For the third time in a month the Chinese have launched a major space mission, continuing the most ambitious launch surge in the 33-year history of their space program. A fourth mission is also set for launch before year's end. The latest flight, on Nov. 3, involves the launch of the 6,500-lb. FSW-18 recoverable military/civil imaging reconnaissance spacecraft on board a Long March 2D booster fired from the Jiuquan launch site in the Gobi desert.
END STRENGTH IN THE EMERALD CITY The majority of members in the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) believe the Iraqi deployment and other commitments are pushing the military to the edge of what it is capable of doing. Fifty-one of the 61 members signed a letter from Rep. Heather Wilson (R-N.M.) to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last month. They want the Pentagon to reduce its reliance on the National Guard and Reserve units and to enlarge the Army to 12 divisions from the current 10. Marine Corps Gen.
Eric W. Van Stryland, director of the School of Optics/Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers at the University of Central Florida, has been elected vice president of the Tucson, Ariz.-based Optical Society of America. He is expected to become president-elect in 2005 and president in 2006.
British defense and aerospace engineering company Meggitt plc is to acquire Western Design Howden and Howden Airdynamics, two U.S. subsidiaries of Charter plc, for a total cost of $45 million. The deal is subject to U.S. regulatory approval, and to that of Charter shareholders.
Alitalia expects to return to profitability no earlier than 2005 and that assumes the airline can fully implement a cost-cutting plan devised last week. This year, the Italian flag carrier will post losses estimated at 410 million euros ($468 million), up from 118 million euros in 2002, company executives acknowledged. The recovery plan, which has been opposed fiercely by ground-worker unions, involves 1,500 job cuts while another 1,200 positions would be outsourced.
A federal bankruptcy court has approved Orbital Imaging Corp.'s plan for emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which was expected to occur "in the near future," the company said last week. In September Orbimage, as the company is known, cleared a final hurdle by settling a marketing dispute with Canada's MacDonald Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (AW&ST Sept. 29, p. 17).
FALLING SHORT Kuala Lumpur International Airport had handled nearly 12.5 million passengers by the end of the third quarter--a 3.6% increase year-over-year, but far short of the 8.5% the Malaysian government had hoped to achieve. In the wake of the severe acute respiratory syndrome, which slashed traffic by 30% in May, government officials are now projecting a 4.5% annual growth over last year's record levels. In addition, Malaysia is attempting to lure new carriers to the airport, including British Airways, Air France and Alitalia.
L-3 Communications Corp. doesn't only acquire other companies; it also sells. Last week, the defense contractor announced it recently sold Celerity Systems to Aeroflex Inc. Celerity produces modular digital test and measurement equipment for communications, satellite, wireless and broadband test markets.
Donald J. Brown (see photo) has been named director of strategic capture for the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Mission Systems Sector, Reston, Va. He was a business development and marketing executive with the Lockheed Martin Corp., Bethesda, Md.
Darin Voyles has been appointed Chicago-based Central U.S. sales manager and Ted Brady as Los Angeles-based Western U.S. sales manager for Emirates. Voyles was a district sales manager for US Airways, while Brady was president of the Prestige Travel Group.
Heavy rotorcraft are joining several nations' initial attack forces as "helitankers," despite their high cost of operation. When employed properly, though, they can deliver more water or retardant per hour than any other aircraft.
USAF Col. (ret.) Pedro Rustan has been named director of the Advanced Systems and Technology Directorate of the U.S.' National Reconnaissance Office. He succeeds USAF Maj. Gen. (select) Robert Latiff, who has been appointed deputy director for systems engineering. Rustan has been an independent business consultant.
Lockheed Martin has signed a $20-million contract with the U.S. Defense Dept., U.K. Royal Air Force, Italian air force and Royal Australian Air Force to define a C-130J avionics and hardware upgrade program. The three-year cooperative systems and software upgrade requirements management program is to ensure that improvements in radio communications, aircraft diagnostics displays and collision avoidance systems will be shared across the community which now operates 106 aircraft.
AIRBUS IN JAPAN Airbus has named three Japanese suppliers to its A330/A340 manufacturing team. "Today's agreements are a continuation of the series started with the A380," President and CEO Noel Forgeard said last week. Bridgestone Corp. will be an original equipment supplier for tires from its Kurume plant in Fukuoka for final assembly lines in Toulouse, France, and Hamburg, Germany. The agreement includes development of tires for the A340-500/600 models at Bridgestone's Kodaira Technical Center and complements an A380 contract signed last June.
Total military spending in Latin America will be about $24.5 billion in 2003, and modestly increase to slightly more than $27 billion annually by 2007, according to Forecast International. Ironically, Latin America is experiencing another round of instability, and the prospects for future instability are "quite likely," especially in Ecuador and Bolivia, the market intelligence firm noted.
Although the Missile Defense Agency has yet to achieve even one "kill" using either of its national missile defense interceptor designs, the Pentagon is ready to give the nod to Orbital Sciences Corp. to equip the first silos, due to become operational next year.
At a meeting late last month in Cartagena, Spain, Spanish officials said they would be interested in working with France to meet European operational requirements for tactical UAVs, and to develop a medium-altitude high-endurance UAV capability. Cooperation in the area of military satellites was also put forward.
Voyager 1, the man-made object that has put the most distance between itself and Earth, may have picked up the first faint rumblings of interstellar space as it hurtles toward the edge of the Solar System.
INDIAN LAUNCH OFFER India has offered to make its PSLV booster available to launch two small Brazilian technology satellites that were originally to be orbited by Brazil's indigenous VLS-3 rocket, destroyed in a disastrous launch pad explosion on Aug. 22 (AW&ST Sept. 1, p. 36). The proposal was put forward in New Delhi by a new India-Brazil joint commission. The two countries have been seeking to work together in the areas of satellite design and telecommunications, remote sensing and space science applications since an original agreement was signed in March 2000.
You can now register ONLINE for Aviation Week Events. Go to www.AviationNow.com/conferences or call Ryan Leeds at +1 (212) 904-3892/+1 (800) 240-7645 (U.S. and Canada Only) Mar. 8-9--European Transport Leaders Conference. Merrill Lynch Headquarters, London. Mar. 10-14--Toulouse Symposium. Toulouse (France) Congress Center. Mar. 25-26--Defense Budget Conference. Hyatt Regency Crystal City Hotel, Arlington, Va. Apr. 20-22--MRO USA/MRO Latin America/MRO Military. Cobb Galleria Centre, Atlanta.
GET DOWN Gary L. Martin, NASA's "space architect," is addressing the issue of getting large payloads down from the station in the post-shuttle era. The issue was highlighted by the recent return of the station's Expedition 7 crew and a short-term European astronaut, who had to bring back air sampling hardware in their cramped Soyuz vehicle.
Bell Helicopter Textron is launching a new initiative aimed at developing a full-scale Eagle Eye tiltrotor unmanned aerial vehicle by Nov. 1, 2004. Bell has been flying a 7/8-scale Eagle Eye since 1998. The U.S. Coast Guard selected a larger version for the UAV element of its Integrated Deepwater System. Bell is part of a team led by Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems, and is scheduled to deliver the first Eagle Eye in 2006. The UAV would have a maximum speed of more than 200 kt. and an endurance of 5.5 hr. carrying 200 lb.
Jim Byrne has been appointed senior vice president for the Washington-based U.S. headquarters of Daon. He was a sales and marketing executive with Precise Software.
I commend Michael A. Dornheim for his article "Get Me Through the Night" (AW&ST Sept. 15, p. 66). Rare articles such as his--dealing with old-fashioned aerospace topics such as aircraft L/D, propeller efficiency and solar-powered flight--are getting me through the night of terrorism-crazed reporting hell-bent on glorifying men and machines of death and destruction.
USN Rear Adm. (lower half) Nancy E. Brown is among several of her rank who has been nominated for promotion to rear admiral. She is vice director of command, control, communications and computer systems for the Joint Staff at the Pentagon. Others are: Donald K. Bullard, commander of Carrier Group Six, at Mayport, Fla.; Albert M. Calland, 3rd, commander of the Naval Special Warfare Command at San Diego; Robert T. Conway, Jr., commander of Expeditionary Strike Group One at San Diego; Bruce B.
