Honeywell is targeting hundreds of 10-20-year-old high-end business jets for facelifts. The avionics manufacturer's quest will accelerate this month with the expected FAA approval of the retrofit hardware and installation package for integrated attitude and navigation cockpit displays and inflight e-mail and satellite television upgrades for the cabin.
James McQueeney has been appointed vice president/general manager and Jeff Barger director of finance for the Oklahoma City and Mexicali, Mexico, facilities of the Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. Dan O'Malley has been named general manager of the Mexicali site. McQueeney was director of production at the Savannah, Ga., facility, and Barger was corporate financial controller for operations. O'Malley was senior manager of the composite manufacturing unit in Savannah.
The global climate for expansion of business aviation is cooling compared with recent years as concerns about a soft world economy persist, driving down demand for products and services across all segments of the industry.
Tom Hall has become vice president-sales and marketing for Thales Computers, Raleigh, N.C. He was president/CEO of PEP Modular Computers of Pittsburgh.
Chris Bade has become vice-president operations for Raytheon Commercial Electronics, Lexington, Mass. He was vice president-strategic planning and business development.
Aero Services Executive, a French charter operator based at Le Bourget near Paris, has taken delivery of an Airbus Corporate Jetliner (ACJ) and plans to fly the airplane nonstop from France to New Orleans for the National Business Aviation Assn. convention Sept. 18-20.
John Schiefen has been promoted to product support manager from manager of government sales for Unison Industries, Jacksonville, Fla. Brian Wenzel has been appointed marketing communications manager.
India put its air force and other military units on a high state of alert, fearful that it too could be subject to terrorist raids similar to those carried out in the U.S. last week. The fears of Indian government officials were fueled by a statement by Osama bin Laden comparing the plight of Muslims in Indian-controlled Kashmir to that of the Palestinians in their battle with Israel. Indian air force radar operators are told to keep a watch on suspicious activities, with fighters on alert to intercept aircraft, an air force official said.
Boeing's planned Sonic Cruiser transport aircraft will be built essentially from composite materials and titanium, and probably have little aluminum structure in its high-speed design, according to the program manager.
The Telecom Company of Iran (TCI) says financing and licensing for a Ku-band telecom satellite to provide voice, television and data services to the Middle East and Central Asia is complete and the project ready to progress. According to M.H. Entezari, TCI board member, the 12-transponder, high-power Zohreh project has lined up the Iran Broadcasting, the Central Bank of Iran, oil and gas companies and service providers as its main partners. However, Entezari declined to say when the spacecraft would be contracted or launched.
Dan Buzz has been promoted to vice president-modifications and completions from engineering assistant manager for systems and equipment for the Lincoln, Neb., facility of Duncan Aviation.
American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757 loaded with enough fuel for a transcontinental journey, cleared the crest of a small ridge in Arlington, Va., by a few hundred feet with its engines wailing. It slightly lowered its nose, clipped trees and parking lot light poles, and then hit the Pentagon like a torpedo--at ground level and almost perpendicular to the outside wall.
The death and ruin rained on U.S. military and commercial interests last week herald more of the same, because mass-casualty terrorism is a cheap and simple way for an enemy to take America to war without frontally engaging its superpower might, international security experts agree.
Raytheon Aircraft Co.'s Premier I business jet offers operators performance, cabin comfort and mission flexibility in a package that strives to redefine the entry-level segment.
Congress moved quickly to push through a $40-billion emergency spending package to cover the cost of the terror attack, doubling the White House proposal with scarcely a mention of the dwindling surplus. The extra funds, added at the request of the New York delegation, will go to aid victims' families and pay for the recovery effort. The remaining $20 billion will be a first installment on security upgrades and possibly retaliation for the attack, although lawmakers were considering separate legislation endorsing the use of force.
A Lockheed Martin Athena 1 is set to launch a flock of small satellites from Alaska's Kodiak Launch Complex Sept. 17. If successful, it will mark the first time the state-owned facility has sent spacecraft into Earth orbit. Dubbed Kodiak Star, the four-satellite payload consists of three U.S. Defense Dept. satellites--the PICOsat technology demonstrator, the PCSat position locator built by midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy, and the Sapphire infrared sensor testbed, as well as NASA's Starshine satellite.
U.S. government suspicion centered on Saudi exile Osama bin Laden in the opening days of the World Trade Center/Pentagon terrorism investigation, but other Islamic fundamentalist groups and seven terrorist states are at least nominal suspects as well. In addition to individual terrorist cells and networks, the seven nations named on the State Dept.'s list of state sponsors of international terrorism comprise Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Cuba.
David Shih (see photo) has been appointed vice president-manufacturing operations for the Raytheon Aircraft Co., Wichita, Kan. He was vice president-manu- facturing and six sigma at Raytheon Aircraft Integration Systems, Greenville, Tex.
James R. Gannett, a commercial transport aircraft test pilot for Boeing from 1954-83, will be one of five people inducted into the Aerospace Walk of Honor in Lancaster, Calif., on Sept. 22.Two of the honorees will be inducted posthumously: Carl A. Bellinger, who helped design and test the P-47, set a speed recod in the F-84B and made the first flight of the XF-91 Thunderceptor; and USAF Col. (ret.) Frank T. Birk, who was chief B-1B test pilot at Strategic Air Command headquarters and commander of the B-2 Combined Test Force at Edwards AFB, Calif.
Mexico will require 391 new aircraft worth $21 billion in the next 20 years, according to Boeing's annual forecast for the commercial airplane market, an increase over last year's predictions. Mexico represents one-fifth of the predicted requirement for Latin America through 2020--2,012 aircraft worth $104 billion. Boeing is forecasting that about 86% of all aircraft delivered to Mexico will be single-aisle aircraft such as the 717, 737 and 757; 6%, wide-body aircraft such as the 767 and 777; and the remaining 8%, regional jets.
Fokker Services Asia (FSA) based at Seletar Airport in Singapore has received JAR 145 repair station approval to perform routine and heavy maintenance on ATR 42/72 turboprop regional transports, adding to the company's role as the primary provider of support for Fokker airplanes in Southeast Asia.
U.S. Rep. Saxby Chambliss says he no longer objects to the Air Force transferring B-1 bombers out of the Air National Guard. The quid pro quo is the shift of Georgia ANG B-1 crews into new roles as operators of E-8 Joint-STARS ground surveillance radar aircraft, which also are based at Robins AFB, Ga. ``I am very pleased with the news that the Air Force has kept its promise to provide a new mission for the 116th Bomb Wing,'' Chambliss (R-Ga.) said.
Logicon is working to further automate protection of Defense Dept. computer networks from attacks over the Internet. Under a two-year contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in Rome, N.Y., the company is applying familiar artificial intelligence buzzwords like fuzzy logic and neural networks to automate the manual review of intrusion reports and event logs to give system operators a near-real-time picture of an unfolding coordinated attack.
It's one of the toughest problems facing the military's GPS community: how to assure that the relatively weak GPS signals can get through when they are being subjected to an adversary's jamming.
Israel plans to buy another 52 F-16 fighters built to Block 50+ configuration in addition to 50 of the jets ordered in January 2000. According to Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Fort Worth, the two-seat aircraft will be powered by Pratt&Whitney F100-PW-229 engines and feature electronics/ avioncs produced in Israel. The agreement includes logistics support and training, and is worth $2 billion, of which $1.3 billion is for aircraft. The acquistion marks the sixth time Israel has acquired F-16s.
