Even if there are fewer U.S. forces in Europe, planners hope to compensate with advanced technology. U.S. Air Forces, Europe has just opened an around-the-clock air operations center that is being electronically linked to other AOCs around the world so decision makers in the U.S. and its allies can have a real-time, world-wide perspective. "In Europe, national boundaries are close together," Foglesong said.
Pentagon planners intend to fund the Joint Unmanned Combat Air System--a unmanned strike aircraft--with an additional $400 million in the Fiscal 2005 budget to bring the program's total to $3.9 billion through Fiscal 2009. Advocates of the program had wanted $1 billion to keep the competition between Boeing and the team of Lockheed Martin/Northrop Grumman moving forward at a lively pace.
The Mil Mi-38 heavy helicopter, more than a decade in the planning, has finally made its maiden flight, bringing new hope to the joint Russian-Western effort. Developed by Moscow Mil Helicopter Plant, Kazan Helicopters (KVZ), Eurocopter and Pratt & Whitney Canada, the Mi-38 made its first flight Dec. 22 in Kazan, Russia, where KVZ is based. The new model, powered by Pratt & Whitney Canada PW-127T/S engines, has a maximum takeoff weight of 15,600 kg. (33,690 lb.), an internal payload of 5,000 kg., and a top range of 820 km. (509.5 mi.).
Arianespace has found a commercial customer for the first reflight of its Ariane 5 EC-A heavy-lift launcher and confirmed it is poised to return to profitability, putting a positive spin on an otherwise bleak 2003.
German and Austrian investigators will jointly seek to determine why ice protectors on an Austrian Airlines Fokker F70 twinjet departed the aircraft in flight, leaving the Rolls-Royce Tay Mk.620 turbofans vulnerable to ice debris. The aircraft, registration OE-LFO, which operated the Vienna-Munich route as Flight 111 on Jan. 5, suffered a serious loss to power--only 30% of nominal levels--a failure which prompted the cockpit crew to declare an emergency.
Iberia has selected Rockwell Collins' Multi-Mode Receiver to equip seven newly-ordered 380-seat Airbus A340-600s. The receiver provides the aircraft's position, speed and time reference, enabling precision landing capability.
Carol Zupancic has been named Cincinnati field director for Delta Air Lines. She was South Central U.S. regional director for airport customer service.
Ultra Electronics Precision Air Systems Div. has been awarded a contract to supply airborne high-pressure compressors for the Boeing X-45 unmanned combat air vehicle.
Throughout its recent history, US Airways has threatened contraction every time it has been at loggerheads with its labor unions, and this seems to be another of those times. The New York Times reported Jan. 8 that the carrier is considering asset sales in the face of refusal by pilots, mechanics and flight attendants to negotiate further work-rule concessions.
Michael A. Taverna (Paris), Robert Wall (Munich and Uberungen, Germany)
In just a few weeks, the Spanish government has become a key player in shaping the European missile business, allowing one long-running project to advance from development to production with a second expected to follow shortly. The moves are part of a broader trend of closer defense industrial integration between Spain and Germany and France. The coupling was boosted further when EADS' Spanish arm, CASA, recently took a 5% stake in Eurocopter, transforming the Franco-German operation into a trinational entity.
A decade of observations with ground- and space-based telescopes in the optical, X-ray and radio wavelengths has given scientists clues to the apparent disappearance of spiral galaxies as the universe ages. By combining data from such observatories as the Very Large Array radio telescope, the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have concluded that the galaxy C153 in the galactic cluster Abell 2125 was on the point of a collision with another galactic cluster about 100 million years ago.
WORLD NEWS ROUNDUP 18 Maiden flight for Russia's Mi-38 heavy helicopter 19 Austrian Airlines F70 icing accident being investigated 19 Vozdukh carbon dioxide scrubber is ISS leak suspect WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS 22 Presidential directive calls for sweeping changes at NASA 24 JPL using Spirit data to im- prove chances of other rover 26 Mars landing success will form backdrop to new space goals 28 European team turns to or- biter as Beagle 2 hopes fade
Subhas Menon (see photo) has become vice president-Americas for Singapore Airlines. He was chief executive of SilkAir and has been succeeded by Mike Barclay.
Ed Sims has been appointed general manager-international airline, Andrew David general manager-Pacific airline, Mike Flanagan general manager-business performance, Bruce Parton general manager-airline services and Capt. David Morgan general manager-operating standards, safety and security, all for Air New Zealand. Sims has been vice president-marketing and alliances, while David was vice president-strategy. Morgan was head of flight operations and Boeing 767 fleet captain.
Spain is again showing dissatisfaction with benefits derived from EADS programs. This time Madrid is saying it will withhold government funding for EADS' Airbus A380 ultra-widebody transport if it doesn't obtain a larger role in the project. The Spanish assert that they have barely 8% of the workshare on the A380, instead of the 10% warranted by funding commitments.
All but a few of the U.S. Transportation Dept.'s 20-year-old rules governing computer reservations systems--global distribution systems (GDSs), in modern parlance--will go out of existence Jan. 31, the day they were to "sunset" in the absence of a decision to keep them going. In November 2002, when the department asked for industry comments on whether to retain, modify or drop the rules, it expected to readopt most of them.
Andrew Wong (see photo) has been named Beijing-based director of aerospace business development in China for Parker Aerospace, Irvine, Calif. He was manager of the Beijing service center and regional manager of business development.
Continental Airlines passengers traveling on U.S. and Canada flights now have the option of paying cash. After booking flights on the airline's web site, customers may send cash payment from about 45,000 Western Union sites in the U.S., according to Continental. Tickets must be paid in full within 24 hr. to guarantee the reservation. Continental says there is a cash-based market waiting to be tapped: Airline research shows 32% of Americans would prefer to pay for purchases with cash, and 23 million U.S. households do not possess credit cards.
Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) is on a fast track to find buyers for its Dhruv advanced light helicopter (ALH) because India apparently has warned that the system faces a funding shutoff. But no deadline has been set for the end to government backing. The Dhruv recently underwent high-altitude trials in Leh in the trans-Himalayan region, which has a 10,680-ft.-MSL airfield.
NASA has extended Boeing's prime contract on the International Space Station for at least two years and nine months, adding at least $1 billion to its total. Four six-month options could bring the total added to $1.62 billion, according to the station program office at Johnson Space Center, Tex. The extension will cover delivery, on-orbit acceptance, sustaining engineering and hardware and software support as the program shifts from development and assembly to orbital operations.
The U.S.' senior airman in Europe won't directly address rumored withdrawal of forces from Iceland and elsewhere in Western Europe. However, Air Force Gen. Robert Foglesong, who was in Washington last week, did say to expect heavier use of new sites in Eastern Europe, North Africa--perhaps even Libya--and the Middle East. That includes renewed use of Incirlik, Turkey, where tankers are again stationed. The U.S. largely abandoned the base in a huff after Turkey's lukewarm support of the war against Iraq.
a Pentagon program to develop a miniature kill vehicle to upgrade the ground-based midcourse missile defense system and potentially other systems. The design is supposed to allow one ballistic missile interceptor to defeat multiple warheads. The eight-year project could total $760 million, although the first 11-month phase is valued at a mere $27 million.
On the morning of Jan. 7, an aircraft using call sign "Lockheed Test 2334" told the FAA's Albuquerque Center it would be "going supersonic somewhere above Flight Level 60 [60,000 ft.]" for about 10 sec. It was flying over the Pecos Military Operating Area in eastern New Mexico at the time, transmitting on 350.350 MHz. When a center controller queried, "Say aircraft type," the unidentified vehicle's pilot responded: "We are a classified type and can't reveal our true altitude." About 15 min.
The FAA is extending the comment period on the first regulations proposed for ETOPS multiengine operations. Input is now requested by Mar. 15 instead of by Jan. 13. The proposed rules, issued Nov. 14, 2003, cover Part 121 and Part 135 operators and would encompass three- and four-engine aircraft.
The Pentagon has dispatched a secretive, Army-led task force to Iraq to find improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the homemade, roadside bombs Iraqi insurgents have used in attacks on U.S. forces and others. After every incident, the IEDs are analyzed in detail within 24-48 hr. to find hardware, software, or other weaknesses that could be exploited to better protect troops, says Lt. Gen. Richard Cody, the Army's operations chief. "We have been successful," Cody says, noting that for every bomb that goes off, there are many more located and defused.
