Charles Harlan has been named a senior assurance engineer and W.J. (Buddy) Pattison director of aerospace safety and mission assurance in the Houston office of the Ares Corp. Harlan was director of safety and mission assurance at the NASA Johnson Space Center, while Pattison was deputy manager of safety and mission assurance for NASA for the International Space Station program.
An Aero Union P-3B firefighting airtanker that crashed Apr. 20 during a recurrent-training mission apparently did not suffer an inflight structural problem, based on a preliminary NTSB report. Consequently, four Aero Union P-3s now on U.S. Forest Service contracts were put back into service after a brief standdown.
NASA's DART spacecraft struck its rendezvous target during a prematurely aborted autonomous rendezvous and proximity operations demonstration Apr. 15, knocking the old military satellite into a slightly higher orbit. A NASA spokeswoman says additional telemetry analysis and U.S. Air Force tracking revealed the Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology testbed had bumped the Multiple Paths Beyond Line-of-Sight Communications satellite into a new orbit 3-5 naut. mi. higher than the one it was in before the collision.
Japan's air force scrambled 141 times last year to intercept intruders, 17 fewer than 2003. Of the total, 118 encroachers were Russian aircraft and only 13 were Chinese. But Japan intercepted only two Chinese aircraft in 2003 and the Japanese Defense Agency expects more Chinese air activity near disputed island chains and as a result of the strain in Sino-Japanese relations.
After Japan Airlines was cited for a series of safety and maintenance violations during the past two months, it has occurred to the Japanese transport ministry that its message isn't getting through. So it has issued a new batch of warnings. The ministry acted after an Air Nippon Boeing 737-500 didn't "hold on runway" as directed by air traffic controllers because the first officer forgot the order.
Air Canada stands to gain more than widebodies with its 32-aircraft Boeing 777-787 buy--by 2010, it expects to be a top global competitor, operating one of the world's youngest, most efficient fleets to more varied destinations.
A slowdown in U.S. defense spending may be on the horizon, but it hasn't impacted aerospace companies yet. From the giants to the small-cap contractors, they reported another round of robust earnings for the quarter ended Mar. 31. Results also were bolstered by continued improvement in the commercial aviation market.
Science Applications International Corp. won a $184.7-million contract to design and build an advanced version of the Joint Mission Planning System to converge the Defense Dept.'s different planning systems into a common function. The 12-year program is to allow migration of more than 40 weapon systems to JMPS. The work is set to be completed by September 2016.
Michael H. Grossmann (see photos), who is president of Castle Aviation Inc., North Canton, Ohio, is one of three new members elected to the board of directors of the Alexandria, Va.,-based National Air Transportation Assn. The others are: Theo Staub, president /chief operating officer of Jet Aviation Holdings Inc., Teterboro, N.J.: and Reed W. Pigman, Jr., president of Texas Jet Inc. of Fort Worth.
Italian investigators have concluded that the bankruptcy of the Volare group last year was caused by systematic fraud perpetrated by the managers of the airline and its mother company. Following a six-month inquiry, prosecutors ordered the arrest of six managers, including the former CEO and former president. In all, 49 people were indicted on charges of bilking Volare of an estimated 500 million euros ($650 million) between 2001-04.
Astronaut Leroy Chiao and cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov--the International Space Station Expedition 10 crew--are beginning three weeks of readaptation to Earth's gravity at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC) near Moscow after completing their 193-day stay in space Apr. 24. Sharipov will continue with another three weeks of less intense readaptation activity at GCTC, while mission commander Chiao returns to the Johnson Space Center in Texas for a similar course.
The European Space Agency's (ESA's) participation in a pair of international missions appears to be on track. ESA's Ariane 5 is still considered the baseline launch vehicle for NASA'S James Webb Space Telescope, and the European agency is also supplying parts of the spacecraft payload. With a definition freeze coming up soon, a final decision is expected by midyear, says ESA Science Director David Southwood.
T. Allan McArtor, who is chairman of Airbus North America, Herndon, Va., will be president of the Wings Club of New York for the next year. He succeeds Kenneth E. Gazzola, executive vice president/publisher of Aviation Week & Space Technology. Other new officers are: vice president/president-elect, Joseph B. Leonard, chairman/CEO of AirTran Airways; vice president, David Barger, president/chief operating officer of JetBlue Airways; secretary/treasurer, John N.
Spaceway F1, at 13,376 lb. the heaviest commercial satellite ever orbited , was set to begin providing local high definition television (HDTV) service to major cities across the U.S. after a Sea Launch Zenit-3SL delivered it to its proper geostationary transfer orbit Apr. 26. Liftoff from the Sea Launch Odyssey oceangoing platform, operating on the Equator at 154 deg. W. Long., came at 3:31 a.m. EDT, and a ground station in South Africa acquired the spacecraft as planned about 1 hr. later, according to Sea Launch Co.
The operation of the new U.S./ Canadian Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS) by the STS-114 Discovery's crew "will be the most complicated space robotics job of the shuttle program," says Paul Hill, lead flight director. The OBSS is a laser-and-imaging-sensor-equipped 50-ft. extension to the existing 50-ft. arm, increasing the shuttle's reach to 100 ft.
Jerrold A. Glass has been named executive vice president/chief human resources officer and Bill Trousdale vice president-financial planning and analysis for US Airways. Glass was senior vice president of employee relations, while Trousdale has been a managing director in the Finance Dept.
The proposed Abraham Lincoln National Airport for the growing region south of Chicago is moving forward as the State of Illinois last week completed the third of five documents leading to a critical environmental impact statement. The document specifies alternatives for the airfield, terminal and access routes and includes an initial airport plan and an ultimate concept.
USAF Col. Salvatore A. Angelella is among colonels who have been nominated for promotion to brigadier general. He has been executive officer to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, Casteau, Belgium. The others are: Andrew E. Busch, deputy director for logistics at Headquarters Air Force Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio; Arthur B. Cameron, 3rd, associate director of resources/deputy chief of staff for installations and logistics at the Pentagon; Susan Y.
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 10-11--Net-Centric Operations Conference 2005. Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Washington. 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.
World Air Holdings, parent of charter carrier World Airways, has acquired privately held North American Airlines for $35 million in a move to diversify its revenues and expand product offerings.
An invitation-only FAA meeting on the aviation trust fund and other options for financing air traffic control operations draws about 100 people, but the A list doesn't include members of the press or people without a direct stake in the system. Administrator Marion Blakey and the agency were looking for candid views from the alphabet groups representing airlines, airports, business aviation, general aviation and others on ways it can "tie [ATC] fees to the cost of providing service" when FAA funding formulas are up for grabs in Congress next year.
Southwest Airlines' success is even more impressive when one learns that it is playing against a stacked field (Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, specifically). The Wright Amendment was passed 26 years ago to protect DFW from Love Field. This federal law limits flights from Southwest's headquarters at Love Field to states that border Texas. How can the federal government justify a law that so obviously goes against the free market basis of our economy? This law should have been thrown out with the deregulation of the industry.
Richard P. Van Rees (see photo) has been named corporate lead executive for Northrop Grumman business in Fort Walton Beach, Fla. He remains director of the systems and software integration division within Northrop Grumman's Information Technology Sector.
Boeing snagged a $14.5-million contract from the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command to provide persistent UAV surveillance for a Navy expeditionary strike group deployment and security for a Persian Gulf oil platform in support of combat in Iraq. Boeing's preparations will be conducted on a U.S. Navy ship in the Pacific and are expected to be completed by February 2006.
