When Italy receives its first Boeing KC-767 tanker later this year, some of the evolutionary changes incorporated into the aircraft will be more obvious than others. Noticeable will be the wing aerial refueling pods and the all-digital remote refueling operator station in the forward crew area. Less conspicuous will be the hundreds of pounds of "federated" electronic equipment for flight management, radio and communications management that Smiths Aerospace has consolidated into one box.
The FAA's Joint Research Council has approved funding for Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast for the Gulf of Mexico region. ADS-B is expected to improve weather, direct communications and surveillance capabilities for the more than 650 helicopters supporting the off-shore oil industry in the Gulf. Oil platform and helicopter operators will provide space for installation of ADS-B equipment.
USAF Maj. Gen. (ret.) Craig P. Weston has been named vice president/ deputy director of the Adroit Command and Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Center of SRA International Inc., Fairfax, Va. He was U.S. security sector coordinator for the U.S. Central Command in Afghanistan.
While talks continue concerning Eurofly's potential purchase of Livingston Aviation, the two carriers from this winter season will coordinate their use of seven Airbus A330-200s on long-range routes. Meanwhile, Eurofly plans to establish an Egyptian subsidiary devoted to charter operations, and has been in discussions with EADS Sogerma to create a Malpensa, Italy-based maintenance company to support the fleet and reduce operating costs. However, those plans have been slowed by internal problems at Sogerma.
U.S. Air Force officials are giving partial credit to Northrop Grumman's Litening AT pod for the precision of last week's F-16C attack that killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and several top lieutenants of Al Qaeda in Iraq.
Boeing handed over the fourth and last radar upgrade kits for France's fleet of E-3F airborne warning and control aircraft. Air France Industries installed the kits, which were built by Northrop Grumman under the E-3F's radar system improvement program. The upgrade, intended to heighten sensor sensitivity, reliability and maintainability, was performed under a $143-million foreign military sales agreement.
Robert P. Lin, professor of physics/director of the Spaces Sciences Laboratory at the University of California-Berkeley, is among the new members elected to the Washington-based National Academy of Sciences. Others are: David M. Ceperley, staff scientist at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications/professor of physics at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; James G. Fujimoto of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Dept. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge; Robert C.
The space shuttle Discovery is one more step closer to its planned STS-121 mission next month after approval of the biggest aerodynamic change in the shuttle stack since it started flying 25 years ago. Engineers meeting at the Michoud (La.) Assembly Facility, where the external tank is built, cleared the STS-121 tank to fly without the Protuberance Air Load ramp in place. The PAL ramp, a 35-lb.
South Africa is now formally part of the A400M European military airlifter production process. Denel Aviation has delivered the first set of aluminum alloy fuselage top-shells for the A400M to Airbus Military.
Beijing Spot Image (BSI) of China and Australia's Apogee will distribute radar imaging data and services from Germany's TerraSAR-X remote sensing satellite under exclusive agreements signed last week with operator Infoterra. The agreements follow an earlier pact with Pasco of Japan and a general agency agreement with Spot Image, which, like Infoterra, is controlled by EADS (AW&ST Mar. 21, 2005, p. 24). BSI, a joint venture of Spot Image and China Remote Sensing Ground Station, is already a distributor for Spot 5 optical imagery.
El Al Israel Airlines plans a July 23 launch of nonstop flights between Los Angeles and Tel Aviv. The airline will operate Boeing 777s on the year-round, three-times-weekly service. The aircraft will be equipped with wireless Internet and live TV, including a personal TV screen installed at each seat.
Boeing and FedEx have initiated in-service evaluation of active radio frequency identification (RFID) tags on selected major parts on a FedEx MD-10 freighter. Created by Identec Solutions, the tags are battery-powered and contain a microchip and transmitter operating at 915 MHz. The read-range is 300 ft.; for passive RFID tags, 10 ft. The active tags transmit less than 1 milliwatt of power (a cell phone transmits 500 milliwatts). "It's key to keep the power levels of these tags in perspective," says Kenneth D. Porad, Boeing's RFID program manager.
Continental is stepping out as the biggest aircraft buyer among U.S. legacy carriers, with increases in its 737 and 787 fleets that will bring Boeing another $3.1 billion in revenue, at list prices. Last year, Continental committed to buy 10 787s, but had signed for only seven as its management awaited board of directors' approval for the remaining three. In last week's action, the board completed that process and added 10 more for a total of 13 aircraft. The airline's total 787 order list is now 20 aircraft, making it the leader among U.S. legacy carriers.
FlightSafety International Chairman Albert Lee Ueltschi has been named to receive The Wings Club's 2006 Distinguished Achievement Award for "accomplishments in the field of aviation and astronautics." Ueltschi, a former Pan Am pilot, founded the FlightSafety pilot training company in 1951. He will receive the award in October.
House Science Committee members, still highly skeptical of the new plan for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (Npoess), are complaining that the Pentagon hasn't been forthcoming in providing documents detailing its decisions. Pentagon acquisition chief Kenneth Krieg, who formally blessed the new Npoess plan June 5, didn't authorize release of certain sensitive Npoess documents to lawmakers in time for a June 9 hearing.
France is preparing to send three Mirage 2000 fighters equipped for reconnaissance duty, along with a C-130 airlifter, to support NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. Three French Mirage F1s and one C-130 are already in theater. In August, France will assume control of ISAF in association with Turkey and Italy.
The European Commission has cleared Boeing's purchase of Carmen Systems of Sweden. The acquisition of Carmen, a specialist in crew management, fleet scheduling and disruption recovery, will reinforce Boeing's move into airline services and support.
Firing qualifications of the European Principal Anti-Air Missile System (Paams) for the British, Italian and French navies got underway last month. The test engagement included the use of the Selex Empar surveillance and fire-control radar, with an Aster 30 missile intercepting a sub-sonic Mirach target drone at around 35 km. (18.9 naut. mi.). The target was flying at an altitude of 7,000 meters (22,965 ft.). The test firing resulted in a direct hit. European missile manufactur- er MBDA is the prime contractor for the 120-km. range Aster 30.
The U.S. Strategic Command is laying the groundwork to execute its new role integrating U.S. defenses against attacks from both ballistic and cruise missile threats.
Canada is expected this month to announce its multibillion-dollar investment in new military cargo lifters, including four Boeing C-17s, 17 Lockheed Martin C-130Js and a number of medium-lift helicopters, according to industry officials. But Canada's announcement by no means bails out the troubled C-17 production line, Boeing officials warn, in light of the U.S. Air Force's decision last year not to add to its 180-aircraft contract. Canada is just one of a number of countries anticipated to sign up for the four-engine cargo carrier this month.
Safran's Labinal unit has inaugurated a plant in Ain Atiq, Morocco, for the assembly of aircraft wiring systems. The 9-million-euro ($11.5-million) 10,800-sq.-meter (116,208-sq.-ft.) facility will produce wiring for the Airbus family. Other Safran units in Morocco handle engineering, nacelle component production and engine maintenance, repair and overhaul.
May was Air Canada's 26th consecutive month of record system load factors. A 2.7% increase in revenue passenger miles, based on a 1.4% capacity decrease, resulted in an 83.2% load factor for the month, 3.3 percentage points higher than May 2005.
Christophe Bernardini (see photo) has been appointed chairman of the executive board/CEO of France-based TAT Industries. He succeeds Alain Corbel as CEO. Corbel is now head of the supervisory board.
Turkey's Sky Airlines has become Boeing's first customer in Europe for the long-range, high-capacity 737-900ER that will have its rollout Aug. 8. Sky's three aircraft, valued at $226 million (at list prices), give Boeing 302 orders for the year for the 737. The company has total orders of 405 aircraft so far. Sky exercised an option for blended winglets and took purchase rights on two additional airplanes. First delivery is set for early 2009. Sky's existing fleet includes seven 737s.
