The way 2003 is unfolding, the U.S. aerospace industry is going to record more military than civil orders for the first time since 1994, according to the Aerospace Industries Assn.
NAME GAME Physicist Edward Teller, a lightning rod for the old Strategic Defense Initiative and a fervent advocate of nuclear weapons, is sparking controversy even from the grave. That's because of a proposal by House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) to rename the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in honor of Teller, who died in September at 95. Teller was the lab's second director and an associate of physics pioneer Ernest O. Lawrence, for whom it was named in 1958.
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SUPER LYNX SALES The first of 16 AgustaWestland Super Lynx 300 helicopters on order for Oman's Royal Air Force took its maiden flight Oct. 25. The company has already delivered five out of a six-helo order to Malaysia, while earlier this year South Africa signed on to receive four Super Lynx 300s.
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PAYLOAD DELIVERY Alcatel Space has delivered a communications payload with 24 K u-band transponders to Russia's NPO-PM, which is building the Express AM22 satellite for the Russian Satellite Communications Co. Built in Toulouse, France, the payload also includes eight spare transponders, two fixed antennas and two mobile spot beam antennas. It will be integrated at the NPO-PM facility in Zheleznogorsk, Siberia. The Express series of satellites delivers television, telephone and data services in Russia, Western Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
HISTORIC PRESERVATION The most complete of the three surviving Saturn V Moon rockets is moldering away in the humid Alabama sunshine, where it has been on display for the past 30 years at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center (USSRC) in Huntsville. Now the center is fundraising for a $2-million restoration project, plus another $3 million to begin work on a permanent building to house the 36-story launch vehicle.
David A. Ford has been promoted to senior vice president-technical services from vice president/general manager of the Helicopter Services Div. of the Keystone Helicopter Corp., West Chester, Pa. Craig S. Zysk has been named director of the division's program development and support. He was vice president-business development for International Aviation Composites of Fort Worth and had been manager of aftermarket sales for the Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Stratford, Conn.
The entire FAA reauthorization bill has been held up in Congress over the issue of air traffic control "privatization" at small VFR towers. A nine-month, multimillion-dollar lobbying and ad campaign by the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. (Natca) claims the Bush administration is putting air safety at risk with plans to farm out the U.S.' entire ATC system to the lowest bidder. Although the actual battle concerns fewer than 70 small non-radar control towers, the rhetoric is obscuring a growing, bipartisan consensus favoring fundamental ATC reform (see p. 54).
Hundreds of flights were canceled and roughly 1,000 delayed by the closure of the Southern California terminal radar approach control (SoCal Tracon) owing to wildfires last week.
Swarming is an integral part of network-centric operations (NCO) for the military. Military leaders that are attracted to, and focused on, "wiring together all our sensors and shooters" have not grasped that connectivity is but one of a set of precursors that must be met to become network-centric. Information management-- to deliver the right information to the right person at the right time--is but one other. Only after forces are connected can the benefit of dispersed forces with a shared situational awareness be realized.
SEEKING BIDS EADS' A400M multirole military transport aircraft program has been opened to competitive-based participation by U.S. industry. To push this initiative, EADS North America hosted a Washington conference for potential U.S. suppliers for the A400M. It attracted more than 30 companies interested in competing for contracts as well as representatives from agencies involved in approving American technology and hardware for export.
WORLD NEWS ROUNDUP 15 Loss of Adeos II spacecraft is JAXA's first mission crisis 15 SOHO shows origins of solar flares directed at Earth WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS 20 Army-generated study con- tends its UAVs are too slow 21 Technology sought to jam remotely detonated bombs 22 Decision points loom for hy- personic-propulsion efforts 24 Aircraft from around U.S. fight California wildfires 26 Wildfires force closing of Los Angeles Tracon
Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman last week reported a strong third-quarter financial performance, exceeding Wall Street's expectations with robust military sales during the three-month period that ended Sept. 30. Northrop Grumman posted income of $224 million or $1.21 a share from continuing operations, compared with $141 million or $1.17 a share a year ago. Sales were up 57%. On a net basis, the company reported income of $184 million or $1 a share, versus a loss of $59 million or 56 cents a share, in the third quarter of 2002.
With more than 100 wildfires burning in Montana and eastern Idaho last summer, a concerted "initial attack" strategy was critical to preventing small, lightning-started fires from growing to conflagrations that might have devoured thousands of pristine forested acres--or homes and businesses.
Linda Greene has been appointed executive director of the BWI Business Partnership Inc., Hanover, Md. She succeeds Neil M. Shpritz, who is retiring. Greene was a vice president of Airports Council International and had been director of communications for the Maryland Aviation Administration at Baltimore-Washington International Airport.
Reporting a third-quarter operating profit and a net loss resulting mainly from non-cash charges, United Airlines parent UAL Corp. said its restructuring under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection remains "on track."
Leasing Boeing 767 tankers remains controversial, but Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld signaled late last week that a compromise may be in the works. The Pentagon wants to lease 100 of the airplanes, arguing that the Air Force would have more tankers flying sooner than by trying to buy the replacements for KC-135s outright. But the higher cost and the manner in which the lease proposal was vetted in the Defense Dept. and inserted into legislation in Congress has sparked intense criticism in Washington and caused resentment in Europe.
The Assn. of Asia Pacific Airlines has called for collective government efforts to prevent a recurrence of last spring's severe acute respiratory syndrome health crisis that drove some of its strongest members to ground fleets, lay off workers and restrict flights as their local economies were devastated. Warning of a possible return of the mysterious SARS virus this winter, AAPA Director General Richard Stirland expressed a concern shared by some health-care professionals that the virus is hibernating.
Despite high-level administration assurances that coalition forces are blunting terrorist assaults and taking a heavy toll of attackers in Afghanistan and Iraq, U.S. military and intelligence agency officials are pointing to continuing difficulties in transitioning from big-unit warfare to chasing small, armed groups. A top U.S. intelligence official says he needs automated analytical tools and hundreds of analysts who could be deployed rapidly to the battlefield to better manage the flood of data the U.S. collects.
MARINE AIR The Pentagon's Defense Acquisition Board approved the start of low-rate production of upgraded UH-1Y and AH-1Z helicopters for the Marine Corps. Specifically, Bell will initially remanufacture six UH-1Ns and three AH-1W Super Cobras during Fiscal 2004. A second lot of six Hueys and three Cobras would enter production in 2005. Keeping the first two lots small will allow for any changes resulting from the final development flight testing and operational evaluations, according to program officials. The Marines could have 180 UH-1Ys and 100 AH-1Zs by 2014.
DRAWING A BEAD These new symbiotic relationships are apparently being focused on North Korea, where nuclear weapons tests are an active concern. Clapper said that NIMA is "intensely monitoring activity" there. However, he counseled caution in expectations. "That is a very, very tough, very secure target," he said, adding that the North Koreans "concentrate a lot on doing things underground. I won't mislead you to suggest that something is imminent. But we're watching very carefully."
Michael A. Dornheim (Los Angeles), William B. Scott (Colorado Springs), Michael Mecham (San Francisco)
A national armada of firefighting aircraft was brought to Southern California last week to fight the worst wildfires there in modern history, but were having mixed success because of the difficult conditions. Types ran from military C-130s, U.S. Forest Service Douglas DC-4s and Lockheed P-3s, down to county Bell JetRanger helicopters.
While the Pentagon is struggling to quantify "success" against global terrorism and in the fighting in Iraq, Army officials argue they are gaining ground on the tactical level because they are killing more terrorists--a trend that's driving up the cost of organizing such attacks and forcing their participants to strike from greater distances.
CHINA ADDS LIFT A further indication of how important the airfreight business has become for Chinese carriers was evident last week when China Southern Airlines took delivery of a Boeing 737-300QC (quick change) that will be used jointly by China Post Airlines and China Southern. The -300QC conversion was completed by Pemco World Services. China Southern recently purchased 49% of China Post's equity from the government, which retains the rest. China Southern has ordered four -300 upgrades from Pemco on a lease from GE Capital Aviation Services.
