Rockwell Collins has made its first deliveries of the Core Network cabinet for the Boeing 787 program. The cabinet hosts a variety of third-party applications and manages the onboard information flow to fulfill Boeing's objective of "e-enabling" the aircraft.
As the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) spreads from the military to the civilian sector, the International Council of Aircraft Owner and Pilot Assns. (Iaopa) wants to make sure accommodating them doesn't mean restricting the airspace access of manned aircraft. Integrating UAVs "creates significant risks that can only be mitigated by strict certification and operational standards designed to ensure safe operations," Iaopa representative Frank Hoffman tells a recent International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) meeting on UAVs in Montreal.
Airbus has achieved a long hoped for coup by getting Lufthansa Technik to join its maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) network, which Airbus established about a year ago to help customers identify MRO providers for its products. Lufthansa Technik initially held out, in part due to concern that Airbus may be trying to obtain sensitive access to its customer data. But a satisfactory arrangement seems to have been found to appease Lufthansa.
The official Xinhua News Agency reports that China took delivery of 135 aircraft through May, a 79% increase over the same period in 2005. China's inventory of foreign-made civil aircraft reached 968 units by the end of 2005, including a jump of 214 last year alone. China's airlines are expected to have 1,300 aircraft in their combined fleets by year-end. Xinhua adds that Chinese carriers flew 284 million passengers last year, a 17.5% increase from 2004. Freight totals were 6.33 million metric tons, up 14.6%.
In a move that will affect China's commercial space business and could hamper U.S./Chinese space cooperation, the U.S. Treasury Dept. has frozen the financial assets of the China Great Wall Industry Corp. and another Chinese space exporter for allegedly aiding Iranian missile development. In addition to the Treasury Dept., the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been gathering evidence against the company, federal officials said.
Scott McNeil, product engineering manager for the Astro Div. of New Hampshire Ball Bearings Inc., has been named Member of the Year by the Airframe Control Bearings Group, an aerospace division of the Society of Automotive Engineers. McNeil was cited for his advanced work in testing new bearings, and proving new test methods. He has published 14 technical bearing specifications for the SAE.
Michael Mecham (San Francisco), Craig Covault (Cape Canaveral)
A big "piece of the puzzle" in the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program is due to fall into place this week with the inaugural launch of a Delta IV carrying the National Reconnaissance Office's NROL-22 classified payload from the refurbished Space Launch Complex 6 at Vandenberg AFB. Liftoff along the southern California coastline is expected about 8 p.m. on June 27. The secret payload will be deployed into a highly elliptical, 690 X 23,785-mi. orbit inclined 62.4 deg. The orbit's low point is expected to be raised later.
AirTran Airways' operations at Atlanta constitute the 10th largest hub in the U.S., the carrier tells investors. Its flights per day there exceed US Airways' mainline operations in Phoenix, Charlotte and Philadelphia; American Airlines' mainline service in Miami, and Southwest Airlines' in Las Vegas, Chicago Midway and Baltimore-Washington. Bigger hubs are Delta's at Atlanta, American's at Dallas-Fort Worth and Chicago O'Hare, Continental Airlines' at Houston and Newark, Northwest Airlines' at Minneapolis/St. Paul and Detroit, and United Airlines' at O'Hare and Denver.
Jean-Pierre Rosso has been named to the board of directors of the Montreal-based Bombardier Corp. He is chairman of the World Economic Forum USA Inc. and former chairman of Case New Holland.
The House Appropriations Committee's NASA spending bill, expected on the House floor this week, cuts the agency's topline $83.2 million below the Bush administration's request but adds money for aeronautics and science. The committee recommends $16.7 billion for the agency in Fiscal 2007, with only what it terms "modest changes. . .to achieve a balance between exploration and NASA's other core mission programs." The committee beefs up aeronautics by $100 million, for a total of $824 million.
In an article on Denver International Airport, the timeline of Southwest Airlines' service to Denver was misstated. Southwest withdrew service in 1986 and acquired Morris Air in 1993. The mountain range shown in an accompanying photo includes Mt. Evans and Longs Peak (AW&ST June 5, pp. 33-34).
NASA managers will wait until October to decide whether to launch a final space shuttle mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope, gaining time to analyze data from the upcoming STS-121 mission to the International Space Station. The previous NASA administrator, Sean O'Keefe, canceled the Hubble mission after the Columbia accident, fearing that the crew of another debris-damaged orbiter would not be able to use the ISS as a "safe haven" while awaiting rescue.
Don Campbell has become executive vice president of Montreal-based CAE. He has been group president for military simulation and training and will be succeeded by Marc Parent, who will remain as head of simulation products. Nick Leontidis, who has been executive vice president-sales, marketing and business development for civil business, has been appointed executive vice president-innovation.
Cargo Portal Services, an electronic booking and shipment management company, is picking up clients from among the U.S.'s network carriers. American Airlines Cargo Div. went on-line June 19, and Continental Airlines is about to do the same. CPS was designed by Unisys Corp., which operates the service. Other airline members are Air Canada, Austrian Airlines, KLM, Northwest and United Airlines. Access is free to freight forwarders through secure system-to-system connections or the Internet at www.cargoportalservices.com.
Mike Heffron (see photo) has been named president of BAE Systems Platform Solutions, Johnson City, N.Y. He held the same position at BAE Systems Information Warfare, Nashua, N.H.
USAF Gen. (ret.) Richard B. Myers, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has been appointed to the board of directors of the United Technologies Corp., Hartford, Conn., effective Sept. 13. He also was commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command, U.S. Space Command and Air Force Space Command.
I was deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Mike Dornheim. Professionally, he was analytical and intense, with badger-like tenacity. No doubt his insider's experience in industry and his broad range of technical knowledge frustrated many of the organizations on which he reported.
J. Todd Hoeksema (see photo), a senior scientist at the Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory at Stanford University, and Monte Henderson (see photo), program manager at Ball Aerospace, have received NASA Distinguished Public Service Medals. Hoeksema was honored for his leadership in "Sun-solar system connection science," and, in particular, the space agency's 30-year "road map" for heliophysics research. The Hoeksema Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager will fly on the Solar Dynamics Observatory, which is due for launch in 2008.
As Mark Twain said, "the report of my death was an exaggeration. I have not been ill." You say that with the last of the Boeing 717s leaving Long Beach, aircraft production in the Los Angeles basin has ended (AW&ST May 29, p. 20). You have forgotten Robinson in Torrance, which is producing helicopters at a higher rate than ever before.
Perry Cantarutti has been named vice president-reservations for Northwest Airlines. He succeeds Crystal Knotek, who was promoted to senior vice president-ground operations. Cantarutti was managing director for Asia-Pacific marketing and distribution planning.
Southwest Airlines will test methods for assigning seats next month on about 200 departures from San Diego to find out whether it can adopt the service without increasing costs or lengthening aircraft turnaround times. If the carrier finds a feasible procedure, it will judge whether seat assignments would attract travelers who are turned off by its first-come-first-boarded system. Reservation-system upgrades already underway will provide for seat assignments.
U.S. Missile Defense Agency director Lt. Gen. Henry (Trey) Obering says an intercept test near Hawaii of the Aegis defensive system was "successful." A Raytheon Standard Missile 3 (Block 1A) hit the target as it separated from its booster during the June 22 exercise. This was the USS Shiloh's Aegis cruiser's first missile defense test since using its upgraded SPY-1 radar. Shiloh's crew fired the interceptor 4 min. after the target was launched, and 2 min. later the interceptor hit the target 100 mi. above Earth.
What is good for the goose is good for the gander. In your editorial, "Engine Diversity Will Pay Dividends" (AW&ST June 5, p. 58), you extolled the virtues of maintaining competition within our U.S. military engine companies.
NASA controllers at the Russian mission control center (TsUP) are preparing to coordinate shuttle and U.S./Russian International Space Station operations with the resumption of shuttle resupply flights as early as next week. The U.S. team at TsUP will be increased by about a third for the STS-121 mission, when three-shift, 24-hr. operations will be required at this legendary Soviet-era facility northeast of Moscow.
