The supplier of the F-35 Final Mate and Assembly System and its laser alignment capability were misidentified (AW&ST Jan. 17, p. 416). They were designed and built by Advanced Integration Technology of Plano, Tex., Bothell, Wash., and Langley, British Columbia.
It's too easy for civilians to buy airline pilot uniforms and elude airport security. An enemy of the U.S. making such an attempt "could lead to devastating consequences." So say Illinois Democratic Sens. Richard J. Durbin and Barack Obama in Feb. 1 letters to Transportation Security Administration chief David M. Stone and members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
BAE Systems could add, albeit indirectly, more than a half billion dollars to its acquisition war chest--probably for a U.S. target, while Finmeccanica, bolstering its defense electronics business, is now poised for further European consolidation: a creditable outcome from an initial deal that fell apart. Although attempts to craft an avionics and electronics alliance between the companies under the flag of Eurosystems ended in tatters, the two have weathered the potential debacle well.
Boeing 757s are the target of another AD, also effective Mar. 7. This AD requires repeat detailed inspections of support brackets and fasteners for the hydraulic lines in the nacelle struts. The action is aimed at preventing flammable fluids from leaking into the interior compartment of the struts, where ignition sources exist.
Quint Turner has been promoted to chief financial officer from vice president-administration/principal accounting officer for ABX Air, Wilmington, Ohio. He succeeds Duane Kimble, who has resigned. Todd Reed has been named director of logistics services and Debora Beebe and Shelli Young warehousing and distribution managers for Wilmington operations. Tim King has been appointed warehousing and distribution manager for logistics traffic and Joe Lawwell warehousing and distribution manager for Columbus, Ohio, operations.
French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie says plans to fund France's share of the Franco-Italian Fremm multimission frigate program have been dropped in favor of traditional budget financing. Officials at defense procurement agency DGA indicated an analysis of the constraints, in particular the requirement that ownership of the vessels remain with the navy, would have led to substantially higher costs.
French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie confirmed that talks last week with her Russian counterpart, Sergei Ivanov, touched on Russian cooperation in European aerospace programs, notably the French-led Neuron unmanned combat aerial vehicle. Russia agreed last month to collaborate on Europe's future launcher technology program.
On Mar. 1, Philippine Airlines will launch its 25th destination and fifth gateway to Japan--four weekly services to Nagoya with an Airbus A330-300. PAL will be one of the first international carriers to operate from the "Centrair" aviation complex. Set to open to commercial air traffic this month, Centrair is the new hub of the booming Central-Japan region, the country's industrial heartland.
JetBlue Airways intends to expand more than fivefold during the next four years at Boston Logan International Airport. Under an agreement announced Feb. 2, JetBlue will take over five gates in May and add one gate every six months for three years, for a total of 11, occupying an entire pier of Terminal C. The agreement is subject to approval by the board of Massport, which operates Logan. JetBlue currently occupies two gates in Terminal E, and its current and announced service amounts to 19 daily departures, mainly transcontinental and to Florida.
EADS, DCN and CEA participated in a missile test firing on Feb. 1-2--the first in France in which private contractors have been associated in strategic testing activities. The test involved an M45 nuclear missile fired from the submarine Triomphant, which recently underwent a major overhaul.
E.C. (Pete) Aldridge, Jr., has been named the 2005 recipient of the Colorado Springs-based Space Foundation's Gen. James E. Hill Lifetime Space Achievement Award.
Andrew Hibbert has been appointed vice president/general counsel of the Thales Group. He was executive vice president/general counsel/secretary of the Alstom group. Hibbert succeeds Pierre Charreton, who has left the company.
Ten months after it was completed, the report of the European Space Agency (ESA)/U.K. Commission into the failure of the Beagle 2 Mars Lander is being made public. It identifies four "credible possibilities" that individually could have resulted in the loss of the lander: "Air-bag design not robust and the testing program not sufficient. Risk of collision between the back cover and the main parachute. Rebounding (up to 28 meters) of the air-bag/lander into the main parachute. Untimely release of the lander from the air-bag."
Japan will devote nearly one-third of its space spending in fiscal 2005 to developing military reconnaissance satellites, an allocation nearly as large as what the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will get for all of its space exploration, manned space and operational programs.
Singapore Aircraft Leasing Enterprise is to acquire four Airbus A319 aircraft under a purchase-and-leaseback agreement with U.S budget carrier, South Florida-based Spirit Airlines. The aircraft are a part of a Spirit order for 35 A320-family aircraft. Powered by IAE V2500 engines, the new aircraft will be delivered by Airbus between September and December for lease to the airline on a long-term basis.
One team bidding on Eurocontrol's 40-million-euro ($52-million) Single European Sky Implementation Program contract to create a master plan for air traffic control modernization over the next two years includes Boeing and the Air Traffic Alliance (Airbus, EADS and Thales). An alliance official told specialists attending the Maastricht conference that there are 40 members of the bidding team including 11 airlines, 10 European air navigation service providers, five airports and European military representatives.
The European Space Agency's Smart-1 spacecraft is completing a medium-resolution survey of the Moon this week. It began returning its first close-up images of the Moon (shown) late last month during tests at altitudes of 1,000-5,000 km. (620-3,100 mi.) over the lunar surface. It was the first time ESA knew the Advanced Moon micro-Imager Experiment (AMIE) camera was working. Smart-1, part of ESA's Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology and Europe's first Moon mission, entered lunar orbit on Nov. 15, 2004. Beginning Dec.
If the red ink spilling from U.S. legacy airline financial statements is not enough proof that low-cost carriers (LCCs) are running away with passengers and market share, a new analysis reveals these same LCCs are also the generators of a sizable chunk of U.S. domestic growth since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Donald W. Hanson (see photo) has become director of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Information Directorate, Rome, N.Y. He has been director of the AFRL Sensors Directorate at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. Hanson succeeds Raymond P. Urtz, who plans to retire May 3.
Human-spaceflight managers in Houston and Moscow are reviewing data from the most recent extravehicular activity at the International Space Station to determine whether safety rules were violated. Intermittent video from the EVA monitored at Mission Control Center-Houston (MCC-H) suggested one of the two ISS crewmembers--astronaut Leroy Chiao and cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov--may have strayed into a keep-out zone around one of the Russian-segment thrusters at a time when the thruster was active.
Air Canada reported its 10th consecutive month of record load factors--77.7% systemwide for January, the highest ever for the month and a 5.7 percentage-point increase compared with January 2004. Revenue passenger miles increased 6.2% to 3.4 million on a 1.5% decrease in capacity.
The Pentagon's decision in favor of the Lockheed Martin-led US101 team to develop the U.S. presidential helicopter is being seen as a watershed event, although experts are divided over the larger ramifications of the $6.1-billion deal.
Bill Bozin has been appointed vice president-safety and technical affairs for Washington-based Airbus North America. He succeeds John Lauber, who has become chief safety officer for Airbus in Toulouse, France. Bozin was vice president-safety and regulatory compliance for US Airways.
Jim Benson, chairman/CEO of SpaceDev, is among nine new members of the California Space Authority board of directors. The others are: Ken Dozier, executive director of the University of Southern California School of Engineering; Michael Gallo, president/chief operating officer of Kelly Space and Technology Inc.; Jeffrey Grant, vice president of the Northrop Grumman Corp.; Cynthia Mullett, executive director of Aerojet; Stephen Nordel, a director of the Raytheon Co.; USAF Gen.
