The EuroHawk joint venture between EADS and Northrop Grumman to sell Global Hawks to the German military was formally established earlier this month. Germany is expected to sign for the high-altitude system it would equip with signals intelligence systems next year.
Computer Sciences Corp.'s stock shot up earlier this month after media reports that a group of private investors was proposing to break up the company and sell its government business to Lockheed Martin Corp. The pitch had appeal: CSC's stock has stagnated during the past four years while other federal IT contractors have seen their valuations soar.
USAF Maj. Gen. (select) William T. Lord has been appointed director of information, services and integration within the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force/warfighting integration and chief information officer at the Pentagon. He has been commander of the 81st Training Wing of the Air Education and Training Command, Keesler AFB, Miss. Lord will be succeeded by Brig. Gen. Paul F. Capasso, who has been director of command, control, communications and computer systems at headquarters of the U.S. Transportation Command, Scott AFB, Ill. Brig. Gen.
Steven W. Flohr has been named president of Allied Technology, a Texas-based subsidiary of The Allied Defense Group. He has been an independent consultant on defense, technical and program management issues, and was commanding general of White Sands Missile Range, N.M.
General Electric's GEnx has been selected by Air-India to power the 20 Boeing 787s it has committed to. There are also seven options. The order is part of a larger win valued at $1.3 billion that includes the GE90-115B to power five firm 777-200LRs and 10 firm 777-300ERs. In addition, CFM-56 engines, manufactured by the GE/Snecma partnership CFM International, have been selected for the 18 737-800s ordered by India's A-I Express budget carrier.
Hit by safety issues, high fuel costs and weak demand, Japan Airlines--Asia's biggest carrier--struggled through the first half of the year and says it will compensate by reorganizing its routes, ask for wage concessions, and accelerate retirement of older aircraft.
German researchers will crunch data in the next few weeks to determine for certain whether their newly flight-tested thermal protection system for future spacecraft met durability goals, after initial indications that the technology passed its first major operational trial.
Lockheed Martin has received the go-ahead for Lot 5 production of the F/A-22. USAF issued a $2.9-billion contract to the company for production of 24 of the stealthy fighters by November 2007.
Despite high fuel prices, Lufthansa Group says in its third-quarter report that full-year operating results will come in "well over 400 million euros," topping last year's 383 million euros. The airline, which generates the bulk of revenue, saw its nine-month year-on-year operating results improve to 269 million euros from 32 million. Yields were positive in the third quarter everywhere but in Europe.
Leonard Nicholson has been appointed deputy program manager for the Northrop Grumman/Boeing Crew Exploration Vehicle team. He was International Space Station deputy program manager for Boeing. Keith Reiley, who was acting deputy program manager, will manage the team's spacecraft design activity and be lead for the Phase 1 contract effort.
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From Nov. 15, when American Airlines starts flights to India, a frequent-flier agreement with Air Sahara will allow members of each of their programs to earn and redeem miles when traveling on flights between Chicago O'Hare and New Delhi. Subject to government approvals, American will put its AA code on Air Sahara flights to 25 destinations beyond New Delhi. Air Sahara, in turn, will place its code on American's transatlantic flights between New Delhi and O'Hare and selected airports beyond.
Dassault Aviation is taking Honeywell to court over alleged cost overruns and delays in supplying a new flight deck for Dassault's business jet programs. Honeywell confirmed the $60-million suit, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, but otherwise refused to comment. Dassault likewise declined to comment, except to say the matter concerns the EASy interactive cockpit developed by the two companies for the new Falcon 7X ultra-long-range trijet and the 900EX and 2000EX upgrades.
The "botnet army" phenomenon is real and state-sponsored, says Tom Kellermann, a former World Bank security official and chief knowledge officer of Cybrinth LLC. Computer robots infect computers and use them to launch cyberattacks without the owner ever being aware of it. "Some nation-state actors control tens of thousands of computers around the world," he says, citing North Korea as an egregious example.
Mark D. Rodgers has become chief scientist for human system integration and Robbie Leftwich senior separation and safety manager for CSSI Inc. in Washington. Rodgers was director of system engineering and Leftwich director of safety risk management, both for the FAA.
This year's National Business Aviation Assn. meeting left no doubt that the pulse of business flying is strong and forecast to gain strength in the next 24 months as demand for aircraft, services and flight operations shows no sign of stalling out. Despite being hastily relocated to Orlando from New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the convention boasted more than 23,000 attendees, 1,140 exhibitors in 4,800 booths, and 110 aircraft on static display at Orlando Executive Airport, according to NBAA President/CEO Edward M. Bolen.
Engineers at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) tentatively scheduled an attempt to collect a sample of the asteroid Itokawa on Nov. 19, after running unplanned maneuvers to try to overcome navigation problems that forced them to abort a sample-collection rehearsal.
The U.S. Air Force is proposing adding a multibillion-dollar funding wedge to its budget plans to bridge the gap between the proposed closure of the Lockheed Martin F/A-22 production line after Fiscal 2008 and ramp-up of Joint Strike Fighter four years later.
SES Global third-quarter earnings before interest, taxes, deprecation and amortization (EBITDA) rose 10% to 216 million euros ($253 million) compared to a year earlier, on revenues of 313 million euros (up 21%). Net profit jumped 48% to 108 million euros. The company said its stock buyback and cancellation program is 73% complete.
Paul Miller, President (Better Safe Consultants, Williamsburg, Va)
It surprises me that Transport Canada safety policy does not include employing runway grooving to improve wet coefficient of friction. NASA runway engineering tests show a wet grooved runway provides an 80-90% equivalent of the stopping performance of a dry runway. Virtually all U.S. commercial all-weather runways have been grooved for decades.
Amid a slew of proposed cuts to its military space programs, the Pentagon is offering to sacrifice some work on its massive communications satellite development program while pleading with lawmakers not to reduce its program to demonstrate the utility of advanced radars on orbit in the Fiscal 2006 budget. Conferees in the House and Senate are working toward an agreement on the Pentagon's Fiscal 2006 budget. The government will operate at Fiscal 2005 levels through a continuing resolution, although Fiscal 2006 began last month.
Mylene Scholnick has become senior vice president for Asia for SkyWorks Capital, Greenwich, Conn., and its affiliate JetWorks Leasing. She was head of international business development for NetJets Inc.
Now that the U.S. government has set a June deadline for launching a nationwide Registered Traveler (RT) security program, the private sector is moving swiftly to standardize technology and business rules to let pre-screened frequent fliers bypass airport security hassles. A group of more than 60 U.S. airports that have been pushing for a nationwide RT program last week selected identity assurance software provider Daon to lead the effort in making identification technologies compatible, or interoperable, among airports.
