The U.S. approach to civil aviation security seems to focus on the latest, most visible threat, not on looking at security in a holistic way. Some members of Congress believe that all 6,500 commercial passenger jets in the U.S. should be equipped with state-of-the-art laser systems to warn and protect against shoulder-fired missiles. Interest in the topic flared anew last week after the FBI arrested a British citizen who allegedly was trying to sell a Russian SA-18 Igla missile to a supposed terrorist--actually an undercover FBI agent.
USN Rear Adm. Reubin B. Bookert has been named commander of Amphibious Group Two, Little Creek, Va. He has been deputy director for expeditionary warfare in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations at the Pentagon. Bookert succeeds Rear Adm. Michael P. Nowakowski, who has been assigned as commander of Mine Warfare Command, Corpus Christi, Tex. Rear Adm. Richard E. Brooks has become commander of the Navy Safety Center, Norfolk, Va. He was commander of Patrol and Reconnaissance Force Atlantic, also based in Norfolk. Brooks succeeds Rear Adm. Stephen A.
Continuing worry over the vulnerability of commercial aircraft to terrorist attack was underscored last week as U.K. flag-carrier British Airways suspended some flights, while an "arms dealer" was arrested in the U.S. in a sting operation, after having brought a Russian shoulder-launched missile into the country.
Capt. Steve Stowe of Delta Air Lines has succeeded Capt. Rick Shay of United Airlines as chairman of SAE Flight Deck and Handling Qualities Standards Committee, which is dedicated to creating, preparing and maintaining all relevant specifications, standards and requirements pertaining to aircraft handling qualities and the flight deck.
UNITED AIRLINES IS THE FIRST U.S. air carrier to sign up for Lockheed Martin's new information integration product, FltWinds. Pronounced "flight winds," it could benefit both air traffic controllers and airline operations centers and aid collaborative decision making. FltWinds shows an integrated airways/weather picture, and analyzes flight routes in real time, to identify upcoming conflicts between the aircraft, weather and special use airspace. Not a flight planning tool, it can feed information into such programs.
James F. Van Gilder, who was founder and has been president/CEO of the Corrosion Technologies Corp. of Dallas, has become chairman. He has been succeeded by Michael L. Tuite.
Due to the electrical power failure affecting much of the Northeast U.S. Aug. 14-15, this issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology was printed two days later than normal. We regret any inconvenience this may have caused our readers.
Former astronaut Mark Brown has been named vice president-Aerospace Div. of the Computer Sciences Corp., El Segundo, Calif. He was district manager for air and space programs development for AT&T Government Solutions.
The FAA last week grounded the Learjet 45, citing a problem with the corporate jet's pitch/trim actuator. The action followed the discovery of a crack in the pitch/trim actuator screw in March. Bombardier replaced all the part number -1 actuators with a -5 assembly shortly after the finding and an earlier FAA directive. No cracks have been found in the new actuators. However, because of a lack of proper procedures used by screw-manufacturer MPC Products, the FAA had not been part of the approval process.
Once again the debate has risen from the grave. I'm a 49-year-old airline pilot and my whole career I've heard this same argument; that if a pilot is healthy enough, he ought to be able to fly after his 60th birthday. The pilots screaming the loudest for this always seem to be the ones coming up on 60. I wonder why this is? I believe greed is their motivation here. You never hear these pilots complain when they're moving up the seniority list.
First flight of the U.S. Navy's integrated APG-79 active electronically scanned array radar onboard an F/A-18E was made at the China Lake, Calif., test facility. While Navy officials are hypersensitive about the new radar's capabilities, an industry researcher said it does many things at once, including electronic jamming and finding small targets such as stealthy cruise missiles at extended range.
To submit Aerospace Calendar Listings, Call +1 (212) 904-2421 Fax +1 (212) 904-6068 e-mail: [email protected] Aug. 30-Sept. 1--Canadian National Exhibition's International Air Show. Ontario Place, Toronto. Call +1 (416) 263-3650, fax +1 (416) 263-3838 or see www.cias.org Aug. 31-Sept. 5--International Society for Air Breathing Engines' 16th Symposium. Cleveland Renaissance Hotel. Call +1 (540) 231-9617 or see www.conted.vt.edu/isabe
Thomas W. O'Connell has been sworn in as the assistant secretary of Defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict. He was a senior manager for the Raytheon Co.'s intelligence and information systems.
To study the potential of microelectromechanical systems, the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has built what it says is the first facility for developing and testing MEMs in vacuum conditions. Researchers at SwRI found that MEMs operate in a vacuum differently than they operate in normal atmosphere: the voltages required for resonant operation are much lower and the energetic amplifications are much larger. The researchers found during testing that oscillators needed only one-tenth of the voltage normally required in air.
Your editorial on the looming aerospace and workforce crisis identified the symptom of a far greater problem. Unfortunately all the math and science programs or rah-rah sessions will not attract young people to this industry if no decent jobs await them.
When the legal fallout from United Airlines' Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing reached Denver International Airport (DEN), the ensuing uncertainty and indecision drew in Frontier Airlines as well. Here is how Frontier tells its story, in response to the FAA's request for comment on how airline bankruptcies affect airports:
Kenneth Wood has been appointed to the board of directors of Flight Safety Technologies Inc., Mystic, Conn. He is former president of Barringer Technologies.
CENTENNIAL C-130J Lockheed Martin delivered the 100th and 101st C-130Js to Italy's 46th Air Brigade in Pisa. It has five more deliveries in the 22-aircraft order. The company has received 179 orders for its latest update of the venerable transport.
The Zap Checker 270 is an RF-field detecting instrument that verifies and measures transmitted signals from aircraft comm/nav equipment, transponders and emergency wireless gear. A 60-dB. "log" mode enables plots of antenna radiation patterns. The "linear" mode is used to detect micro-cable leakage, RFI and crosstalk problems. The ZC 270 detects interference from cell phones and other electronic devices in the flight cabin. Spanning a 10-MHz. to 4.5-GHz. bandwidth, the ZC 270 measures to ambient levels of RF and detects weak signals that just exceed that baseline level.
Lockheed Martin will provide design and development work for the U.S. Navy's E-2C Hawkeye radar system in a $413.5-million agreement. The contract is part of the system development and demonstration phase of the U.S. Navy's Advanced Hawkeye program to replace the current AN/APS-145 airborne radar by 2010.
The judges for Aviation Week & Space Technology's Seventh Annual Technology Innovation Awards bring a wide variety of experiences in aerospace and defense. They are:
HELP WANTED Next month the U.S. Transportation Dept. plans to hire a consultant to develop an "evaluation model of passenger demand" covering how demand has changed in recent years, particularly with respect to different price levels. The department, which is seeking a contractor with access to data the government lacks, intends to issue a one-year, firm-fixed-price contract by Sept. 12, with options for two additional years.
INTAKE AND EXHAUST Textron Lycoming President/CEO Mike Wolf said recently that in the near future the company plans to make a series of "incremental internal improvements" to its existing line of piston engines for the general aviation market, instead of developing an entirely new powerplant.
BOEING'S RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY CENTER in Madrid, Spain, is leading an effort the company said will result in a fuel-cell powered electric airplane flight in late 2004 or early 2005. The plane will be a motorized glider--a modified version of the Austrian company Diamond's Katana Xtreme Motorglider, known as the Super Dimona in Europe. Sener, a Spanish engineering company, will develop the control system, and Advanced Technology Products of the U.S. will supply the motor, batteries and conduct the flight tests, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
