Isaac Nijankin (see photos) has been appointed general manager of cargo in North America and John Balzer as U.S. reservations and ticketing manager for El Al Israel Airlines, both based in New York. Nijankin was director of cargo for North America and Asia for Varig, while Balzer has been Southeast U.S. regional manager.
Space insurance industry executives think the Intelsat-PanAmSat merger will reinforce the trend toward expanded reliance on self-insurance among FSS operators (AW&ST Apr. 25, p. 28). "With fleets of 50 satellites, some change in risk management strategy should be expected," says Stanislas Chapron of Marsh Inc. He sees more retention of risk, particularly for in-orbit coverage, and greater emphasis on protecting revenues, rather than pure book value.
U.K. defense ministry procurement chiefs are expected to approve a major reorganization of the British Army's Bowman battlefield Internet communications system next month after technological glitches delayed the 2.2-billion-pound ($3.95 billion) project by a year.
Airbus has secured a $2.2-billion, 43-aircraft Indian Airlines order. The government finally cleared the purchase, after receiving a 3.5% discount and after Airbus agreed to establish a $75-million pilot training center and a $100-million maintenance, repair and overhaul facility. Deliveries will begin in the second half of next year. Last week, Airbus also won an order for 10 more A330s from China Southern Air- lines, with deliveries in 2007 and 2008.
. . . But Sheriff--the U.S. military's concept for quickly fielding a suite of nonlethal weaponry atop an armored vehicle--seems to be foundering amid a lack of financial and moral support from the services. The "Full Spectrum Effects Platform," better known as Sheriff, is supposed to integrate an array of nonlethal (and lethal) weapons, ranging from acoustic devices and blinding lights to the Active Denial System.
The U.S. Air Force is planning to conduct separate competitions for its next-generation Global Positioning System satellites and related stations, fundamentally changing the course of how it has done business in the past.
Lessons from the Air Force's largest search-and-rescue operation ever, over the acrid New Orleans skies, are guiding officials as they plan a competition for the future rescue aircraft. More than a week after New Orleans levees burst and drowned the streets, this reporter joined a six-man crew on a USAF HH-60G Pave Hawk for an 8-hr. mission Sept. 7. Twenty survivors were carried to Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport for medical attention and transport out of the city during the mission.
The awarding of a contract to Sagem Defense Security by Estonia's Ministry of Finance to modernize the country's Automated Fingerprint Identification System highlights continuing investment by new European Union members in border security technology. The EU has invested more than 1.5 billion euros ($1.86 billion) in helping aspiring member states bring their border security arrangements up to the standard necessary to allow them to join the Schengen border control regime.
Northrop Grumman beat out Lockheed Martin and Raytheon to snag the Royal Australian Air Force contract to equip F/A-18s with an advanced targeting pod. Northrop Grumman, teamed with its partner Rafael, offered the Litening-AT. The A$100-million ($77-million) contract went to Northrop because it offered the lowest per-unit price, the Australian defense department suggested in announcing the decision. The first Australian F/A-18s fitted with the system should be fielded in early 2007.
Sweden is kicking off another national space mission, this time an experimental spacecraft to test advanced space technologies. Those will include "green" in-space propulsion as a replacement for toxic hydrazine; continuous-flow microthrusters-on-a-chip for small-satellite applications; and sensors that will let formation-flying satellites know where they are in their constellation.
In an illustration of combined human and robotic operations, space shuttle Discovery STS-114 astronaut Stephen Robinson is maneuvered at 220 mi. altitude on the International Space Station's robotic arm, which was developed in Canada by MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. Discovery astronaut Wendy Lawrence is piloting the arm from inside the ISS to place Robinson under the orbiter's belly for rudimentary maintenance to the shuttle's thermal protection tiles.
At 500 ft. over the Interstate 10 causeway, Coast Guard swimmer Erick Lieb shines an Aldis lamp from the open door of a Jayhawk helicopter on a car below. Bridge spans ahead of and behind the car are gone. There are no signs of life. We can only speculate on the fate of whoever was in that car. It has been eight long days since Katrina hit, and surely the occupants have long since been rescued, if they survived.
Boeing's newest Tier 1 supplier has a storied history with the company. The Seattle-based manufacturer came here in 1929 when it bought the Stearman Aircraft Co., maker of 10,000 Kaydet Trainers. Its sprawling World War II-era factory--producer of 1,644 B-29 bombers--is now home to the 737 fuselage production line.
The FAA appears to have accepted unmanned aircraft into the world of civil and commercial flying by issuing the first-ever UAV experimental certificate for flight operations to General Atomics Aeronautical Systems for the agency's Altair. This is a step on the way to obtaining an airworthiness certificate (a type certificate). The UAV's tail number is N8172V, according to the FAA's web site.
Eutelsat Chief Executive Giuliano Berretta said at the Euroconsult-sponsored industry gathering in Paris that timely action by engineers prevented the loss of the company's W1 spacecraft following the Aug. 10 failure of a solar panel. Users were reallocated to other spacecraft temporarily until full power could be restored, Berretta reported, and no customers were lost. The cause of the failure--said to be Eutelsat's first major in-orbit incident--remains unknown.
Northrop Grumman, after months of hints, has finally declared itself a prime contractor for the U.S. Air Force's next-generation tanker aircraft, and analysts think the need for new industry in the hurricane-ravaged region could provide new political support for the Mobile, Ala.-based effort.
William B. Scott (Colorado Springs), David A. Fulghum (Washington), Craig Covault (Cape Canaveral)
To the list of casualties being tallied following Hurricane Katrina, at least two more will certainly be added: procedures for requesting assistance from the federal government and rules for how the military should respond to a disaster. With images of desperate flooding victims in New Orleans still fresh, the White House, congressional committees and the Pentagon itself have already announced investigations, and "lessons-learned" studies will probe whether the military could have done more or responded quicker (see p. 22).
Famed "Star Warrior" Lowell Wood was back in Washington this summer in hopes of promoting a new version of Brilliant Pebbles--the space-based kinetic interceptor program that was at the center of the 1990s ballistic missile defense system. Brilliant Pebbles was funded under the old Strategic Defense Initiative, a.k.a. Star Wars, then canceled in 1993 by the Clinton administration in favor of ground-based systems. Wood, a physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, was the father of the Brilliant Pebbles concept.
The Army is stretched too thin and there's no way to fix the force without spending a lot of money or making more demands on reserves, says a new Rand study. The increased operational tempo of the past four years has led to lengthier and more frequent deployments, so that now 40% of deployed forces are reservists or Army National Guard personnel.
Maj. Gen. (select) William D. Catto, the head of U.S. Marine Corps Systems Command, wasted no time in getting his message out following the Aug. 14 publication of a New York Times article on body-armor deficiencies.
Eurocopter's AS 550 and Bell's 407--final competitors for the Indian army's order for 197 light 10-ton-class helicopters--completed final summer trials in the glacier heights of Jammu and Kashmir and the desert of Rajasthan. Fifty-five helos will be purchased outright; the remaining 142 are to be built under license at Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.
An article on p. 77 in the Aug. 22/29 edition misstated the site of the NTSB Academy. It is located at George Washington University's Ashburn, Va., campus.
Wizz Air, the low-fare/low-cost carrier operating in Central and Eastern Europe, has signed a contract to purchase 12 Airbus A320-family aircraft and options for 12. International Aero Engines V2500-A5s will power the aircraft, which are configured in a single-class, 156-seat layout in the A319s and up to 180 seats in the A320s. Deliveries are expected to begin in summer 2007.
Forty-four years ago, President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered one of the most definitive statements on the challenges of investing in national security while balancing the competing interests of science, industry and government.
Arianespace and International Launch Services both have signed new launch services contracts that build on recent successes in getting their customers' spacecraft to orbit. DirecTV will use another ILS Proton, flying from Baikonur Cosmodrome in second-quarter 2007, to launch the K a-band DirecTV 11, one of three Boeing 702 spacecraft purchased by the U.S. satellite broadcast provider. ILS launched DirecTV 8 on a Proton in May (AW&ST May 30, p. 17).
