Yuji Nishizawa, 34, the man who killed All Nippon Airways Capt. Naoyuki Nagashima after hijacking a 747 bound from Tokyo to Chitose in July 1999, has been sentenced to an indefinite period of imprisonment. That usually means 20 years' confinement and is Japan's second-most severe sentence, after the death penalty. The incident was the first hijacking involving manslaughter in Japanese history and prompted a series of security reviews at the country's airports.
"Stop the cell phone invasion"--so says the Assn. of Flight Attendants in an alert to its 46,000 membership. The AFA is strongly opposed to the FCC's January NPRM to consider lifting restrictions on cell phone use in flight. (Currently, cell phone use is prohibited after airplane doors are closed.) Members are asked to write to the FCC by Apr. 11 to oppose repeal of the ban or at least urge a "most cautious relaxation" of it.
The European Union has approved collection of fees by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) for certification activities. Beginning on June 1, these fees will replace those collected by national authorities.
Bombardier Inc. last week reported total revenues of $15.8 billion for fiscal 2005, which ended Jan. 31, compared to $15.5 billion in fiscal 2004. Transportation segment figures were higher and aerospace dvision numbers lower. Consolidated revenues stood at $4.8 billion for the fourth quarter. "Despite a challenging environment, our cash position is solid, and we had a good cash flow performance this year," said Chairman and CEO Laurent Beaudoin.
Taiwan is developing an air-launched powered standoff weapon, which is undergoing trials. The initial application for the system, which is seen being carried on an air force Ching Kuo Indigenous Defense Fighter, may be as a submunitions dispenser. The airframe design appears similar to that of the Israeli Modular Stand-Off Vehicle or French Apache, with an upper-fuselage mounted wing that deploys after release.
Lockheed Martin received a $37.8-million USAF contract to provide Precision Engagement production kits to modify the A/OA-10 aircraft fleet over the next five years at a total cost of $168 million. The modification will enable the A-10 to use advanced precision-guided weapons like the Joint Direct Attack Munition and Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser.
The article "Caution: COTS Ahead" (AW&ST Feb. 28, p. 52), notes that for open source, "an ad hoc network of experts fixes glitches." This misses the point of the free-software and open-source movement. You don't treat the code as a zero-cost COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) replace- ment. In fact, the problem of "not knowing how COTS really works" is at the heart of why the movement was started. These packages should be tailored to your needs, not plugged in a socket and turned on.
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The Pentagon may not be as overloaded with military bases as it has indicated in recent years. The issue went back and forth last week at a press conference, when Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claimed: "I don't know that I've said that we have 20-25% excess" and put the onus on assessments by the Clinton administration. "I don't believe I've ever asserted that I necessarily believed it," he said. "I just quoted it." Then an aide handed him a note saying that Rumsfeld's staff revalidated the excess at 20-24% in a 2004 report to Congress.
Rumsfeld also says he wasn't criticizing Turkey in a reference to not being able to deploy the 4th Infantry Div. into northern Iraq when fighting began in 2003. If the U.S. could have sent forces through Turkey, "a considerably smaller number of the Ba'athists and regime elements would have escaped [and] the insurgency would have been at a lesser intensity," he said in an earlier interview. At the press conference, Rumsfeld said he wasn't blaming the Turks "at all." What's more, he contended that when the U.S. commander, Army Gen.
A syndicate of Russian state-owned banks has approved an initial financial support package for the Russian Regional Jet (RRJ) program. The four banks agreed to provide 2.7 billion rubles ($98 million) in government-backed loans for the Sukhoi-led program, with further financing a possibility. The total cost of RRJ development is estimated at $700 million, of which $70 million has already been committed by Sukhoi.
An anticipated increase in the use of onboard amenities could lead to airliner cabin configuration problems that Airbus hopes to avoid by taking firmer control. In the process, traditional suppliers of buyer-furnished equipment (BFE)--such as inflight entertainment devices--may feel pushed aside by the European airplane manufacturer.
Jayme Reinisch has become chief financial officer of Ballistic Recovery Systems, South St. Paul, Minn. He was corporate controller for Herold Precision Metals.
The British Defense Ministry is bundling its secondhand equipment sales business, the Disposal Services Agency (DSA), with its logistics arm. The DSA as of Apr. 1 will become part of the Defense Logistics Organization. The agency has until now been part of the Defense Export Services Organization.
Singapore's position as a maintenance, repair and overhaul hub grew a bit more last week when ST Aerospace opened a $12-million two-bay narrow-body hangar at Seletar Airport. Singapore's MRO output rose 16% last year to S$4.5 million ($2.7 million), noted Trade & Industry Minister Heng Chee How. A series of MRO-related projects were inaugurated last year, including a new factory for Rohr Aero Service-Asia, Rolls-Royce's Advance Technology Center and Eurocopter's Southeast Asia headquarters.
Christopher Wickens, a retired psychology professor and head of the Aviation Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, has received the Flight Safety Foundation-Airbus Human Factors in Aviation Safety Award for his research into aviation human factors. Wickens has focused on models of human interaction with complex systems, especially aerospace, and on the roles of human perception, attention and cognition in designing display interfaces for those systems.
The Mar. 28 issue incorrectly identified the CEO of Singapore Aircraft Leasing Enterprises. He is Robert Martin. Also, SALE may select the 737-900X (not -900) as part of its order for 20 737NGs from Boeing.
The cost to develop the larger, more powerful Global Hawk RQ-4B unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is swelling by as much as $150 million, prompting Pentagon overseers to withhold nearly $400 million from this year's work until the Air Force forms a get-well plan.
Spain's Riu group has sold half of its 9.9% stake in TUI to Spanish savings bank CAM, but confirmed that it will remain a long-term strategic partner, with a 5.1% stake. Riu had acquired the share in December, together with CAM and Grupo Empresas Matutes, as part of a stock disposal by WestLB that was intended to block a hostile takeover.
An In-Orbit item in the Mar. 28 issue (p. 17) misstated the makeup of the consortia bidding to deploy and operate the Galileo satellite navigation system. Finmeccanica is part of the Eurely consortium. EADS and Thales belong to iNavSat.
The Transportation Security Administration's plan to roll out its new computerized airline passenger prescreening system this summer faces rough going in Congress in light of a critical report from the Government Accountability Office. The GAO says the TSA's Secure Flight screening program is about four months behind schedule and has addressed only one of 10 areas deemed critical by Congress. In 2004 legislation, Congress required the TSA to nail down issues such as protecting passenger data from hackers before proceeding.
