A Ryan International Airlines Airbus A320-233 that lost its engine cowling when taking off from Atlanta is not the only A320 to have lost a cowling in a similar mishap.
NASA is hiring an old-line Washington law firm, Arnold & Porter, to help it set up a private venture capital fund that would track down private-sector technology the space agency needs to meet President Bush's deep-space exploration goals. NASA would join private venture capitalists to invest in what it has dubbed the Mercury Fund, which would find companies with likely patents and skills.
International Space Station crewmates Gennady Padalka and Mike Fincke breezed through a complicated extravehicular activity on Sept. 3, trimming 28 min. from the time it was expected to take them to replace a pump controller and install more antennas to guide Europe's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV). In the process the pair stood motionless for 17 min. as part of an ongoing study of the effects of EVA crews on station attitude control, although they did not have to interrupt their work to make way for a thruster firing as they did on their previous EVA (AW&ST Aug.
Days after logging yet another traffic record in its continuing expansion, AirTran Airways warned investors it expects to report a loss for the third quarter because of revenue weakness, fuel costs and hurricanes Charley and Frances. Noting that 51% of its normal traffic flow involves areas affected by the storms, AirTran said it lost Labor Day weekend revenue to disruptions from Frances, and near-term bookings were weakened by continuing weather alerts.
Additional missile defense agreements with international partners have been announced by Boeing in the run-up to the Pentagon unveiling its plans for collaboration with overseas partners later this month. The two latest agreements are with MBDA and Australia's CEA Technologies. Boeing, as well as several other U.S. missile defense contractors, have signed a slew of such agreements, although so far with little practical implication. MBDA would offer Boeing additional missile expertise, while CEA has worked on radar technologies with potential missile defense applications.
FlightPrep, a Stenbock & Everson company, has released Chartcase EFB's software, and upgrades to its Golden Eagle FlightPrep DUATS package. Besides flight planning, Chartcase offers practical and affordable paperless cockpit capability in a single pilot-compatible package, according to the company. Pilots get every Sectional, WAC and TNroute chart for the contiguous U.S. plus every instrument procedure, with every departure/arrival and exclusive relief-shaded vector charts for the entire U.S. on DVD.
Looking past its newly issued cap on peak-hour flight operations at Chicago O'Hare airport, the FAA is making a "very focused effort" to evaluate market-based measures to manage demand at overcrowded airports throughout the country, Administrator Marion Blakey tells the House aviation subcommittee. Experts have spent the spring and summer gaming various options, such as slot auctions and capacity pricing, the latter involving higher prices for airport services when they are most in demand.
Boeing's high-speed Internet-based onboard communications system, Connexion, definitely has an Asian flair. That's a combination of two factors: Asian carriers are in a better financial position to be ordering the system, and they emphasize cabin amenities because many flights are of long-stage length. South Korea's Asiana Airlines is the latest carrier to say it will equip its fleet with Connexion, beginning with a Boeing 777-200ER targeted for delivery in July 2005.
The Portuguese Defense Ministry has become the first export customer for satellite services of the U.K.'s Paradigm Secure Communications. Paradigm is now operating Britain's Skynet 4 milsatcom network, and will provide the successor Skynet 5 system.
Frederick W. Smith, chairman, president and CEO of FedEx Corp., will lead the U.S. Business Roundtable's security task force. The task force focuses on partnering with the government to improve security. A recent Roundtable study found that CEOs are spending increased amounts of time on security and more than half of all companies surveyed have made the subject a board-level issue.
QinetiQ, the U.K.'s largest technology research and design company, will purchase Waltham, Mass.-based Foster-Miller in a 91.8-million pound ($163-million) deal, subject to regulatory approval. This will be QinetiQ's first U.S. acquisition and is seen as the initial step to significantly growing the U.K. company's U.S. business. Foster-Miller, an engineering and development company, will maintain its name and operate as a subsidiary of QinetiQ.
APPLIED RADAR IS EXPANDING its antenna capabilities beyond patch and conformal devices into the field of electronic textiles. The company, based in North Kingstown, R.I., says manufacturing methods now permit lightweight, flexible antennas to be produced with performance surpassing current solutions and at drastic cost reduction. Textiles could displace printed circuit antenna technology for many applications. After structural integrity and microwave performance issues are satisfied, antennas could be embedded in composite airframes.
Increasing competition has prompted Temasek Holdings, the Singapore government's investment arm, to sell its entire stake of 78.4% in Changi International Airport Services to Dnata, the airport and air travel services division of Emirates Group. CIAS is one of two ground-handling concessions at Changi. Temasek also controls the other one, Singapore Airport Terminal Services, which is a division of Singapore Airlines.
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An ultimatum which may decide the fate of Alitalia runs out this week, with the airline unions faced with accepting severe job-cuts or dealing with even more dire consequences. Alitalia Chairman Gianfranco Cimoli has given the unions until Sept. 15 to accept what management says is its final offer. The airline is looking to cut almost one in four jobs, with 5,000 to be axed, including 450 pilots, from the 22,000 staff by 2008. Any pretense of remaining a global carrier has been shed, with the survival plan built around a regional network.
Patrick J. Walsh has been named vice president-new retail development, Rob Hale development manager and Bridget White concessions manager for BAA Maryland Inc. at Baltimore-Washington International Airport.
FORECAST INTERNATIONAL SAYS THAT ONLY A MAJOR breakthrough in aircraft design manufacturing technology will be able to reverse the gloomy outlook it sees for the general aviation/utility market during the next 10 years.
Rolls-Royce and the U.S. Air Force have identified, and begun implementing, a number of improvements to the T56 turboprop that should boost the engine's average time-on-wing, now at 1,400 hr., by more than 20%.
British Airways is upping capacity on its winter schedule by 2% compared with 2003. BA is increasing services to Croatia, Greece, Lithuania and Switzerland. Some long-haul frequencies also are being increased. Two flights are being added on the Heathrow-Cape Town route, for 12 per week. Frequencies to Dubai, Miami and the Bahamas are also increased. The airline's London Gatwick-Paris Charles de Gaulle service is to be suspended.
U.S. Army Gen. (ret.) Henry Hugh Shelton, Kurt M. Campbell and Christopher A. Williams have been named to the board of advisers of the Cincinnati-based O'Gara Group Inc. Shelton is a former chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff. Campbell is senior vice president/director of the International Security Program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies and former deputy assistant Defense secretary. Williams is a partner in Johnston and Associates and former acting undersecretary of Defense for policy.
U.K. aerospace and engineering company Meggitt saw turnover and profit rise for the six-month period ended June 30. Turnover rose 8% in the period for 2003, totaling 206 million pounds ($365.5 million), while pre-tax profit more than doubled, to 27.8 million pounds. Within the aerospace business unit turnover was up by 12%, to 171.1 million pounds. The comparative strength of defense and weakness of the civil market is reflected in military business now accounting for 48% of the group's total, compared with 39% for 2003.
USN Rear Adms. Mark P. Fitzgerald and Joseph A. Sestak, Jr., have been nominated for promotion to vice admiral. Fitzgerald would become commander of the Second Fleet, Norfolk, Va. He is director of the Air Warfare Div. in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) at the Pentagon. Sestak would be assigned as deputy CNO for warfare requirements and programs. He has been director of the Assessment Div. in the Office of the CNO. Vice Adm. Gary Roughead has been named deputy commander of the U.S. Pacific Command in Honolulu.
Huntingdon Fusion Techniques Ltd.'s Argweld Titanium Purge Monitor measures oxygen content to 10 ppm. and shows results on an alphanumeric LED display that can be switched to display oxygen content as a percentage. The unit can be interlocked to isolated welding equipment or a power supply. Operators follow a menu-driven display. An internal alarm can be set to alert when minimum/maximum oxygen levels are reached; authorized users can change settings with a security code.
Pakistan is looking to buy Harris Corp. HF/VHF radios that its military would use to link ground forces on patrol with higher headquarters. Moreover, the Pentagon says the purchase would improve interoperability with U.S. forces and aid the hunt for terrorists in remote parts of Pakistan. The proposed $78-million Foreign Military Sales package includes 1,635 20-watt HF manpack radios, with an equal number for vehicles.
