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The NTSB's 2003 "Most Wanted" list of safety improvements shows three in the aviation transportation mode: runway incursions, airframe structural icing and explosive mixtures in fuel tanks.
Northrop Grumman has settled with the U.S. Justice Dept. for a total of $80 million on two civil False Claims Act complaints covering alleged actions in the 1990s. Justice assigned $60 million to settle an allegation that Northrop Grumman's Newport News Shipbuilding unit improperly charged independent research and development costs to the government from 1994-99. The remainder went to settle a 1995 complaint alleging defects in aerial target drones. The company denied liability in both cases.
USAF Lt. Gen. (ret.) Ronald C. Marcotte (see photo) has been appointed vice president/deputy general manager of Air Force Systems for Boeing's St. Louis-based Integrated Defense Systems. He was senior vice president-Air Force programs for Burdeshaw Associates Ltd.
Michael Vohrer (see photo) has become president/chief operating officer of Rohde and Schwartz of Munich. He was executive vice president/head of the Test and Measurement Div. Vohrer succeeds Hans Wagner, who has resigned.
Tests conducted with a NASA Ames Research Center unmanned aerial vehicle operating at 2,000 ft. over a vineyard near King City, Calif., last week proved positive (AW&ST Aug.18, p. 30). The aircraft maintained contact with the FAA's Oakland air traffic control center as it mapped the vineyard using hyperspectral infrared and high-resolution visible color cameras. In April, the Lockheed Martin/RnR UAV is to conduct a night flight at 8,000 ft.
Although proliferation of ballistic and cruise missiles has long concerned U.S. military officials, intelligence analysts are noticing a shift: countries are increasingly looking to field longer-range ballistic and land-attack cruise missiles.
Roy Neal, the NBC News broadcaster who covered every U.S. human spaceflight from Alan Shepard's Freedom 7 to the early shuttle missions, died Aug. 15 of complications following heart surgery. He was 82. Neal, who entered journalism with the Armed Forces Broadcast Network in occupied Germany, retired from the network in 1986 after 38 years. In retirement, he was chairman of Sarex, the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment that linked schoolchildren with orbiting astronauts.
Michael Wilson has been named manager of European sales for McKechnie Aerospace's Aftermarket Group, Reno, Nev. He was director of commercial sales and marketing for Aero Technics.
California-based Sensor Systems Inc. has been awarded a contract by Boeing to supply S65-8282-136 UHF/SATCOM/GPS antennas for the C-17 Globemaster III military transport.
An 11-lb. aircraft flew 1,888 mi. across the Atlantic this month, re-creating the 1919 flight of Royal Air Force pilots John Alcock and Arthur Whitten-Brown, and provisionally setting records for distance and endurance.
CHC Helicopters has been awarded a $13.42 million contract renewal by Southeast Asia's Total Exploration and Production Co., to provide one Sikorsky S76A++ helicopter for five years.
I was intrigued by Capt. Walt Bates' letter about the performance benefits of exhaust from an aircraft air-conditioning system reenergizing the boundary layer (AW&ST June 2, p. 6). He has recorded benefits from a single valve. How much greater could the benefits be if the air-conditioning flow was exhausted through small vents optimally set around the periphery of the rear fuselage? If this feature were incorporated into a new design, the cost would be minimal and we would have a win-win-win situation.
The Russian air force is putting in place a credible upgrade road map for tactical combat aircraft, while at the same time its strategic aviation units may have begun to take delivery of a long-awaited conventional land-attack missile capability.
LEGO SATS The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Space Vehicles Directorate at Kirtland AFB, N.M., wants some concepts for rapid-prototyping of space systems based on a kind of space "LEGO" system. Also dubbed "protosats," the LEGO-type satellites would be based on a small family of building blocks from which any complex spacecraft structure could be built. The protosats could, for example, be panels that contain mechanisms for engaging connections automatically when two panels are joined.
The U.S. Army next year plans to launch development of a mobile high-power laser that could be used to shoot down rockets, artillery shells, unmanned aircraft and other targets. The multimillion-dollar project, being pursued in cooperation with Israel, is the outgrowth of years of effort on the Tactical High Energy Laser (Thel), a large testbed built at the White Sands (N.M.) Missile Range. Thel shot down Katyusha rockets and an artillery round and spurred interest in a mobile version (M-Thel). The target set will be greatly expanded for the mobile system.
Deutsche BA will perform component repairs on outboard flap carriages for FLS Aerospace's fleet of 16 Boeing 737-300 aircraft, under an 18-month, $400,000-contract.
STRENGTHENING TIES Senior Indian and U.S. military officials have decided to establish a high-level dialogue on defense technology security issues and to hold a missile defense workshop in India in the next six months. India has also agreed to participate in 2005 in the Pentagon's Roving Sands air and missile defense exercise. The discussions are part of a broader warming of relations between New Delhi and Washington in the past few years that has led to a resumption of joint exercises that had not taken place for decades.
Wichita's aggressive campaign, "Fair Fares," now over a year old, had low-fare air service as its goal. Officials wanted to broaden the choice for consumers and obtain the benefits of competition on fares in general. Wichita's Mid-Continent Airport authorities wanted to halt the "leakage" of travelers to other regional airports, primarily Kansas City (Mo.) International Airport, served by Southwest Airlines.
POWERING THE X-45C Boeing has selected Windsor Locks, Conn.-based Hamilton Sundstrand as a key supplier for the X-45C/CN, the Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) being developed in the joint unmanned combat air system (J-UCAS) program to meet both U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy UCAV demonstration requirements. The company will provide systems for primary electric power generation, flight-critical electric power generation and electric power conversion. No dollar figures have been released as yet.
One in five U.S. households with television now receives service through direct-broadcast satellites, according to the Satellite Broadcasting and Com- munications Assn., which cited a study by McKinsey & Co. The latest numbers posted by DirecTV and Dish Network show 11,560,000 subscribers for DirecTV and 8,800,000 for EchoStar-owned Dish. The percentage of customers disconnecting each month is reportedly lower for satellite service than terrestrial cable.
Of the aerospace industry's three principal engine suppliers, Rolls-Royce plc has been the least affected by the sharp drop in commercial aircraft demand. Most of its engines in service are very modern, so haven't been parked and are only just approaching their first overhaul. This means the relatively high number of deliveries in the last few years has more than offset the retirement of Rolls-powered aircraft. (United Technologies Corp.'s Pratt & Whitney unit, whose engines tend to power the oldest passenger jets, has been the hardest hit.)
KLM PACKS FLIGHT BAG ON 777 Boeing joined fuselage sections this month on its first 777-200ER for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. The aircraft is the first in production to incorporate the Class-3 certified Jeppesen Electronic Flight Bag, which provides cockpit crews with computer access to flight manuals, weight-and-balance data, flight charts, weather maps and other information that are commonly carried as paper documents. KLM has four -200ERs on order and has leased six more. The aircraft is to be delivered in October.
COMMUNICATION COOPERATION OTE, one of Finmeccanica's newest additions, is poised to receive an Italian government contract worth more than 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) to develop and field an advanced joint GSM communication network linking the Italian police, Carabinieri and Guardia di Finanza paramilitary and police forces. These forces, of 272,000 personnel combined, have traditionally balked at relinquishing local power for intercompatibility. But following Sept.
