Lufthansa Technik intends to expand its international presence with a focus on the North American market, now that it has established joint ventures in Europe and a growing operation in Asia.
The Japanese space agency JAXA says it will search a 33 X 122-km. (20 X 69-mi.) splashdown area south of Kyushu island for the solid rocket booster motors from the first stage of the H-IIA launched on Feb. 26. There's no indication of any abnormalities in their performance. But JAXA wants to examine them to verify a redesign it instituted to get the H-IIA launch program back on track. A burnthrough of an SRB composite nozzle is the prime suspect for the launch failure of the sixth H-IIA mission in November 2003.
Integral systems has won a $23.8-million U.S. Air Force contract for the first development stage of the Rapid Attack Identification Detection Reporting System program. It is being designed to ID interference with global satellite communication, characterize the problem, report and assess its impact.
World News Roundup 18 NetJets and Lufthansa unveil business jet feeder plan 19 Expanded command center improv- ing data fusion and dissemination 19 Former Aer Lingus chief to take top post at British Airways 20 Deployment delayed for Germany's SARLupe recon spacecraft World News & Analysis 22 Boeing chief's ouster creates shock waves on both sides of the Atlantic 23 Four top executives considered candidates to head Boeing
Although the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) won't be finished until February 2006, Maj. Gen. Ronald Bath, the Air Force's director of strategic planning, thinks the teams and subjects to be considered "will take form within the next two to three weeks, and we'll be up and fully running within the next four to five weeks." Bath, a three-time veteran of the process, is leading the service's QDR effort this time.
Helisim, a joint venture of Eurocopter, Thales and Defense Conseil International, has received a level D qualification for its EC155 flight simulator. More than 120 trainees have signed up to use the facility, which also has Level D qualification for the Eurocopter Super Puma Mk1/Mk2 and Dauphin DN2. It opened in 2002.
BMI will fly a four-times-weekly service from the U.K. to Mumbai, India, beginning May 14 with an Airbus A330-200. To make the A330 available, the carrier is initially wet-leasing a Boeing 757 from Icelandair, with the Airbus repositioned from Manchester to London Heathrow.
Richard J. Driscoll, Engineering Director (AMPAC-ISP, Niagara Falls, N.Y.)
In the article on a new Rocketdyne thruster using MON-25 and monomethylhydrazine (MMH) propellants (AW&ST Feb 14, p. 66), Rees W. Padfield says, "No one else has been able to make an engine work on MON-25." This is not quite correct. In 2001, the Liquid Propulsion Div. of the Atlantic Research Corp. of Niagara Falls, N.Y., (currently the In-Space Propulsion [ISP] Div. of American Pacific Corp.) successfully tested a 10-newton (2-lbt.) thruster using MON-25 and MMH propellants under contract to the NASA Glenn Research Center.
The federal Joint Planning and Development Office has eight teams working to transform U.S. air transportation in time to avoid gridlock, a goal JPDO leaders believe is achievable.
Deborah V. Gallaway, program manager for NASA's Explorer Institutes, has been selected to receive the Frank G. Brewer Trophy for 2004 from the Arlington, Va.-based National Aeronautic Assn. The trophy honors "contributions of enduring value to aerospace education in the United States." Gallaway was cited for "enhancing and expanding aerospace education" through the creation and support of government-related programs and for "reaching and inspiring countless numbers of the nation's teachers and students."
Aircraft fatigue, sabotage and a cargo explosion are among potential causes that have been ruled out by a British Royal Air Force board of inquiry into the crash of one its C-130s in Iraq on Jan. 30. An interim report on the crash and the deaths of the 10 personnel on board excluded as causes an engine fire and controlled flight into terrain.
Allen Pope, Monson Shaver, Douglas Price, Roy Watts, Nelson Duke, Willis Hobbs and Robert Brongersma--all of whom are surviving U.S. Civil Air Transport pilots from the 1954 siege of Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam--have received the Insignia of Knights of the French Legion of Honor. They were honored at the French Embassy in Washington for flying USAF Fairchild C-119 transports that were on loan to the French for airlift operations.
Squeezed by high fuel, overhead and personnel costs, Japan Airlines says it will simplify its fleet, increase layoffs, outsource more maintenance work and expand its low-cost carrier operations over the next three years. The carrier also said Toshiyuki Shinmachi, currently president of Japan Airlines Corp., will become JAL Group chief executive officer, taking over from Isao Kaneko. Kaneko will remain JAL Group chairman. Both appointments are subject to shareholder approval at the annual meeting in late June.
Dennis Cary has become senior vice president-marketing for United Airlines. He was vice president-revenue management. Cary succeeds Martin White, who has resigned. Cindy Szadokierski has been appointed vice president-corporate real estate for United parent UAL Corp. She succeeds Kathryn Mikells, who is now vice president/treasurer. Szadokierski was managing director for United Express and general manager of United's hub at Washington Dulles International Airport.
The European Space Agency's science branch is giving itself a new focus as the exploration of Mars begins moving into the human-spaceflight domain. There will be "a shift away from a period of solar system exploration to astronomy," says ESA Science Director David Southwood. Solar system missions will wind up with this year's Venus Express and the BepiColombo mission to Mercury in 2011. Southwood says there are still "fundamental science issues" that demand his organization pay more attention to astronomy.
Canadian investigators are poring over Air Transat Flight 961's data recorders to determine what caused the inflight separation of the Airbus A310 rudder. The Mar. 6 incident brought a chilling reminder of American Airlines Flight 587: On Nov. 12, 2001, the vertical tail assembly separated from the Airbus A300-600R, shortly after the flight's departure from JFK International Airport.
An expanded command center inside Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado Springs is substantially improving data fusion and information dissemination about air, missile and space events, aiding decision-makers at the national and regional-commander levels.
Kevin Fedor has become managing director and Gary D. Anderson and Mark S. Long senior vice presidents of SkyWorks Capital, Greenwich, Conn. Fedor was a consultant to the Virgin Group, while Anderson held a similar post at Windshear Leasing. Long was a vice president of Northwest Airlines.
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Megan Lawrence has been named Washington, D.C.-based director of government affairs for Alaska Airlines. She was an aide for air transportation and homeland security issues to former U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt, Jr. (R-Wash.).
Jens Flottau and Andy Nativi (Munich), Michael A. Taverna (Paris)
EADS is predicting profitability in all of its divisions in 2005, following a better than expected improvement in its financial performance last year. But more restructuring looms, particularly in repair and overhaul.
Robert E. Myers, who has been chancellor of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, has been named president of Daniel Webster College, Nashua, N.H., effective July 1.
