Hungary has accepted the first five Saab Gripen fighters that are part of a lease-purchase deal that would see the country receive 12 single-seat and two dual-seat aircraft. The delivery ceremony took place at Kecskemet Air Base. All aircraft are supposed to be in country by the end of next year.
Telesat will supply as many as 38 Canadian Coast Guard vessels with high-speed voice and data communications under its first contract for offshore mobile milsatcom services. The award includes lease of K u-band capacity on Telesat's Anik F2 spacecraft, launched in mid-2004, and delivery and integration of ground equipment. Dave Lahey, Telesat's business development vice president, says the service--to be rolled out over two years--is expected to lead to similar deals soon in the U.S. and Canada. About 10% of Telesat's business is with governments.
Rolls-Royce has acquired full ownership of Data Systems & Solutions LLC, an information systems and services provider for aviation, defense and other markets. The company was established in 1999 as a 50/50 joint venture with Science Applications International Corp.
Congressional critics of Pentagon acquisition practices are warning senior military officials that there must be no hidden financial tricks in the F-22 and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter programs that could wrest year-to-year control of the budget from lawmakers. A hearing led by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services' Airland subcommittee, also suggested that both the F-22 and JSF programs may have flawed acquisition plans.
Qatar Airways says it is reopening the competition for 20 wide-body transports it initially said it would buy from Boeing. An airline official says some of the 20 aircraft are still going to be 777s--Qatar had opted for -300ERs, -200LRs and -200F freighters--but part of the order could be converted to Airbus A330/A340s. This summer, Qatar will take delivery of the first A340-600 High Gross Weight, part of a commitment to buy 60 widebodies from Airbus.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter's scheduled first flight has slipped a couple of months, the project's director says. The original first flight was scheduled for Aug. 28, but Rear Adm. Steven Enewold, the program's executive officer, tells a Senate Armed Services subcommittee "my assessment right now is that we are two months late, so we're going to fly probably in October." Enewold cites no specific reason for the delay (see p. 29).
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NASA, which once wanted to get a single contractor working on the planned Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) by the end of March, has slipped the date until September to give the competing teams more time to answer agency questions. Exploration managers have authorized Phase 1 contract extensions for teams headed by Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman that would make their total contracts worth as much as $60 million each through year-end.
by M.R. Montgomery and Gerald Foster Houghton Mifflin, 2006 304 pp., $18.95 Lovers of airplanes have something in common with bird-watchers, and it's not just that they enjoy watching things fly. Both take pleasure in being able to make the identification--whether the specimen is common or rare.
PIPER GENERALVERTREUNG DEUTSCHLAND AG is expanding its operations to include aircraft sales, parts and service for the U.K., Ireland, the Channel Islands, Isle of Man and Spain, in addition to its existing territories that already include Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Hungary. The company has established its headquarters at Bournemouth International Airport, Christchurch, Dorset.
The British Defense Ministry is edging ever closer to formally establishing a combat search and rescue (CSAR) capability. Exercise Pegasus Hunter, held last month, included Merlin HCMk3 helicopters from 28 Sqdn. to validate the Royal Air Force's (RAF) Combat Recovery Operations Team. This forms part of the Defense Ministry's Joint Personnel Recovery capability. The British have been examining CSAR needs since at least the mid-1990s, with studies carried out by both the Royal Navy and the RAF.
What used to be the night shift has turned into a round-the-clock operation for a team of Boeing engineers taking calls from customers dealing with that most dreaded of maintenance emergencies: an "aircraft-on-ground." "Everything here is AOG," says Robert Manelski, director of Boeing's new Operations Center, a call center established to soothe major maintenance migraines. The Ops Center is a unit of Boeing Commercial Aviation Services (CAS).
Intelsat has once again postponed presentation of its 4Q and 2005 results, and could not meet the Mar. 31 SEC deadline for filing its Form 10-K annual report, saying it needs more time to complete the reporting process. No new date was given.
Michael Mecham (San Francisco ), Craig Covault (Cape Canaveral)
Space shuttle managers are investigating a potential new problem with aging electronic circuit boards while they also complete wind-tunnel tests to validate the safety of leaving the hydrogen protuberance air load (PAL) ramp off the external tank. The hydrogen PAL ramp has already been removed from the tank for the STS-121 mission, planned as early as July 1, in anticipation that wind-tunnel tests will support that decision.
The Pentagon intends to spend $9-10 billion on unmanned aircraft this decade, more than three times what it spent in the 1990s; but new plans and acquisition strategies may mean fewer aircraft for the U.S. Air Force, rather than more. A new report also is peppered with code words that link unmanned aircraft with new technologies such as directed-energy weapons, particularly devices that create pulses of high-power microwaves.
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Michael A. Taverna (Paris and Kourou, French Guiana)
Though Europe trails in most aspects of military space, it is pioneering in one important area--privately funded secure satellite communications. However, the jury is still out on the ultimate success of this strategy, intended to help meet voracious bandwidth demand.
NAS Patuxent River, Md., the Navy's main East Coast flight test center, has received its first RQ-4A Global Hawk unmanned reconnaissance aircraft. It is part of the Navy's Global Hawk Maritime Demonstration program. The aircraft, designated N-1, will be operated by Test Sqdn. VX-20. Workup will begin almost immediately for April participation in Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment 2006.
David S. Harvey (see photos) has been named vice president-business management/chief financial officer, William E. Carty vice president/controller, Edgar A. Smith vice president/assistant general counsel/sector counsel and Louise Ussery vice president human resources and administration, all for the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Technical Services Sector, Herndon, Va. Harvey was vice president-business management for the Defensive and Navigation Systems Div. of the Electronic Systems Sector.
Shephard W. Hill has been appointed senior vice president for business development and strategy of the Chicago-based Boeing Co. He has been vice president-business development of St. Louis-based Boeing Integrated Defense Systems (IDS). Hill has been succeeded by Christopher Raymond, who was IDS vice president-Air Force business development. William M. Daley, chairman for the Midwest U.S. of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and former Commerce secretary, has been appointed to the board of directors. He will fill the seat of the late Lewis Platt.
Snow Aviation International (SAI) is conducting preliminary flight tests of a C-130E with eight-blade Hamilton Sundstrand propellers to improve performance, and reduce noise levels and maintenance costs (see photo). The flights are taking place at Rickenbacker International Airport in Columbus, Ohio, where SAI is based. The NP2000 propellers, which replace the 54H60 units used on the C-130E, were installed under contract to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Rockwell Collins has received a commercial license from the Federal Communications Commission for its eXchange broadband data and live television technology that is becoming increasingly attractive to operators of long-range, large-cabin business jets. Samsung Techwin has the system on two of its Bombardier Global Express XPS jets, and Bombardier Business Jets is using eXchange on its Global 5000 demonstrator. The system allows live TV feeds on transoceanic flights and provides two-way communication speeds of 5 Mbps.
Powerful members of Congress are pressing NASA Administrator Michael Griffin over China's human spaceflight ambitions, warning that the nation could get to the Moon before the U.S. human exploration program does. "I don't trust China," says Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that sets NASA funding. At a Fiscal 2007 budget hearing, Wolf agrees with panel members from both parties to hold a hearing on China's space program that would include a classified intelligence briefing and open testimony from NASA, the Defense Dept. and others.
ICO North America has moved ahead on an old idea with its plans to deploy and operate a hybrid space-/terrestrial-based mobile satellite service (MSS). Continuing an effort started by its parent company, ICO Global Communications, ICO North America has picked an International Launch Services Atlas V to launch its first satellite (AW&ST Mar. 20, p. 18). The ICO-G1 satellite, ordered last year from Space Systems/ Loral along with its ancillary terrestrial component (ATC), is to be launched in mid-2007.
by Mark Blacklock Published by Mark Blacklock, 2005 160 pp., $39.95 New York, New York, it's a wonderful town, the song goes. And so are its airports. In Recapturing the Dream, Mark Blacklock delivers, as advertised in the subtitle, "a design history of New York's JFK Airport"--a book of pictures, drawings and meticulously researched narrative. But it is more.
