The House Appropriations Committee has decided to teach the Homeland Security Dept. a lesson for not supplying the information it wants about plans to spend the Fiscal 2006 budget request. Following the lead of its homeland security subcommittee, the committee withholds nearly $800 million from the HSD budget. "There are more than $485 million in cuts because we did not get the information we needed to make informed decisions about programs and operations," says subcommittee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.).
Congress is expected to come under increasing pressure to head off a feared meltdown of the airline industry's pension system following United Airlines' termination of nearly $10 billion in pension fund obligations. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.'s (PBGC) agreement to take over United parent UAL Corp.'s underfunded pension plans is raising concerns on Capitol Hill that other cash-strapped, legacy airlines might dump their pension plans on Uncle Sam--to stay competitive in a market bedeviled by sky-high fuel prices and low-cost carriers.
Jim Bouey, Director, Safety and Airworthiness (Boeing Commercial Airplanes)
A sentence in the article on Head-Up Display technology (AW&ST Mar. 28, p. 54) caught my attention. "HUD technology--originally developed for combat jets--found its way onto commercial flight decks in 1989 when Alaska Airlines pioneered the use of head-up systems."
George J. Pedersen, who is chairman/CEO of the ManTech International Corp., Fairfax, Va., has received the National Defense Industrial Assn.'s 2005 James Forrestal Industry Leadership Award. The award is given to an executive who has been active in helping to strengthen the U.S.' defense industrial base. Pedersen was chosen for his "astute business judgment, keen political instincts and a broad understanding of the vital role the industrial base plays in ensuring the nation's security," according to NDIA.
Japanese Defense Minister Kutou Ohno says the Japan Defense Agency is studying use of a U.S.-manufactured UAV but declined to give details about a specific type. Japan has had a turbofan-powered UAV in development for several years. The minister's comments are being read to mean Japan needs to compare the U.S. offering with its indigenous effort. If the U.S. entry is selected, Japan probably would drop its own program so funds could be shifted to the winner. Procurement money is projected to be part of the JDA's fiscal 2006 budget.
Scientists preparing Europe's future long-term space science plan are eyeing exploration missions to Jupiter and Europa and space observatories aimed at studying exo-planets and black holes. The plan could get an unexpected assist from the defense community, which shares some of its technology objectives.
Once again the topic of runway incursions is touched on, this time in Europe (AW&ST Apr. 11, p. 36). And once again I read of expensive, sophisticated equipment that may or may not solve this problem. True, there are few runway incursions. But with larger and larger aircraft a single incursion could lead to hundreds of deaths and injuries. And so once again I wish to mention an approach I first suggested decades ago. Set up a system of traffic lights at every intersection.
SIKORSKY AIRCRAFT CORP. HAS DELIVERED two S-76C+ helicopters to Helivan, a provider of air transport for the off-shore oil industry in Mexico. Plans call for two additional helicopters to be delivered late this year.
Crews have started processing the first operational Delta IV Heavy triple-body oxygen/hydrogen launch vehicle at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., following its arrival on board Boeing's Delta Mariner rocket-transport ship. The rocket, which traveled 1,400 mi. by river and sea from its manufacturing plant in Decatur, Ala., is to launch a U.S. Air Force Defense Support Program (DSP) missile warning spacecraft from Complex 37 in the fall.
Boeing Co.'s book of firm orders for new commercial aircraft continues to build. One of Central Europe's new discount carriers plans to acquire 737s, and last week Boeing signed firm orders with Japan Airlines for 30 787s and 30 73-800s committed to last December. (None were in doubt.) At list prices, they are worth $5.67 billion. JAL also has options on 20 787s and 10 737s. The 787s will replace its own 767s and Airbus A300-600s that it acquired when it absorbed Japan Air System.
Business aviation operators are hoping separate initiatives on both sides of the Atlantic will move the industry a step closer to one of its most cherished goals--the harmonization of private, on-demand charter and fractional operating rules.
Battelle, a nonprofit research organization in Columbus, Ohio, has received a $500-million, 10-year contract from the USAF Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center to transform maintenance, repair and overhaul operations to lean processes. A team of companies will assist Battelle in this effort, including Arinc, Bearing Point, Frankfurt-Short-Bruza (FSB), Goodrich, Johnson Controls, L-3 Communications, Lean Enterprise Inc., Pratt & Whitney and Standard Aero.
Eurocopter says it will build a new plant in Albacete, Spain, as part of Spain's entry into the Tiger combat helicopter program. The 60-million- euro plant, which will employ 450 people, will handle production and assembly operations for the Tiger and EC135 light twin helicopter programs.
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GULFSTREAM AEROSPACE FLEW THE FIRST GULFSTREAM G150 business jet earlier this month from Ben Gurion International Airport in Israel. The twin engine jet has been redesigned with a new, wider cabin that can accommodate up to eight passengers, and is powered by Honeywell TFE731-40AR engines. During the 4-hr., 13-min. flight, test pilots Ronen Shapira and Yoram Geva checked the jet's handling qualities and systems, cycled the landing gear, flaps and wing slats. Maximum altitude attained was 20,000 ft. and maximum speed was 250 kt.
Donald V. Cramer has been named to the scientific advisory board of Los Angeles-based Universal Detection Technology. He has been a research professor in the Cardiothoracic Surgery and Molecular Microbiology and Immunology Depts. at the University of Pittsburgh and a consultant to the Abdominal Organ Transplantation Dept.
Gartner, the high-technology market research company, finds in a recent survey of midsize and large companies in Western Europe that there is continuing pressure to cut the cost of information technology infrastructure with outsourcing contracts. Aerospace companies, like those in other industries, outsource IT even though a company's digital backbone is critical to interacting with customers and suppliers and to meeting customer requirements.
The Russian air force has suspended Mikoyan MiG-29 Fulcrum flying operations pending preliminary results into the loss of an aircraft. The pilot was killed in the accident on May 12 when the aircraft crashed while on final approach to an airfield in the Tver region.
Robert Wall's article (AW&ST Apr. 25, p. 24) states Alain Picq, armaments counselor for France's NATO delegation, argued that U.S. companies and their European subsidiaries should not be given access to the European Union defense trade open market. Access would only be given when there was no other supplier option. Roger Hawksworth, secretary general of the Aerospace & Defense Industries Assn. of Europe, would allow access only under "reasonable balance" measures. Possibly like the A400M engine and Galileo GPS decisions.
LOT Polish Airlines has converted four of 11 options for Embraer 170 regional jets to buy the larger 175. The first of them is to be delivered in the second quarter 2006. Meanwhile, Copa Airlines has exercised an option for two Embraer 190s, adding to the 10 it ordered in 2004.
The Australian government is beginning a $645-million upgrade for its Anzac ships to bolster their anti-missile defenses. The first phase will focus on the team of Tenix and Saab Systems upgrading command-and-control architecture and install an infrared search and track situation awareness subsystem to detect low-flying aircraft or missiles. The first frigate to be modified is scheduled to enter service in 2008, followed by upgrades to the entire fleet by 2012. The second phase still is being defined.
Jean-Marc Laine has been named European product manager for RegiStar laser-imageable materials for Paris-based Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials. He was sales manager for the Circuit Board Technologies Div. in France and North Africa.
Director G. Peter Nanos has resigned after two tumultuous years as head of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, accepting a research and development position with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Effective May 16, Robert W. Kuckuck will take over as interim director of LANL. In the wake of two security and safety incidents last summer, Nanos suspended all lab activities and referred to staff members as "cowboys" and "buttheads" (AW&ST Sept. 20, p. 66; July 26, p. 15). The security flap centered on two missing computer disks containing classified information.
Capt. Howard Chandler (EasyJet Airline, Wiltshire, England)
Mark J. Holt questions the EU's integrity on issues such as open skies (AW&ST Apr. 18, p. 7). I don't imagine, given the state of the U.S. airline industry, that the U.S. will allow any European airline to exercise "fifth freedom" rights within the U.S.
NASA astronaut Scott E. Parazynski has won the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation's Family Heritage Award, which honors Americans whose ancestors entered the U.S. via Ellis Island. He is astronaut office lead for space shuttle thermal protection system inspection and repair. Parazynski is a veteran of four space flights, STS-66 (1994), STS-86 (1997), STS-95 (1998) and STS-100 (2001), in which he has logged 1,019 hr. (six weeks) in space and traveled more than 17 million mi. His great-grandfather arrived at Ellis Island in 1908.
