European electronics contractors are attempting to enlist powerful new battlefield simulation systems in defining and meeting European unmanned aerial vehicle requirements in a network-centric context. Among them are: *The Thales Battlespace Transformation Center (BTC), already employed to back the company's winning tender for the U.K.'s Watchkeeper tactical UAV program, due to become operational in 2006 (AW&ST July 26, p. 37). On July 1, the BTC was presented to the French armaments agency DGA and the general staff.
AMR Corp. Chairman and CEO Gerald Arpey has turned down an offer from the board of directors for a 22% raise in base salary to $625,000 from $513,000, saying it would send the wrong message to employees. The board offer came last week to reflect Arpey's promotion from president to chairman and CEO a few months ago, according to an AMR spokesman.
U.S. military airlift operations are running at top speed and show no signs of abatement, adding impetus to the Pentagon's drive to field more transport aircraft in the coming years. The U.S. Transportation Command is scheduling an average of 400 sorties a day, with spikes of up to 450 to 500 missions, says USAF Gen. John W. Handy, Transcom's commander. Several years ago, the level was about 250 missions daily, which then was considered a fast pace.
Alcatel Space has handed over the high-resolution instrument on Helios 2B, the second of two second-generation day/night optical surveillance systems planned by France. Helios 2B is to be orbited in 2009 and Helios 2A in December of this year.
General Aviation Manufacturers Assn. reports billings for the first half of 2004 were 16.6% ahead of the same period last year. Shipments, however, were down 1.7%. Jet and turboprop deliveries drove the increased billings. There were 110 turboprops delivered, up from 99; and 240 business jets, up from 234. Shipments of piston-engine aircraft dropped to 733 from 809.
Michael A. Taverna (Paris), Douglas Barrie (London)
A breakthrough order from Oman and renewed sales drives in the U.K. and U.S. are rekindling European hopes that the NH-90 transport/frigate helicopter can become a global challenger. The sultanate agreed on July 24 to purchase 20 NH-90s, in basic transport configuration, for tactical transport, search-and-rescue and other applications. The deal, said to be worth 700-800 million euros ($850-970 million), also covers support activities such as field assistance, training aids and supply of mission-preparation system stations.
A Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) official says that despite some reports, there is no indication that suspicious groups are checking out airline security procedures. Dry runs by terrorists were known to have been performed prior to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. FAMS spokesman Dave Adams says if flight crews spot anything suspicious, they can inform an air marshal if one is on board the aircraft. Flight crews can also call ahead while en route to a destination and ask for Transportation Security Administration officers and police to meet the airline on landing.
VolgaDnepr and Air Canada Cargo have agreed to jointly provide cargo transportation services to Canadian government agencies. The partners will make capacity available on Antonov An-124 and Ilyushin Il-76 transports for applications such as humanitarian relief and peacekeeping, in which Canada is heavily involved.
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Tony Blair does not shy from the use of military force. The British prime minister has sanctioned interventions in Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Iraq since coming to power in 1997. Only the last has proved politically troublesome. However, at the heart of Blair's willingness to commit British forces to operational theatres is contradiction: The military is under considerable pressure from the very same government.
An Arianespace Ariane 5 launched the heaviest commercial telecommunications satellite in history on July 17 from the Kourou, French Guiana, launch center. Telesat's Anik F2 spacecraft was placed in a transfer orbit en route to its operational geostationary position at 111 deg. W. Long. The 13,118-lb. Boeing 702 spacecraft carries 38 K a-band transponders, 32 K u-band transponders and 24 C-band transponders, which Ottawa-based Telesat will use to provide high-speed Internet and digital communications across the continental U.S.
The latest round in a carousel of British defense cuts lays bare the government's combat aircraft procurement dilemma--it is ostensibly signed up to purchase considerably more platforms than it is willing to afford, or it believes it needs. British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon told the British Parliament last week he was axing all of the RAF's Jaguar offensive support aircraft and reconnaissance squadrons, as well as cutting one of five Tornado F3 air defense units.
THALES WILL UPGRADE Iran's air traffic management capability with four state-of-the-art systems for the country's primary regional airports. Each has the Eurocat control center, a Star 2000 primary S-band radar and co-mounted RSM 970S monopulse secondary surveillance radar, which should enhance international as well as regional ATC. Thales sold Iran an en route ATC system in 1997, which included 10 monopulse secondary surveillance radars, en route control centers for Tehran and Shiraz, and navaids for domestic airports.
Philippe Richard has been appointed director of strategy and commercial affairs of the Onera French aerospace research agency. He was managing director of the Vaisala Thunderstorm Business Div.
Southwest Airlines announced its final big service expansion for 2004, 13 daily nonstops out of its newest destination, Philadelphia, and nine more in other existing markets, all starting on Oct. 31. The Philadelphia growth brings total service there to 41 flights per day, essentially reaching the capacity of the four gates it currently controls only six months after adding the point to its route map. Three destinations from Philadelphia are new--Hartford, Conn., with five flights per day, and Jacksonville, Fla., and Oakland, Calif., one apiece.
The NASA Messenger spacecraft is ready for launch to Mercury on a mission researchers hope will unravel why the closest planet to the Sun is so dramatically different from its siblings--Earth, Venus and Mars--all born from the same solar nebula 5 billion years ago. The NASA/Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) spacecraft is to lift off here Aug. 2 at 2:16 a.m. EDT on a Boeing Delta II Heavy booster.
Eurocopter and Tusas Aerospace Industries of Turkey will expand cooperation to make TAI the center of excellence and sole source of supply for selected aerostructures intended for the EC225/727 Cougar/Super Puma upgrade. The Turkish company is already delivering fuselage sections, tail booms, canopies, cargo floors and cowlings for Cougar models under the previous Phenix 2 program.
The Registrar Accreditation Board has authorized National Quality Assurance, an Acton, Mass.-based provider of management systems registration services, to certify companies to the new AS9003 standard. AS9003 applies primarily to aerospace subcontractors that receive outsourced orders from primes. Companies represented in the task group for the standard include Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Vought and Honeywell.
Fuel costs and low yields are hurting all the big U.S. network airlines, but labor concessions--in effect, in negotiation and not yet in play--will shape the carriers' attempts to survive and recover.
The Carlyle Group has signed an agreement with General Electric to acquire Garrett Aviation Services. Plans call for combining Garrett, which specializes in aftermarket engineering, maintenance, overhaul and avionics services, with Piedmont Hawthorne, a major fixed base operator in North America. The transaction is scheduled to close in the third quarter of this year. Frank Klaus, president of Garrett, will become CEO for the joint company.
The answers to one mystery have raised another for the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Tests with a solid rocket motor originally assembled for the eighth mission of the H-IIA confirmed JAXA's hypothesis that a defective nozzle design caused the booster-casing burn-through blamed in the launch failure of the sixth H-IIA last year. Tests at the Tanegashima launch center showed a burn-through 51 sec. after ignition that punched a hole 35 in. long and 3.5 in. wide in the nozzle wall.
ALL NIPPON AIRWAYS has ordered 45 shipsets of 737-700 winglets from Aviation Partners Boeing for delivery beginning in October 2005. The winglets are designed to improve fuel efficiency and reduce takeoff noise.
