Astronauts and flight controllers have started simulations aimed at preparing them for the STS-114 mission, when the space shuttle Discovery will return the shuttle fleet to flight for the first time since Columbia was lost on Feb. 1, 2003. Last week mission commander Eileen Collins and lead flight director Paul Hill led their crews through an eight-hour "flight-specific integrated simulation" of the shuttle's approach and rendezvous with the International Space Station.
EADS is reportedly one of eight firms that have applied to register as a European entity under a new law that went into effect last week. However, for the law to acquire practical effect, it must be ratified by national governments and accompanied by a tax agreement allowing consolidation of tax burdens--conditions considered unlikely in the near term.
Boeing's knack for receiving information it shouldn't have on military programs is showing no sign of abating, but at least the company's response appears to be improving. When Boeing received early requirements information on the Army's armed reconnaissance helicopter, a program with a 368-aircraft buy, the company handled it like a hot potato. A senior Army official says Boeing raised alarms and notified the government immediately upon receipt of the information and returned it promptly.
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Stuart Matthews, president/CEO of the Alexandria, Va.-based Flight Safety Foundation, has received the 2004 Award for Meritorious Service from the National Business Aviation Assn.
U.S.-based Jeppesen has signed a three-year deal with Singapore Airlines, giving the airline access to the flight information provider's full library of tailored electronic charts and data via a secure Internet connection. The agreement will facilitate SIA's transition to digital information services, first in ground operations and later on the flight deck. The airline says it will soon begin exploring an Electronic Flight Bag solution for its entire fleet of 89 Boeing and Airbus aircraft.
Toulouse, France-based Latecoere is expanding. In the first half of 2004, the aerostructure manufacturer's revenues increased 20% to 116 million euros ($148 million), generally tied to two new programs, Dassault-Aviation's 7X business twinjet and Airbus' A380. Maiden flights for both are expected in the next few months. Latecoere is a risk-sharing partner in both programs. The company also supplies electrical systems for Boeing (777 system is shown).
Nowhere in the aerospace and defense industry is there a more complete gathering of those who are leading the most critical programs in our commercial and defense sectors than the A&D Programs and Productivity Conference. This event has been created with you, the aerospace professional, in mind--and will examine the top aerospace and defense programs in the commercial, military and space sectors.
New SI, the losing bidder in the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's NextView competition, late last month filed a bid protest with the Government Accountability Office to overturn the government's decision to award the contract to Orbimage. A decision is due by Jan. 28. New SI says the government unfairly rated its proposal. The NextView program provides $500 million in cost-share funds to build a 0.5-meter resolution satellite.
Tom Quinly has been named president of the Embedded Computing Group of Curtiss-Wright Controls Inc., Gastonia, N.C. He was president of Dy4 Systems, which was acquired by Curtiss-Wright Controls.
Frank Flores (see photos) has been named vice president-engineering, logistics and technology for the Air Combat Systems business area of the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Integrated Systems Sector (ISS), El Segundo, Calif. He was director of the F-35 communications, navigation and identification program for the Space Technology Sector's Radio Systems organization in San Diego. Lisa Kohl has become ISS vice president-operations. She was vice president-Six Sigma at the Space Technology Sector.
NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft has reached the Astrotech Space Operations facility near Kennedy Space Center, Fla., where it is undergoing final preparations for a Dec. 30 launch on a Boeing Delta II. Developed and built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies, the two-part spacecraft (see photo) is designed to launch a copper projectile into the surface of the comet Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005, creating a crater. A second "flyby" section of the vehicle is to capture images and spectroscopy of the crater and debris produced by the 23,000-mph. impact (AW&ST Mar. 22, p.
India is considering liberalizing its air service accords and may soon scrap mandatory commercial agreements between international carriers and state-owned Air-India and Indian Airlines. The Indian government is soon expected to announce a plan allowing private airlines to operate on international routes to Southeast Asia that are now restricted to national carriers.
James F. Jackson got weightlessness and microgravity slightly mixed up. The first you can get if falling free toward Earth, as he mentioned. What you get in parabolic flight and in orbiting Earth is microgravity but not because Earth's gravity is low.
The U.S. Army is entering a critical period during which it hopes to name in rapid succession new suppliers for helicopters and unmanned aircraft. But prospective bidders consider some of the service's plans unrealistic.
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Connexion by Boeing will introduce the first live television transmissions for international flights next May when Singapore Airlines (SIA) begins offering Connexion's broadband services on a 777-300ER. Connexion Vice President-Commercial Airplanes Stanley Deal says four channels of news, especially financial news, will be viewable on laptop computers--not on SIA's inflight entertainment system--as part of SIA's Connexion services. International TV is a more challenging proposition than domestic transmissions for two reasons.
World News Roundup 18 Space station Expedition 9 crew be- gins readapting to Earth's gravity 19 Airbus begins installing Trent 900 engines on first A380 20 Turkish Airlines to acquire 36 Airbus aircraft; may be linked to EU bid 20 EADS and Thales increase sales pacts with U.S. primes World News & Analysis 24 ATA sinks into Chapter 11; new 'part- ner' AirTran deals for Midway gates 26 Delta still targets further cuts, conces- sions from vendors and lessors
Visual stealth--the characteristic of being virtually invisible, or at least unobtrusive, in the daytime--is being actively pursued by the U.S. military. The Army's Unmanned Combat Armed Rotorcraft will use sound reduction, special paints and radar-absorbing/reflecting coatings in an attempt to go unnoticed on the battlefield. And the technologies will escalate in complexity during development of the Joint Unmanned Combat Air System for the Air Force and Navy.
A bankruptcy-protection filing by ATA Airlines will lead to the kind of realignment that airline observers have been expecting but not seeing so far-- the transfer of an endangered airline's assets, however limited in scope, to an up-and-coming competitor.
Stefan Pichler has been named chief commercial officer of Australia's Virgin Blue. He was chief executive of Thomas Cook AG and a director of parent company Lufthansa.
Frank Morring, Jr. (Vancouver), Michael A. Dornheim (Los Angeles)
A reusable air-breathing space-launch first stage growing out of the successful X-43A Hyper-X test flight in March could be ready to send 20,000-lb. payloads to low-Earth orbit (LEO) by about 2015, say the engineers who developed the Mach 7 testbed.
Rolls-Royce is trying to shake up its helicopter business to address changing market dynamics and a perceived slip in customer focus, and potentially to expand gas turbine engine sales into new markets.
The rover Opportunity, its instrument deployment arm with the Rock Abrasion Tool elevated in the foreground, takes a final look at its NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory lander on the dark-red Meridiani Planum of Mars. Note the Martian pink sky and rover tracks in this Cornell University/JPL Pancam image from the mission's "Lion King" mosaic. With Mars now about 250 million mi. from Earth, both the Opportunity and Spirit rovers continue to explore new terrain rich with evidence of past water, a key factor in NASA's advanced Mars mission planning (see p. 28).
