U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Douglas E. Lute has been nominated for promotion to major general. He is director of operations, J-3, U.S. Central Command, MacDill AFB, Fla. Other brigadier generals nominated for promotion to major general are: James R. Myles, commanding general of the Army Test and Evaluation Command, Alexandria, Va.; Roger A. Nadeau, commanding general of the Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.; Richard J. Rowe, Jr., director of operations, J-3, for the U.S. Northern Command, Peterson AFB, Colo.; and Jeffrey J.
EADS is confident its KC-330 tanker proposal will receive a fair hearing at the Pentagon when U.S. defense officials assess how to replace their fleet of KC-135s (see p. 28), even though departing Air Force Secretary James G. Roche disparaged the European aerospace company in e-mails to colleagues. EADS North America Chair- man Ralph Crosby says, "Based on the reaction to Boeing and with the amount of focus on the issue, I think it's absolutely guaranteed that fair and equitable treatment of competition will occur."
USMC Lt. Col. (ret.) Richard Meydag (Wallingford, Conn.)
I read with interest the Viewpoint article "Buy the Best" by USMC Lt. Gen. (ret.) Fred McCorkle concerning the upcoming selection of the successor to the current presidential helicopter (AW&ST Nov. 15, p. 90). I view this as just another "Been There, Done That" article from someone who may have flown a lot of different helicopter models but is not intimately familiar with one of the missions of HMX-1, the safe transportation of the President.
The European Commission and India's ministry of civil aviation have extended a three-year, 32-million-euro ($43-million) civil aviation cooperation agreement for two years. Another three million euros are being infused by the European Union, matched by Indian and European manufacturers. The EU's ambassador to India, Francisco da Camara Gomes, lauded the cooperative agreement for providing India with more than 200 training programs. They involved 5,000 aviation experts working on air safety, aerospace management and regulatory standards issues.
Ministers participating in the European Space Agency's first Space Council, which was held in Brussels in late November, agreed to stress that "the unique nature of the space sector requires the development of an appropriate industrial policy and public authorities' close attention." The council is to devise a European space program by the end of next year.
Eddy W. Hartenstein, vice chairman of DirecTV, will retire Dec. 31 after 32 years with the company and its predecessors. Named president when DirecTV was formed in 1990, he was a pioneer in the use of satellites to deliver pay television directly to U.S. homes through small rooftop dishes.
Pakistan test-fired its Hatf-3 Ghaznavi short-range ballistic missile Nov. 29 from an undisclosed location. Pakistan's PTV World television reported the test was the third in a yearly series that began in 2002 for the indigenously developed Ghaznavi. What design parameters were being tested were not revealed, but authorities said the test was a success. The missile has a range of 290 km. (180 mi.) and is already part of the Army Strategic Missile Command.
The Pentagon recorded $13.5 billion in foreign military sales in Fiscal 2004, reaching the goal the Defense Security Cooperation Agency set for itself even though one anticipated deal, the sale of E-2C Hawkeyes to the United Arab Emirates, has failed to materialize. The agency hopes to achieve $13.8 billion in FMS accords this fiscal year.
Martin-Baker and Goodrich are squaring off in a USAF competition to deliver several hundred ejection seats under the T-38C upgrade project. Contract award is planned by July 2005. The new seat is supposed to accommodate a wider range of pilots and provide higher degrees of protection.
As flight testing of the YAL-1A Airborne Laser system resumes, pilots and engineers expect to see significant improvements in airflow around a new nose turret (AW&ST Nov. 22, p. 29). The ball-like turret points a high-energy laser beam at an ascending missile target, but the turret's shape disturbs airflow aft of the aircraft's nose (see photo).
Lufthansa Systems is poised to become a serious competitor in the market for air navigation charts as it works to complete a global electronic database being used initially to print paper products for a few airlines.
The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace has filed a complaint with the U.S. National Labor Relations Board over the wording of an article that appeared in the current issue of Boeing Frontiers magazine. The article refers to cash bonuses offered under Boeing's Employee Incentive Plan to non-union employees. In an NLRB settlement in August, Boeing agreed not to refer to non-union employees when mentioning the EIP because union members can join the program as part of the collective bargaining process.
Rainbow Media, the satellite division of Cablevision System Corp., said it will buy five K a-band satellites from Lockheed Martin in a follow-on deal to its purchase of the Rainbow-1 HDTV spacecraft launched last year. Based on Lockheed Martin's A-2100 spacecraft bus, the first of the five K a-band spacecraft will be launched in the final quarter of 2007. Ultimately, the satellites will be located at 62 deg. W. Long., 71 W., 77 W., 119 W. and 129 W., to provide more than 5,000 high-definition channels through Rainbow's VOOM satellite service.
Lockheed Martin has won a $112.3-million contract from the U.S. Air Force to build 288 Lot 4 AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles. They are being paired with a new line of stealthy weapons pylons for carriage on aircraft such as the F/A-22 and FB-22.
Michael Cirillo (see photo) has been named vice president-system operations for the FAA's Air Traffic Organization. He succeeds Linda Schuessler, who has retired. Cirillo was director of terminal safety and operations support for FAA Terminal Services.
Centrair, the new Nagoya International Airport due to open in February, has told the International Air Transport Assn. (IATA) that typical landing fees for a Boeing 747-class transport will be $6,366. Centrair responded to an IATA request to lower its initial $6,750 rate in view of high fuel prices. That 6% discount compares to $9,223 at Tokyo's Narita International Airport and $8,058 at Osaka's Kansai International Airport. Centrair won't replace Narita as Japan's primary gateway, but it could knock Kansai out of the No.
The outriders have skirmished, the larger force has taken minor casualties, and the battle is developing slowly. The six airlines seeking antitrust immunity (ATI) for an enlarged U.S.-Europe portion of the SkyTeam global alliance lost out on their argument that the application is a routine matter involving airlines from countries with which the U.S. has open skies aviation agreements.
Boeing has delivered its seventh C-40A Clipper, a combination transport and passenger design, to the U.S. Navy Reserve. The 737-700-based aircraft offers superior performance and range to the C-9Bs it is to replace.
Andris Zvejnieks has become director of corporate communications at SAS Scandinavian Airlines Sweden. He held the same position at IBM Svenska. Timothy Pfeil has been appointed sales manager for North America for SAS Cargo. He succeeds Howard Jones, who has resigned. Pfeil has held a similar position at Lufthansa Cargo.
The Air France-KLM group's revenues in the first half of the 2004-05 fiscal year increased a healthy 9.1% to 9.6 billion euros ($12.4 billion) while operating profit doubled to 451 million euros. Passenger traffic increased 11.6% and yields remained unchanged.
Air Berlin seems poised to become Europe's third-largest low-fare airline along with Ryanair and EasyJet, after the company placed a massive 110-aircraft order to replace and expand its current fleet.
The fourth prototype PV-II "Tejas," India's indigenous light combat aircraft (LCA) designed and developed by the Aeronautical Development Agency, will fly by February 2005, a senior official says. He indicated all four will be flown during Aero India at Bangalore (Feb. 9-13, 2005). The tailless, delta-wing, fly-by-wire Tejas is being tested with a General Electric GE-404, eventually to be replaced by the indigenous Kaveri engine, being built by the Defense Research Development Organization. The first 10-20 LCAs will be fitted with GE-404s, he indicated.
The omnibus spending bills Congress passes as a last-ditch measure at the end of the fiscal year are notorious for being padded by special interests. But some Bush administration-desired weapons projects didn't make the cut as Congress completed its work earlier this month. No money was provided in the Energy Dept.'s budget for the robust nuclear earth penetrator. Also left bereft is research for advanced nuclear weapon concepts.
The advent of highly integrated aircraft and weapon systems has flight test professionals scrambling to devise new evaluation techniques in the midst of complex development programs. This new era's challenges have proven to be far more demanding than anticipated about a decade ago, when tightly integrated systems started to appear. Consequently, programs have suffered from steep learning curves.
Taiwan's EVA Air has added another Airbus A330-200 to its current commitment for 10 of the aircraft type, eight of which are to be leased from GE Capital Aviation Services and two purchased directly from Airbus.
