Michael Gobb and John Slone, executive director and director of planning and development, respectively, of Blue Grass Airport, Lexington, Ky., have been named to receive the 2006 Jay Hollings- worth Speas Airport Award for a mural and landscape project that blends runway safety advantages with beautification. The award, co-presented by the American Assn. of Airport Executives, Airport Consultants Council and American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, recognizes projects that achieve compatibility between an airport and its surrounding landscape.
A new fuel rationing agreement at London Heathrow Airport still leaves the door open for unfair treatment of non-U.K. carriers, according to the major U.S. airline industry group. Also left unresolved is the crucial question of whether Heathrow's diminished fuel supply can meet increased summer demand.
As the initial phase of the Weapons Data Link Network (WDLN) advanced concept technology demonstration program wraps up at Eglin AFB, Fla., Pentagon officials are readying for a follow-on phase to mesh results with the schedules of several programs.
The U.S. Coast Guard plans to continue using leased helicopters for its drug interdiction squadron in Jacksonville, Fla., for another year so it can use five of its own HH-65C Dolphin helos to patrol the no-fly zone of the National Capital Region (NCR) starting this summer. Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thomas Collins says the helicopters will be based at the Atlantic City, N.J., Air Station. At any given time, however, three rotorcraft will be at Washington Reagan National Airport with two crews on deck 24/7 to maintain response capability.
Stephen Jurczyk has been named deputy director of the NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va. He was the center's director of research and its Technology Directorate.
Three congressionally mandated pilot projects to test screening measures for cargo carried on board commercial airliners have yet to start, the head of the Transportation Security Administration says. Administrator Edmund (Kip) Hawley tells a House subcommittee that one project at San Francisco International Airport will begin soon. Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), the subcommittee chairman, wants TSA to report on how it is spending the $30 million allocated in Fiscal 2006 for those programs. "If you're not going to do it," he says, "we want our money back."
The Pentagon, by May 1, expects to complete its study on how to manage the transition from U-2 surveillance to Global Hawk unmanned aircraft. To free money, the U-2's life is being shortened (it will be retired by 2011) saving up to $1 billion over five years, according to the military. The assessment is supposed to ensure that commanders won't be faced with recon shortfalls in that overlap when Global Hawks are being fielded and the venerable manned surveillance asset is parked for good.
Lockheed Martin has received a $136.4-million U.S. Air Force contract that modifies the C-130J multi-year arrangement to meet congressional demands to redesignate the aircraft from commercial procurement rules to regular, military procurement status. In the process, two C-130Js were added to the U.S. Air Force planned Fiscal 2008 buy, and the mix between USAF and Marine Corps aircraft was changed from nine for the Air Force and four for the Marines to a split of eight and five, respectively.
Justin P. Oberman has been named senior analyst on homeland security, transportation and related industries for Crestview Capital Funds, Northbrook, Ill. He was assistant director of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration.
Raising eyebrows last week at the annual Jane's ATC Maastricht conference (see p. 96): Russ Chew, head of the FAA's Air Traffic Organization, met with Eurocontrol Director General Victor Aguado on maintaining global interoperability of the next-generation air traffic management programs in planning stages on both sides of the Atlantic. The U.S. effort is in the multi-agency Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO), headed by Robert Pearce, who didn't attend Maastricht.
Overseeing the latest Homeland Security Dept. report on efforts to protect commercial aircraft from portable, surface-to-air missiles, known as Manpads, may be one of the last official acts for the head of the department's Science and Technology Directorate. Undersecretary Charles McQueary has resigned, effective Mar. 25. McQueary told a congressional hearing last week that he anticipates a report on the second of three planned counter-Manpads program phases to be released in about a month.
Retired Capt. Jim Gombold's revelation about the use of the LNAV/VNAV functions of the first-generation Flight Management System (FMS) aircraft on the Washington National (DCA) "River Approach" was enlightening. I flew that approach many times in first-generation "steam gauge" jets. Having also flown two FMS aircraft in my career, I can attest to the reliability of those systems.
Japan Airlines and Skymark Airlines will begin code-sharing on flights from Kobe to Tokyo on Apr. 1. They will share two JAL and three Skymark flights. The effect is to increase JAL's services to five flights daily and Skymark's to nine.
EADS is adding Turbomeca USA, Keith Products and Aerolite to its team competing for the U.S. Army Light Utility Helicopter program. The team is bidding a version of the EC145. Turbomeca would provide the Arriel 1E2 that would be assembled at its Grand Prairie, Tex., site.
Airbus has created a Dubai-based subsidiary called Airbus Middle East, which is responsible for marketing, sales, contracts and customer relations in the growth market. The CEO of Dubai's Total Airline Services Co., Habib Fekih, will be president of the new entity. A spares center should be operational in Dubai by April 2007.
A revamped tax subsidy for U.S. exporters has been ruled illegal, like its predecessor, by the World Trade Organization (WTO). In 2004, Congress eliminated a $5-billion-a-year tax credit for exporters that had been nixed by the WTO, replacing it with a broad reduction in taxes for companies that manufacture goods in the U.S. (AW&ST Oct. 18, 2004, p. 32). But the WTO last week said that the new tax breaks--worth $77 billion over 10 years--also violate trade agreements and said the European Union could impose punitive tariffs exceeding $2 billion after 90 days.
It was right for Airbus to be "surprised" by and to disagree with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) "interim policy" decision issued Nov. 10, 2005, regarding the separation requirements for the A380 (AW&ST Dec. 12, 2005, p. 36).
Ian Muldowney has won the BAE Systems Bee Beamont Memorial Shield as outstanding young engineer of the year within the air programs business. He is operations manager for low-observables, leading a multidisciplinary team in delivering technology and demonstration programs to BAE customers. The award is named for a former British Aerospace director of flight operations.
House Appropriations homeland security subcommittee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) thinks the Bush administration's Fiscal 2007 plan to pay for aviation security by increasing passenger security fees will get as far in Congress as it did last year: Nowhere.
Air Canada says there's no room for complacency after attaining a profitable 2005--management aims to do whatever it takes, including the possible sell-off of business units, to keep the black ink flowing.
Saudi Arabia and the U.K. are discussing Saudi final assembly of 48 of the 72 Eurofighter Typhoon combat aircraft it plans to procure. Pricing the deal, however, is already proving challenging. While the first 24 aircraft to be delivered will be drawn from the early stages of the British Tranche 2 production for the Royal Air Force (RAF), Riyadh has ambitions for the remainder of its Typhoons to be built in the kingdom, British Defense Ministry officials confirmed. The Typhoon acquisition will be covered by an agreement between Riyadh and London.
The International Air Transport Assn. (IATA) has negotiated a fuel allocation system for London Heathrow Airport after a Dec. 11 fire at a nearby fuel depot led to rationing and claims of unfair treatment by some operators. IATA, BAA--which operates Heathrow--fuel supplier HHOpcO and the Airline Operating Committee negotiated an agreement that eliminates fuel allocation differences for all but short-haul operations. The plan takes effect Feb. 20. The differential on short-haul operations is to be phased out as more fuel becomes available.
Alcatel Alenia Space has been chosen to provide ground equipment that will allow France to access data on Italy's CosmoSkyMed radar surveillance system. The 32-million-euro award, from Italian space agency ASI on behalf of the Italian and French defense ministries, will ensure interoperability and optimum data exchange between CosmoSkyMed and France's Helios II optical imaging network. The first of four CosmoSkyMed satellites, also built by Alcatel Alenia, is to be deployed in the fourth quarter.
David A. Fulghum (Washington), Robert Wall (Paris)
In supplemental defense budget requests, the Bush administration will ask for an additional $70 million, thereby bringing the total to $120 billion. That includes substantial spending to replace equipment depleted in Iraq and Afghanistan. Whether long-term budget plans work depends on Congress's continuing largesse.
