Mel Hilderbrand (see photos) has become senior vice president-customer operations and Terry Flaishans vice president-engineering for Meggitt/S-TEC, Mineral Wells, Tex. Hilderbrand was an executive with Bell Helicopter Textron, while Flaishans was an executive with Honeywell International's aerospace electrical systems sector.
All Nippon Airways, which reported its second-best ever profits for fiscal 2004, is taking a stake in another of Japan's struggling discount carriers. ANA will purchase 15% of Skynet Asia Airlines' stock and help it with crew training, flight operations, maintenance and airport passenger and cargo operations. The government's Industry Revitalization Organization, a corporate bailout agency, approved ANA's investment. The airline has previously invested in Air Do.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, NASA's next spacecraft bound for the Red Planet, has started prelaunch checkout at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., after delivery there Apr. 30 on a C-17. Between now and its planned Aug. 10 launch date, the Lockheed Martin-built spacecraft is scheduled for mechanical and electrical tests, including deployment of its high-gain antenna and solar arrays. Fueling with hydrazine is set for July, followed by encapsulation on July 26 and transport to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for launch.
If it only costs $800,000 per plane to install fully automatic anti-missile devices, who will pay? We, the passengers can, through a surcharge of $10.00 per ticket. This is not a big deal! Let's get it done now!
Royal Air Force Tornado GR4 strike aircraft may be kept in service for more than a decade longer than anticipated. The type is due to be withdrawn in 2018, but the Defense Ministry is looking at extending the aircraft's service life by at least five years, with further options out to 2030. Interest in retaining the GR4 is driven by slippage in other procurement programs and by funding constraints within the long-term equipment program. A ministry official confirms that work is underway regarding lengthening the GR4's service life well beyond 2018.
To submit Aerospace Calendar Listings, Call +1 (212) 904-2421 Fax +1 (212) 904-6068 e-mail: [email protected] May 15-18--National Air Traffic Controllers' Assn. in Washington 2005. Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill. See www.natca.org May 16-19--Regional Airline Assn.'s Annual Convention. Cincinnati Convention Center. Call +1 (202) 367-1170 or see www.raa.org May 17-19--Air Line Pilots Assn.'s Professional Standards Conference. St. Paul (Minn.) Hotel. Call +1 (703) 689-2270 or see www.alpa.org
Work on the first 747-400 in Boeing's Special Freighter conversion program for passenger transport has begun at Taikoo Aircraft Engineering Co. (Taeco) in Xiamen, China (see photo). The jet is being rebuilt for launch customer Cathay Pacific Airways, which plans to take delivery by year's end. A main deck cargo door will be installed, along with an interior layout identical to a 747-400 production freighter, but converted aircraft will not feature a tilt nose section.
You can now register ONLINE for Aviation Week Events. Go to www.AviationNow.com/conferences or call Lydia Janow at +1 (212) 904-3225/+1 (800) 240-7645 ext. 5 (U.S. and Canada Only) May 24-25--Homeland Security Summit & Exposition, Washington. Oct. 18-20--MRO Europe. Estrel Hotel & Convention Center, Berlin. Nov. 8-10--MRO Asia, Suntec City, Singapore. Nov. 14-16--A&D Programs & Productivity Conference, Phoenix. PARTNERSHIPS Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Seminars:
Paul P. Bollinger, Jr., has been appointed to the board of directors of the White Plains, N.Y.-based Corporate Angel Network. He is president of the Air Traffic Control Assn. and tournament director for the Greater Washington Aviation Open.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has started work on a small satellite that will carry six mice to orbit as the first step in what JAXA hopes will be a Japanese human spaceflight program. The satellite, measuring 1 ft. across and weighing 200-400 lb., is to sustain the mice for two weeks after launch as a piggyback H-IIA payload in 2008. Observing the effects of spaceflight on the mice will be part of JAXA's drive to begin flying humans to space in about 2025 as part of its long-term vision for space exploration (AW&ST Apr. 18, p. 32).
Jacques Lemarchand (AW&ST May 2, p. 8) repeats the myth that U.S. government contracts act as "subsidies" for Boeing. Boeing built the Dash 80, prototype for the 707 and KC-135, at its own expense, and structural differences prohibited common tooling for most of those aircraft. Significant military orders for the 707 came at the end of the program, not the beginning.
NOAA-N, the latest in the Advanced Tiros-N series, is set to be launched May 11 from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., by a Delta II. Built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., the spacecraft weighs 3,130 lb., is 13.75 ft. long and 6.2 ft. in dia. and carries a 181-sq.-ft. solar array that generates 833 watts at a zero-deg. sun angle. In addition to weather observations, NOAA-N carries two search-and-rescue instruments for ships, aircraft and people in distress. Launch will be to a 470-naut.-mi. orbit inclined 98.73 deg. with an orbital period of 102 min.
A premier avionics manufacturer is taking to Capitol Hill its concerns about U.S. leadership in ATC modernization. Dean Flatt, president and CEO of Honeywell's Aerospace Electronic Systems, tells reporters in Phoenix that U.S. suppliers have the products needed to transform the ATC system to the 2025 configuration the FAA and other agencies are trying to plan for, but the company is worried about whether the government will modernize fast enough to avoid crippling flight delays. Also at stake: the possibility that Europe, not the U.S., will wind up leading this effort.
Irfan Azeem, an assistant professor of engineering physics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Fla., has received the National Science Foundation's Faculty Early Career Development Award. The grant recognizes and supports the early career activities of teacher-scholars who are considered the most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st century. Azeem will receive his monetary prize over the next five years to investigate how sudden stratospheric warming events affect the mesosphere.
Business at Northrop Grumman Information Technology is growing so fast in the U.S. and overseas that it hired 4,000 more employees for its IT services in 2004 and has about 3,000 job openings available now. A majority of the workers being hired are software engineers with advanced degrees and security clearances. James R. O'Neill, president of the sector, says his business unit is forecasting $5.5 billion in revenue for Fiscal 2005.
Einar Johnson (see photo) has been appointed director of sales and marketing for the Eaton Corp.'s Irvine, Calif.-based aerospace business. He succeeds Brent Wisch, who is now general manager of the Engineered Sensors Div. Johnson was director of business development and programs for situational awareness systems for Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems, Woodland Hills, Calif.
Bell Helicopter Textron will build 90 new UH-1Y helicopters instead of remanufacturing 100 UH-1Ns as originally planned by the U.S. Marine Corps as part of its H-1 upgrade program.
European space officials are considering a secondary role for the Autonomous Transfer Vehicle (ATV), soon to begin service as an unpiloted cargo-delivery system for the International Space Station. Rather than deorbiting the Ariane-launched vehicle after it has completed its space-truck role, the ATV would be fitted with sensors and remain in orbit for as long as two years to conduct scientific research.
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Orbital Sciences are to provide the U.S. Air Force with a total of up to $100 million worth of "responsive" low-cost launch services under five-year contracts signed last month and running through April 2010. Orbital plans to use its Raptor I & II launch vehicles.
If Mr. Lemarchand thinks the 707 was subsidized because the U.S. Air Force bought hundreds of tanker airframes, I suggest the French air force retaliate by buying hundreds of A380s.
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport is prepared to handle the Airbus A380 now, thanks to a minimum of upgrades required for surface operations and the opening this summer of a massive new Terminal D complex that was designed to accommodate the super jumbo jet.
From detector dogs to secret technology, U.S. military officials are seeking advice from Israel on dealing with suicide bombers and improvised explosive devices (IEDs), say Army and Marine Corps brass. Army Brig. Gen. Joseph Votel tells the House Armed Services Committee the Israelis have been sharing their expertise for a while. "One of our key technology things is called Opal," he says, declining to discuss it in public.
America's air traffic control system is facing a perfect storm. The acknowledged funding gap over the next five years is $8 billion, and with business-as-usual budgeting, the shortfall could be as much as $25 billion over the next 20 years. This comes just as air traffic is making a strong rebound, but one in which passengers are flying in a changing mix of mainline, regional, corporate and micro jets and even air taxis. Add to that the impending retirement of two-thirds of the controller workforce, obsolescent facilities and equipment, and the situation looks bleak.
Boeing has completed a second major review of the Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft since it won the contract last summer and is progressing toward preliminary design review in September. The MMA is a Boeing 737-based aircraft designed to replace some of the U.S. Navy's aging Lockheed P-3 Orions that perform anti-submarine warfare missions. The MMA system design and demonstration contract is worth $3.8 billion.
Breakthroughs are needed in five areas for the U.S. to triple air traffic system capacity by 2025, according to a Boeing official who once directed NASA's aviation safety program.
