Sally Ride, professor of physics at the University of California-San Diego, has received the Springfield, Va.-based American Astronautical Society's 2003 Space Flight Award. Other honorees are: John F. Kennedy Astronautics Award to Buzz Aldrin, Starcraft Enterprises; Flight Achievement Award, posthumously to the Crew of STS-107; Carl Sagan Memorial Award (presented with The Planetary Society) to Roald Sagdeev, University of Maryland; Lloyd Berkner Award to George E. Mueller, Kistler Aerospace; Dirk Brouwer Award to David W.
BELL BOYS Bell Helicopter Textron has created a special research and development group known as XWORX. Several company teams that had been developing ideas and products independently are now consolidated into one unit, according to CEO Mike Redenbaugh. Rapid development and prototyping "of new vertical solutions for emerging and changing requirements" will be stressed, including addressing manufacturing processes, cost reductions and integration of new technologies. XWORX personnel already have begun work on the HV-911 Eagle Eye UAV.
Nicolas E. Ferri has been named chief commercial officer of the Oneworld airline alliance. He was United Airlines' sales and marketing manager for India, Hong Kong and the Philippines.
David Sloan Lewis, Jr., a former chairman of General Dynamics, died of natural causes at Bishop Gadsden Retirement Community in Charleston, S.C., on Dec. 15. He was 86. Lewis was chairman and CEO of General Dynamics from 1971-85. During his tenure, General Dynamics won the U.S. Air Force Lightweight Fighter Competition with the F-16 Falcon. From the initial victory in 1974, General Dynamics went on to win the largest single military contract ever awarded, when the F-16 was chosen as the standard fighter of four allied NATO countries.
RETURN TO FLIGHT NASA'S inspector general has weighed in on the question of how NASA should organize the independent technical engineering authority ordered by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. Noting that senior agency managers seem to be leaning toward a decentralized technical authority to oversee space shuttle safety, Inspector General Robert W. Cobb warns that the approach might not root out the "unofficial hierarchies" blamed in the Columbia and Challenger disasters.
6 Correspondence 8 Who's Where 10-11 Market Focus 13 Industry Outlook 15 Airline Outlook 17 In Orbit 18-19 World News Roundup 21 Washington Outlook 62 Contrails 63 Classified 64 Contact Us 65 Aerospace Calendar
NASA has completed tests on rocket engines and parachutes for its Pad Abort Demonstration testbed, which seeks to validate technology for a crew escape system that could save an Orbital Space Plane crew if its launch vehicle fails on liftoff. The 50,000-lb.- thrust RS-88 engine that will power the demonstrator was tested 14 times for a total of 55 sec., while the 80-ft. drogue and four 156-ft. main parachutes were tested with a 12.5-ton pallet dropped from 10,000 ft.
Anyone working on the problem of time-sensitive targeting (TST)--finding, identifying and striking an object, typically a moving military vehicle, in minutes--is simultaneously optimistic about eventual success and daunted by the magnitude of the near-term problem. Their quest is not so much to provide access to information, but rather to sort through layers of data with a growing arsenal of automation tools. The idea is to retrieve only what's necessary and, within a few seconds, offer a few good options for how best to attack a target.
Michael Cohen has become vice president-operations and engineering for the AAR Corp., Wood Dale, Ill. He was senior vice president-maintenance and engineering for Alaska Airlines.
The Airport Surveillance Detection Equipment-X system recently commissioned at Milwaukee by the FAA fuses data from a variety of sensors to track aircraft more accurately than before. An additional 33 airports will get the system by 2007.
The FAA is collecting industry feedback on its proposal to formalize new rules for Extended Operations (ETOPS) for twin-engine aircraft that expands them to cover 3-4-engine operations beyond 180 min. from a diversion airfield. Part 135 operations beyond 180 min. would also be covered for the first time. The Notice for Proposed Rulemaking issued last month--at 293 pages--gives the industry until Jan. 13 to respond.
Stephanie Balaouras has been named a senior analyst for the Boston-based Yankee Group's Enterprise Computing and Networking Service. She was an education and productivity consultant for EMC.
William A. Garrett has been appointed senior vice president-operations/chief operating officer and Capt. Brent S. James director of operations for Gemini Air Cargo, Dulles, Va. Garrett was chief financial officer and succeeds Jim Douglas, who has been named senior vice president-contract negotiations. James was assistant director of flight standards and succeeds Capt. Tom Stander, who has retired.
ADVANTAGE: SOUTHWEST Southwest Airlines' invasion of Philadelphia on May 9, 2004, will begin with service to Chicago Midway; Las Vegas; Orlando and Tampa, Fla.; Phoenix; and Providence, R.I. Fares and schedules for the 14 daily flights have not been announced (AW&ST Nov. 3, p. 52). The airline's chief competition will be US Airways, which has a major hub at Philadelphia and serves all six markets targeted by Southwest but uses Chicago O'Hare Airport instead of Midway.
GLOBAL GROWTH Budgets for government-sponsored space programs worldwide continue to rise. This year is the third in a row that saw government space spending around the world go up, according to Euroconsult, a Paris-based think tank. The $43 billion in government space spending worldwide in 2003 is about $8 billion more than overall government space spending in 2000. U.S. Defense Dept. unclassified space budgets grew by $4 billion to $17.5 billion in 2003, compared with $13.9 billion in 2000.
Boeing's decision to begin offering the mid-sized, long-range 7E7 to customers casts aside doubts about whether the company sees its future tied to the commercial airplane business (see p. 22). Likely a $10-billion development effort, the program opens the 21st century for Boeing with new technology and manufacturing processes, and is likely to breathe new life into legacy programs such as the 747 for which its customers want updates. However, some details in this Boeing artists' conception by Jeffery J. Van Dyke and Mark A.
The U.S. Air Force is taking another stab at fixing its space acquisition problems, even while dealing with continued ripples in two of its largest procurement efforts, the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle and Space-Based Infrared System satellite.
Ontario Superior Court Justice James Farley has granted a motion by Air Canada to bring to a conclusion the process of choosing an equity plan sponsor. He ruled that an investment proposal received from Cerberus Dec. 10 is the one Air Canada should evaluate, and that the proposal is not subject to modification. He further ruled that the carrier must inform the court of its final decision on the proposal on Dec. 22. The Ontario Court of Appeals upheld the decision.
Lockheed Martin and EADS have received contracts from the British Defense Ministry covering the phase one assessment of its Ground Based Air Defense program. This element of the program will run for around two years.
DRAWING NIGH The Cassini probe's cameras have caught another image of Saturn as it closes in on the planet for its July 1, 2004, arrival date. Five of Saturn's icy moons--Rhea (951 mi. across), Dione (696 mi.), Enceladus (323 mi.), Tethys (659 mi.) and Mimas (244 mi.)--are faintly visible in the image, which clearly shows the signature rings illuminated from below by the Sun. On Nov. 9, when the data in the natural color composite image were collected from the spacecraft's narrow-angle camera, Cassini was still about 69.2 million mi. from Saturn.
Despite the Pentagon's increased spending for procurement, now pegged at more than $70 billion versus $46 billion in Fiscal 2000, senior defense planners are fighting over which programs will be funded (UAVs are a shoo-in) and which will be short-shrifted--possibly cruise missile defense and the Air Force's prized E-10 multisensor surveillance aircraft.
After years of half starts, feints and head scratching, Boeing has a new airplane for sale. The decision to back the 7E7 by the company's board of directors was announced just a day shy of the 100th anniversary of man's first powered airplane flight and amounts to a recommitment by the aerospace giant to the heritage that Bill Boeing started here in a red barn in 1916.
The U.S. and Europe are poised to go "barnstorming the solar system" in 2004 with the most diverse set of planetary operations ever in a single year. The NASA Stardust spacecraft will inaugurate the action Jan. 2 by diving through the head of the comet Wild 2 for imagery of the nucleus and the collection of comet dust for return to Earth in 2006. Launched in 1999 on a 3.2-billion-mi. flight, the $210-million Stardust mission involves complex flight operations and several firsts (AW&ST Feb. 15, 1999, p. 24).
