Northrop Grumman has been awarded a $29.3-million contract to integrate its Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures System to defeat heat-seeking missiles on a commercial Boeing 747-400.
Aer Lingus has reduced fares and simplified tariff rules, applying the low-fare concept of U.S. domestic operators to transatlantic trips. Economy fares are down 20-30% and capped at $503 with no Saturday-night stay requirement. Business and first-class fares have been cut by more than half.
Those UFO reports about a large glowing object over the White House and other areas in Washington were generated by an American Blimp Corp. A-170 airship, lighted from the inside, flying a 24-hr. endurance demonstration with the permission of local authorities. Arinc executives are pitching the idea that an unmanned airship could fly for days over Baghdad or other urban combat areas with a ton or two of large-aperture--and thus higher-resolution--sensors to find insurgents before they can stage attacks.
Italy's plan to switch control of its space activities away from the research community and closer to industry, defense and other space-service users underscores the growing strategic importance of space and the concomitant need for broader decision-making mechanisms in Europe.
Lufthansa Cargo has added three more airfreight forwarders--ABX, EGL and Menlo--to its Global Partnership Program, bringing the total now to 11 members. The forwarders will receive preferred access to the cargo carrier's capacity and the aid of a customer support team. The cargo partnership is a strategic mirror image of the airline alliances on the passenger side, but with the added complication that forwarders are not committed to using the service and are likely to seek low costs whenever possible.
The U.S. Navy is deferring for several weeks a decision on whether to procure a second targeting pod for fighters to augment Raytheon's Sharp reconnaissance system. An expert panel reviewing the matter failed to offer a recommendation on whether the Navy should pursue a two-pod plan, pointing out that Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman each have viable offerings. Meanwhile, Raytheon is developing a multiyear procurement strategy for 361 more Sharp pods.
Boeing's 7E7 cabin architecture team is developing wireless feeds for seat-back video systems. That will save a lot of weight and make it easier to reposition seating because the WiFi system will eliminate the need for the bulky Inflight Entertainment System control boxes that are beneath one seat on each row in current-generation aircraft. To power the displays, Boeing will put plugs at the front and back base of each seat. Connecting cables will come in predetermined lengths so an airline can have a set for, say, a 30-in. seat pitch and another for a 33-in. pitch.
Charles H. Boccadoro, Joseph W. Pawlowski and David H. Graham are Northrop Grumman Corp. engineers who have won the Washington-based American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' 2004 Aircraft Design Award. They were honored for leading a team that demonstrated a method to reduce the intensity of sonic booms by modifying an aircraft's shape. Boccadoro is manager of future strike systems, Pawlowski project manager for the sonic boom demonstration, and Graham is leader of the aerodynamic design team.
USMC Lt. Col. Kevin Gross has won the Marine Corps Aviation Assn.'s James Maguire Award for 2004. The award is named for Gunnery Sgt. James Maguire, the first enlisted Marine ordered to aviation duty. Gross was cited in his capacity as V-22 government flight test director and for being "responsible for the highly successful accomplishments of all development tests and flight test prerequisites for entry into operational assessment of the MV-22."
Following the Columbia accident, I noted that the three space program disasters had a common root cause: NASA failed to maintain crew survivability as top priority. President John F. Kennedy implicitly imposed this requirement on NASA with the words ". . . bring them back safely." After reading the NASA spec on the Apollo capsule as a rookie engineer at Rocketdyne in 1964, I told my boss it was a death trap. He agreed and added that the company would take the blame, and NASA would take care of the company.
Delta Air Lines CEO Gerald Grinstein last week told employees more about what to expect in the way of pay and benefits cuts. The cost savings measures, which are to become effective on Jan. 1, are part of Delta's transformation plan, which Grinstein began unfolding early last month. They include: a 10% reduction in pay across the board for executives, supervisory and administrative personnel; an increase in shared costs of health care coverage; and a cut in yearly vacation accrual to five from six weeks.
In January, President Bush proposed a revitalized action plan for NASA centered on renewed human exploration of the Moon and, later, the first voyages to Mars. This proposal has been saddled with a widely reported but unfounded and unsubstantiated trillion-dollar cost estimate. Fortunately, analysis of the cost is easy to do, easy to follow and results in a substantially more favorable assessment than has been asserted.
Michel Dechelotte has been appointed chairman/CEO of Paris-based PowerJet, a joint venture of Snecma Moteurs of France and NPO Saturn of Russia. He was development director in Russia for Snecma and had been corporate vice president.
U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Roger A. Nadeau has been appointed commanding general of the Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. He was deputy commanding general of the command at Ft. Belvoir, Va.
The South African police have ordered a seventh Eurocopter AS 350 B3 single-engine helicopter. The sale, announced at the Africa Aerospace and Defense show, brings the number of Eurocopter aircraft operated by the police force to 25.
"I have such faith in the private sector that I've dreamed of the day that government monopoly would be replaced by commercialization or at least some form of partnership." Those words, on the prospects of private manned spacecraft and industrial space stations, were penned by President Ronald Reagan in a letter to Aviation Week & Space Technology's publisher in March 1985.
Susan K. Barnes has been named to the board of directors of RAE Systems Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif. She is senior vice president/chief financial officer of Intuitive Surgical.
Robert W. Klein (see photo), who is vice president-engineering, logistics and technology for the Bethpage, N.Y.-based Airborne Early Warning and Electronic Warfare Systems division of the Northrop Grumman Corp., has been elected chairman of the Technical Operations Council of the Washington-based Aerospace Industries Assn.
While some avionics software development is being outsourced by U.S. aerospace companies to India, one small American company maintains that dozens of firms like it are handling a large portion of the more specialized contracts.
Leaders of Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Belarus have decided to establish a joint company to help boost their share of the global space market. Meeting at the Common Economic Area summit on Sept. 15, the leaders called for proposals to be submitted by mid-December. Though no specific project was mentioned, the initial target is believed to be the six-seat Clipper reusable space vehicle proposed by Russia's RSC Energia. The 14.5-metric-ton vehicle could be launched by a Russian Onega (an upgraded Soyuz) or Angara booster, or a Ukrainian Zenith-2.
There has been a collective holding of breath as Pentagon officials await reaction to a U.S. Air Force announcement that it wants to buy hundreds of short-takeoff F-35B joint strike fighters modified to provide close air support for Army and Marine Corps ground forces.
The typical seatback display takes on a dynamic new look with the introduction of 3D imagery for the familiar moving map that tracks a flight's progress in the Rockwell Collins Airshow 4200/ 4200i systems.
Boeing Chairman/CEO Harry Stonecipher says the company will add at least two French suppliers within the next few weeks to those already picked for the 7E7 program. Among suppliers already selected are Dassault Systemes, Thales and Snecma affiliates Messier-Dowty and Labinal.
Michael A. Williams (see photo) has been appointed vice president-engineering for Kollsman Inc., Merrimack, N.H. He was an engineering director at the Lockheed Martin Corp.
