ManTech International Corp. received a five-year, $10.5-million TSA background-checking contract for analytic services in vetting noncitizens requesting flight training in the U.S. TSA's Alien Flight School Program checks fingerprints, passports and background information of aliens seeking flight training. Using a variety of databases, Fairfax, Va.-based ManTech will help cross-check references and potential risks of flight candidates.
Britain is beginning to receive imagery from its Topsat low-cost imaging micro-satellite technology demonstrator. This image, released by Qinetiq, which is leading the program, shows the River Thames on the outskirts of London. Topsat was launched into a polar low Earth orbit Oct. 27, 2005, as part of a Cosmos payload from Plesetsk in northern Russia. The British National Space Center and Defense Ministry are funding the program jointly. The cost of the mission was no more than 14 million pounds ($24.14 million).
It seems only fitting for the Stardust sample return capsule to be traveling so fast as it breaks through Earth's atmosphere that it will leave a white-hot streak across the late-night Nevada sky. After all, it is bringing back comet dust.
NASA's plan to offer the Kennedy Space Center's shuttle runway for specialized commercial and flight test operations will get a boost by a Scaled Composites/Virgin Atlantic decision to launch the GlobalFlyer's longest aircraft flight attempt there in February. Pilot Steve Fossett will use the 15,000 X 300-ft. runway for takeoff of the GlobalFlyer on a planned flight of more than 26,084 mi. He intends to fly eastward, circle the globe, then make a second Atlantic crossing toward a landing at Kent, England. The flight could break by 700 mi.
Rep. James L. Oberstar (D-Minn.) is a veteran of three decades of legislative action and debate on civil aviation issues on Capitol Hill, serving now as the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. He chaired the aviation subcommittee from 1989-94 and over the years has been active in attempts to curtail runway incursions and the possibility of midair collisions, and in addressing aging-aircraft safety problems. He grew up in Minnesota's Iron Range, the son of a miner and union official.
U.S. military planners seem to think we have no further need for massive airlift capacity (AW&ST Oct. 31, 2005, p. 22). They must be assuming all our future wars will be like the ones in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Iraq.
Nav Canada is extending the deadline for comment on its revised service charges to Feb. 10, 2006. The proposal would make adjustments to the fees paid by operators of different aircraft weight classes to the private air navigation service provider. The revisions apply to fees for operating in terminal areas, and not to en route charges. A Nav Canada official says the new fees would have little impact on "mid-size" aircraft such as the Boeing 737-700 and Airbus A319. The proposed changes would decrease the terminal fee for larger aircraft by C$1 ($0.86) per passenger.
NASA's biggest suppliers are building up business units to compete for a piece of the back-to-the-Moon mission, which even the U.S. government estimates will cost at least $104 billion over the next 15 years. With that kind of money at least potentially on the table, companies are establishing exploration units to bid on the space hardware--new and derived from space shuttle components--that NASA will use to send humans beyond low Earth orbit.
Acting Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, after eight months with two Pentagon posts, has quit his other job as Navy secretary. England will be succeeded by Donald Winter, who will be sworn in Jan. 3. President Bush cemented England's authority with an executive order naming him the successor to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld if the latter dies or resigns. A second executive order scrambles the line of succession by moving Office of the Secretary of Defense officials up and service secretaries down.
Michael H. Cox, Vice President, Communications, Bell Helicopter Textron (Fort Worth, Tex.)
I must take exception to the story headlined "Bell and AgustaWestland Part Ways on AB139" (AW&ST Nov. 28, 2005, p. 20). The story discusses "Bell's refusal to establish a local assembly line" among other items. The statement is wrong. Further, Bell was never contacted for comment.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has released a Request for Information to help develop a business model for implementing a nationwide Registered Traveler (RT) program, which allows pre-screened frequent fliers to bypass some airport screening hassles.
The Eurofighter Typhoon partner nations have signed a 300-million-euro ($354-million) contract with engine consortium Eurojet to provide in-service support for the aircraft's EJ200 engine. The initial contract period runs until 2009, but could be extended. Eurojet shareholders are Italy's Avio, ITP from Spain, Germany's MTU Aero Engines and Rolls-Royce from the U.K.
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Space Exploration Technologies halted the Dec. 19 launch attempt of its Falcon 1 rocket after an accidental vacuum inside the first-stage fuel tank began to damage the structure. SpaceX expects its first launch will occur no sooner than early February (AW&ST Dec. 5, 2005, p. 20). The countdown was going well on the Omelek Island pad in the Kwajalein Atoll when it went into a hold at T-15 min. owing to winds exceeding the 24-kt. limit. About 16 min.
In a terrorist attack that chilled much of India's high-tech establishment, terrorists killed a mathematics professor and injured four scientists Dec. 28 at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. It was the first such attack in the city, the heart of the country's information technology industry and home to state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. and Bharat Electronics Ltd. It also is headquarters for the Defense Research Development Organization and Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
Walter J. Boyne, author of 40 books and former director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum (NASM), has won the 2005 Lauren D. Lyman Award from the Washington-based Aerospace Industries Assn. for excellence in aviation journalism. Boyne was honored for an aviation writing career that spans more than 30 years after he retired as a U.S. Air Force officer with 5,000 hr. of flying time. His books include The Wild Blue, The Smithsonian Book of Flight, The Leading Edge, Power Behind the Wheel and Airpower, an International Encyclopedia.
Thanks to a healthy infusion of capital, Italy's air transport sector could finally see its much-needed turnaround accomplished this year. But even as Italy's struggling flag carrier Alitalia is indicating it may have the funds to pull out of its financial nose-dive, labor continues to present challenges. Unions in the coming weeks are planning to maintain their policy of staging successive strikes to fight a management plan to streamline operations, cut costs and reduce its staff by another 1,200.
Jim Tabor (see photos) has been promoted to vice president from general manager of operations and Tad Hutcheson to vice president-marketing and sales from director of marketing at AirTran Airways.
Boeing has received an $11.2-million contract from the New Zealand Ministry of Defense to upgrade communications on the two 757s the country operates as multimission military aircraft.
Russia's Rokot launch vehicle is cleared to fly again, following an accident investigation commission ruling that its Oct. 8, 2005, failure was caused by human error and didn't represent an inherent design flaw. The mishap doomed Europe's CryoSat ice measurement mission. Several corrective measures must be implemented before Rokot flies again, but that return to flight is expected in the second quarter of 2006 with South Korea's Kompsat-2.
Virgin America's certification bid is getting tangled quickly. The Transportation Dept. has deferred the 21-day deadline for answers to the would-be carrier's application--which would have expired Dec. 29--until 14 days after the department rules on a Continental Airlines motion to require additional information. As a prelude to a spirited contest, Continental's motion drew support from American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, the Air Line Pilots Assn., the Allied Pilots Assn. and the AFL-CIO's Transportation Trades Dept.
The British Defense Ministry is launching a burst illumination laser imaging technology demonstrator program with Selex Sensors and Airborne Systems. The program, known as the Ground-Based Active Imaging Technology, is intended to develop an extended range target identification system. The 24-month demonstrator program is worth 1.5 million pounds ($2.6 million).
James Palmer (see photos) has become vice president-customer support and commercial services and Gerald Charland vice president-strategy and business development for Montreal-based CMC Electronics Inc. Palmer was director of commercial services. Charland was vice president-strategy and business development for Thales Avionics North America.
Painful cuts are preferable if they avert even the chance that a labor contract can be canceled in bankruptcy. Pilots at Delta Air Lines demonstrated that point last week in a close balloting on a temporary 15% pay cut. Their Chapter 11 colleagues at Delta Connection carrier Comair face the same dilemma this month: Take a cut or else.
The U.S. Naval Inventory Control Point in Philadelphia has awarded Breeze-Eastern, a division of TransTechnology Corp., a $9.6-million contract for repair and overhaul of rescue hoists, cargo hooks and other items used on H-3 and H-53 helicopters. Work will be performed at the company's Union, N.J., facility and is expected to be completed by December 2008.
