Marion Clifton Blakey was sworn in last week as the ninth chair of the National Transportation Safety Board. For the last eight years, she has been principal of a Washington public affairs consulting firm, Blakey&Associates, that focused on transportation issues. Blakey has held positions in several government departments and agencies, including the Transportation Dept.'s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, where she was administrator in 1992-93, and the Commerce and Education Depts.
U.S. Navy officials last week accepted the first full-rate-production F/A-18 Super Hornet--a two-seat F model that will be delivered to NAS Patuxent River, Md. It is also the first Super Hornet equipped with the Joint Helmet-Mounted Cueing System. The technology lets aircrews aim weapons and sensors by looking at targets. So far, 63 F/A-18E/Fs have been delivered to the Navy, including FVA-115, the first operational Super Hornet squadron.
Alliance Spacesystems, a mechanical systems house located in Pasadena, Calif., has won a $6.7-million contract from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to design and build four robotic arms for NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission scheduled for launch in 2003. The contract calls for five-degree-of-freedom Instrument Deployment Devices that will be incorporated into the mission's two rovers, which are scheduled to reach Mars early in 2004.
After the events of Sept. 11, there have been rumors that, pick one: the Joint Strike Fighter will be slowed (to siphon off money for the war on terrorism) or accelerated (because more defense money will be available). Don't bet on either. What's more, acquisition czar Pete Aldridge informs Senate Armed Services Committee chief Carl Levin (D-Mich.) that the Pentagon plans to go ahead with its winner-take-all strategy for the JSF. Here's why: to change now would add a 6-9 month delay and cost $500 million-$1 billion more.
President Bush's action plan to fortify cockpits and federalize airport security will begin with an immediate $500-million fund to pay for modifications to 7,100 commercial aircraft, and a call-up of the National Guard in all 50 states to augment security staff at each of the nation's 420 commercial passenger airports.
The House of Representatives finished its version of the Fiscal 2002 defense authorization bill last week with a lopsided 398-17 vote that reflected the wave of unity generated by the terrorism emergency. Of the $343 billion total, about $6 billion is for Pentagon counter-terror programs, including force protection and intelligence. This is in addition to the emergency military spending the White House has begun to release in response to the Sept. 11 hijacking blitz (see p. 32).
Snecma is wagering that high-quality, low-cost Russian engineering talent can help launch a new engine into the crowded lower end of the turbofan sector. Designated the SM146, the 12,000-15,000-lb.-thrust-class engine is intended for the regional and large business jet market, which is expected to be the most active part of the commercial air transport business over the next 20 years.
Rajeev Bhalla has been appointed vice president/controller of the Lockheed Martin Corp., Bethesda, Md. He succeeds Christopher E. Kubasik, who is now chief financial officer. Bhalla was a partner with PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
Need a surplus rotary-wing power train component? Government Liquidation LLC, a subsidiary of Liquidation.com, working in partnership with the Defense Logistics Agency's Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service, has launched www.govliquidation.com to dispose of material no longer needed by the Defense Dept. The Web site offers usable, nonhazardous, non-demilitarized surplus fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft parts, aircraft APUs, turbine and piston engine components, and ground support and maintenance equipment for aircraft.
Restraints on visual flight rules operations in the U.S., mandated in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks in the U.S., are taking a severe economic toll on segments of the general aviation industry.
Eclipse Aviation Corp., which is now cutting metal for its proposed Eclipse 500 jet, received an order for 1,000 of the aircraft from Nimbus Group. The startup company plans to use them to operate air taxi services in North and South America. The order is backed by an equity investment ``in the tens of millions of dollars'' by Nimbus, Eclipse President and CEO Vern Raburn said. Some flexibility in contractual terms was granted, but the equity investment does not represent a discount off the $837,500 price at which the Eclipse 500 is being offered to customers.
Lufthansa Technik has selected Mint Assistant software for training and scheduling applications. . . . Boeing said it is using PTC's Windchill for collaborative development of its Joint Strike Fighter candidate.
Thomas Conroy has been appointed vice president-national intelligence program development for Logicon Inc., Herndon, Va. He was deputy director for national support for the National Recon- naissance Office.
BAE Systems and the former Defense Evaluation and Research Agency, now called QinetiQ, have teamed to work on future unmanned aircraft and intelligence gathering. The UAV portion will concentrate on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems, electronic warfare applications, and aircraft command and control. Mission planning and image exploitation are also scheduled. The teaming is an attempt to marry R&D work done by QinetiQ during its DERA days with the global marketing apparatus BAE Systems has established.
Star Airlines, a French startup charter operator, is ready to begin serving three destinations in the Caribbean with leased Airbus A330-200 long-haul twinjets. They will be operated in a 363-seat high-density cabin configuration. Star, which currently operates five A320s, seeks to acquire more business in the wake of AOM/Air Liberte's decision to abandon most of its long-haul services to focus on domestic routes.
Bernard L. Han has become executive vice president/chief financial officer for both the America West Holdings Corp. and America West Airlines. He was senior vice president-marketing and planning for the airline. Stephen L. Johnson has been named executive vice president-corporate and J. Scott Kirby has been appointed executive vice president-sales and marketing. Johnson was senior vice president/ chief administrative officer, while Kirby was senior vice president-ebusiness.
U.S. airlines are bracing for a momentous shift in traditional ways of doing business, even to banning meals requiring knives and forks, as new and stricter security regulations are enforced in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Julie E. Silcock and Joseph L. Manson, 3rd, have been named to the board of directors of the Mesa Air Group. Silcock is Dallas-based managing director and head of Southwest U.S. investment banking for Salomon Smith Barney, while Manson is a lawyer with the Washington firm of Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand.
In selecting the Gripen as its future fighter, Hungary has handed Saab and BAE Systems a key win in the competition to provide tactical aircraft to central European countries with limited defense budgets. The Hungarian military wants to lease 14 fighters currently in service with the Swedish air force. The deal would make Hungary the first NATO customer for the Swedish-built fighter. The aircraft are to replace the aging MiG-29A/UB force left over from the days when Hungary was part of the Warsaw Pact.
Ultimately, it will be passengers who restore U.S. and international airlines and related aerospace companies to some level of financial stability. While there are numerous government and industry proposals on the table for dealing with the devastation of Sept. 11, and to provide security from future terrorist attacks, it will be the restoration of confidence in air travel that will ensure the future of the U.S. air transportation system.
OPTICAL AIR DATA SYSTEMS WILL DEMONSTRATE a Lidar airspeed sensor for the V-22 aircraft in April 2002. It is designed to improve V-22 low-speed safety by helping Navy/Marine Corps pilots avoid regimes conducive to the formation of vortex ring state, which was considered a factor in a fatal crash on Apr. 8, 2000. It should also help avoid turbulence and wind shear. The 1.5-micron eye-safe laser system projects beams 150-200 ft. into the atmosphere from three fixed, non-orthogonally oriented lenses, computing the three velocity components from the returns.
The Omani government has selected British Airports Authority over six competing teams to privatize operations at two of its airports--Seeb, near the capital, Muscat; and Salalah, in the south of the country. BAA is teamed with Oman's Suhail Bahwan Group and ABB Equity Ventures. The team will hold a 75% stake (BAA, 25%; Suhail Bahwan Group, 35%; and ABB, 15%) in a new company that will have a 25-year agreement to develop the airports. The remaining 25% stake will be held by the government. The new company plans a $195-million investment to develop the facilities.
NASA Ames Research Center has finished a six-month test of software that brings airliner flight deck data to automated air traffic management systems. The en route data exchange (EDX) software was installed in 48 United Airlines Boeing 777s, using the aircraft's modern avionics and advanced datalink to bring information like flight plan, speed, weight and weather down to the FAA's Center-Tracon Automation System (CTAS) at the Denver Air Route Traffic Control Center.
