NO SALE The House Appropriations Committee isn't buying the administration's plan to start hiring extra air traffic controllers in anticipation of wholesale turnover within a few years, as controllers brought in after the 1981 Patco strike become eligible to retire. Zeroing the FAA's $14.1-million proposal to hire 328 extra controllers in Fiscal 2004, which starts Oct. 1, the committee calculates that reduced air traffic means the agency needs 694 fewer controllers than are currently budgeted, and that 75% of en route centers are overstaffed.
Without even firing its first shot, the YAL-1A Airborne Laser prototype is emerging as a one-of-a-kind system, with Pentagon officials mulling modifications for future versions. What is far from clear, however, is where those differences will lie as the military designs the next iteration, called Block 2008.
JDAMS FOR F-2S Japan's air force has opted to install Joint Direct Attack Munition kits on its 500-lb. bombs for its frontline Mitsubishi/Lockheed Martin F-2s. The addition of the JDAM GPS guidance system and fins will bring a precision bombing capability to the close-air-support fighter. The air force was expected to meet a deadline last week to seek funding in the Fiscal 2004 budget which begins next April.
OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS Air India and Lufthansa have signed a memorandum of understanding to establish broad-based strategic cooperation in various areas including commercial, engineering and IT services. Working groups have been set up to work out the details. Both companies see significant business opportunities in this development, according to Air-India. A senior airline official said the agreement would pave the way for a new alliance, which could make way for Air-India's biggest-ever entry into Europe and the U.S over the next two years.
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Regarding the FAA and Transportation Security Administration reconsidering the need for stronger cockpit doors on cargo aircraft (AW&ST Aug. 4, p. 35), I'm disgusted to think those agencies are selling out to the cargo industry.
ON THE RISE Orders have been slow in coming for Sikorsky's S-92 helicopter, but the number is gradually increasing. Sikorsky last month announced Petroleum Helicopters would buy two of the medium-lift rotorcraft with delivery slated for next year. The aircraft are to be used to support deepwater drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico. The deal brings to nine the number of S-92s the company has sold. Negotiations for another 30 to a variety of customers are said to be in their final stages.
Tom Stelter has been named vice president/general manager, and Ned Carlson, Bob Jordan and Pedro Pirela have been appointed regional sales managers, all for Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport-based CAE SimuFlite. Stelter succeeds Jeff Roberts, who is now Montreal-based executive vice president-aviation training for CAE. Carlson will be based in Chicago, Jordan in Dallas and Pirela in Latin America.
Pratt & Whitney has completed tests of an advanced core engine, demonstrating the highest compressor discharge temperatures ever reached by a fighter core, as well as the highest fuel-air ratios ever achieved. The tests were conducted under the Defense Dept.'s integrated high-performance turbine engine technology, or IHPTET, initiative.
One draws a single unpleasant conclusion from your stories reporting the attractive vulnerability of military networks to asymmetrical warfare and the increasing instability of the Russian nuclear deterrent (AW&ST June 30, pp. 51 and 66). Given the hostility of certain terrorist organizations toward Moscow and Washington, what more asymmetrical attack could be conceived than one in which our former rival is panicked into launching a nuclear strike against the U.S., using false electronic intelligence?
Aviv Tzur (see photo) has become CEO of Ultimate Aircraft Composites, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Michael Navon has been named CEO of subsidiary Blue Aerospace and Yoel Saraf to its board of managers. He is CEO of Avser.
In a rebuke to the European Commission, Taiwan's China Airlines insists its selection of the General Electric CF6-801A4 powerplants for the carrier's 12 Airbus A330-300s and 10 Boeing 747-400s was made for fleet commonality and technical merit considerations, not because of politics.
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CONNECTIONS Connexion by Boeing will lease capacity on Eutelsat's Sesat to provide a footprint stretching from the eastern Atlantic Ocean across Europe to Central Asia for the company's airline and business jet inflight broadband service. Financial terms were not disclosed, but the Sesat contract is for demand capacity, meaning Boeing isn't paying when Connexion's customers aren't using the satellite. Boeing used Eutelsat for satellite coverage during Connexion's three-month service demonstration with Lufthansa and British Airways earlier this year.
Paresh Buch (see photo) has been promoted to vice president-engineering from director of interior design for Dassault Falcon's Little Rock, Ark., facility.
The Navy said it will limit the competition for development of the next-generation presidential helicopter to the Sikorsky S-92 and Lockheed Martin US-101 derivative of the EH-101. The goal is to have the helicopter in service in 2008.
Bombardier has nearly completed its recapitalization initiative, with the sale last week of its recreational production unit for C$1.225 billion ($877.8 million). The company already has taken several steps to cut costs and concentrate on aircraft manufacturing, including an agreement to sell its Military Aviation Services unit and a major portion of Bombardier Capital's business aircraft portfolio.
A chastened NASA is shifting its preparations for relaunching the space shuttle fleet into high gear this week, guided by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board's unvarnished criticism of agency "culture" but still faced with exactly the same schedule pressures the CAIB said forced that culture into fatal mistakes.
DECOY DILEMMA The General Accounting Office this month is slated to settle a dispute surrounding the Air Force's Miniature Air-Launched Decoy (MALD) program. The service awarded a development contract to Raytheon, but one of the bidders has cried foul. Chattanooga, Tenn.-based Accurate Automation has charged it had a superior offer, and demonstrated so by building an airframe prototype. Protests of this nature rarely succeed, but the GAO held a hearing on the case, a rarity by itself.
The floors in Baghdad International's Terminal C are polished to a sheen, reflecting its stately and dramatic arched ceiling. The duty-free shop has stocked its glass shelves with Cuban cigars, film and expensive perfume. A food vendor has his countertop cluttered with jars of Iraqi honey and packs of crackers for sale. All the airport lacks is passengers.
SOUPED-UP BEARCAT One would think that racing a Grumman F8F Bearcat would be very World War II-ish seat-of-the-pants stuff. But the "Rare Bear" will be using PI System software from San Leandro, Calif.-based OSIsoft to monitor engine and airframe performance parameters when it attempts to set a new record at the Reno National Championship Air Races in Nevada on Sept. 11-14. It already holds a series of records, including the world 3-km. (1.7-mi.) speed and world 3,000-meter time-to-climb records, as well as the Reno Championship Race speed record of 482 mph.
Illustrating an established phenomenon and a new, post-Sept.-11 reality, AirTran Airways will begin service in five new markets within three months, disrupting settled patterns in each. The established phenomenon is what has been called the "Southwest effect"--a low-cost airline enters a market and, because of its low fares, generates an increase in demand. But carriers already operating in the market suffer; even if they don't lose traffic, they have to match the new entrant's low fares.
