U.S. aerospace employment has begun to see a modest recovery, but a rebound in revenues has yet to translate into more jobs in Canada. While the Canadian aerospace industry has seen its sales increase more than $1 billion from a trough of C$20.5 billion ($17.3 billion) in 2003, employment has held steady at 75,000, down from a peak of 90,000 in 2001. Peter Boag, president of the Aerospace Industries Assn. of Canada, says one reason is that Canadian companies are finding ways to operate more efficiently.
Peter Challan has become vice president-Washington programs for the Harris Corp., Melbourne, Fla. He retired last year as an FAA senior vice president.
Michael A. Taverna (Paris), Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington)
European space leaders think relying on a single space transportation system for a future international exploration initiative is a bad idea, and are considering support for a Russian concept that could serve as an alternative, if need be.
Dan Smith, president of Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems, Tewksbury, Mass., has been inducted into the Ancient Order of Saint Barbara, to recognize his contribution to the air defense community. The order is an honorary military society of the U.S. Air Defense Artillery Assn.
Europe's first Automated Transfer Vehicle, intended to resupply the International Space Station, has developed problems with fluid management valves and is now not expected to be ready until mid-2006, rather than early in the year as planned. ESA says the problems will be corrected with funds set aside for previous fixes, and would not impact costs or launch schedule. The vessel is not expected to be orbited before 2007 under a NASA shuttle manifest being revised (see p. 31).
Scientists are one step closer to answering a 90-year-old question: Can Einstein's general theory of relativity be demonstrated? For the past 17 months, NASA's $700-million Gravity Probe-B experimental spacecraft has been collecting data in a 400-mi.-high orbit in an attempt to detect two gravitational phenomena predicted by Einstein's work (AW&ST Apr. 12, 2004, p. 50). One, the geodetic effect, is the warp in local space-time caused by Earth's mass. Frame-dragging, the other, theoretically occurs as the spinning Earth pulls space-time around with it.
Hong Kong Express is putting its second Embraer 170 into service to Hangzhou after beginning operations in early September with four daily flights to Guangzhou. The carrier emphasizes high-frequency services with fixed-wing aircraft that replicate the strategy of its sister airline, HeliExpress. Two more of the 76-seat 170s are due by early next year.
Safran consolidated its position in the homeland security market by acquiring German smart card specialist Orga. The merger will create a unit with annual smart card sales of more than 300 million euros ($359 million). Separately, rival Thales landed a deal to supply a nationwide smart card system to Morocco.
Lockheed Martin and MD Helicopters abruptly ended their partnership to pitch the Explorer for the U.S. Army's Light Helicopter only days before the proposals are due. MD says the combined team could not meet the Army's cost requirements for logistics, a task that was to fall to Lockheed Martin. MD--which recently was backed by Patriarch Partners after suffering financial problems--plans to submit its own bid by the Oct. 12 deadline and is looking for a new logistics partner. Lockheed Martin simply said the two companies made a mutual decision to part.
Rhein-Main Air Base in Germany, the U.S. Air Force's "gateway to Europe" starting in 1945 and throughout the Cold War, has ceased operations. The facility, which is co-located with Frankfurt airport and uses the same runways, will be transferred by the U.S. government back to Germany on Dec. 31. More than half of the USAF airlift missions that passed through Rhein-Main will now fly through nearby Ramstein AB, which is headquarters for U.S. Air Forces in Europe.
French space agency CNES has approved full-scale development of magnetometers for ESA's Swarm, a constellation of three satellites to be launched in 2009 to study the Earth's magnetic field.
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The low-cost-carrier terminal being built at Kuala Lumpur International Airport will be completed by March, says Malaysia Airports Managing Director Seri Bashir Ahmad. The terminal is designed to handle 10 million passengers per year. It will have 30 parking bays to accommodate Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 aircraft. Construction of the terminal follows the growth in passenger volume of AirAsia during the last three years.
Ahmed Jazzar has been named president of Boeing-Saudi Arabia and Michael Probasco president of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia-based Boeing Middle East Ltd. Jazzar was vice president-technical services for Saudi Arabian Airlines. Probasco succeeds Marcus Hurley, who has become director for business development in the Middle East and North Africa for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems.
Spending for rotary-wing aircraft, however, would be more modest under the proposed French budget. The bill calls for the delivery of just seven Tiger attack helicopters--half the number of Rafales--two special forces units and no NH90 transport/frigate craft. But it would permit the purchase of 19 search-and-rescue and patrol helicopters.
Launch of the first Boeing Delta IV rocket from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., has slipped again, to no earlier than mid-November while engineers refine their models as to the effect that sloshing fuel will have on the rocket while it is coasting after launch.
The industrial launch of the A350 puts the near-term focus for Airbus on engineering efforts and supplier selections to ensure the aircraft is in service--as advertised--in 2010. But the next set of challenges awaits. These include resolving governmental financial support that, for now, remains frozen, and, in the longer-term, preparing an aggressive production ramp-up to meet customer demand for the new twin-engine widebody.
News Breaks 18 First flight for Javelin high- performance, very light jet 19 Terrorist blasts slow travel reservations to Bali 19 Maiden flight for Chinese trainer could occur by year-end 20 Lockheed, MD Helicopters end part- nership to pitch Explorer to Army 20 Nordam Group Chairman Ray Siegfried dies World News & Analysis 22 Airbus launches A350-800/-900, with government aid on hold 24 Russian plan would back RRJ and MS-21 narrow-body transport
There are reports of the industry downsizing as network carriers negotiate bankruptcy. Northwest is parking DC-9s, Delta has begun disposing of widebodies and 737-200s, with more cuts to come. Merrill Lynch is reducing its forecasts for most airlines because of record energy costs. Will unused aircraft gather dust in desert parking lots?
NASA plans a launch as early as Oct. 26 of two more "cars" in the orbiting "A-train," a close formation of Earth-observing spacecraft that deliver complementary measurements of the same environmental phenomena. The two new satellites--CloudSat and Calipso (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations)--will track only 15 sec. apart on the 483-mi. circular Sun-synchronous A-train orbit. That will allow them to study the same column of atmosphere with different instruments.
Alaska Airlines is inspecting its 26 MD-80s and the FAA is probing the airline's maintenance practices in response to allegations of improper MD-80 jackscrew lubrication.
Your article on the Northwest Airlines mechanics strike should be very interesting to the entire airline pilot profession (AW&ST Sept. 5, p. 39). The contradictory leadership of the Air Line Pilots Assn. is hard for pilots to figure. It led the Eastern Airlines pilots into career suicide by having them honor the mechanics' picket line, causing the destruc- tion of a once-great airline. Now ALPA has reversed itself and led Northwest pilots into crossing the mechanics' picket line.
David Jerome (see photo) has become executive director of the U.S. Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Center, Tullahoma, Tenn. He succeeds Albert Goldstayn, who has been named to an Air Force senior executive service position at the Army's Space and Missile Command, Huntsville, Ala.
The Senate Armed Services Committee chairman says UAVs have a very bright future in national defense. "I remain convinced we're just on the threshold of another evolution and proliferation of this very important type of weapons system," says Sen. John Warner (R-Va.). While he worries about the escalating costs of UAVs, Warner tells Michael Wynne at his confirmation hearing for Air Force secretary to make sure the service puts "the proper emphasis" on the technology.
Porter Goss, as a member of Congress after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, was among those on the intelligence committees who asked the CIA to take an internal look at what went wrong. The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) did so and identified 20 such systemic problems that needed to be addressed. But the classified report also calls on the director of central intelligence (DCI), who is now Goss, to convene "a performance accountability board" to look at the work of a group of CIA officers who focused on Al Qaeda prior to the attacks.
