X-RAY CARGO FIELD Scientists who have developed flat-panel X-ray detectors for medical use will be conducting research into an ultra-sensitive X-ray inspection technology for cargo screening at airports. Varian Medical Systems Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., and the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), a Xerox subsidiary, have been awarded a $5.87-million grant by the Commerce Dept., to improve technology designed to allow inspectors to detect contraband in luggage, baggage and cargo containers with greater speed.
EASING UP China is loosening restrictions on overflights of its northern airspace. Aircraft flying from North America will be given a choice of three entry points and four cross-polar routes no later than 1 hr. before takeoff, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). Gaining sufficient lead time for route planning has long been a sticking point on polar routes between the two countries.
The Carlyle Group, a Washington.-based buyout firm, plans to sell its 20% stake in United Defense Industries Inc., which makes munitions and armored vehicles. After the sale, the proportion of Carlyle's equity capital invested in the defense industry will fall to about 3% from about 6% currently. Carlye's stake is valued at around $300 million.
STARDUST Giant primordial stars 200 times the mass of Earth's Sun likely generated the carbon, oxygen, iron and other heavy elements that are the building blocks of life, seeding the Universe within the first 275 million years after the Big Bang in massive explosions. Supercomputer simulations by astrophysicists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and National Astronomical Observatory of Japan found that the first-generation stars formed protogalaxies that clustered in filament-like structures, as in this simulation.
BINATIONAL RUNWAYS? The government of Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt has begun exploratory studies that could lead to the creation of an international airport to complement Brussels-Zaventem. A working team is proposing to transform Chievres air base--near Mons, close to the French border--into an airport, after extending and reinforcing its two runways and building passenger and cargo terminals. Belgian officials say France, with an eye to additional runway capacity, might be a participant.
IT'S A CONVOLUTED RJ WORLD Pilots at Chautauqua Airlines are voting on a tentative agreement with the Indianapolis-based regional jet operator that reflects the convoluted contemporary world of small jet flying. The scope clause in the tentative contract has been endorsed by Teamsters Local 747, which represents the 760 pilots. If the contract is accepted, the Chautauqua pilots will be flying for Chautauqua and the planned sister startup carrier, Republic Airlines, and any other subsidiary. Furloughed US Airways pilots will take 50% of the pilot slots at startup Republic.
Mark Senior has been appointed destinations marketing manager and Lesley Britton marketing communications manager for Gulf Air. Senior was leisure manager for Qatar Airways, while Britton was advertising manager for the frequent-flier program of Emirates Airlines.
SLOWED BY PROPELLANT Several Pentagon missile defense projects are feeling the effects of a hiatus in mixing solid propellants at Pratt & Whitney's San Jose, Calif., site. Propellant mixing has been suspended since Aug. 7 due to an industrial accident. One project affected is Lockheed Martin's ground-based interceptor, according to Pratt & Whitney which supplies the second and third stage. The booster was behind schedule prior to the production problem.
Sikorsky Aircraft's S-92 helicopter is poised to enter the marketplace early next year, but more importantly for the company, it is in the right place at the right time to be a contender in the next competition for a helicopter to meet presidential travel requirements.
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) Oct. 28-30--A&D Programs & Productivity Conference & Exhibition and Network-Centric Conference. Arlington (Tex.) Convention Center. Nov. 11-13--MRO Asia Conference & Exhibition. Bangkok Intercontinental Hotel. Mar. 8-9--European Transport Leaders Conference. Merrill Lynch Headquarters, London.
MIT-IGATION The FAA has established its sixth air transportation center of excellence, this one for mitigating aircraft noise and aviation emissions. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology will lead the partnership, which brings together seven other universities and 18 aerospace/aviation companies and organizations. The FAA will contribute $900,000-1.75 million in the first year and at least $800,000 per year for the next two years.
Aviation as we know it is only as safe as one makes it. Unfortunately, safety came at a price: human life. The implementation of safety devices such as grooved runways, transponders, ground proximity warning systems, and traffic-alert and collision avoidance systems are examples of not just safety enhancements but of the reactionary aviation manufacturers and FAA. Only after an incident/accident will changes be made.
Like a lot of good ideas, the application of swarming behavior to networks began with an accidental discovery. Little did Eric Bonabeau, a telecommunications scientist, know when he decided to visit the Santa Fe Institute, a think tank focused in part on complexity theory, that a biologist's research on the behavior of social insects would suggest ways to improve the performance of networks, organizations and even fleets of unmanned air vehicles. Back then--1992--Bonabeau was working for the National Center for Scientific Research in France.
The U.K.'s Smiths Group plc has long been considered one of the aerospace industry's top-tier suppliers to commer- cial airframe builders. But Goldman Sachs industry analysts in London believe the company's status may be at risk. At issue is the Boeing Co.'s proposed 7E7 and what surely will be intense competition among major suppliers to win contracts. To stay a top- tier supplier, analysts said Smiths will need to win a far larger share of the avionics and other systems on the 7E7 than it did on the Airbus A380.
PERIL BY THE OUNCE The first budget for the Homeland Security Dept. passes Congress, moving the spending meter to $29.4 billion--$1 billion more than the administration's request. The bill includes $3.7 billion for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), with $1.8 billion of that for screening passengers, $1.3 billion for baggage. One area of contention, however, is how to handle cargo security.
STRIKE THREE Boeing's Air Force business is putting together a streak the company would rather avoid. Already in hot water with Congress over the proposed lease of KC-767 tankers, and with lawmakers and the Pentagon over the alleged theft of Lockheed Martin documents on the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle, the company now is in trouble over the C-130 avionics modernization program. The service has had to add $183 million to the $4-billion Boeing project to upgrade older versions of the transport because the company underestimated what it would cost to do the work.
IN THE TANK The Pentagon responds to senators who would rejigger the proposed lease of 100 Boeing KC-767 tankers into a lease of 25 aircraft and purchase of 75. Yes, that would save money, the Defense Dept. allows. But, it would also create near-term budget pressures, the Pentagon complains. Under various scenarios ranging from buying the aircraft up-front, on-delivery or under a separate multiyear contract, savings could reach $2.7-3.5 billion, but they would require an infusion of near-term funds of $4.6-11.1 billion.
JetBlue's "mistake" is a costly one--sparking activist groups to build higher privacy fences against the prying eyes of Big Brother and eroding public confidence in the ability of government, and airlines, to protect passenger rights.
. . . SO GOOD Lufthansa's expanded all-business-class service between U.S. and German commercial centers, an experiment when it was launched 15 months ago, has proved itself, officials of the carrier say. Begun with round-trips between Newark and Dusseldorf and expanded this year to Newark-Munich and Chicago-Dusseldorf, the service "works fine," says Thomas Winkelmann, vice president for the Americas at Lufthansa.
Robert L. Crandall, retired chairman/CEO of American Airlines, has been named to the board of directors and senior adviser for AirCell Inc., of Seattle.
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The European Union threat to complain to the World Trade Organization because Taiwan selected GE engines for China Airlines' new Airbus and Boeing aircraft is ludicrous (AW&ST Sept. 1, p. 44). The EU argues that Taiwan chose GE engines based on political pressure and not economic or technical grounds. Taiwan fully refutes that argument. The EU continuously lives in a glass house and--with examples of Air France and Lufthansa procurement--has no standing to complain about adherence to the Plurilateral Agreement on Trade in Civil Aircraft.
Next summer, the Nevada desert will offer a glimpse of what air forces of the future will look like--at least for those who can pierce the web of security that has continued to grow around the exercises. The endeavor--Joint Expeditionary Force Exercise 2004 (JEFX04)--will be held again next summer at Nellis AFB. It has become so important as the stage setting for new requirements and the analyses of lessons learned that the major aerospace companies have set up permanent offices there.
Bombardier has returned the Learjet 45 to flying status after the business jet was grounded by an FAA directive in mid-August (AW&ST Aug. 18, p. 18). The company has been shipping out new horizontal pitch trim actuators since early this month and expects them all to be delivered by Sept. 22. Some 235 Learjet 45s were affected by the grounding.
The Light Aerial Multipurpose Vehicle (LAMV) is a Boeing proposal for a small battlefield transport aircraft that uses pulse jet engines for a couple of minutes to permit vertical takeoff and landing. It is a Phantom Works project to improve transport agility around the battlefield, said George Muellner, Boeing vice president for Air Force programs.
