those of the U.S., U.K. and NATO fleets. Baltimore-based Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems, the radar developer, will be principal supplier of the modification kits under subcontract to Boeing. The upgrades will include a new radar computer, radar control maintenance panel and software improvements to the radar and mission system programs. Boeing is scheduled to begin shipping kits for the four aircraft to Air France Industries in the spring of 2004.
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. has delivered the first MH-60S to the U.S. Navy for fleet operations. The Navy Helicopter Master Plan calls for acquisition of up to 237 of the aircraft as part of the service's initiative to reduce the types of rotorcraft in inventory to the MH-60S and -60R. The MH-60S initially will be operated by Helicopter Combat Support Squadron Three based at NAS North Island, Calif., to train pilots and maintenance personnel before entering service this summer with HC-5 operating on Guam.
Rick Armstrong has been appointed vice president/general manager of the Interiors and Structures Div. of the Nordam Group, Tulsa, Okla., and Laura Lundquist group vice president-human resources. Armstrong was vice president/general manager of the Transparency Div. Tom Villani has been promoted to vice president from general manager and Kevin Knowles to director from manager of marketing and customer service of the Nacelle/Thrust Reverser Systems Div.
Boeing and The Insitu Group have agreed to develop a prototype unmanned aerial vehicle based on Insitu's Seascan aircraft. The prototype will be called Scan Eagle. Seascan is a ship-based surveillance platform which has a nearly 10-ft. wingspan and weighs about 33 lb.
Like diners surprised by a higher-than-expected tab, the Miami-Dade County Commission and American Airlines are engaged in a staredown over who'll be first to reach for a credit card. The commission meets next week to review the thorny issue of who's to provide $300 million to cover cost overruns in the construction of Miami International's (MIA) North Terminal (see photo), originally funded for $1.3 billion in 1999.
MD Helicopters expects to deliver 58 new aircraft this year, according to company officials at the Helicopter Assn. International convention in Orlando, Fla., last week. They said the company generated revenues of $133 million in 2001--a 15% increase compared with the previous year--and delivered 28 aircraft, including 20 twin-engine MD Explorers, four MD 500Es, and two each of the MD 600N and 520N. The Mesa, Ariz.-based company recently delivered three armed MD Explorers to the Mexican navy for drug interdiction operations.
Long-suffering planetary scientists who want Pluto to be NASA's next deep-space destination still may get their wish under the space agency's Fiscal 2003 budget request, even though the Bush Administration has left Pluto funding out of the budget for the second year in a row.
Astrium has contracted to build the spacecraft for the European Space Agency's first Earth Explorer opportunity mission, Cryosat. The 140-million-euro ($124-million) mission, to be launched into polar orbit in April 2004 by a Cosmos or Dnepr rocket, will observe the polar ice sheets and ocean ice pack to study their effect on global climate.
The U.S. Air Force is reducing the number of Global Hawks it plans to buy from 63 to 51. The reductions are made possible by upgrading the unmanned aircraft to a multisensor system, program officials said. At the same time the service may ask for an additional Global Hawk in the near-term and boost production to as many as 10 aircraft by 2006.
A U.S. appeals court has rejected arguments by Loral Space and Communications and Space Systems/Loral against an injunction issued by a lower court in New York last spring at the request of Alcatel Space. Alcatel had filed for the injunction following a decision by Loral to terminate a long-standing industrial cooperation agreement with the French company so that it could pursue a possible alliance with Lockheed Martin. A separate Alcatel action before the arbitration court of the International Chamber of Commerce in Geneva has yet to be decided.
Toray Industries and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are collaborating on fabrication technology for composites that they expect will cut manufacturing time and costs by half. Current processing relies on high pressures and high temperatures to mold composite structures. The Toray/MHI process is based on covering carbon-fiber sheets with a plastic film and then sucking air out while injecting resin. Because this technique isn't restricted by the size of a kiln, it can produce larger fabrications than older methods, according to the companies.
European scientists plan to install a commercial camera on the International Space Station using the orbiting lab as a complement for a constellation of small Earth remote sensing spacecraft. The European Space Agency will back Germany's RapidEye AG in the public-private project, which will install a camera to be built by Kayser-Threde, with support from German aerospace center DLR, on the ISS. Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd.
