After years of slow progress and false starts, the FAA unveiled its performance-based Air Traffic Organization (ATO) last week, reshuffled much of its senior management and set off on the hard part --converting a new organization chart into a new organization.
USN Rear Adm. (ret.) Steven Kunkle has been named director of defense and homeland security programs, Alan Zelicoff senior scientific expert on weapons of mass destruction and biotechnology and Jon Zelon director of advanced programs, all for the Ares Corp., Burlingame, Calif. Zelicoff was a senior scientist at the Center for National Security and Arms Control at Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, N.M., while Zelon was an International Space Station project manager for Boeing.
The electronic warfare landscape is being redrawn, driven by technology advancements and new ideas about linking diverse sensors and systems to improve combat effectiveness. The shift is visible primarily at the technology level, rather than in the larger, more expensive realm of acquisition projects. These developments are confined not just to the U.S. but also form the backbone of EW planning in Europe, Israel and Australia.
The U.S. Army is trying to quickly upgrade special operations MH-47 and MH-60 helicopters with advanced self-protection equipment. The service last week awarded ITT Industries a $12.5-million contract for more ALQ-211 electronic warfare systems, including 49 high-power remote transmitters. ITT already has been supplying the equipment, but the latest order is "awarded as an unusual and compelling urgency," the Army said. Delivery is to begin within 15 months.
Top airline executives and trade group leaders here are pessimistic: A tepid market still hampers European carriers' near-term outlook, while signs of recovery beckon cruelly like a mirage. As the year-end draws closer, predictions for a mediocre 2003 are starting to emerge as doubts mount regarding an upturn in 2004.
I greatly appreciated the articles on aerial firefighting. I live in San Diego, which has had a noticeable fire problem recently. The pictures of the tankers were especially noteworthy to those of us who live here, as they are the only views of tankers any of us saw during this disaster. Please follow up on the incompetence behind the absence of aerial firefighting equipment in the San Diego fires.
SHIFT TO OPS NASA has awarded three ISS support contracts totaling as much as $488.9 million as the station program begins the shift to operations. Houston-based Barrios Technology Inc. won support work with a potential value of $145.1 million over six years nine months for mission planning, integration, operation and Russian language and logistics services. Lockheed Martin Space Operations, also of Houston, could get as much as $165.8 million for ISS cargo mission support services. Applied Research and Engineering Sciences (ARES) Corp.
For the fourth time in a month, the Chinese have launched a major space flight--the latest, a ChinaSat communications satellite to be operated by the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications. The Chinese, however, provided no information last week on whether the spacecraft's move to geosynchronous orbit had been achieved as planned, a maneuver to be carried out by the spacecraft's own propulsion system.
Walt Skowronski has been named president of the Chicago-based Boeing Capital Corp. He succeeds Jim Palmer, who will retire. Skowronski has been senior vice president-finance/treasurer and will be succeeded as treasurer by Paul Kinscherff, who has been vice president-investor relations. Dave Dohnalek, who has been assistant treasurer for corporate finance and banking, will succeed Kinscherff.
SAMPLE RETURN II The European Space Agency has awarded two study contracts to prepare a Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission--the second flagship undertaking planned for the agency's Aurora planetary exploration program. Alenia Spazio heads one team and EADS Astrium the other. The first MSR mission in 2011 would include an orbiter and reentry capsule that would be inserted into Mars orbit in advance of a second mission in 2013. The latter would include descent and ascent vehicles to collect the sample for Earth return.
Warren Brown (see photo) has been named senior vice president-marketing and corporate communications for iDirect Technologies, Reston, Va. He was director of advertising and international public relations for Boeing.
FALCON CONTRACTS The Pentagon has let a dozen small space launch and hypersonic flight contracts designed to get the ball rolling on its Force Application and Launch from the Continental U.S. (Falcon) program. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency/U.S. Air Force effort tapped nine contractors to receive between $350,000 and $540,000 for concept work on a launcher that can deliver 1,000 lb. to low-Earth orbit for less than $5 million.
THANKSGIVING In the spirit of the upcoming American holiday, the Citizens Against Government Waste gives Boeing the dubious honor of its first "Corporate Turkey of the Year Award." The group's president, Tom Schatz, said, "Boeing had a banner year for scandal and ethical abuse." Completely unsubstantiated rumors have it that McCain nominated the aerospace giant.
HARMONIOUS INSTALLATION The FAA has approved a Supplemental Type Certificate for EGPWS and RVSM for the Hawker 800 using only data originally provided by the Civil Aviation Agency in the U.K. Raytheon Aircraft Services in Chester, England, which performed the modifications, generated test data that was used for the CAA approval and subsequently given to the FAA for review.
With 2003 rapidly drawing to a close, Boeing Co. shares have done surprisingly well since bottoming in March. Not only have commercial aerospace market conditions generally remained in the doldrums, but the company has been the target--directly or indirectly--of a steady barrage of unfavorable news. As Merrill Lynch analyst Byron Callan put it, "Boeing's stock price has scaled a proverbial wall of worry."
ISRAELI FALCONS Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. has delivered the first of 102 Block 52 F-16I fighters to Israel as part of the Peace Marble V program, bringing to 362 the number of F-16s in service with the Israel Air Force. Deliveries will continue through 2008, according to the company. After the U.S. Air Force, Israel is the largest operator of the F-16. The airplanes will feature the latest cockpit upgrades including moving maps and color displays, as well as conformal fuel tanks and APG-68(V)9 multimode synthetic aperture radar.
Like others, Korean Air said its strong third quarter did not help to overcome the impact of SARS on its first half performance. As a result, it posted a nearly 58-billion-won ($46-million) loss for the first nine months.
GRAVITY PROBE SLIP NASA's often-delayed Gravity Probe B physics experiment has been delayed again, this time until at least February, while engineers try to eliminate noise in circuitry from two of the spacecraft's four extremely sensitive gyroscopes. Researchers hope to use minute changes in the direction of the gyros' spin in orbit to test Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, which predicts space and time are warped by large bodies like Earth, and that Earth's rotation "drags" space and time with it.
Go-ahead agreements for two key weapon programs show that transatlantic integration is moving forward on some fronts, even as it is stalling on others. A five-nation steering committee agreed on Nov. 6 to a streamlined production setup for the new Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) that will see all assembly done at a single U.S. site, providing cost benefits that are one of the main arguments in favor of over-the-pond collaboration.
Southwest Airlines has received the first Boeing 737-700 to be fitted with factory-installed blended winglets. Boeing will begin delivering the airplanes with winglets to Southwest in August 2004. The 8-ft.-tall winglets will equip 170 737s in the fleet and are projected to save Southwest 92,000 gal. of jet fuel per airplane per year, according to the airline.
PRO FORMA TURN FOR THE WORSE Continental Airlines' ownership of its ExpressJet regional affiliate has decreased to the point that the carrier will stop reporting consolidated financial results, revealing notably worse stand-alone performance. Documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission show that $135 million of Continental's $188-million operating profit in the first nine months of 2003 came from ExpressJet, so the parent's pro forma operating profit is $53 million.
Richard S. Christiansen has become deputy director of the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. He has been associate director for planning at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center.
SEEKING SECURITY The Homeland Security Dept.'s Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA) has scheduled a one-day workshop on Dec. 15 to obtain feedback from the academic community about best practices and optimization of the solicitation, bid, procurement and program execution process for the academic community and the agency. A similar event for industry was held last week.
MBDA has awarded Saab a $58-million contract to integrate the Meteor air-to-air missile on Gripen. The Swedish fighter will also serve as a test platform for the weapon. The first Gripen shot of a Meteor missile is slated for 2005.
