Israel Defense Forces have frozen plans for the purchase of large vessels that would have made the Navy a more strategic force. Procurement plans are pushed back to at least 2008. Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman have bid for the contract to design and build large amphibious assault ships to carry tanks, UAVs and helicopters. The Navy is expected to purchase two more Dolphin-class submarines to bring the fleet to five.
The FAA is breaking years-long government silence about the potential dangers of lasers to aircraft, passengers and the pilots who fly them--and issuing "fresh advice" to the aviation community on dealing with the perils of lasers. The advice, likely to come in the form of an Advisory Circular, is to be published this week and marks what an FAA spokesperson believes to be the agency's first "official" word on lasers.
Britain is to launch further research intended to identify ways to decrease the effect of wind-turbine farms on civil and military air traffic radar, which is presently a stumbling block to their introduction.
In terms of total annual flights, Chicago O'Hare International Airport solidified its lead over rival airports by growing 6.6% in 2004 over the previous year. Arrivals and departures numbered 992,471, according to the FAA's Great Lakes Region. Chicago Midway's total flights grew 3.4% to 339,670. Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport came in second with 962,460 total flights, reflecting a 5.6% growth rate. In third place was Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. At an annual growth rate of 4.6%, DFW flights increased to 811,381.
NASA's Cassini spacecraft wrapped up 2004 with this New Year's Eve image of Saturn's moon Iapetus. The nuclear-powered probe flew past the moon at a range of 123,400 km./76,677 mi., generating data that scientists hope will help them understand why some of the moon's surface material reflects light like fresh snow and other material is very dark (shown). Data on the 1,400-km.-dia. moon may be refined in 2007, when Cassini will make another close flyby.
Far from discouraging Europeans against continuing to help bankroll large aerospace projects, the Bush administration decision to renounce the 1992 bilateral aeronautics treaty appears to be inciting them to expand the process.
Even as Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf said he was discussing the feasibility of acquiring French avionics for the JF-17 fighters, France's trade minister was telling a meeting of business leaders here that exports from France to India have gone up 24%. "It's only the tip of the iceberg," French Minister of External Trade Francois Loos told the Confederation of Indian Industry.
The first shuttle external tank, with modifications to prevent the kind of launch insulation debris-shedding that caused the Columbia accident, is moved into the Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building. It will complete integration and stacking this week with the two solid rocket boosters for the shuttle's planned return to flight in May. The 154 X 28-ft. hydrogen/oxygen tank was shipped to Kennedy by barge from Lockheed Martin's Michoud, La., assembly facility.
The U.S. Army and Marine Corps have approved a $109.1-million contract for continued Low-Rate Initial Production of the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (Himars), built by Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. The weapons provide support for mobile fighting forces and were first used during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Plans call for the Army to acquire 37 Himars launchers, with the Marines expected to buy one. According to Lockheed Martin, total joint procurement of the system will amount to more than 900 launchers.
In the aftermath of Volare's bankruptcy, EasyJet is seeking more slots at Paris-Orly to reintroduce competition on the routes between France and Italy. EasyJet Chief Executive Ray Webster submitted a request to the European Commission's competition directorate, stressing that Air France and Alitalia now jointly operate a monopoly on city pairs such as Paris-Milan.
If reduced vertical separation over the U.S. lives up to its long-awaited promises--as expected when the FAA puts it into effect on Jan. 20--it will help airlines save hundreds of millions of dollars in fuel costs in the first year and make it easier to elude thunderstorms and avoid turbulence.
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Jeffrey R. Tarr (see photo) has been appointed president/chief operating officer of the Engineering Div. of the Information Handling Services Group, Englewood, Colo. He succeeds Charles Picasso, who is now the group president/CEO. Tarr was chairman/CEO of Hoover's.
Your editorial on Airbus, with the opening paragraph, "If there were an award for chutzpah in aerospace industry, Airbus would win this distinction for 2004, hands down" makes interesting reading (AW&ST Dec. 20/27, 2004, p. 130). Later on, you say, "Is it to rub Boeing's nose in the 1992 bilateral agreement on government support for commercial aircraft, which the U.S. maintains it recently abrogated? To put an exclamation point on Europe's growing clout in aerospace--public perception be damned? Or to short-circuit broader international collaboration?"
Most U.S. airport managers think it's critical to speed the screening of checked baggage for explosives. L-3's latest computed tomography machine takes a step in that direction.
THE NATIONAL BUSINESS AVIATION ASSN. and the Transportation Security Administration are expanding their partnership aimed at improving the TSA Access Certificate initiative. The program extends TSA's oversight by providing standardized security procedures and best practices for personnel, facilities, aircraft and flight operations on a voluntary basis. In related news, the NBAA has submitted comments to the FAA regarding a proposed rule that would require pilots acting as second-in-command to have a type rating in the airplane they are flying.
An Air France Airbus A340-300 takes off from Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport. The 295-seat aircraft are operated on long-haul routes in conjunction with A330 and Boeing 777 twinjets. The French carrier has ordered 10 A380 mega-transports that are scheduled to begin service in 2007 (see p. 52). Airbus photo.
Arianespace and Eumetsat say they expect the next second-generation Eumetsat satellite, Eumetsat 9, to be orbited by an Ariane 5G launcher in June. The launch is one of six Ariane 5 missions set for this year (see p. 38).
The multimission Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopter, which was designed and developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., is being deployed extensively for the first time by the Indian Army and Coast Guard for tsunami relief operations. ALHs are transporting medical teams as well as dropping medicines and food into isolated areas.
U.S. airline stocks took a tumble on Wall Street last week amid fears that Delta Air Lines' decision to drastically reduce and simplify its high-end business fares would trigger a price war that could further weaken Delta and other battered legacy carriers. But despite the market's bearish reaction, some analysts believe Delta is taking a much-needed dose of castor oil that ultimately will strengthen the airline by stemming the loss of its customers to low-cost carriers such as Southwest Airlines.
Army officials are bracing for a potentially significant funding disconnect whenever the war in Iraq ends. The Pentagon has been living off supplemental appropriations from Congress to pay the war's cost. However, Claude Bolton, the Army's acquisition czar, notes that the moment the war is considered over, Congressional largess will end. Not all accounts will be settled by then, however. In addition, the Army has been relying on the supplementals to restructure itself, and Bolton says the service will need two more years of the add-on funding before its bills are paid.
After two years of massive losses and a significantly improved 2004, Swiss International Air Lines--a remnant of the former Swissair--finally may be on solid financial footing and poised to become profitable.
Pratt & Whitney is betting that during the next decade, the penny-pinching Pentagon will invest at least some new money in long-range strike and long-range reconnaissance. To cover those distinctly different design requirements for propulsion systems, company researchers think they can produce derivatives to meet both needs from the engine they designed for the stealthy F/A-22 Raptor.
France's space agency CNES and the European Space Agency are rounding out the contractor team that will develop and build its planned AlphaBus very-large satellite platform. Alcatel Space and Astrium are leading the 12-18 kw. spacecraft-bus project, which was set to enter full-scale development at the end of 2005. Among the companies vying to participate in the development phase are Jena-Optronik of Germany and Italy's Galileo Avionica, which have conceived competing designs for an active pixel sensor-based star tracker.
