Northrop Grumman Chairman, CEO and President Ronald D. Sugar told an audience at the Heritage Foundation in Washington on Apr. 30 that the Safety Act (Support Anti-Terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies), passed by Congress in 2002, is posing considerable problems for corporations interested in pursuing homeland security business. Rules implemented by the act have created a time-consuming, bureaucratic process for approval of new systems and technologies that go far beyond what the law requires, he said. Plus, liability is a big problem.
Joseph M. Renaud has become Ohio's state aerospace and defense adviser and head of the Ohio Aerospace and Defense Advisory Council. He was a senior management consultant for Wyle Laboratories.
U.S. Rep. John L. Mica (R-Fla.) is arranging a meeting among several of his House colleagues from both parties and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge to discuss the equally poor performance of federal airport screeners and private contractors hired to do the same jobs in a pilot program. The shortcomings were revealed in a Bearing Point study that is classified, and when Mica heard about it in an aviation subcommittee hearing recently, he insisted on a meeting with Ridge within 10 days.
Under orders from U.S. Air Force leaders to map an extensive upgrade for the A-10 attack aircraft, service planners are devising ways to finance those steps without having to cut the inventory of ground-attack aircraft. USAF officials during the past year have realized they will continue to operate the sturdy A-10 beyond 2020 and, therefore, will need to upgrade it to maintain combat capability. The Warthog is expected to remain in service until at least 2028.
European efforts to prevent runway incursions could intensify following the near-collision of a KLM 737-300 (Reg. PH-BDP) and a twin-engined aircraft at Munich International Airport.
Air Berlin on May 20 plans to take delivery of a new Boeing 737-700 it is leasing from Bellevue, Wash.-based Boullioun Aviation Services. The carrier operates scheduled and charter passenger services from Berlin to destinations in Europe, the Mediterranean region and North Africa. The aircraft, in Boeing 7E7 livery, is equipped with CFM56-7 engines and will enter service immediately after delivery.
Several missile defense and space programs are tagged for cuts during initial reviews of the Fiscal 2005 defense budget. The House Armed Services strategic forces panel slashes $75 million from the kinetic energy interceptor program as part of a $177-million reduction in missile defense accounts. Several sensor programs also are cut back, while Patriot PAC-3 missile buys are increased by 36 interceptors. Lawmakers repeat last year's concerns about technical immaturity of the Air Force's Transformational Satellite Communications project and reduce the budget $100 million.
Michael D. Griffin (see photo) has become head of the Space Dept. at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md. He succeeds Stamatios M. (Tom) Krimigis. Griffin has been president/chief operating officer of In-Q-Tel and was chief engineer and associate administrator for exploration of NASA.
As of late last week, 10% of the nation's aerial firefighting fleet was hinging on high-level U.S. Agriculture and Interior department discussions about the future viability of 33 large airtankers.
I emigrated to the U.S. in the late 1960s to join a thriving aerospace industry, and leave a dying one. I have enjoyed the great times, the diversity, the production and the excitement of a resilient industry. And suddenly, it is gone.
The French Zodiac group acquired Scott Aviation, a Lancaster, N.Y.-based producer of oxygen systems, masks, first-aid kits and other components. Scott will become part of Zodiac's Aircraft Systems Div.
SES Global has completed a secondary offering of fiduciary deposit receipts and begun trading them on the Euronext Paris stock exchange, a combined move intended to increase liquidity and make SES stock more attractive to international investors (AW&ST May 3, p. 15). All 67.7 million shares were sold, at a price of 507 million euros ($612 million), or 7.5 euros per share, raising the free float to 32% of stock.
David Hughes (Washington), Michael A. Taverna (Paris)
One key to the success of the 7E7 will be Boeing's ability to sharply reduce aircraft life-cycle ownership cost, and to do so, management aims to transform the way it engineers, builds and supports its new products. Development of the 7E7 was kicked off at the end of last month with a 50-aircraft order from All Nippon Airways (AW&ST May 3, p. 26).
Arianespace emerged from the red in 2003, after three straight years of deficits, and predicted it will stay there in the years to come. The company posted a net profit of 9.2 million euros ($11 million) on sales of 559 million euros. Chairman/CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall attributes the results to a recently finalized shake-up that has cut staff to 250, and a new launcher support system and production revamp OK'd earlier this year by the European Space Agency.
March passenger traffic at 102 of the world's busiest airports showed a notable increase compared with March 2003 figures, according to Airports Council International. Total March passenger traffic of 170.8 million reflected an 8.7% increase compared with the same period last year--when Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and the Iraq war were among the crises that depressed passenger traffic. International traffic was up 12.4% to 73.9 million and domestic traffic rose 5.5% to 76.4 million.
Germany's aerospace industry association, BDLI, hopes that the expansion of the European Union and NATO, coupled with a looming recovery in the domestic aerospace/defense sector, can keep the ILA Berlin air show from sliding into oblivion.
Boeing is starting an office of special compliance to oversee its U.S. defense contract work as it awaits an Administrative Agreement to lift a contract suspension. That suspension grew out of Boeing's use of proprietary documents from Lockheed Martin in the 1998 Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle competition. A spokesman for Boeing's Integrated Defense Systems, Dan Beck, said a "special compliance officer" was named within the last 3-4 weeks at that unit, which includes defense and space programs. A support staff is being formed as well.
Advanced gas generator trials have verified performance of the high-efficiency, low-smoke combustion system slated for use in the General Electric/ Rolls-Royce F136 Joint Strike Fighter alternate engine that will be tested this summer.
Lockheed Martin says it has completed critical design review on schedule for the U.S. Defense Dept.'s Advanced Extremely High Frequency program, which is to succeed the Milstar secure communications satellite system. AEHF uses Lockheed Martin's A2100 satellite bus and includes phased-array antennas from Northrop Grumman Space Technology.
NASA appears to be in for major changes as the Bush administration readies plans for a "transformation" of the U.S. space program to push exploration to the Moon and beyond.
On Aug. 8, Southwest Airlines will add a fourth daily nonstop round trip between Las Vegas and Orange County, Calif.; a fourth between Nashville and Phoenix, and a third between Omaha and Phoenix. The carrier also will launch one-per-day nonstop round-trip service in three city pairs, all current destinations: Las Vegas and Islip, N.Y.; Las Vegas and Cleveland, and Phoenix and Cleveland.
In the In Orbit news item "Sunny Climes" (AW&ST Mar. 29, p. 17), was it intended irony on the part of Frank Morring, Jr., to note that NASA's Messenger Mercury probe, which is designed to operate in the reflected heat of the 840F surface temperature of Mercury, was transported from Maryland to Florida in an air-conditioned truck? If so, good job! If not, am I the only one who sees a potential problem here? I assume it was transported without the sunshield in place and of course, the radiator is not operating.
About 1,000 of 1,060 Delta Air Lines pilots who were furloughed after Sept. 11, 2001, will be recalled. However, when and at what rate has not yet been determined, according to Delta Air Line Pilots Assn. It says the carrier and the union agreed that the recall "trigger" set under an arbitrator's ruling had been met.
Analysts are wondering what's happened with Garmin. The company was one of the industry's hottest market plays in 2003, topping out at 59.47 at year-end. With the recent release of its first-quarter earnings, Garmin's stock was hammered. As of May 5, share price had plummeted to 30.14. "The panic was driven by an unexpected decline in margins in the quarter, specifically gross margins which came in at 50.8% versus our 56% forecast," says Credit Suisse First Boston analyst Adam Weiner.
