James E. Fuller has become chief of staff for the U.S. Transportation Security Administration. He was principal liaison to the chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
The Turkish defense ministry and Alenia Aeronautica are aiming to sign a contract before year-end for the acquisition of 10 military variants of the ATR 72. Following a prolonged selection process, the ministry announced Jan. 19 it had selected the ATR 72 to meet its maritime patrol and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) requirement.
Boeing has awarded Alcatel a contract to define preliminary architecture for the U.S. Air Force's planned GPS III satellite navigation system, and to study compatibility and interoperability with Europe's Galileo satnav network. The award follows a U.S.-EU agreement on GPS and Galileo last June.
The U.S. Navy's second run at an operational evaluation for the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor may be delayed as program officials resolve a gearbox problem. Since last year, pilots have experienced a series of fault indications with the prop-rotor gearbox that have now caused the operational evaluation squadron, VMX-22, to suspend flying. Two sources have been identified for the fault in the gearbox.
Lt. Gen. Rick Hillier has been promoted to general and appointed chief of the Canadian Defense Staff, effective Feb. 4. He has been chief of the Land Staff. Hillier succeeds Gen. Raymond Henault, who has been named chairman of NATO's Military Committee in Brussels.
The 50-ft. Canadian Orbiter Boom Sensor System, which will be used by the shuttle Discovery crew to inspect the vehicle's wing leading edges and belly tiles, is to be integrated in the orbiter's payload bay by this week in preparation for the shuttle's scheduled return to flight in mid-May.
The Russian air force is starting to re-evaluate its long-term fighter aircraft needs, and there are indications it could move away from its previous ambition to field only a single type, now in development with Sukhoi. The air force's current fighter plan for the future is based around the PAK FA requirement, development of which is being carried out by Sukhoi with its T-50 design. This is a Su-27 Flanker-size aircraft, with a first prototype tentatively slated to fly in 2007.
Bombardier's Global Express XRS business jet made its first flight Jan. 16 from Downsview, Ontario. The airplane is a next-generation version of the Global Express and can fly 6,150 naut. mi. at speeds up to Mach 0.85. Certification is scheduled for early this year with deliveries beginning in one year. In other news, Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. rolled out the first G150 business jet at Israel Aircraft Industries in Tel Aviv. Customer deliveries are scheduled to begin in the third quarter of 2006.
Italy faces a hole in its defense procurement budget for this year of up to 1.3 billion euros ($1.69 billion), as the government scrambles to reduce overall expenditure. There is little sign 2006 will be any better. With Rome intent on freeing funds for tax cuts, government expenditure is under increasing pressure. The defense ministry is hoping the worst cuts can be offset by selling some real estate, but how much it will recoup remains a matter for conjecture.
When Dale Gibby is finished laughing out loud (AW&ST Dec 6, 2004, p.10), he should go back and reread Adam Smith. After a long exposition on the virtues of free markets, the hallowed patron saint of free marketeers explained why the Navigation Act, which protected British merchant ships from foreign competition, was good for Great Britain.
Gail Grimmett has been named managing director and assistant treasurer for business analytics and treasury development at Delta Air Lines. She was managing director of investor relations. Grimmett has been succeeded by Laura Fuselier, who was general manager of performance measurement in flight operations.
Precision Castparts Corp. reported that operating profit more than doubled from a year earlier to $62 million in the quarter ended Jan. 2. Quarterly revenue at the supplier of jet engine components surged 65% to $744 million.
Three months after Congress dropped a requirement for Intelsat to go public, a spacecraft failure is again threatening to hold up a $5-billion deal by Zeus Holdings Ltd. to acquire the global satellite operator. Zeus, a group of four investment funds, was renegotiating the deal's terms after an electrical anomaly triggered the Jan. 14 failure of Intelsat 804, which was launched in 1997 and served customers in the South Pacific. The Lockheed Martin-built satellite wasn't insured, and Intelsat estimates a $73-million impact from the loss.
Rosalind Doyle, CEO of Houston-based information technology company Cimarron, has received the NASA 2004 Woman Owned Business of the Year Award. As a subcontractor to Lockheed Martin, Boeing and the United Space Alliance, Cimarron provides technical support for expeditions to the International Space Station and to the Johnson Space Center Mission Control Center and space shuttle program. Cimarron was cited for "performance, entrepreneurial spirit and unique commitment in providing support" to NASA.
Your ongoing Boeing versus Airbus correspondence calls to mind a situation, possibly still relevant, from the 1960s. One somewhat embittered interpretation was that the U.S. lent money to Europe (at a goodly rate of interest) so they could buy "past-break-even" military aircraft, thus enriching U.S. industry and making Europe the first line of defense for the U.S.
Qantas has bought seven Bombardier Q400 turboprops for its QantasLink regional subsidiary, with options for 10 additional aircraft. The contract, valued at $168 million, calls for first deliveries in early 2006.
Lockheed Martin has completed a series of tests of its tri-mode seeker for the Joint Common Missile during which the sensor tracked a vessel traveling up to 30 kt. at ranges of 1-6 km. The sensor uses imaging infrared, millimeter-wave radar and semi-active laser modes to track a target. Lockheed Martin is eager to tout the success of the December tests at Eglin AFB, Fla., because the Pentagon is threatening to eliminate the program's funding.
Driven by a need to cut costs, Qantas is looking to outsource jobs, products and services abroad. The airline did not outline specifics and would say only that about 7,000 cabin crew and maintenance staff would be hit hardest. CEO Geoff Dixon stressed that the airline had no plans for "wholesale redundancies." In the fiscal year ending June 2004, Qantas posted a record profit of $492 million, second to Singapore Airlines in the region.
NASA managers say no decision has been made on a European offer to provide an Ariane 5 booster to launch the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), due to replace Hubble in 2011. U.S. industry reportedly is pressing the agency to employ an American launch vehicle, even though it doesn't have to for international missions such as JWST.
A British Airways 747-400 returned to Heathrow Airport on Jan. 12 after U.S. authorities learned that a person on the no-fly list was on board. BA Flight 175 was 3 hr. into its trip to New York JFK International Airport when it turned around. Deirdre O'Sullivan, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, says BA had the no-fly list but the person on it was allowed to board for reasons unknown. The matchup was discovered when the passenger manifest was transmitted after wheels-up to the Customs and Border Protection arm of the U.S.
Lloyd R. (Skip) Sorenson has been named executive vice president/chief financial officer of Vought Aircraft Industries of Dallas. He succeeds William McMillan, who has retired. Sorenson was controller of Dell Inc.
Commercial avionics is rapidly becoming a software-dominated business in which major manufacturers are delivering some products composed entirely of software.
The U.S. Air Force is starting to explore options for a very long-range nuclear cruise missile that could replace the stealthy Advanced Cruise Missile or Advanced Land-Attack Cruise Missile. The new weapon is intended to provide the U.S. continued air-launched nuclear cruise missile capability past 2020. At that point, the current inventory will have reached the end of its service life. Moreover, advances in adversary air defenses will necessitate a more capable cruise missile design, say USAF officials.
Now that the last of Italy's Panavia Tornado air defense aircraft are back in Britain, this role is being met solely by Lockheed Martin F-16s. The first of the 24 Tornados leased from the U.K. entered service in 1995, and the Italian air force accumulated 22,500 hr. on the type. During the Kosovo conflict in 1999, Italy flew 233 combat sorties using the type (pictured below).
