A dry climate and a large population increasingly extending its lifestyle into wildlands makes California ground zero for fires racing through timber, brush and buildings. In response, the California Dept. of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF) has devised the most aggressive initial attack strategy of fighting fires of any state. In the 31 million acres under its responsibility, it works to a goal that 90% be contained to 10 acres or less. In reality, the success rate has been closer to 95%.
Rocky Mountain Bureau Chief William B. Scott (left) listens to James (Dutch) Snyder describe his Air Tractor AT-802F single-engine airtanker's constant-flow "firegate" operation. A pilot for Queen Bee Air Specialties, Snyder demonstrated the aircraft's firefighting capabilities during a flight over the mountains west of Fort Collins, Colo., where the 800-gal. airtanker was based last summer. The third part of a report on aerial firefighting by Scott and others begins on p. 55.
Europe's aerospace companies have been able to sidestep the massive layoffs that have hampered their U.S. counterparts in the last few years. However, good fortune should not be confused with a truly healthy industry. Taking into consideration that operating profits stagnated while revenues fell 9%, growth is not on the horizon, and key issues remain unresolved, the outlook for European aerospace may not be as rosy as some executives claim.
U.S. Army Maj. Gen. John M. Curran has been nominated for promotion to lieutenant general and assignment as director of the Futures Center of the Army Training and Doctrine Command, Ft. Monroe, Va. He is commanding general of the Army Aviation Center, Ft. Rucker, Ala. Curran will be succeeded by Brig. Gen. Edward J. Sinclair, who has been deputy commanding general/assistant commandant. And succeeding Sinclair will be Brig. Gen. William M. Jacobs, who has been special assistant to the deputy Army chief of staff at the Pentagon.
The ink is barely dry on a multinational agreement to build the high-speed Meteor air-to-air missile, but German developers already are working on the technology that would lead to more effective versions of such weapons. The German government is funding the country's two main missile development companies--Bodenseewerk Geratetechnik (BGT) and EADS--to pursue improved missile components, particularly seeker technology. BGT is working on an advanced infrared seeker design while EADS' division in Ulm is concentrating on modern radar sensor technology.
Scott Duncan nailed it in his Viewpoint "All News--Including the Bad--Must Flow to the Top Quickly" (AW&ST Oct. 13, p. 58). His insight reminds me of the two rules about the flow of information in Washington: *Rule 1--When faced with an adverse or embarrassing situation, don't stonewall or hide the truth but quickly admit to the facts to avoid a protracted and adverse news media problem. *Rule 2--Forget Rule 1. The rules never change. Only the characters.
Already a long-time user of unmanned aerial vehicles, the German army in the coming years plans to expand its inventory of reconnaissance systems with a major addition expected soon.
Don Donovan has been promoted to president from vice president of the Electronic Warfare/Electronic Protection unit of BAE Systems' Information and Electronic Warfare Systems (IEWS), Nashua, N.H. Mike Heffron has been promoted to president from vice president of the Electronic Warfare/Information Warfare unit. John Lydiard has become president of the Mission Electronics unit while remaining general manager of IEWS.
Jim Emerick (see photo) has been appointed vice president-sales and marketing for Esterline's Mason Div., San Fernando, Calif. He was general manager of the Airbus Platform Group at Honeywell International.
Both the EH Industries EH-101 helicopter and Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter are liable to be discussed in the margins of this week's state visit by President Bush to London to meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The U.K. government is supporting efforts to sell the EH-101 in the U.S. market. In the case of the JSF a number of key issues regarding final assembly and support of the British aircraft are yet to be resolved. The wider issue of technology access is also liable to be addressed.
Britain's Cambridge University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, along with industry partners, have launched a three-year study to explore approaches to radically reducing aircraft noise. The $4.2-million program will examine both operational and airframe/ engine design approaches to reducing noise. Industry participants include Rolls-Royce, British Airways, Britain's Civil Aviation Authority and National Air Traffic Services, and Cambridge-based Marshall Aerospace.
Joseph Cleveland, chief information officer for the Lockheed Martin Corp., Bethesda, Md., is one of three of the company's executives who has been named among the "50 Most Important African Americans in Technology" by Blackmoney.com and U.S. Black Engineer & Information Technology magazine. The others are: Arthur Johnson, senior vice president-strategic development; and Emmett Paige, vice president-Defense Dept. operations.
Pierre Sparaco (Paris), Michael A. Taverna (Suresnes, France)
European aerospace and defense giant EADS has reiterated a call for greater European research effort and warned anew against tighter U.S. technology transfer restrictions, as it continues to move toward an expected financial recovery.
What NASA needs is a smaller shuttle, using off-the-shelf technology designed for 25-30 flights over a 10-year period. This shuttle will not have to be upgraded or modernized, only maintained. After 10 years, it would be retired. Once the design is determined, NASA should build one shuttle every 2-3 years. In 10 years, NASA will have 4-5 shuttles, and an active production line will build a new one every two years or so.
Scrambling to shore up its increasingly fragile Antonov An-70 military airlifter program, Ukraine is looking to China as a production partner, while Russian interest in the notionally joint program appears all but extinguished. A broad-based memorandum of understanding between the Kiev-based Antonov design bureau and China Aviation Industry Corp. II (AVIC II) was inked in September. This covered potential collaboration on a number of transport aircraft developments, including the An-70.
WORLD NEWS ROUNDUP 18 Qantas plans carrier to vie with Virgin Blue discounter 18 Recovery plan in place to restore Alitalia profits 19 Bell aims for full-scale Eagle Eye in next year AIR TRANSPORT 22 New aircraft offered at once may satisfy 7E7 user groups 24 Asian carriers are feeling confident to hike air fares 24 ATR holds strong to regional turboprop future WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS 26 EADS moves to reinforce ac- tivities in U.K. and Russia
WAVERIDER RESULTS A suborbital reentry experiment has produced aerodynamic data with a subscale hypersonic "waverider" shape designed to achieve additional lift by "riding" its windward hypersonic shock wave like a speedboat or surfboard. The third Sub-Orbital Aerodynamic Reentry Experiments (Soarex-3) demonstrated a lift over drag ratio of 3.5 at Mach 5 with a 35-kg. (77-lb.) wedge shape reentering the atmosphere at an angle of attack of 10 deg., according to Marcus Murbach, SOAREX principal investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center. The mission flew on Oct.
SUPER SILENT British Airways will not maintain a Concorde in airworthy condition as suggested by enthusiastic supporters of the supersonic transport. A senior official of British Airways said the decision was made after a detailed study with Airbus that "regrettably led us both to conclude that it would not be possible." Recently, the Aero Club de France made a similar proposal that was rejected as being technically and economically unrealistic. The British airline, however, last week unveiled a list of institutions chosen to preserve its seven Concordes.
Industry associations of the Czech Republic and Hungary have joined the transatlantic industrial proposed solution (TIPS) group in pushing a mixed fleet of manned, medium-sized jets and high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles as the answer to NATO's alliance ground surveillance (AGS) program. The idea is to give NATO the ability to observe movement of ground targets over a large area from a standoff range of 150 mi. or more. The deal involves reuse of high-end technology developed for AGS for use in national systems by participating nations.
TRACK ATTACK Radio frequency identification (RFID) "smart labels," long-used as anti-theft tags on retail merchandise, enter aerospace where the goal is faster and more fool-proof identification. RFID luggage tags don't require line-of-sight reading, reducing bag rejections during time-critical sorting processes. Boeing and FedEx are studying RFID technology for tracking parts. The labels contain a microchip and antenna and operate at a 13.56-MHz. standard frequency. FedEx has applied the chips to a converted MD-10 freighter, flying on domestic U.S. runs.
VALUE ADDED Targeting small- and mid-sized suppliers and maintenance providers, Relevant Business Systems of San Ramon, Calif., has developed a series of preconfigured "value pack" software modules incorporated within the company's enterprise resource planning suite. The strategy targets a common complaint--software used by prime/first-tier suppliers is not affordable to the second- and third-tier manufacturers who support them, particularly those supporting components and avionics manufacturing and repair.
The U.S. Air Force launch of the first fully equipped Block 5D-3 spacecraft in the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) relieves a constellation of aging weather satellites that has been waiting for a replacement for 2.7 years. All the current DMSP satellites are beyond their design lifetimes, and the primary one could be lost with one more failure of its ailing gyros. An Air Force official said the new "Flight 16" (F16) satellite is working well, and is expected to be in operational use around mid-November.
PROGNOSTICATION Northrop Grumman Corp. will attempt to develop technologies and tools for predicting near-term structural health of military aircraft. The work will be carried out under a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) contract worth up to $32 million, with Northrop's Airborne Early Warning and Electronic Warfare Systems business unit spearheading the effort. If successful, military commanders will be able to access various data to better manage and deploy individual combat systems.
ON THE UPSIDE Skyrocketing sales returns in the software world are rare since the dot.com bubble burst, but Plano, Tex.-based EDS PLM Solutions has some bragging rights after selling 5,000 licenses for its NX Nastran simulation and analysis software in the eight weeks since its introduction in September. ATK Thiokol Propulsion, Textron/ Cessna Aircraft, Northrop Grumman, Orbital Sciences and Raytheon are among the users.
