Arianespace successfully orbited the Intelsat 902 telecom satellite on Aug. 30 from Kourou, French Guiana. The launch, by an Ariane 4, had been delayed one week for additional checks on the Space Systems/Loral-built spacecraft. The next Ariane mission, on Sept. 25, will orbit Eutelsat's Atlantic Bird 2. Intelsat 902 is a Space Systems/Loral FS 1300 with 72 C-band and 22 Ku-band operating transponders. It will be placed at 62 deg. E. Long. to serve Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
Dennis D. Fitzgerald has been named deputy director of the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office. He succeeds David A. Kier, who is retiring. Fitzgerald was associate deputy director of the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology.
Curtis C. Fatig of the Orbital Sciences Corp. is one of six industry or academic employees at the Goddard Space Flight Center to receive NASA Public Service Medals. He was honored for work on the Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission Test Effort as was Thomas Pfarr of the Computer Sciences Corp. The other recipients are: Donald R. Baker of NSI Technology Services Inc., for structural dynamics and data analysis; Kannappan Palanippan of the University of Missouri, for scientific visualization tools; Richard E.
Capt. David S. Bushy, senior vice president-flight operations for Delta, has been named vice president of the Council of Aviation Accreditation, which evaluates aviation programs at U.S. colleges and universities.
Michael C.Y. Niu has been named a senior specialist for Advanced Aerodynamics and Structures Inc., Long Beach, Calif. He also is president of the AD Airframe Consulting Co.
Paul Kaminski has been appointed to the board of directors of Eagle-Picher Industries of Cincinnati. He is chairman/ CEO of Technovation Inc., senior partner in Global Technology Partners and a former under secretary of Defense for acquisition and technology.
Douglas A. Carty has become senior vice president/chief financial officer of Atlas Air, Purchase, N.Y. He held those posts at Canadian Airlines International.
The Aug. 24 shutdown of both 71,000-lb.-thrust Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines on an Air Transat Airbus A330-200 transiting the Atlantic Ocean stunned industry--and promptly stirred regulators, airlines and manufacturers to action, initiating engine and fuel system inspections and probes of training and maintenance practices. In the wake of the near-catastrophic event, flight safety experts can be expected to revisit all aspects of extended twin-engine overwater operations.
A Grumman S-2T air tanker drops retardant on a 1,500-acre brushfire about 20 mi. northwest of Los Angeles on Aug. 27 (left). The blaze destroyed a house and resulted in about 100 families evacuating their homes in the Castaic area. The same day in Northern California, two S-2 aircraft operating north of San Francisco collided about 6:55 p.m. PDT while battling a wildfire in the vicinity of Ukiah, killing both pilots (right).
U.S. Customs Service agents have arrested two men on charges linked to an alleged scheme to acquire and ship sensitive encryption devices to China. The devices, identified as the KIV-7HS, are among the most sensitive items on the U.S. munitions list. They are produced by Rainbow Mykotronx, a small Torrance, Calif., company that manufactures network security products for both government and industry. The KIV-7HS is a compact, high-performance communications security device specifically designed to meet PC users' needs for secure data communication links.
Raytheon Australia completed the prototype installation of a crash data recorder (CDR) in a Royal Australian Navy (RAN) Sea King helicopter as part of its contract to design, integrate and install the system in that aircraft as well as in RAN Seahawks. The CDR includes a cockpit voice recorder and crash position indicator.
David E. Berges has been named chairman/CEO of the Hexcel Corp. He succeeds the late John J. Lee. Berges was president of the Honeywell Automotive Products Group.
U.K.-BASED OXLEY AVIONICS HAS DEVELOPED light emitting diodes (LEDs) for navigation lights on military aircraft that come NVG (night vision goggle)-friendly for viewing with NVGs, or infrared for NVG covert formation flying. They can be incorporated in the same housing as the standard red, green or white visible lights, or mounted separately. The EZELED system replaces filament bulbs with LED, without requiring any aircraft wiring changes and plugs into the existing bayonet fittings in the aircraft's navigation lights.
THE U.S. AIR FORCE RESEARCH LABORATORY in Rome, N.Y., has selected Northrop Grumman to develop real-time information and systems recovery for distributed command and control (C2) systems, such as air traffic control and air defense. The third award in the Air Force's data resiliency in information warfare (DRIW) program, DRIW2's goals are to demonstrate the technology is applicable for distributed systems and to reduce the amount of data and time required to reconstitute a network.
The loss of a Predator unmanned aircraft over southern Iraq has been declared a ``combat loss,'' allowing the small U.S. Air Force reconnaissance detachment in Kuwait to quickly replenish its stock. A protracted investigation into whether it was an accident or a shoot-down could have slowed that process, a Pentagon official said. But U.S. military officials for the Central Command, which is in charge of Middle East operations, didn't want to wait that long.
As we await the Bush Administration's proposal to reshape the U.S. military, there is a clear need to broaden the options under consideration--specifically to include increased attention to the role played by long-range airpower.
Accident investigators in the Bahamas, including officials from the FAA and NTSB, are finding that the Cessna 402B that crashed and killed the Grammy-nominated star singer Aaliyah and eight others was heavily loaded. The Associated Press reported that the Bahamian Civil Aviation Dept. found the aircraft, fuel and luggage weighed 5,495 lb., not counting the nine people on board. The maximum allowable takeoff weight is 6,300 lb. The aircraft crashed on takeoff at an airport north of Nassau. The pilot had a criminal record, including crack cocaine violations.
USN Capt. (ret.) Rodney L. Casey has become San Diego-based director of West Coast customer service and business development for the Northrop Grumman Corp. Integrated Systems Sector of Dallas. He was an organizational analyst/project manager for Navy aviation requirements, logistics and training alignment initiatives for Haulsey Engineering Inc. of San Diego.
Although National Transportation Safety Board investigators have not yet issued their final analysis on why an Emery Worldwide Airlines DC-8 crashed just after takeoff from Mather Field near Rancho Cordova, Calif., on Feb. 16, 2000, a just-released interim ``factual'' report provides some insight into their suspicions.
Eutelsat will take a major stake in Hispasat and join the Spanish company in a new venture in Brazil under a wide-ranging partnership reflecting growing interest in the Latin American market and further consolidation among satellite operators.
Lufthansa Cargo is developing a global airfreight, parcel express and logistics network in partnership with Singapore Airlines, SAS and Deutsche Post that promises to recast the air cargo business in the way that the Star Alliance has transformed air travel.
Sheldon S. Ohringer, former president/CEO of FirstWorld Communication Inc., has been named to the board of directors of the Snap2 Corp., Des Moines, Iowa.
U.S. Army Lt. Gen. (ret.) Jack Costello (see photo) has been named vice president-Objective Force Initiative for Raytheon Electronic Systems in Washington. He was commander of the Army Space and Defense Missile Command.
DHL Airways is heating up the transpacific competition in express letter delivery with daily service between the U.S. and Japan in a Boeing 747 from Northwest Airlines Cargo (NWA Cargo). The business-day service is more than a month old ``and we are happy with it,'' said James M. Friedel, president of NWA Cargo. The new service has two purposes: To match DHL's transpacific service with that offered by rival integrators and for Northwest to tap into the industrial Midwest in Ohio.
