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.
After auditors found evidence of favoritism in a 2001 competition, the U.S. Air Force is reversing its strategy and recompeting the second phase of the Small-Diameter Bomb (SDB) program. The move opens the field to contractors, as the Pentagon searches for ways to improve its ability to destroy moving targets.
Frank Houston (see photos) has been appointed a group vice president of the Esterline Corp., Bellevue, Wash. He was president of Seattle-based subsidiary Korry Electronics. He has been succeeded by Gary Dytrt, who was general manager of Korry's largest strategic business unit.
Col. (ret.) Chris A. Hadfield of Houston, C. Eric B. McConachie of Montreal, the late Commodore Alexander B.F. Fraser-Harris and the late Wing Cdr. Kenneth C. Maclure will be inducted into Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame, Edmonton, Alberta, on June 4. Hadfield, who is now chief of robotics for NASA, is a Canadian test pilot and astronaut who completed two space flights, was the first Canadian mission specialist and first Canadian to walk in space. He installed Canadarm 2 on the International Space Station and was the first Canadian to operate it while in orbit.
Lockheed Martin is delivering two major upgrades to the Air Force's joint air battle management system. The first spiral modification establishes better connections between air crews and the air operations center to give the latter real-time access to the stations of operations at airfields across the theater. It also enhances security and improves maintenance oversight to track and manage aircraft repairs more efficiently.
U.S. airlines and military forces will seek to forge long-term relationships with maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) providers in the years ahead as it becomes increasingly imperative to drive down maintenance costs and manage work more effectively. This was among the chief topics discussed at Aviation Week's MRO 2005 show held here recently.
Rhonda Vickery has been named federal security director for Saipan International Airport in the U.S. Pacific Ocean territory of the Northern Marianas. She had been the airport's administrative officer.
The Dutch subsidiary of the European tourism group TUI is establishing TUI Airlines Nederland. It will operate the airline under the name of Arkefly, which will encompass 400 employees and the fleet of HollandExel. It will operate four leased Boeing 767-300s.
An initial segment of the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS)--a key to the Pentagon's network-centric operations and warfare efforts--is in jeopardy of having its funding cut off.
Air Force Space Command wants to try a rocket plane to put medium-weight payloads in orbit quickly and cheaply, and it intends to have a contractor build a subscale demonstrator to test the idea over the next five years.
The U.S. is one of only a handful of nations that doesn't charge for the actual cost of air traffic services, according to FAA Administrator Marion Blakey. And most of the other nations are small ones. Blakey cited this example at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce forum in Washington on the airline crisis, noting it as one indication that there needs to be financing reform. Blakey says she is not advocating user fees, endorsing excise taxes or pushing for more money from the U.S. general fund.
As aerospace companies rolled out another quarter of big earnings gains last week, aircraft composites manufacturer Hexcel Corp. announced a net loss of $22.4 million (46 cents a share) for the three months ended Mar. 31.
While celebrating delivery to the U.S. Navy of the first F/A-18E/Fs equipped with a stealth and small-target-detecting radar, Boeing officials said that Switzerland, Japan and India are looking at both the advanced fighter and some variant of its classified advanced radar for a future fighter purchase. More surprisingly, Navy officials say they are planning for the possibility of their own additional fighter production because of the expectation, not yet confirmed, that operational introduction of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will slip.
Worldwide, most passengers today are far more likely to fly in a Boeing aircraft than an Airbus plane, but the growth of Airbus aircraft across the globe in the past eight years has been impressive and shows no sign of abating.
FAA's acceptance of passive radio frequency identity tags that are safe to use in flight on aircraft parts and assemblies is expected to help maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) operations reduce costs, cycle times and defect rates. The FAA acceptance, which is to be published shortly, flows from a task force established by Airbus and Boeing two years ago as part of the Air Transport Assn.'s Spec 2000 Chapter 9 initiative. But it will apply to all types of aircraft, from hot air balloons to major transports.
