Craig Seabrook has been named business development director at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. Other new appointments are: Paul M. Munafo, assistant director for safety and engineering; Anthony R. Lavoie, director of the Space Systems Programs/Projects Office; James M. Ellis, director of the Chief Information Office; Theresa H. Washington, director of the Office of Human Capital; and Teresa B. Vanhooser and Chris E. Singer, co-deputies of the Engineering Directorate.
Raytheon and EADS Space Transportation have agreed to collaborate on interceptors for ballistic missile defense projects. The pact is one of a series between U.S. missile defense suppliers and overseas contractors in preparation for an anticipated internationalization of the U.S. program.
Thales reported a 0.4% rise in revenues for the first half of the year to 4.6 billion euros, and a 1.8% increase in operating earnings to 300 million euros. Net earnings soared 124%. Orders declined 9% to 4.05 billion euros, but are expected to recover in the second half.
When Lord Wellington was hotly pursuing Napoleon to drive him from the Iberian peninsula, an allegation arose that certain accountable items had been lost or misplaced. Word of these indiscretions was fanned to a fever pitch in London newspapers, which provoked a predictable inquiry from accountants in Whitehall, the Pentagon of its day.
The article "Dawn of the Discounters," which is pertinent and topical especially for a not-so-affluent country like India, will have an impact in the hands of policy and decision makers (AW&ST Aug. 16, p. 40). While our frequent fliers are business people, politicians and public servants who travel on someone else's account, few of our younger or even well-off citizens can think of air travel. There is a strong case for reducing overhead including the costs of aircraft, fuel and airport fees, and cut- ting road travel costs by using minibuses.
European and U.S. trade negotiators met last week but failed to achieve a breakthrough in talks on amending the 1992 agreement on government support to large commercial aircraft companies. Both sides restated their positions, and committed to continuing talks.
A pair of software problems affected about 1,000 flights on Sept. 14-15 when they knocked out communications for the Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center for more than 3 hr. on the afternoon of Sept. 14. The Voice Switching and Control System at the center shut itself down because a technician had not reset a software clock, and the backup system also failed due to a software problem that had gone undetected. That left controllers unable to contact the 800 flights they had been handling, or their counterparts at other facilities.
The last flight test failure of the Lockheed Martin Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile has been linked to a short-circuit in the missile fuze caused by foreign object damage, the Air Force has determined. Flight testing remains on hold until all reviews are completed.
World News Roundup 18 Finmeccanica and Alcatel near on space venture agreements 19 Thales shipping the first A380 inflight entertainment systems World News & Analysis 24 USAF to buy Stovl F-35s after weight loss and thrust increase 26 USAF reconnaissance, UCAV plans undergo senior-level appraisal 30 USAF and Army in clash over roles and missions for C-XX 31 Japan's '05 budget plans reflect em- phasis on missile defense buildup
When Northwest, KLM and Continental formally joined SkyTeam alliance last week, airline member CEOs were quick to note there is strength, and potential cost-savings, in numbers.
A new concept of operations for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) for the U.S. Air Force is being crafted, a document that could alter the service's future spending in this field. Researchers already have their eyes on new missions, with developers of the X-45 unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) having set their sights on penetrating reconnaissance. But top USAF officials were noticeably noncommittal about UCAV plans at last week's Air Force Assn. symposium.
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration will be checking passengers more closely for explosives at screening checkpoints by adding more explosives trace detectors and expanding the use of manual pat-down searches. All passengers will be required to remove outer coats and jackets for X-ray inspection. TSA screeners also will have more latitude in selecting passengers for secondary screening and pat-downs based on visual observations.
A group of 15 general contractors will be selected to build a fourth runway at Tokyo Haneda Airport, a job expected to be worth about $6.3 billion (AW&ST June 14, p. 42). The award of such a big contract without competition is unusual but a consortium of seven shipbuilding and steel companies that planned to offer a floating runway concept has dropped out of the running. The contract is expected to be let next March and the runway completed in 2009.
Tommie Hutto-Blake has been elected as president of the Assn. of Professional Flight Attendants at American Airlines. She succeeds the losing incumbent candidate, John Ward.
The Army's desire to purchase twin-engine transports for on-demand delivery of small, high-priority loads is stalled due to low-key disagreements with some in the Air Force about who owns them, who controls them and how many the Army wants. The roles-and-missions disagreement over the so-called C-XX program will go for adjudication to the Pentagon's Joint Requirements Oversight Committee (JROC) panel, chaired by the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, later this month.
Thomas R. Harter has been appointed to the board of directors of US Airways Group Inc. He succeeds Perry Hayes and will be the board representative for the US Airways' chapters of the Assn. of Flight Attendants and Transport Workers Union. Harter is senior vice president/consultant at The Segal Co. in Washington.
New facilities in North America for global freight and package delivery companies are providing fresh evidence of growth as different directions in the $55-billion sector are emerging. In the last week, DHL opened regional sort centers in Denver and Salt Lake City, two of seven facilities slated for start-up in the next two months as part of a $1.2-billion investment program. FedEx set up service centers in Aurora, Ill., and Fremont, Ind., and UPS in Louisville, Ky., was preparing for a far-ranging boost in supply management.
European nations are divided on setting up a high-speed broadband access network to help bridge the "digital divide" and ensure that Europe does not fall further behind the U.S., where satellite broadband plans are advancing by leaps and bounds. Greece and Cyprus are exploring the feasibility of ordering a second HellasSat for the proposed network (AW&ST Sept. 13, p. 28), while Italy is studying a dedicated K a-band spacecraft of its own, perhaps on a partnership basis.
You can now register ONLINE for Aviation Week Events. Go to www.AviationNow.com/conferences or call Ryan Leeds at +1 (212) 904-3892/+1 (800) 240-7645 (U.S. and Canada Only) Oct. 12-14--MRO/Asia. Shanghai Convention Center. Nov. 16-17--A&D Programs. Biltmore Hotel, Phoenix. PARTNERSHIPS Oct. 12-14--Shephard Heli-Asia 2004, Bangkok. Oct. 20--Shephard ARA 2004, Bangkok Nov. 1-7--Air Show China, Zhuhai. www.airshow.com.cn Dec. 15-16--Shephard UV North America 2004, Washington.
Evergreen International Aviation Inc.'s Air Center at Marana, Ariz., will handle maintenance for the NASA-DLR Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (Sofia) when it begins flying next year. Sofia is a converted Boeing 747SP from United Airlines, which had been set to provide operational care until the airlines' straitened finances necessitated its withdrawal from the project. Sofia, which has an open-air cavity for clear sky viewing at 40,000 ft., is undergoing structural modifications by L-3 Communications Integrated Systems in Waco, Tex.
Arianespace says it is planning the second reflight of its new Ariane 5 ECA heavy-lift launcher as early as next spring, even though the mission is tentatively scheduled for the maiden flight of Europe's Automated Transfer Vehicle to the International Space Station in October 2005. This would mean assigning a commercial payload to the mission--the second of two mandated by ESA after the ECA failed on its inaugural mission in December 2002.
A bird strike forced an American Airlines MD-80 flight crew to return to Chicago O'Hare for an emergency landing. According to an airline spokesperson, Flight 1374 departed O'Hare for Philadelphia at 1:41 p.m. local time on Sept. 16 with 107 people on board. A goose struck the left Pratt & Whitney JT8D engine at about 3,000 ft. altitude. Flames were reported shooting out of the engine. The flight crew declared an emergency and set wheels down at 2:19 p.m. No emergency evacuation was necessary, according to the airline. No injuries were reported.
Douglas Carpenter has become chief scientific officer/director of research and development for QuantumSphere Inc., Costa Mesa, Calif. He was chief scientist at Technanogy and had been staff scientist at the Hercules Aerospace Co.
British Airways is cutting 2% of its flight schedule from London Heathrow Airport over three months to try and alleviate staff shortages and aircraft availability issues.
