The Boeing Co., in this artist's concept, offers a preview of its 747-400 Special Freighter, the company's 10th passenger-to-cargo aircraft conversion program. Cathay Pacific Airways is the launch customer, with a plan to convert at least six aircraft. The 747-400SFs are among a variety of aircraft becoming available to reequip the global cargo fleet (see p. 54).
Harold W. Moulton, 2nd, is among the U.S. Air Force colonels who have been nominated to become brigadier generals. He is vice director of operations of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, Peterson AFB, Colo. Others are: Joseph F. Mudd, Jr., commander of the 36th Air Base Wing, Pacific Air Forces, Andersen AFB, Guam; Mark H. Owen, commander of the 91st Space Wing of the Air Force Strategic Command, Minot AFB, N.D.; Ellen M.
Egypt's Luxor Air is no longer authorized to operate to France. During a night approach to Nantes, an MD-83 carrying 104 passengers and 10 crew deviated from the nominal flight path and overflew the city center at less than 600 ft.
Boeing says more than 60% of its systems awards for the 7E7 are complete now that it has named FR-HiTemp, a subsidiary of the U.K.-based Cobham Group, to provide fuel pumps and valves. The deal marks the appointment of another European supplier for the 7E7.
NASA's recent flight of the X-43A supersonic combustion ramjet demonstrator gives engineers more confidence in their design tools, but it remains to be seen whether scramjets can jump many practical hurdles to become a competitor to rocket engines in the Mach 5-15 speed range.
Northrop Grumman has pulled in a $202-million contract modification for Lot 3 low-rate production of four Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles. The work is to be completed by October 2005. Northrop Grumman also has been awarded $50.6 million for long-lead, Lot 4 procurement of four RQ-4B Global Hawks.
As a stress engineer with 18 years' experience in the design of performance aircraft, I read Greg Waugh's unabashed slap at the Joint Strike Fighter stress community with a certain degree of interest. While I have no idea what role Waugh played during his six months on the program, I suspect a few overdesigned fuel line support clips would not warrant his wholesale condemnation. Several assertions seem a bit uninformed. To state that "there were no lessons learned from the F-16 or F/A-22" is ridiculous, even to the casual observer.
Boeing's Connexion inflight Internet service will charge a $29.95 flat rate for flights of more than 6 hr., $19.95 for those of 3-6 hr. and $14.95 for flights of less than 3 hr. It also will offer a metered pricing option of $9.95 for a 30-min. "starter package" costing $0.25 per minute thereafter. The charges are in line with studies by Forrester Research that show 38% of passengers are willing to pay at least $25 per flight for full, high-speed access to the Internet and their corporate intranets.
Reading about the discovery of Sedna has highlighted our genuine lack of vision in U.S. space policy. All the experts have said is that President Bush's plan of getting to Mars from the Moon makes sense. Harrison H. Schmitt continues this ridiculous argument that helium-3 on the Moon could be turned into rocket fuel (pending said fusion reactor development). He bases some of his calculations on five Apollo-class launches per year to develop a permanent base on the Moon. Why not just have those rockets go straight to Mars?
You can now register ONLINE for Aviation Week Events. Go to www.AviationNow.com/conferences or call Ryan Leeds at +1 (212) 904-3892/+1 (800) 240-7645 (U.S. and Canada Only) Apr. 19--FAA/JAA Regulations: Collision or Harmonization, Atlanta, www.aviationlearning.com/mro. And, Apr. 21-22--Blended Training Solution Experience, Atlanta, www.aviationlearning.com/mro Apr. 20-22--MRO USA/MRO Latin America/MRO Military. Cobb Galleria Centre, Atlanta. May 17-19--Aerospace & Defense Finance Conference. CS First Boston Headquarters, New York.
John Osterholz has been appointed vice president-C4ISR for BAE Systems North America, Rockville, Md. He was principal director of C4ISR architecture and integration in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
Australia's Defense Materiel Organization has awarded CAE a $9.5-million contract to provide Simfinity military virtual maintenance trainers for the Royal Australian Navy's S-70B Seahawk and Australian Army's S-70A Black Hawk helicopters. The contract includes supplying a replicated cockpit for the Seahawk and in-service support after delivery of the trainers in March 2005.
European nations plan to implement a spate of antiterrorist measures in response to the recent attacks in Spain, but the moves still fall short of steps taken in the U.S. following Sept. 11.
Australian F/A-18s are slated for a $230-million electronic warfare up- grade, with the addition of a new radar warning receiver and enhanced chaff and flare dispensing capability. The first upgraded squadron is to be fielded in 2007.
Computer-attack technology, directed-energy weapons and cooperating fleets of unmanned aircraft to transport them over enemy lines might be the linchpins of warfighting in a decade or so, but right now they are mired in a technical and legal swamp.
The GAO has concluded that last summer's reprogramming of Fiscal 2003 funds appropriated to the Transportation Security Administra- tion (TSA) didn't have the "significant to severe" effect on the Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) that some officials in that program warned about at the time. By 2002, the number of marshals grew to thousands from fewer than 50. But even though the reprogramming reduced FAMS funding by nearly $100 million, the number of air marshals only dropped by 1% from the beginning to the end of the fiscal year.
The Finmeccanica group is projecting a hefty 550 million euros ($676 million) in earnings before taxes and interest (EBIT) this year, and anticipates 600-million-euro EBIT in 2005, according to company officials. In 2003, the Italian aerospace/defense group posted a 199-million-euro profit on 8.6 billion euros in revenues while its workforce increased to 45,000 from 41,200, after integrating newly acquired affiliates such as Aermacchi.
Barry Rosenberg has become business editor of Aviation Week & Space Technology. He will cover all segments of the aerospace/defense industry, and will be based in the New York office after June 1. Rosenberg will write the weekly Market Focus column, help prepare AW&ST's annual Top-Performing Companies study, and assist in development of editorial content for Aviation Week's Aerospace Finance Conference and selected other conferences. He also will report other aerospace news in the Northeast U.S. and Eastern Canada.
The National Nuclear Security Administration is spending its "advanced concepts" funding this year on improving nuclear cruise missile warheads and other designs, rather than investigating new weapons, says NNSA Administrator Linton F. Brooks. Details are sketchy, but most of the work focuses on security and command and control of cruise missiles. NNSA, a part of the Energy Dept., also is supporting studies to determine whether warheads can be made more "robust" now that the low-weight requirements of ballistic missile applications can be relaxed.
The White House is pitching the idea that 3-4 of the more-capable and developed African countries could create a humanitarian response force able to react quickly to emergencies around the continent. "We will be trying to explore that concept to see what kind of support we get," says Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, Supreme Allied Commander Europe, who visited South Africa recently and was in Washington last week. The effort may also relate to anti-terrorist efforts in northern Africa, where insurgents are hiding in desert wastelands and the U.S. is providing surveillance.
