Even as the Pentagon continues to plow huge amounts of money into command, control and communications gear, the Office of Force Transformation (OFT) and the military services are signaling a shift in spending priorities as they assess Iraq and spell out their approach to network-centric warfare.
Ten Boeing employees have been honored at the annual Women of Color Technology and Business Awards Conference in Atlanta, and four Northrop Grumman Corp. staffers have won Women of Color Achievement Awards at the recent Women of Color Research Sciences and Technology Awards Conference in Nashville, Tenn. Both conferences were sponsored by the Career Communications Group Inc.
International Space Station Expedition 8 crewmen Michael Foale and Alexander Kaleri lift off Oct. 18 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Soyuz TMA-3 spacecraft with European Space Agency/Spanish astronaut Pedro Duque en route to week-long ISS crew handover period. The crew docked with the ISS Pirs docking module Oct. 20.
Innovative Solutions & Support Inc. will install air data display units and analog interface units in Bombardier Aerospace's Learjet 31, 35, 36 and 55 aircraft, under a $4-million order.
AIRSPACE ACCESS Domestic carriers in India view recent government approval of flights to Sri Lanka--the first in Indian aviation history--as a sign more countries will be opened in the months ahead. The declaration allows unlimited access to all carriers, including Sri Lankan Airlines, to fly to and from 18 destinations in India. While domestic carriers, Jet Airways, Air Sahara and Air Deccan, are reserving public comment until formalities are completed, one analyst said carriers are already vying for code-shares.
L-3 Communications Corp., perhaps the aerospace/defense industry's most aggressive consolidator, will soon add another property to its long list of acquisitions: Vertex Aerospace LLC, which supplies a wide range of technical services to the Defense Dept. and other government agencies.
SNOWFLAKE SERVICE SAS' low-cost subsidiary Snowflake is to start a twice-weekly service between Inverness in Scotland and Swedish capital Stockholm in March. Snowflake provides point-to-point service to leisure destinations in Europe including Rome, Athens and Lisbon.
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Parameter optimization studies by poten- tial prime contractors will be paramount to final concept selection for the Jupiter Icy Mars Orbiter (JIMO), as indicated in the article "Prometheus Bound" (AW&ST Aug. 11, p. 63). Although payload weight is a key parameter for any space mission, it should not be the overriding concern for JIMO. For a space nuclear power system, overall efficiency is an important parameter, but it should not be the dominant factor.
Europe's homeland defense initiative, tentatively scheduled to take effect next year, could provide a welcome boost to aerospace/defense research and development funding, which has been getting mixed signals of late from some European capitals. The initiative, still in the definition stage, would enhance the efficiency of domestic security actions by combining border patrol, airport surveillance, electronic security, antiterrorism and related activities under a single budget line, as has been done in the U.S. (AW&ST June 23, p. 27).
SCREENING OPTIONS Transportation Security Administration director Adm. (ret.) James M. Loy told the House subcommittee on aviation recently that preparing for a program in which airports can "opt out" of using federal screeners is high on his agenda for the next six months. He said the TSA has hired Bearing Point to help design an evaluation process so airports can determine late next year if they should continue using federal screeners or hire private companies to do the job. Five airports are currently using private contractors in a test program.
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Domestic reduced vertical separation minima--a critical capacity-building initiative under FAA Flight Plan 2004-08--is set to be implemented Jan. 20, 2005. The FAA's final rule on RVSM, issued last week, calls for a reduction in the minimum vertical separation of aircraft to 1,000 ft. from 2,000 ft., and applies to all aircraft, not only Part 121 carriers, operating between Flight Level 290 (29,000 ft.) and Flight Level 410.
The U.S. Air Force successfully launched a new Block 5D-3 weather spacecraft for the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) on Oct. 18 from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., following two launch scrubs on Oct. 15 and 16 (AW&ST Oct. 20, p. 18). The booster was the 13th and final Titan IIG Space Launch Vehicle, which were converted from 1960s-vintage silo-based ICBMs.
Belarus' national airline, Belavia, has received delivery of a CFM56-powered Boeing 737-500 from the International Lease Finance Corp. as part of a fleet modernization program. The airline expects deliveries of two additional 737s by mid-2004.
PLAY IT AGAIN SAM Emirates and Royal Air Maroc have signed a code-share agreement covering the Casablanca-Dubai route. Emirates presently operates a three-times-a-week service with an Airbus A330-200.
European and U.S. defense officials are attempting to defuse a further row over a proposed European Union defense planning unit. As initially put forward, the unit would allow the EU's new rapid reaction force, created this summer, to be run from an EU command center independent of, and physically separate from, NATO's SHAPE facility in Mons, Belgium, which the alliance had earlier agreed to make available to the EU force.
The U.S. Air Force has awarded Lockheed Martin a $560-million contract for the seven Atlas V missions. The contract covers the launches Boeing lost because it obtained proprietary Lockheed Martin data in the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle project. Boeing remains suspended, a status expected to remain several more weeks. However, USAF officials hope that before they compete the next round of EELV launches, in December or January, Boeing will have taken sufficient remedial steps for the company to be reinstated.
As Turkey climbs out of a long recession, national carrier Turkish Airlines is projecting a new face as it pursues the promise of privatization and an upgrade of its fleet. Some of the credit goes beyond the airline's own management. A single-party government, after more than a decade of quarrelsome coalitions, is credited with helping the country stick to a tough austerity campaign.
Computer Sciences Corp. has received a 12-year, $1.1-billion contract to provide simulator-based flight training and related aviation training for the U.S. Army Aviation Center at Ft. Rucker, Ala.
India is expected to sign papers to acquire the 44,500-ton Kiev class 30-year-old aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov during Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's visit to Russia on Nov. 11. India gets the ship for free but will pay retrofit and reequipping costs estimated at $675 million. The Russians had sought $800 million. India is anxious to acquire Tupolev Tu-22M3 bombers and lease two nuclear powered Akula 2 class submarines, two other segments of the Gorshkov agreement.
Tom Aniello has been promoted to chief marketing officer from vice president-marketing for Pilatus Business Aircraft Ltd., Broomfield, Colo. Nicole MacMillan has been named manager of trade shows and promotions and Dennis Phillips avionics manager.
Lufthansa German Airlines is preparing a major revamp of its European flight operations. The restructuring, which should cut operating costs up to 20%, is expected to help the German carrier combat increasingly aggressive low-fare competitors. The airline, Europe's third-biggest, is scheduled to release results of an in-house review dubbed "Zukunft Kont" (The Future of Continental Flight Operations), along with quarterly results, on Nov. 12. The review, initiated several months ago, focused on potential efficiency gains.
The International Civil Aviation Organization is moving to establish a standard definition of "runway incursion" so that comparable data can be collected and used to guide safety actions. Runway incursions and accidents are thankfully rare, but when collisions do occur, they usually result in fatalities--so the safety issue is considered significant. However, the lack of large enough databases to underpin the powerful statistical analyses that officials say they need has been a stumbling block.
