U.S. Army officials are setting an ambitious plan for fielding a new light utility helicopter, which will shape much of the dialogue with industry that's starting this month. "My intention is to put airplanes on the ground for the Army this fiscal year," says Col. Cory Mahanna, project manager for utility helicopters. The Army hasn't even released its formal solicitation to industry, so achieving the goal of delivering a helicopter before October 2005 would essentially require the first of the systems to already be under construction.
Network-centric operations are a mushy subject, but the U.S. Air Force and a Lockheed Martin team say that for the first time it has demonstrated an architecture that pulled together parts of USAF's global network of command and control and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems. Six months into the three-year, $50-million project, a number of systems were horizontally integrated with the ultimate goal of building a battlefield Internet that links hundreds of systems, sensors and warfighters.
Mojave Aerospace Ventures is halfway to winning the suborbital Ansari X-Prize after its flight to 103 km. (337,500 ft.) on Sept. 29, and was planning to finish the task early this week with another flight here above 100 km. by its SpaceShipOne rocket glider. Like the previous flight on June 21, control difficulties kept the apogee roughly 20,000 ft. lower than planned, but nonetheless high enough to just scrape by the 100-km. requirement.
It is difficult to read Robert L. Crandall's description of the dire straits of the U.S. airline industry as the "consequences of a long series of flawed policy choices" (AW&ST Sept. 27, p. 45) without wondering if this comment emanated from a parallel universe.
Some 28 non-metro airports in India have been allotted $733.5 million for upgrades over the next three years, according to Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel. The government plans to seek financing to help meet its funding requirements. Greenfield projects are underway in Bangalore and Hyderabad. The government has a separate fund for airports at Mumbai and Delhi.
The Pentagon plans to greatly boost the bandwidth available to troops operating in cities and other difficult terrain when it fields the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) recently awarded to Lockheed Martin. But the program's success or failure will hinge, in part, on efforts outside the immediate control of managers.
The prospect of a fourth version of the Joint Strike Fighter specialized by the U.S. Air Force for close air support is probably dead for at least a decade. Informal talks between Pentagon planners and congressional staffers have quashed the idea.
Moving to pare down debt, Raytheon Co. has begun a series of tender offers for up to $1 billion of its notes. The offers, which will run through Oct. 28, are part of a six-month plan to cut the company's debt to $5.2 billion by year-end, down from $5.9 billion in late June. Credit Suisse First Boston and Morgan Stanley are the dealer-managers for the offers.
A Boeing-led team will develop innovative parachute guidance system technology for possible use on future NASA Mars missions under a $1.5-million contract from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The combined parachute/guidance system configuration would use computer commands to regulate airflow by opening and closing three slots on the periphery of the Mars parachute. Boeing believes that by alternately opening and closing the slots, thruster-like propulsion could be achieved to steer the chutes with enough accuracy to deliver Mars surface payloads within 2.5 mi.
F-15C fighter pilots of the 12th and 19th squadrons here are flying the radar of the future. It uses sensor technology that is to be operational on the F/A-22 Raptor, F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and upgraded F-15E Strike Eagle.
Bettina Eckerle has been named general counsel/secretary and Yancey Spruill chief financial officer of DigitalGlobe, Longmont, Colo. Eckerle was a lawyer with the New York firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. Spruill was a principal in the investment banking group at Thomas Weisel Partners.
World News Roundup 22 First flight for USAF's Joined- Wing Technology Demonstrator 23 Curators recover full set of solar-wind samples from Genesis 23 Airbus begins deliveries of Multi-Role Transport Tanker 24 Irkut chief moves into top spot at MiG World News & Analysis 28 Mojave Aerospace Ventures halfway to winning Ansari X-Prize 30 Virgin earmarks $100 million to de- velop SpaceShipOne into tour bus
The National Transportation Safety Board's final report on the Nov. 12, 2001, crash of American Airlines Flight 587 is scheduled to be presented on Oct. 26 in Washington. The Airbus A300-600's vertical stabilizer separated from the fuselage shortly after departure from New York John F. Kennedy International Airport. The resulting crash killed all 260 people on board and five on the ground.
The Metropolitan Airports Commission is studying an $860-million expansion plan for Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport. The 20/20 Vision plan, endorsed by Northwest Airlines, calls for the addition of gates at the Lindbergh Terminal, to 153 from 117, and at the Humphrey Terminal, to 20 from 8. Other project elements include new ticket counters, passenger security screening lanes and an improved baggage-handling system. Construction of a 400-room hotel at the airport is also on the agenda.
American Airlines, developing its 2005 operating plan and schedules, is emphasizing cost reductions because attempts to leverage revenue don't work any more, CEO Gerard Arpey tells securities analysts. Building on this summer's experiment with keeping pilots and aircraft together, American will limit overnight maintenance to a single aircraft type everywhere except at Dallas/Fort Worth: New York JFK will handle only A300s; Chicago O'Hare, MD-80s; Los Angeles and San Francisco, 767s. The carrier will remove 737s from Chicago and MD-80s from Miami.
Former U.S. Rep. Lee H. Hamilton has been named to the board of directors of BAE Systems North America, Rockville, Md. He is president/director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and was vice chairman of the 9/11 commission.
Ministries and agencies involved in the Japanese space program are seeking $3.688 billion for space research in fiscal 2005, a 13.1% increase. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) wants $1.672 billion, while the Cabinet Office is requesting $1.094 billion for Japan's military reconnaissance satellites. Among programs covered in the JAXA request are $466.2 million for the International Space Station, $92.7 million for the Selene lunar orbiter and $87.4 million for the Winds wideband Internet demonstration satellite program set for launch in 2006.
President Vladimir Putin has approved the formation of a state-controlled defense electronics holding company as part of a plan to consolidate and streamline the country's still-fragmented aerospace and defense sector (AW&ST Sept. 27, p. 19). The company initially will include seven avionics and systems suppliers.
John J. Walsh has become president of Los Angeles-based Ducommun Inc.'s Ducommun Technologies subsidiary. He was executive vice president/chief operating officer of Special Devices Inc.
The House and Senate Appropriations committees accept the administration's FAA facilities and equipment cutback, from $2.9 billion in Fiscal 2004 to $2.5 billion in '05, each with its own gripes. The House panel rejects FAA attempts to shift responsibility for some navigation aids and landing systems to airports, diverting Airport Improvement Program grants. The Senate committee criticizes the agency's "complete failure to impose acquisition management discipline" despite management and budgeting reforms enacted eight years ago.
The upheaval within Russia's aerospace industry continues with the sacking of Valery Toryanin as the head of the MiG Corp. He was shown the door at the state-owned fighter manufacturer on Sept. 27, to be replaced by Alexei Fedorov, who has been president of the Irkut Corp. Toryanin was in charge at MiG for only eight months, and his avowed intent to keep MiG as an independent manufacturer, rather than work toward a merger with a larger company, likely played a part in his downfall (AW&ST Sept. 6, p.41).
James McMichael has been promoted to director from associate director of the Georgia Institute of Technology's Aerospace, Transportation and Advanced Systems Laboratory in Atlanta.
Seasoned journalist Joseph C. Anselmo has rejoined Aviation Week & Space Technology as the magazine's new business editor. He came to Aviation Week from Congressional Quarterly, where he was the Washington-based defense reporter. Anselmo worked at Aviation Week from 1995 to 2000 as space technology editor. He has won numerous awards, including Royal Aeronautical Society's space story of the year in 1998. The following year, he shared with Senior Editor Craig Covault an RAS award for breaking news story of the year.
NASA isn't stopping at its executive suites as it restructures itself to carry out President Bush's deep-space exploration plans. It will also reorganize the NASA Advisory Council (NAC), an extended panel of outside experts that helps top agency managers make policy decisions. No details yet, but it's known that the new NAC will adhere to the four-part structure NASA has adopted--exploration systems, space operations, science and aeronautics--and will be further subdivided into separate panels for general policy and scientific and technical advice.
