Pakistan's Ministry of Science and Technology is to set up a National Institute of Avionics in Islamabad to develop various cockpit display and avionics systems as well as sensors and electronic warfare systems. "It will give an independence from foreign sources for avionics upgrades and integration," said Science Minister Attaur Rehman.
Part 135 on-demand charter operators will likely face requirements for crew resource management training and low-airspeed alert systems as a result of the National Transportation Safety Board's investigation into the Oct. 25, 2002, crash that killed eight people, including U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.). The Raytheon Beechcraft KingAir 100A, N41BE, operated by Aviation Charter Inc., departed St. Paul, Minn., en route to Eveleth, Minn., under instrument meteorological conditions. Airmets for IFR and icing were reported over the planned route.
Indian aviation made history last week when Air Sahara became the first private domestic carrier to offer international services, with a flight to Colombo, Sri Lanka. The flight paves the way for a surge of Indian visitors hard-strapped for seats who want to reach destinations in Southeast Asia, the U.S and Europe by using code-shares with other carriers serving Colombo.
WORLD NEWS ROUNDUP 16 Air Algerie taps three air- framers to rejuvenate fleet 17 NTSB cites airspeed moni- toring in Wellstone crash WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS 20 New JSF partnering deals could bring long-term ties 22 Political wrangling engulfs tri-national Meads program 23 U.S. and Europe to work to- gether on GMLRS and SDB 24 Pentagon warns: EELV cost to increase 20-50% 25 Europe plans $2-billion-plus for homeland defense
Spacehab Inc., provider of pressurized and unpressurized payload-bay modules for NASA space shuttles, has won a contract modification worth $24 million to provide an Integrated Cargo Carrier for the newly scheduled STS-121 follow-on return-to-flight mission, which could come as early as November 2004 (see story, p. 27).
Air Algerie's board has approved acquisitions that are intended to rejuvenate the carrier's fleet. The Algiers-based airline has ordered five 302-seat Airbus A330-200 long-range twinjets (shown), three Boeing 737-800s and six ATR 72-500 regional twin turboprops. The ATR 72s, which are scheduled to succeed aging Fokker F27s, are "nearly new" aircraft previously owned by another North African airline--believed to be Khalifa Airways--that recently filed for bankruptcy and ceased operations shortly after taking delivery of the Franco-Italian turboprops.
One reason that public imagination isn't inspired by space exploration is because so few people ever see a night sky full of stars. The reflection of city lights hides all but a few stars near most urban areas. It's sad to speculate that there might be an entire generation that has never really seen the night sky. Those of us who used to see it regularly sometimes forget it's up there. Space exploration probably wouldn't need an advocate if the sky wasn't a few dozen stars in a hazy background.
SAMPLE RETURN Crewmembers on the International Space Station may get to test concepts for a future Mars Sample Return mission, using the station's pressurized volume to simulate the microgravity environment above the planet. Payload Systems Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., is developing hardware that will mimic a capture device capable of snagging a sample capsule sent up from the surface to an Earth-return vehicle orbiting Mars.
Mark Von Schwarz has been appointed president of New York-based L-3 Communications' ComCept Div. He was vice president-operations and succeeds Brian Cullen, who has retired. Kenneth R. Goldstein has been promoted to vice president from director of taxes for all of L-3.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. issued consent orders settling complaints that United Airlines removed or denied boarding to passengers in the weeks after Sept. 11, 2001, based on perceptions that they were Arab, Muslim or Middle Eastern, and that Frontier Airlines failed to provide mandatory accommodations for handicapped passengers. United, which denied the charge and cited security needs, won't pay a financial penalty but will improve civil rights training for pilots, flight attendants and customer service representatives.
CHINA CARGO BOOM By 2020, air cargo traffic in China will expand more than sevenfold and exert a huge impact on airport infrastructure, according to a report by Prof. R. John Hansman and two graduate students, Hong Jiang and Liling Ren, in Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Aeronautics and Astronautics Dept. Mainland-based airlines, which in 2002 carried 39% of the international cargo, are expected to take a growing share of the overseas market.
Rich Ashooh has been appointed vice president-strategic relations and homeland security for the Nashua, N.H.-based Information and Electronic Systems Integration Sector of BAE Systems. He was vice president-legislative affairs for BAE Systems North America.
SELF-PROTECTION The Army is upgrading some of its CH-47 Chinooks with ALE-47 countermeasures systems to protect against shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles in Iraq. The small number of helicopters equipped with the gear is "a great area of concern for many of us," says Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.). The senator is dismayed over the fact that, when a CH-47 was shot down this month, the Army had 62 of the chaff/flare dispensing systems but they weren't installed.
The extent to which the proposed 7E7 mid-size jet will be an international business proposition has been driven home by Boeing's selection of workshare partners for the fuselage and wing.
Battling to secure significant industrial participation on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, several partner nations are joining forces in attempting to leverage access to the program. A tri-national memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Canada, Denmark and Norway will be inked before the end of November, while an alliance between Canada and Australia has already been struck. The nascent partners plan to bid on several billion dollars of subcontract work to be doled out in the coming years.
FBI WAKE-UP CALL The FBI wants to hear immediately from pilots and flight attendants if crew or passengers spot someone acting suspiciously, not just when someone is interfering with the flight crew. And the information should be forwarded to the FBI through ATC or flight operations even while the aircraft is at cruising altitude, according to FBI special agent J. Charles Miller, who spoke at an Air Line Pilots Assn. conference in Herndon, Va., last week.
Eager to see their latest fighter equipped with one of its newest weapons, U.S. Navy planners are calling for integration of the Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile on the F/A-18E/F almost in parallel with the aircraft at the core of the missile development program, the F/A-18C/D.
Scaled Composites made the first flight of its SpaceShipOne rocket glider with larger horizontal tail surfaces on Nov. 14, following an Oct. 17 flight that tested strake and fence modifications to the tail (AW&ST Nov. 17, p. 39). The flight was at the aft limit center-of-gravity (CG) and gave satisfactory stability and control in maneuvers including stall. The last time SpaceShipOne tried a stall at aft CG it entered a pitch hangup, which the tail modifications addressed.
EASY DOES IT Honeywell has received FAA certification of its Primus Epic integrated avionics system for Dassault Aviation's EASy cockpit in the Falcon 900EX business jet. EASy will provide pilots with electronic displays and cursor control devices instead of conventional knobs and dials, according to John Rosanvallon, president/CEO of Dassault Falcon Jet Corp. The installation includes four 10 X 13-in. liquid crystal displays in a point-and-click environment.
We don't write obituaries for ideas, but if we did, readers might see one like this in the not-too-distant future: Last week, almost unnoticed and after a long and often tortured life, transatlantic defense cooperation finally passed away. Despite suffering from various ailments for years, in the end what did it in wasn't the additional costs or efforts required to sustain cooperative programs. And no one pulled the plug on its life-preserving apparatus. Rather, what killed transatlantic cooperation was simple apathy.
Boeing is emphasizing large passenger windows with high-tech glass, spacious high ceilings and shaded lighting in the prototype cabin of its 7E7 in a bit of industrial psychology designed to say "welcome" to passengers.
Robert Beleson has been appointed to the board of directors of the Mesa Air Group Inc. He was chief marketing officer for Avolar, a former division of United Airlines.
Germany could be ready soon to buy a version of the Global Hawk unmanned aircraft, German and U.S. officials say. But with the high-altitude UAV's first deployment to Germany just concluded, serious doubts remain whether Berlin will commit to an acquisition.
LOW-HASSLE CARGO Rejecting the inspect-everything policy that Congress followed in November 2001 for vetting airline passengers and luggage, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is taking what it terms a "threat-based, risk-managed approach" in its newly adopted strategic plan for air cargo. The agency decided 100% physical screening of cargo would cost too much and disrupt the high-value, just-in-time nature of modern air logistics.
Despite years of development and spending on two different generations of anti-radiation missiles, Germany's plans to enhance its inventory of suppression of enemy air defense weapons have suddenly hit a major hurdle, stalling both activities.
