The European Space Agency's Rosetta comet probe is set to begin environmental testing. Rosetta, due to be launched in January 2003 to the comet 46P/Wirtanen, completed integration at the Alenia Spazio assembly facility in Turin earlier this month. Alenia is responsible for assembly, integration and testing of the 3-metric-ton (6,600-lb.) spacecraft, under subcontract to Astrium.
Northrop Grumman has logged the first flight of a prototype EA-6B upgraded with the ICAP-III electronic warfare suite. With the Prowler scheduled to serve through 2015, an enhanced electronic attack capability was required to better jam higher and lower frequency radar and communications. The new system is better able to focus jamming power. It also has the ability to follow the abrupt changes employed by frequency hopping radars, and is to be operational by 2005.
Japan's major aerospace manufacturers expect a 20-30% decline in manufacturing revenues beginning next year as an aftershock from the U.S. terrorism attacks. The cutback in orders from Boeing is the largest contributing factor. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Japan's largest aerospace manufacturer, is forecasting a 10-billion-yen ($83-million) decline in the value of its aerospace orders through the end of fiscal 2001 next March, as is Kawasaki Heavy Industries.
Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has won a key parliamentary victory that will allow the country to take an active military role in international conflicts outside of Europe for the first time since World War II.
Whitehall has no equivalent to Washington's homeland security program, but Sept. 11 convinced the U.K. that the defense of aviation against terrorism must be globalized as never before, so that domestic and international air security are a seamless whole.
Government agencies responsible for fighting terrorism on U.S. soil and abroad have turned to the national laboratories in search of new technologies for their arsenals. However, none of those agencies appears to have embraced a broad systems approach that could solve critical homeland security problems.
This orthorectified radar image of Washington Dulles International Airport is an example of how the company's imagery can be used to identify major features of interest to homeland security planning, such as runways, roads, structures, water bodies and other infrastructure. Such imagery gives agencies involved in homeland security a database of all major public and private infrastructure that is susceptible to terrorist action. The company is preparing to re-map the continental U.S.
ESA is also getting ready to begin integrating the first structural and thermal model of the Automated Transfer Vehicle, a spacecraft intended to ferry supplies to the International Space Station and to periodically reboost the facility to higher orbit. The service module for the ATV was delivered at Astrium's Bremen, Germany, facility on Nov. 12. After mating with the cargo module, handed over by Alenia in July, the test model will undergo 11 months of acoustic, thermal and vibration tests.
The third Paris international airport, tentatively scheduled for completion by 2015, will be located at Chaulnes, 80 mi. north of the nation's capital. The French government's decision to proceed with the $6.5-billion investment is far from ending a long-running dispute. Moreover, the Chaulnes project is so controversial it might not survive presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for the second quarter of 2002.
Polly Prelinger has been promoted to senior vice president-marketing from vice president-aircraft marketing for the JetFleet Management Corp., Burlingame, Calif.
The U.S. Air Force successfully completed a critical flight test of the AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile that should clear the way for the program to start low-rate production. But the development still has several challenges ahead that could overshadow the program and jeopardize its fielding.
Veridicom and Key Source International have developed an all-in-one keyboard that includes biometric fingerprint sensors to verify both airline personnel and passenger identities. The keyboard includes an optical scanner that helps automate passport and airline ticket procedures at check-in counters. The keyboard has a slot for scanning biometrically equipped frequent-flier cards to verify passengers' identification by matching their fingerprint data against the airline's frequent-flier database.
Meanwhile, the Japanese government said it has had to postpone launch of MTSAT (Multipurpose Transport Satellite) because of development delays from Space Systems/Loral, its U.S. maker. It was to be launched with Adeos-IIA as part of next March's mission. The goal was to get it in operation as quickly as possible as a successor to the Himawari V weather satellite, which has surpassed its expected lifetime.
Developed as a defense against bomb blasts, explosions and flying glass, BlastGARD is adhered to the interior side of the window using adhesive. The polyester material makes the glass stronger and nearly impenetrable to small ballistic attacks, according to the company. In the event of a major explosion, BlastGARD helps hold the glass fragments together, preventing flying shards of glass from becoming projectiles. The product also absorbs shock waves, cushioning and dispersing the impact to the window frame.
New ``paradigms'' for air travel will most likely be set in the aftermath of Sept. 11, the president of Embraer told the Aero Club. Mauricio Botelho, CEO of the Brazilian airframer, says people will prefer to fly point-to-point, avoiding big airports and the discomfort caused by additional security measures. He also sees it likely that frequency will supplant capacity on a large number of routes. That would boost the growth of regional jets, which Embraer just happens to build.
Swissair Group, in an intense effort to keep the ailing airline flying, sold its 49.9% stake in German charter operator LTU to Stadtsparkasse Duesseldorf, a partly state-owned savings bank, for 1 euro (89 cents). Swissair Group has been operating under protection from creditors since Oct. 4 and is in the process of being dismantled under the auspices of two Swiss courts. When Swissair could not fulfill its original commitment to back LTU losses, LTU came days away from bankruptcy.
NASA's Genesis probe (shown) will begin collecting samples of solar wind particles this week for eventual return to Earth, having achieved a halo orbit around the L-1 Lagrange point on Nov. 16. A 268-sec. thruster burn sent the $260-million spacecraft into orbit around the imaginary point about 1 million mi. from Earth where the gravity of the Sun cancels that of Earth. It will spend about 29 months there collecting atoms, ions and high-energy particles in hexagonal plates of silicon, germanium, diamond film and other materials picked for their chemical properties.
Joanne Smith has been named vice president-marketing and planning and Chuck Thomson vice president-human resources and labor relations for Chicago-based DHL Airways Inc.
Wolfgang Didszuhn, Airbus' vice president-product integrity, has received the Whittle Safety Award from the International Federation of Airworthiness on behalf of the company's international airworthiness and safety cooperation team.
United Airlines' plan for outside investors to finance future aircraft purchases by its Avolar fractional-ownership business jet subsidiary (AW&ST Nov. 5, p. 39) includes the transfer of a majority interest in Avolar to the investors, United parent UAL Corp. said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. UAL's board authorized up to $250 million in spending last March, and Avolar has agreements with Gulfstream and Dassault Falcon Jet to buy 82 aircraft. Deliveries begin next year.
Dean Ward (see photo) has become manager of the Parts Distribution Group of Hartzell Propeller Inc., Piqua, Ohio. He was manager of customer service of the company's factory service center.
