The Florence, Italy, airport will shut down in February and May for required runway maintenance. Major carriers serving the facility are transferring operations to other regional airports for that period.
Aermacchi and Hellenic Aerospace Industry have signed a cooperation agreement that provides for HAI's involvement in the M346 advanced jet trainer development. HAI will serve as Greek prime contractor and receive both design work packages and production contracts, covering mainly the aft part of the airframe.
NASA will pay Honeywell to refurbish a Miniature Inertial Measurement Unit (MIMU) originally built for the Triana Earth-observation mission pushed by then-Vice President Al Gore, and plans to install the unit on its proposed Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Intended for launch in October 2008 (see p. 44), the LRO requires three of the MIMUs for redundancy, and NASA wants a sole-source deal with Triana-supplier Honeywell for the whole set--two new and one refurbished.
The U.S. Defense Dept. and civilian agencies continue to increase the amount of money they are spending on information technology outsourcing, even though the pace of that growth has fallen off.
Steve Lott's "Arrivals" article brought back memories (AW&ST Dec. 5, 2005, p. 56). My whole career was with Eastern Airlines. I can remember our founder, Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker, when visiting any station, strolling out onto the ramp and reaching up to touch the nacelles of any parked Eastern aircraft. If he found any to be cold, he stormed into the operations office for an explanation. He heard few that satisfied him. Rickenbacker constantly reminded his employees that airplanes sitting on the ground are not making money.
Harlan Sands (see photo) has been appointed associate vice president-research/executive director of the Applied Research Center at Florida International University in Miami. He was head of research administration and strategy at both the Hemispheric Center for Environmental Technology and the Center for Energy and Technology of the Americas.
USAF Col. (ret.) Edward N. Hall, an engineer and intelligence officer who was instrumental in developing the Minuteman missile system, died Jan. 15 in Torrance, Calif. He was 91.
Astronomers using a Dutch radio telescope have found more evidence that a cloud of hydrogen in the Virgo Cluster is actually a galaxy made up of mysterious dark matter. Radio imagery of the feature known as VIRGOH1 21 shows that it appears to be spinning, which suggests that it is a dark galaxy with an estimated mass 10 billion times that of the Sun. Although only 1% of that mass shows up in radio images as neutral hydrogen, indirect evidence seems to show the effect of the remaining unseen dark matter in VIRGOH1 21 on another galaxy nearby.
William Johnson has been promoted to president from vice president/general manager of the Advanced Systems Div. of L-3 Communications of New York. He succeeds Robert J. Whalen, who has retired.
Ron Wetmore has been promoted to vice president-shuttle derived launch vehicles/deputy general manager for New Orleans-based Lockheed Martin Space Systems Michoud Operations from vice president-External Tank Project. He has been succeeded by Wanda Sigur, who has been promoted from director of the Engineering and Technology Laboratories. Paula Hartley has been named director of safety and product assurance. She was risk reduction test manager for the Falcon small launch vehicle program.
Italy's top two airlines are continuing efforts to strengthen their respective market positions and, during the course of this year, should see major elements of their strategies fall into place.
John Faraci has been appointed to the board of directors of the United Technologies Corp., Hartford, Conn. He is chairman/CEO of the International Paper Co.
Aviall Services Inc. of Dallas will provide replacement parts and supply chain services for Boeing's Integrated Materials Management program. Through IMM, Boeing manages airline clients' inventory of spare parts and supplies, which reduces an airline's exposure to outdated parts and helps it avoid the cost of holding inventory.
Sergio Magistri has been named to the board of directors of Vidient Systems, Sunnyvale, Calif. He is a former president/CEO of InVision Technologies Inc.
Peter Malone's letter "Need for Airlift Won't Go Away" (AW&ST Jan. 2, p. 8) makes a good point and should be taken seriously by Pentagon planners. But from what the press is saying, the planners and bean counters are on another planet.
Austria has increased its order for Selex Sistemi Integrati RAT-31DL long-range air defense radars. The new contract for two radar systems is about 50 million euros ($60 million), with close to 10 million euros devoted to logistical support. The radars will replace two Selex S-band air defense radars acquired by Austria in the 1970s. The country took its first RAT-31DL deliveries in 2002. So far Selex has sold 21 RAT-31DLs. The system is also in service in Malaysia, Greece, Turkey, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Denmark and Germany.
Europe's remote-sensing industry is hoping a new bulk purchase and recent U.S. decision to fund a follow-on Landsat satellite will encourage European governments to take steps to guarantee data continuity for Spot optical imagery.
Martha King of the King Schools of San Diego has won the 2005 Cliff Henderson Award for Achievement from the Washington-based National Aeronautic Assn. The award recognizes the promotion and advancement of aviation or space activity.
International Space Station astronaut Bill McArthur and cosmonaut Valery Tokarev, Expedition 12 commander and flight engineer, respectively, have completed an upgrade to the U.S. Quest airlock that should stretch the amount of oxygen available on board. The Recharge Oxygen Orifice Bypass Assembly (Rooba) is essentially a pair of hoses that will allow spacewalkers preparing to go outside the station to prebreathe oxygen from the shuttle when it's docked for assembly missions.
Telesat Canada will add a fourth Nimiq TV broadcasting satellite and plans to buy three more spacecraft this year. This is part of a plan to reinforce the company's position in its home market, where Telesat is increasingly under attack from outside operators, and expand into other North American areas (AW&ST Sept. 26, 2005, p. 55).
Since the 9/11 attacks, federal security officials have been trying to close much of the airspace over Washington to general aviation and for nearly as long, pilots and industry groups have been fighting to reopen all or part of it. Now the FAA, at the request of the Defense and Homeland Security Depts., wants to make temporary flying restrictions in the area, known as the Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), permanent.
Peter Malone's letter sounds like the sort of paranoid rant that one would expect on an Internet forum about the Illuminati conspiracy. He wants to approximately double the already obscene military budget in order to prepare for war with China in 2020.
Walter (Steve) Pedigo (see photo) has been named Northrop Grumman corporate lead executive for company business at Ft. Huachuca, Ariz. He will remain a program manager for Northrop Grumman's Electronic Systems Sector, focusing on U.S. Army command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance programs and initiatives.
In the midst of an expansion to help the city get ready for the 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) has named SITA to provide the check-in platform for the new Terminal 3, which is expected to more than double the airport's operating capacity to 68 million passengers from 27 million. The $10.8-million contract covers installation of SITA's CUTE common-use terminal system supporting 500 workstations, a global message distribution system and a multipurpose operating platform.
The European Space Agency has signed a 950-million-euro ($1.1-billion) contract for development and construction of the first four Galileo spacecraft with a consortium, Galileo Industries, led by EADS and Alcatel Alenia Space.
