Almost a year after President Clinton's highly advertised ``declaration of war'' on terrorist use of weapons of mass destruction, the government's response remains disorganized, weakly led and bereft of a broad counter-WMD technology initiative, according to a commission led by former Clinton CIA director John M. Deutch. In a detailed report, the congressionally mandated commission calls for the appointment of a National Director for Combating Proliferation, who would oversee a government-wide, counter-WMD technology acquisition plan.
Capt. Edward M. Methot has been named vice president-training and customer flight operations and Michael J. Miller director of economic analysis for the Fairchild Aerospace Corp., San Antonio, Tex. Methot was vice president-flight operations for America West Airlines, and Miller was director of consulting for Avitas, Reston, Va.
This extremely light-weight mirror is smash resistant and smaller than conventional convex glass mirrors. The mirrors have been used effectively in many security-conscious areas. The ``FFMirror Air'' is currently in place on 100 JAL 747s to check overhead bin stowage areas and for general cabin surveys. It is cost-efficient and easy to install. Komy Co. Ltd., 4-1-9-Kamiaokinishi Kawaguchi, Saitama 333-0845 Japan.
FHL of the U.K. and Mecaer of Italy have formed a joint venture to produce aerospace hydraulic equipment. Based in Borgomanero, Italy, HT Hydraulic Technologies has received a contract to supply main and tail rotor actuators for the Agusta Bell AB139 helicopter.
The Royal Australian Air Force has launched the Boeing 737 as a leading low-cost platform for Airborne Early Warning and Control system requirements with a $1.32-billion purchase of seven aircraft. Boeing led a team that included Northrop Grumman's Electronic Sensors and Systems Sector, British Aerospace Australia and Qantas in a competition against Raytheon, which proposed an Airbus A310 coupled with an Israeli Aircraft Industries' Elta Phalcon radar, and Lockheed Martin, with a C-130J and Northrop Grumman AURA radar.
Defense Secretary William Cohen wants NATO to spend more on secure communications equipment. It's no wonder; the allies weren't always able to maintain secure com during the air war in Yugoslavia because some didn't have needed secure equipment. That allowed the Serb military to listen in, Cohen said. The Pentagon hopes its after-action analysis will reveal whether Serb military forces were able to learn what targets were being attacked in time to respond, said Army Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Allied operations against Yugoslavia turned out to be an exercise in airpower, whether planned that way or not. The bombing campaign started modestly at a fraction of the sorties launched against Iraq during the 1990-91 Persian Gulf war but built to a drumbeat. The intensifying attack spared Yugoslavia's population the agony of human destruction, but it made daily life miserable as fuel, electricity, communications, public transportation and other staples of modern life disappeared.
The board of directors of United Parcel Service of America Inc. has decided to sell 10% of UPS' outstanding stock in a public offering. The company will continue to be employee-owned, and the publicly offered shares carry only 1% voting power. The move will provide greater financial flexibility to respond to market conditions and make strategic acquisitions.
As the early lessons learned from the air campaign against Yugoslavia are absorbed, military officials expect in-depth analysis of how to bolster reconnaissance systems, combat search and rescue, and other areas. Included will be the use of the E-8C Joint-STARS long-range ground observation radar aircraft, the need to hit moving targets through clouds, and a reexamination of the notion that Congress and the U.S. public expect combat to be conducted with few or no casualties.
The temptation to overreact to any aviation accident is always high within the Beltway, especially when someone of international fame is killed. The death of John F. Kennedy, Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette certainly qualified in the famous-victim category. The media attention to the crash of the Piper Saratoga II HP off the island of Martha's Vineyard, Mass., on the night of July 16 was more than exhaustive.
John W. Sandford has been appointed president/CEO of Avcorp Industries Inc. of Vancouver. He has been chairman of the executive committee of the board of directors and chairman of Cade Industries, Lansing, Mich. Sandford succeeds Peter Jeffrey, who has resigned.
A Ukrainian Zenit 2 booster returned to flight on July 17, launching a Russian-Ukrainian satellite from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The mission marked the booster's first flight since a failure destroyed 12 Globalstar mobile telephone satellites last September. On July 16, Russia launched a Progress resupply ship to the Mir space station from Baikonur on a Soyuz booster. The Progress carried a crucial analog control device designed to keep Mir stable for several months after the station's scheduled abandonment in August.
The air war against Yugoslavia has highlighted for U.S. Air Force officials the growing complexity of eliminating surface-to-air-missile threats as enemy air defense operators and their equipment become more capable.
Boeing last week received an add-on contract worth $81.2 million to convert 227 surplus Air-Launched Cruise Missiles to nonnuclear Conventional Air-Launched Cruise Missile (CALCM) configuration. The work follows an award in April to similarly modify 95 ALCMs. The first 45 ALCMs in the latest order will be modified to the GPS-guided Block 1 configuration while the remainder will be updated to Block 1A, which adds a precision strike capability. Deliveries are scheduled to be completed by early 2001. The work will be performed at Boeing's St.
The downward trend in the total number of general aviation accidents in recent years is beginning to level off, and the fatal accident rate remains relatively static despite increased efforts by the industry to educate pilots about weather hazards, human factors and judgment.
Japan's National Aerospace Laboratory has completed construction of a high enthalpy shock wind tunnel in Kakuta, Miyagi, in northeast Japan. Known by the acronym Hiest, it has a 42-meter (138-ft.)-long pressure tube that is 0.6 meters in diameter. Its shock wave tube is 17 meters long and 0.18 meters in diameter. It has a 1.2-meter outlet nozzle. NAL officials said Hiest is the world's largest in size and capability. Under construction since 1994, the $31.7-million wind tunnel was developed for aerodynamic and aerodynamic thermal tests of the Hope-X mini-shuttle.
The Frankfurt Airport Authority is to invest more than DM100 million ($53 million) in Philippine International Air Terminals (Piatco), a consortium set up to build and operate a new international passenger terminal at Manila's Ninoy Aquino Airport. The $500-million terminal, sized for 13 million passengers per year, is expected to enter construction in January and open in July 2002. Another Piatco partner is Singapore and Philippine Airport and Ground Services, a subsidiary of a Deutsche Lufthansa subsidiary, GlobeGround.
Parametric Technology of Waltham, Mass., has received an $8-million order from Lockheed Martin Astronautics for more than 2,000 seats of its Web-based Windchill product management software. . . . Hewlett-Packard expects to expand its electronic services to manufacturers by investing more than $150 million with Engineering Animation Inc., of Ames, Iowa, to develop e-Vis.com to enable manufacturers to integrate distributed project teams, manage product data and improve supplier efficiencies using a secure Web-based portal. . . .
The crew of Apollo 11 has received the Smithsonian Institution's Langley Gold Medal ``for meritorious investigations in connection with the science of aerodromics and its application to aviation''--an honor conferred only 21 times before and shared by the likes of Orville and Wilbur Wright, Glenn Curtiss, Charles Lindbergh, Robert Goddard, Charles Stark Draper and Wernher von Braun.
The Colsa Corp. has been awarded a task-order contract totaling approximately $400 million to provide the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, Air Force Space Command, Navy Space Commands, Ballistic Missile Defense Organization and Joint National Test Facility with scientific and technical expertise in space and missile defense ventures.
Herb Kelleher, chairman/president/CEO of Southwest Airlines, has been chosen as 1999 CEO of the Year by Chief Executive magazine. He was cited for ``the introduction of innovative programs, a devotion to employees and a sharp focus on customer service, all of which have helped create a universally admired corporate culture.'' Kelleher's selection was also noted as honoring ``the powerful role of personality and character in business leadership.''
NATO has awarded a $500-million contract to Air Command Systems International (ACSI), a Raytheon and Thomson-CSF joint venture, for the first phase of its long-awaited Air Command and Control System (ACCS). The system will provide NATO with a common, automated air operations command and control system, which will combine--at the tactical level--planning, tasking and task execution for all offensive and defensive air activities. Additional requirements for theater missile defense and airborne ground surveillance also will be addressed.
After months of discussions with contractors, Arianespace has concluded an agreement for a second batch of 20 Ariane 5 boosters, for delivery between late 2001 and early 2004.
The anthology, The Pioneers of Flight, edited by Phil Scott, is a compendium of selections from Ovid to the Wright brothers and beyond. Scientific notes, letters, patent applications, fund-raising proposals, journal entries and personal stories by or about aviation visionaries abound, including accounts of medieval experiments and the awakening of an ordered approach to flight in the Renaissance. The selections are in the context of aeronautical history. Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, N.J. 08540.
Jim Pyra has been promoted to director of defense from program manager for the Communications Management System of the Canadian Forces' Tactical Command Control and Communications System, for Kanata, Ontario-based Prior.
