Wesley G. Bush has been appointed executive vice president-aeronautical systems of TRW Inc. of Cleveland. He was vice president-space and electronics. Alan Baratz and Gregory L. Summe have been named to the TRW board of directors. Baratz is CEO of Zaplet Inc. and former president of the software products and platforms division of Sun Microsystems. Summe is chairman/president/CEO of PerkinElmer Inc.
The Japanese government has approved an environmentally controversial plan to build an airport for civilian and U.S. military use on a coral reef off Nago, a city in the southern island of Okinawa, as a relocation place for Futenma Air Station. A government panel also confirmed that the airport, which will accommodate U.S. Marine Corps helicopter operations now conducted from Futenma in central Okinawa, will have a 2,000-meter (6,560-ft.) runway.
San Diego-based Cubic Applications Inc. has won a follow-on contract valued at up to $63 million to provide technical and general services for the U.S. Joint Forces Command Joint Warfighting Center in Suffolk, Va. Cubic, undr subcontract from TRW Inc., is providing development, production and assessment support for planning, preparation and execution of joint and combined exercises.
ANTS ON THE WALL IS THE DESCRIPTION Titan Systems Corp. uses for its concept of very small autonomous sensors, with self-organizing software, for aviation security. The company's work on ant models is exploring the idea of swarm intelligence. It hopes to overcome some disadvantages of small ``real'' sensors, which can be noisy, give incomplete information, and have difficulty handling complexity. In the ant's-eye view, each cell would have only local knowledge of its state and that of its nearest neighbors.
Karl Gross of the Sandia National Laboratories has received a Young Investigator Award from the U.S. Energy Dept.'s Office of Power Technologies. The award recognizes talents of researchers who are working to advance DOE programs. Gross was cited for his research toward developing new lightweight hydride materials for hydrogen fuel-cell powered vehicles.
Do we have the priorities right in aviation security? We seem to be focusing too much on keeping certain kinds of objects off commercial aircraft--files on nail clippers as well as knives and guns--and not enough on stopping certain kinds of people--terrorists and the dangerously unbalanced. So far, the discussion of security dwells far too much on how to develop and field technology to thwart terrorists. It shortchanges the people aspects of the problem. Maintaining security depends foremost on people--the people on both sides of the screening machines.
The FAA's first revision of last summer's 10-year air traffic control modernization plan shows less impact from the Sept. 11 terrorist hijackings than many in the aviation community might have expected. Will shrunken demand for air travel reduce the urgency of expanding the aviation system's capacity? Only in the short run, and not enough to enable people to rest on their oars, according to Charles Keegan, the FAA's free flight program director, who administers the plan.
Air Force officials keep insisting that Congress should not view their lust for 767 tankers and intelligence-gathering aircraft as a bailout for Boeing. They still have to explain their angling, though. There are currently three acquisition schemes being considered. The most smelly is leasing. The Defense Dept. would have to return the birds to Boeing and then pay to convert them for civil use--a stick in the craw of some legislators. Almost as unrealistic is an outright buy; the service simply doesn't have the up-front money. That leaves lease-to-buy.
Canadian Forces and the Royal Australian Air Force have selected Boeing to develop and delivery integrated maintenance training system for their F/A-18 aircraft, under a three-year, $32-million contract. Boeing will work with Atlantis Systems International.
Startup Phuket Air became the sixth airline in Thailand and the fourth with rights to operate international flights. Vikrom Aisiri, who owns the airline, said it is beginning operations with one Boeing 737-300, but a second 737 is scheduled to enter service this month with three more operating by midyear. Initial flights are centered on South Thailand, but permission has been granted for Phuket Air to serve Malaysia, and Aisiri is seeking rights to serve Myanmar, Singapore and China.
SEEKING MATERIALS TO HARDEN aircraft against explosions and projectiles, the Oak Ridge (Tenn.) National Laboratory has evaluated two protective composite materials, Spectra and PBO polymeric fiber. The tests first examined their ability to withstand a fire in the cabin, and then ballistic resistance. Spectra has been used for some time for bullet-proof vests, but needed a flame barrier on the outside to pass the flame test. PBO, used in Army helmets, was denser and stronger and did not burn.
Ken Marshall has been named vice president-vendor operations for Delta AirElite Business Jets. He was vice president-inflight services and corporate safety for Comair.
Anthony Graham has been promoted to manager from director of training of FlightSafety International's LaGuardia Learning Center. George Ferito has been promoted to assistant manager from director of training of the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport Learning Center.
Pressing U.S. airport security requirements are igniting a surge in explosives-detection systems demand, which may swell the number of players competing in this long-dormant market.
Zacarias Moussaoui, 33, a French citizen and the first person indicted as an accomplice to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, told a federal judge in Virginia on Jan. 2, ``In the name of Allah, I do not have anything to plead,'' a response his lawyer said meant ``not guilty.'' Moussaoui, who Attorney General John Ashcroft has called an active participant with the 19 hijackers, will face six counts of conspiracy, four of which carry the death penalty. Jury selection is scheduled to begin in September with the trial slated for Oct. 14.
Washington Reagan National Airport, beginning the third phase of restoring flight operations curtailed for security improvements, will regain all of its pre-Sept. 11 nonstop destinations and more than three-quarters of its flight operations by spring. But US Airways, National's biggest airline and the main beneficiary of the latest restorations, is drawing opposition to its attempt to launch service to Bermuda.
Novatel Inc. and Raytheon have signed a long-term, multi-phase follow-on contract for development of GPS receivers to be used in Raytheon's next-generation satellite-based landing system.
Jupiter's moon Io does not have its own magnetic field despite the presence of a molten iron core, according to the latest measurements by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Galileo spacecraft.
As pressure mounts on federal regulators to begin the Herculean task of outfitting more than 400 airports with thousands of checked baggage explosive detection systems (EDS), equipment manufacturers and some members of Congress are asking whether easing the federal guidelines might help.
Xenon-fueled solar-electric thrusters will give a newly selected NASA spacecraft enough maneuverability to explore two large protoplanets in the Asteroid Belt. The probe could answer questions about the processes that formed Earth and the other inner planets and perhaps supply data that can be used in the search for planets around other stars.
A Global Hawk unmanned aircraft, one of two being used by the U.S. Air Force in operations over Afghanistan, was destroyed while attempting to land in the United Arab Emirates near the end of a combat reconnaissance mission. The Dec. 30 crash was not a result of combat damage, say military officials.
Russia closed the year with a record volume of revenues from foreign arms sales, and expects to do even better in 2002. Alexander Denisov, first deputy head of the Commission on Military and Technical Cooperation with Foreign Countries, said last month that arms sales would exceed $4 billion, noting that late payments on previous deliveries could add $1 billion to this figure.
Northrop Grumman has reached a $440-million settlement with Honeywell in a long-standing legal issue between Honeywell and Litton Industries. Northrop Grumman acquired Litton last April. The dispute involved lawsuits filed in 1990 against Honeywell by Litton which accused Honeywell of patent infringement and illegal monopolization of the inertial reference system market for commercial transports and regional and corporate aircraft. Northrop Grumman officials said the agreement resolved the matter.
