Aircraft accident statistics have trended downward generally in almost all categories. The results over the years have been fewer fatalities and losses of aircraft. While they still have a relatively high accident rate, even general aviation pilots have managed to lower their odds of getting into uncontrolled spins or flying into the ground.
Since Jan. 1, Franco-Italian Avions de Transport Regional secured firm orders for three new aircraft. A few more are scheduled to be sold in the next few weeks, just in time to buff up the overall lackluster results for the year. Meanwhile, the market for pre-owned 44-66-seat ATR 42/72s remains solid, indicating that demand is still present, despite the notable rise of twinjets.
Iraq could become another Lebanon and the battleground for dozens of militant groups and surrogates of neighboring countries. Meanwhile, time is slipping away for the U.S. to broker a positive outcome, says Turkey's ambassador to the U.S. So far, Iraqi resistance to foreign troops is still limited to small organizations and does not involve major groups like the Shiites or Kurds, said Ambassador Osman Faruk Logoglu.
PEOTONE POWWOW A public meeting to air comments on the scope of issues the FAA will address regarding the proposed South Suburban Airport near Peotone, Ill., is scheduled for Dec. 3 at Governors State University in University Park. The focus will be on a wide range of environmental issues related to construction and operation of Chicago's third airport project, but comments may deal with other issues, too. The agency is holding a concurrent workshop to answer questions from the public. A four-volume, Tier 1 Final Environmental Impact Statement was approved in April 2002.
Alain Brodin (see photos) has been named vice president-commercial affairs of France-based EADS Socata, in addition to being vice president-EADS Aeronautics Div. Jacques Lordon has been appointed head of EADS Socata's general aviation unit and Stephane Bernard deputy commercial director.
T-50 TESTS Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) used a new facility at its Sachon plant for ground-firing tests of the lead-in fighter version of its T-50 jet trainer. The 20-mm. Gatling-type gun from General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products has three barrels capable of firing 3,000 rounds/min.--a lighter weight version of the M61 gun on the F-16. Lockheed Martin is KAI's principal subcontractor. Deliveries of the basic T-50AT to the South Korean air force are expected to start in 2005.
Pierre Sparaco (Paris and Asnieres-Sur-Seine, France)
Every five years wildfires affecting Mediterranean countries destroy an area equal to that of Belgium, according to a newly completed European Commission study. Extensive property damage, injuries and death are left as nature's terrible toll. A highly unusual heat wave, heavy winds and the most devastating drought in several decades resulted in a worst-case scenario last July-August.
In winning contracts for advanced environmental and scientific satellites, Northrop Grumman Space Technology has emphasized the use of well-established design and manufacturing elements. But when it bid to build the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System, the company eschewed a traditional approach to overcome latency, the time between data observation and delivery to users.
VARIATION ON A THEME Back during the Cold War a story, probably apocryphal, circulated that Soviet cosmonauts didn't need special pressurized ballpoints to write in space because they used pencils instead.
The fact that Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assn. members are having a hard time interpreting poorly written Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) notices comes as no surprise (AW&ST Aug. 25, p. 21).
Technology is not clearly winning the battle against terrorism in Iraq. Moreover, military leaders are coming to believe that maintaining large numbers of coalition troops in pro-Saddam Hussein areas has provided a wide array of targets for small-scale, hit-and-run attacks.
Lisa M. Jones has become Fairfax, Va.-based consulting services and customer support manager for Preston Aviation Solutions, an Australia-based subsidiary of Boeing Air Traffic Management.
Italy's Seven Group, an Italian investment fund and owner of regional carrier Azzurra, will acquire Air Littoral, a troubled French carrier based at Montpellier. According to the plan, which has been ratified by a trade court, Air Littoral will be downsized to no more than 17 CRJs and 608 flight crew and other employees, from a 32-aircraft fleet.
Next-generation weather satellites will give military commanders a wealth of "environmental intelligence," significantly improving effectiveness of tactical operations that often hinge on the quality of forecasts. Pentagon planners already are altering their concepts-of-operation and battlefield strategies to maximize the impacts of advanced weather spacecraft now in development.
Combining civil and military satellite weather observation under a single umbrella is still on track to save the U.S. government more than $1 billion over the long haul, but near-term budget pruning and a serious satellite-handling mishap have raised the possibility that a coverage gap could develop late in the decade.
Dominique Huard has become external manager and press officer of Paris-based Thales Avionics. She was head of external communication at Thales Air Defense. Huard succeeds Florence Fayolle, who has been promoted to communications director of Thales Training and Simulation.
SERVIS-1 LAUNCHED Eurockot launched Japan's Space Environment Reliability Verification Integrated System (Servis-1), an industrial testbed designed to gauge the durability of commercial-off-the-shelf electronic components in space. The mission from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northern Russia lifted off Oct. 31 and reached its 1,000-km. Sun-synchronous orbit successfully. High winds at Plesetsk forced a 24-hr. delay in the launch, which had already slipped three weeks because of launch preparation problems (AW&ST Sept. 22, p. 17).
Flight-testing of Eurofighter Typhoon production and development aircraft is underway--again--after being grounded by a braking system incident on Oct. 10. The problem has been tracked to a manufacturing process on a circuit board within a landing gear computer.
Lockheed Martin has been picked to streamline Air Force air operations centers to better manage the flood of routine and tactical information during combat operations. The $8-million, 54-month contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has been dubbed the Joint Air/Ground operations: United Adaptive Replanning (Jaguar) program. It can help deal with the crush of information by using computer systems to perform routine functions such as monitoring and replanning missions.
SAFETY BAR International Space Station managers, like their space shuttle counterparts, will be able to call on classified "national assets" controlled by the National Imagery and Mapping Agency if they need to see a part of the ISS exterior that can't be reached with external cameras. The shift is part of a NASA-wide effort to "raise the bar" on the safety recommendations supplied by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB).
Christopher A. Poliak has become director of maintenance for FAR Part 135 charter aircraft for Executive Jet Management Inc. of Cincinnati. He was manager of the Fleet Management Dept.
The surface-to-air missile strike on a CH-47 near Falujah, Iraq, that killed 15 crewmen and leave-bound soldiers, could prove to be a fluke instead of an indication of increasingly sophisticated attacks. Nonetheless, Pentagon officials hint they will soon carry the war more aggressively to terrorists and militants operating in Iraq and Afghanistan.
John E. Porter has been elected to the board of directors of the Houston-based National Space Biomedical Research Institute. He is a partner in the Washington law firm of Hogan and Hartson and a former congressman from Illinois.
Chuck Dedmon has returned to Superior Air Parts Inc., Coppell, Tex., as interim CEO. He succeeds Bernie Coleman, who has resigned. Dedmon was CEO before founding Spirit Air.
