Year-over-year passenger growth of 7% demonstrates that Indianapolis International Airport last year was among the fastest recovering U.S. airports. Leisure growth was strongest and may be attributed to the presence of low-cost airlines including ATA, Southwest and Frontier, in addition to new nonstop flights to New York, Miami and San Francisco. ATA accounts for 21.3% of the Indianapolis market, followed by Delta, 12.5%; Northwest, 11.7%; US Airways, 11.5%; and Southwest. 11.2%. Indianapolis recorded 7.36 million arriving and departing passengers.
Bombardier President/CEO Paul Tellier said the company is at least 12 months away from making a decision about development of 100-, 115- and 125-seat jets. They would compete with those from Brazilian rival Embraer, which already is introducing those classes of jets into airline service. Tellier said the high cost of nearly C$2 billion ($1.5 billion) would require Bombardier to seek partners, and that the Canadian government must support its aerospace industry if Canada is to compete in a global marketplace.
A joint U.S. Air Force and Northrop Grumman team has completed the systems requirements review for the E-10A multi-sensor command-and-control aircraft that "clarified all of the critical system issues," a company official said. But E-10 may be in jeopardy as a result of a spreading infection from the 767 tanker fiasco. The tanker lease is on indefinite hold pending the Pentagon inspector general's investigation of alleged information-sharing between USAF and Boeing and a possible executive recruiting violation.
Inmarsat is playing down--at least for now--the importance of a Connexion by Boeing decision to expand its high-speed Internet access service from airborne to seaborne platforms, where the maritime operator has reigned supreme for a quarter century.
Lockheed Martin is protesting the U.S. Army's decision to award Alliant Techsystems the program to develop the Precision Guided Mortar Munition. The win was seen as a strategic victory for Alliant Techsystems and huge loss to its competitors. Lockheed Martin has asked the congressional General Accounting Office to re-evaluate "the Army's best value determination."
Robert O. Rowland has been promoted to vice president from director of government affairs in the Washington office of Textron Inc., Providence, R.I. He succeeds Richard F. Smith, who is retiring. Kathleen M. Bader has been named to the board of directors. She is chairman/president/CEO of Cargill Dow.
In June 2003, I landed an Airbus A320 with the parking brake inadvertently in the "on" position. Fortunately, my first officer did a terrific job of lateral control. We came to a stop on the center of the runway. No one was injured, but the aircraft sustained extensive damage to tires, wheels, carbon brakes, etc. It could have been much worse.
A SMALL DISPLAY AT MAASTRICHT was also attracting attention with a 3D presentation of radar data. Aircraft identification blocks appear on top of vertical poles, whose height varies with altitude, allowing a quick visual comparison. The heart of the technique is the 3D processing of radar information, which Peleng of St. Petersburg, Russia, developed for military air defense applications. However, ATC insiders see civil applications from the rising interest in trajectory management for instrument approaches and departures.
OptiKey is an optical signature recognition system for authenticity verification that is also designed to prevent counterfeiting, copying or duplication of identification cards and documents. The system consists of a mass producible optical mask (ID label) and matched optical reference mask located in the optoelectronic reader/correlator. The optical ID label is a randomly recorded optical surface structure, which is placed on labels/cards and documents.
The U.S. Army is facing some basic questions as it looks beyond the Blue Force Tracker system it utilized in Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to Lt. Gen. Steven Boutelle, the service's chief information officer. Blue Force Tracker, a satellite-based system installed in ground vehicles and helicopters, helped soldiers monitor the movements of friendly forces, easing their tasks in sand storms and during the battle for Baghdad, Boutelle said at a conference here Jan. 28.
Alcatel and Finmeccanica are reportedly close to agreement on a planned merger of their space activities. According to French union sources cited in Le Monde, merger negotiations kicked off in early December will lead to a final agreement later this month. Alcatel Chairman/CEO Serge Tchuruk says only that talks are "active and serious." Meanwhile, Alcatel plans to lead a 20-company team to investigate new technologies throughout the mobile multimedia value chain.
Felipe Meyer has been named director of sales for Florida for LanChile Cargo. He has been managing director of South Florida Air Cargo Inc. and was LanChile's cargo services senior manager in Santiago.
Tom Booth has become manager of the Columbus (Ohio) Learning Center of New York-based FlightSafety International. He was assistant manager of FSI's Raytheon Learning Center, Wichita, Kan. Booth succeeds Ted Finck, who has been named to an FSI marketing position.
Christopher DiSantis has become president of the Cleveland-based Hawk Corp.'s Precision Components Group. He was head of Hawk Motor and the Hawk Racing Group's Quarter Master Industries. DiSantis succeeds Michael Corkran.
Nok Air, the discount carrier backed by Thai Airways Interational that is to begin domestic services in June, will offer regional flights next year. The carrier's new name means "bird" in Thai and comes as a surprise, given the outbreak of avian flu across Southeast Asia. "The market is big enough for another regional airline," insists CEO Patee Sarasin. But it is crowded. Overlapping regional flights into Nok's territory already come from Malaysia's Air Asia and Thai Air Asia.
A SMALL DISPLAY AT MAASTRICHT was also attracting attention with a 3D presentation of radar data. Aircraft identification blocks appear on top of vertical poles, whose height varies with altitude, allowing a quick visual comparison. The heart of the technique is the 3D processing of radar information, which Peleng of St. Petersburg, Russia, developed for military air defense applications. However, ATC insiders see civil applications from the rising interest in trajectory management for instrument approaches and departures.
Pat Aherne has been named vice president-marketing and business development for Europe, the Middle East and Africa for the Wood Dale, Ill.-based AAR Corp. He was head of the London sales office.
Navy and Marine Corps test pilots have completed a three-week Naval Preliminary Evaluation (NPE) of the EH-101 medium-lift helicopter--a variant of the US101 that is vying to become the next rotary-wing platform to fly U.S. presidents. Conducted Jan. 12-28 at Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., the NPE trials familiarized evaluators with the EH-101's flight handling and performance. Evaluation was completed two days ahead of schedule, and there were no maintenance issues.
John M. Gilmore has been named vice president-sales for Ballistic Recovery Systems Inc., South St. Paul, Minn. He was vice president-sales and marketing for Jetways Inc.
France is undertaking a further overhaul of defense procurement agency DGA aimed at fostering a more global approach to weapons purchasing based on operational requirements.
The 3U server for enterprise/data center and military applications is powered by dual Intel Xeon 3.06Ghz. processors, and the motherboard supports six full-length PCI boards and one AGP video board. Two slots are 32-bit/33Mhz. PCI slots, and four are 64-bit/100Mhz. PCI-X slots. The 320-watt ATX-style power supply provides power for a fully loaded system. With front-to-rear airflow, two fans blow cooling air through the card cage and out the rear of the enclosure.
WORLD NEWS ROUNDUP 22 Boeing suppliers getting Catia designs for 777-200LR 23 Raytheon, LockMart teams await MUOS award WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS 28 USAF planners trying to sat- isfy desire for new weapons 30 Marines plan to be better prepared in return to Iraq 35 Mars Rover Opportunity ready to view new sites 37 Pentagon completing re- quirements for UCAVs 38 France in further overhaul of procurement agency
U.S. Marine Corps intelligence, communications and defenses against sophisticated new anti-aircraft missiles are to be significantly improved when units start moving into Iraq next month.
Many innovators are credited with having the foresight and genius to know what would be needed in the future and develop the right technology. But from long experience, we know no one has the magic crystal ball. Research and development is a high-risk game, one in which scientists explore a fascinating idea they suspect may have application. Sometimes they're right, and the payoffs in terms of advancements in public safety, efficiency and national security are enormous.
