EADS will form a satellite venture with Moscow-based RNIIKP, a manufacturer of satellite payloads and ground equipment, as part of a broad cooperative undertaking with the Russian aerospace and defense industry. Under the agreement, concluded during a state visit to Russia by German Chancellor Gerhard Shroeder on July 8-9, RNIIKP will set up a joint venture with EADS/Astrium and Tesat-Spacecom, an EADS-owned component maker that has supplied Russian satellite programs.
A Flight Safety Foundation report on risks of obstructive sleep apnea called it a "debilitating and potentially life-threatening disorder"--but one that can be minimized with proper treatment. According to the FSF, "Breathing may stop 30 times an hour or more, nearly 250 times during a typical eight-hour sleep period, for as long as one minute, each time." The cessation of breathing decreases oxygen and increases carbon dioxide in the blood and brain. Treatments vary, depending on severity, and include surgery on the air passageway.
A federal law prohibiting NTSB findings from being admitted as evidence may be a target for reform--the result of a Los Angeles court ruling ordering Parker Hannifin to pay $43.6 million to families of three SilkAir crash victims.
Farnborough International 2004 will for the first time host an aerospace careers development center, along with a half-day seminar on aerospace employment issues. Assuring a supply of qualified personnel, suitably motivated and rewarded, is a key concern for the Aerospace and Innovation Growth Team.
The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps are experiencing a surge in rotorcraft flight test activity, with little sign the pace will subside anytime soon. The statistics are dramatic. Testing has increased 180% between 2001 and 2003, says USMC Lt. Col. Keith Danel, commander of test squadron HX-21. In 2000, the unit completed just over 1,000 flight test hr. This year the unit has already completed more than 1,325 test hr. and is on course to reach 3,100.
David A. Craig has been promoted to senior vice president-engineering and manufacturing from engineering manager for project engineering and component evaluation and Larry B. Toering to senior vice president-sales and marketing from director of aviation product sales at Lowrance Electronics Inc., Tulsa, Okla.
A new satellite system about to be deployed by Hispasat will bring K u-band coverage to Brazil and other Western Hemisphere markets for direct-to-home and broadband applications, and test an innovative onboard processing system for two-way high-speed satellite broadband service.
LOCKHEED MARTIN IS UPGRADING radars and data processing systems for command posts in Samarkand, Tashkent and Khanabad Air Base, Uzbekistan. The company also will provide its SkyLine automated air traffic management system at Khanabad. SkyLine offers flight and radar data processing and a flexible configuration that can work with tower, terminal control area or flow monitoring service.
TRANSPORT CANADA HAS CERTIFIED the Bombardier Aerospace Learjet 40 business jet. The FAA approved the airplane in July 2003. There are nine Learjet 40s in service with operators in the U.S. and Germany as well as with Bombardier's FlexJet fractional ownership program.
French defense-electronics manufacturer Sagem intends to leverage technology from its AASM air-launched precision-guided weapon to develop a family of air-, land- and sea-based systems.
Cologne/Bonn hopes to become continental Europe's largest base for low-fare airlines and the first airport to attract no-frills long-haul services. The airport is in negotiations with Chicago-based ATA and expects the airline to launch Cologne/Bonn-Chicago long-haul low-cost services in May 2005. Managing Director Michael Garvens says ATA plans to use Boeing 757s for the daily services. "The interest in low-fare long-haul services is huge," Garvens told Aviation Week & Space Technology at the operator's headquarters here.
A 312-pp. catalogue of miniature pneumatic products and accessories is now available from Industrial Specialties Manufacturing Inc. It contains more than 12,000 product descriptions including fittings, tubing, mufflers, manifolds, valves, filters and accessories in a complete range of sizes. Products are available in a choice of materials including brass, stainless steel and numerous plastic formulations. A chemical compatibility chart and an engineering data section are also included. The catalogue is also available online at http://www.industrialspec.com.
Tariq Jesrai has been named group president of the OEM business of McKechnie Aerospace, Alcester, England. He was president of the company's Aerospace Structures Group.
Aloysius Rauen--"Ice" as he is better known--has worked in the German aerospace industry for more than 20 years. He took over as Eurofighter CEO in May of this year. An aero-engineering graduate of Munich's Technical University, he joined Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm (MBB) in 1983, working on the NH-90 and Eurofar as a project engineer. Managerial appointments have included MBB head of the Tornado program, senior executive in Daimler-Benz Aerospace's military aircraft division and senior vice president for corporate strategy at DaimlerChrysler AG.
ENGINEERING SAMPLES OF THREE new high-density, radiation-tolerant field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are now available from Actel Corp. Primarily intended for satellite buses and payloads, the RTAX-S family offers an alternative to the long design cycle for application-specific integrated circuits. The devices use single-event-upset hardened flip-flops with an architecture that eliminates the need for more costly triple-module redundancy, without sacrificing die area, according to the company. Embedded static random access memory is also optimized to operate in space.
Indigo Systems, a Flir Systems division, has changed the name of its miniature uncooled camera from Omega to ThermoVision Micron. Listed as the world's smallest, lightest, lowest-power, fully integrated infrared camera, its single unit price has been reduced by 25% to make it more affordable to prospective OEM integrators. The price reduction is scaled to higher volumes of cameras as well. Two previously optional pay-for features--digital data and highlight color--are now included in the base price.
Is it just me, or is the NASA state of affairs as appalling as it appears to be? Flipping through a recent issue, I came to the shuttle-derived heavy-lift vehicles (AW&ST June 28, p. 26). And then I read ". . . could be ready for flight in 2011-15." Now let's look way back to 1975 to the NASA publication SP-413 "Space Settlements: A Design Study." Flipping to page 58, we have "Shuttle HLLV Derivative"--essentially the same thing but with four SRBs instead of two.
Boeing has celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first flight of the 367-80, the aircraft that started its entry into the jet age. Then-President Bill Allen had seen the first commercial jet, Britain's Comet, at the Farnborough air show and became determined that Boeing not be left behind. His commitment required spending the equivalent of all of Boeing's post-World War II profits. Structural problems quickly ended the Comet's career and created controversy about the safety of jets.
I'm writing concerning Ken MacLeod's letter "Bypass Ratio Correct" and the editor's comment (AW&ST July 5, p. 6). I fear the title was made intentionally ambiguous and the "correction" was worded to read as new information on the pressure ratio that the published bypass ratio was "the right order of magnitude."
EADS revised its earnings before interest and taxes forecast for 2004 to 1.93 billion euros ($2.39 billion), up from 1.8 billion euros, after merging the Airbus industrial grouping into the Airbus stock company. The outdated grouping was dollar-denominated; the company reports in euros.
Jan Nygren and Kenth-Ake Jonsson have been named executive vice presidents of Saab, and current Executive Vice President Ingemar Andersson has been appointed deputy CEO.
South Africa's defense industry is in transition. The country's largest defense contractor, government-owned Denel, is reorganizing. The arms procurement organization, Armscor, is adapting to an expanded charter. And at the same time, companies are trying to expand their domestic and export business through new products.
A decade ago, U.S. aerospace and defense companies faced a dilemma. Staring into the abyss of post-Cold War funding levels and a cyclical downturn in commercial aerospace orders, they began an intense period of consolidation to shrink the industrial base, reduce costs and appeal to a long-forgotten Wall Street audience.
