USAF has begun the next round of the Space-Based Radar program, with the much-anticipated contracts going to the only two competitors, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. The concept development contracts could total $220 million, although so far only $30.5 million has been obligated to Lockheed Martin and $30 million to Northrop Grumman.
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe has made a critical mistake in his haste to cancel the Hubble servicing flight, stating that safety is the only top priority.
I've been following recent letters re: Airbus vs. Boeing, Europe vs. America. With more than 25 years in aerospace and defense, and with an education in history and political science, I have a simple explanation: Western Europe is addicted to government in every aspect of life, especially "sexy" businesses like aircraft and airlines. I expect that won't change significantly in my lifetime. U.S. policy makers had better get that through their thick heads, and create an investment mechanism for aerospace that minimizes financial risk. This would put Boeing and other U.S.
Many airlines would like to know JetBlue's and Southwest's secret to financial success. If the results of the 14th Annual Airline Quality Rating study are any indication, all an airline needs to do to turn a profit is not lose any luggage; and when a passenger shows up at the gate with a boarding pass, make sure there's a seat.
A Milan tribunal has found four people guilty of negligence and multiple manslaughter in the October 2001 collision of an SAS MD-87 and a Cessna Citation at Milan-Linate airport. The accident killed 118 people. Judges ruled that then-Linate director Vincenzo Fusco and air traffic controller Palo Zucchetti were mainly responsible for the accident, and sentenced each to eight years in prison. Sandro Gualano, then-chief of the ATC agency, and Francesco Federico, who was manager in charge of Milan's Malpensa and Linate airports, were each sentenced to a 6.5-year prison term.
David E. Browning has been named executive vice president/head of the Aerospace and Electronics Group of Projects Unlimited, Dayton, Ohio. He was vice president-operations.
WORLD NEWS ROUNDUP 18 Activation and checkout un- derway for Gravity Probe-B 19 Deep Impact spacecraft due for spin-balance testing 19 Voltage dip causes flight delays at LAX 20 Disarray looms for reinforc- ing Europe's military effort 20 Lord Robertson named to receive Curtis Sword WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS 24 New US Airways chief im- presses union leaders 26 War planners want more- flexible missiles and bombs 28 EADS scores two big wins against U.S. rivals
The U.S. Transportation Dept. approved antitrust immunity for American Airlines and SN Brussels Airlines (SNBA), permitting the carriers to set prices and capacity jointly and coordinate operations in service between and beyond the U.S. and Belgium. The action, combined with similar approval in November 2002 for American and Swiss International, restores the relationship American established in 2000 with the European airlines' predecessors, Sabena and Swissair, both of which failed. With antitrust immunity, SNBA will seek to reinforce links with American.
In an unusually frank assessment of what went wrong on the Space-Based Infrared System-High (SBIRS-High) missile warning program, a high-ranking Pentagon official concedes that "We screwed up; we didn't do the right systems engineering early. We tried to fix it later, but still didn't get it right." Originally the program focused on the payload for highly-elliptical-orbit spacecraft, instead of treating SBIRS-High as a "full systems issue," he observes. The result was a serious electromagnetic interference problem (AW&ST Sept. 8, 2003, p.
Rae Ann Meyer (see photo) has been named deputy manager of the In-Space Propulsion Technology Projects Office at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. She has been the office's technical assistant.
NATO is expected to announce in one or two weeks the outcome of the competition for NATO Satcom Post-2000, which is to supply capacity for the alliance's military satellite communications requirements. Sources close to the competition say bids from the U.S. and a Franco-U.K.-Italian offer for the SHF/UHF portion of the network--as well as U.S. and French tenders for the EHF segment--have been validated and the bids opened.
The heart of network-centric warfare will be speed, and the required speed will result only by substituting automated, machine-to-machine links for routine human decision-making.
Southwest Airlines is putting its chairman and former CEO, Herb Kelleher, in charge of logjammed contract negotiations with its flight attendants union, which represents about 7,300 workers. Current CEO Jim Parker stepped aside as management's chief negotiator because the talks have become "very personal."
Aerospace giant Lockheed Martin will mentor Orlando, Fla.-based Custom Manufacturing & Engineering Inc. (CME), a small woman-owned business, in development of an imaging sensor system product line. A Defense Dept. initiative encourages large companies to share technical expertise and knowledge of the often labyrinthine government contracting process with minority and woman-owned businesses.
After a long absence, what may be a classified aircraft powered by an impulse-type engine appears to be back in the air again. Its distinctive "donuts-on-a-rope" contrail was spotted recently above Utah's Wasatch Mountains.
Lord George Robertson, the former NATO secretary general, has been named to receive Aviation Week & Space Technology's John Curtis Sword. Robertson, presently deputy chairman of Cable and Wireless, was NATO secretary general from 1999-2003 after serving as secretary of state for Defense. He was a member of Parliament from 1978-99, before being appointed to the House of Lords.
DISPLAYS ON FLEXIBLE POLYMER SHEETS MAY BE CLOSER to reality, thanks to research by a Georgia Tech team led by Prof. Jean-Luc Bredag. Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) based on pi-conjugated polymers offer the benefits of lightweight, flexible displays, operate at low voltage and can be deposited using simple ink-jet printing. Outweighing those advantages has been the low efficiency of light-emitting polymers in converting energy to light, which seemed limited to an unacceptable 25%.
House appropriators won't open the purse strings for President Bush's space exploration plans until they know a lot more about them. NASA boss Sean O'Keefe gets an earful at an appropriations hearing from both sides of the aisle. "You are in fact asking the Appropriations Committee alone to approve and implement in less than a year proposals that will yield fundamental changes in the agency for the next 15 years," says Rep. Alan Mollohan of West Virginia, ranking Democrat on the subcommittee that funds NASA.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency plans to put the finishing touches on its revised, and now joint, unmanned combat air vehicle project in the next few weeks, with the goal of having operationally representative systems flying in 2007.
Your Apr. 5 issue (p. 50) contains a story asserting that during the course of contract negotiations with the union representing our flight attendants, I reportedly made an extremely insulting and demeaning comment about our flight attendants.
After limping along for more than 30 years with the Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA), the Europeans are finally creating a unified organization covering aircraft certification, approvals for design and maintenance organizations and, in the longer term, flightcrew licensing.
Laurence H. Burger, director of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command Battle Lab at Redstone Arsenal, Ala., and a member of the Senior Executive Service, has received the Presidential Meritorious Rank Award. He was recognized for developing "an environment that rewards creativity while retaining a focus on serving the ultimate customer--the warfighter. This far-ranging vision was most evident as the battle lab was called to deliver a prototype air defense command and control testbed for operational use within 24 hr. of the Sept. 11 attacks.
NATO is planning to integrate France and the U.K. into the rotating air command structure for its new reaction force, and eyeing the force as a potential tool for homeland security as well as expeditionary operations.
Last week's guilty plea by Darleen Druyun, the former Boeing vice president who admitted hiding improper job negotiations with the company when she was a senior USAF acquisition official, will produce political ripples here. Senior Air Force officers expect the scandal to push Air Force Secretary James Roche and acquisition chief Marvin Sambur out of their jobs regardless of who wins the presidential election.
