SIMPLIFYING SECURITY Multiple computer security sign-ins and passwords are a nuisance everywhere. But coordinating different networks to accept a single sign-in/password isn't easy, so the aerospace industry often lives with the problem. But Southwest Airlines and Boeing have achieved a common sign-in/password system for the airline's intranet and the proprietary fleet configuration/maintenance data that it keeps with MyBoeingFleet.com.
Even though the Lybian government of Muammar Qadhafi accepted "responsibility for the actions of its officials" in the 1988 bombing of Pan American Flight 103 in a three-page letter to the U.N. Security Council last week, the White House plans to keep U.S. sanctions against Lybia in place. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell responded to the news, saying the U.S. will not oppose the lifting of U.N. sanctions. Lybia said it helped bring two suspects in the bombing to justice and is committed to cooperating in the fight against terrorism. However, the U.S.
TROUBLE IN SPACE Satellite Radio's two Boeing-built broadcast satellites over the equator south of the U.S. are experiencing faster than normal loss of solar power owing to degradation of reflectors that concentrate sunlight (AW&ST Sept. 23, 2002, p. 60). Both satellites are part of a batch of six Boeing BSS 702 models launched between December 1999 and May 2001 in which normal end-of-life power is predicted to occur after roughly three years in space instead of the typical 12 years. To cope with the expected power loss, XM signed a contract with Sea Launch on Aug.
Barantec was awarded FAA certification for a cockpit door access control keypad, and says this is the aviation industry's only certified keypad for flight deck doors. By utilizing a patented solid-state design based on the piezoelectric effect, the company is able to manufacture totally sealed, all-metal products that have no moving parts and, as a result, long life. The company worked with Timco Aviation Sales of Greensboro, N.C., to develop software for the product.
The SpaceShipOne photographs (AW&ST Apr. 21, p. 64) appear to be retouched or modified. The rocket nozzles visible in three separate photos are clearly either computer-generated additions or extremely poorly done mockups. The nozzles in the photographs on pp. 64-65 are not even close to the actual nozzles shown on pp. 69 and 73. If those simple pictures are faked, what else is fake? Are all of the inflight pictures fake as well? Do any of the photos show actual flight hardware?
Aerospace and defense companies have scaled back some information technology projects, but canceled relatively few outright, as the vendors of the leading tools focus on ways to knit the entire enterprise together in their latest offerings.
I must say that government studies and more school programs to promote interest in careers in aerospace will not work. As a midlevel engineer who left the industry five years ago, I have to point out that it was the wild mood swings in the industry that gave me reason to change careers. Engineers as a group tend to be more risk-averse than others, so despite the rewards of designing, building and making it fly, these are offset by the worry of not having a job after the program ends.
STN ATLAS SPLITS BAE Systems and Rheinmetall DeTec have finally struck a deal over the breakup of their STN Atlas joint-venture electronics company. BAE held 49% of STN, with 51% owned by Rheinmetall. The restructuring will see STN Atlas split into two companies: Atlas Elektronik, a naval sysyems business to be wholly owned by BAE, and Rheinmetall Defense Electronics, which covers air and land systems, to be held by Rheinmetall.
A White Paper from Japan's Defense Agency says the threat of international terrorism or a ballistic missile attack is far greater than a Cold War-style invasion, signaling a rethinking in spending away from the country's traditional defensive stance.
PEGASUS FIRES SCISAT A 330-lb. Canadian satellite designed to study chemistry tied to ozone distribution in the upper atmosphere is undergoing checkout in polar orbit following its launch Aug. 12 on a Pegasus XL winged booster. The SciSat 1 spacecraft was placed into a 400-mi. orbit inclined 73.9 deg. following its drop launch from the Orbital Sciences Corp. L-1011 carrier aircraft flying over the Pacific Ocean about 100 mi. off the central California coast. The flight marked the 21st Pegasus success in a row extending back to 1996.
In a bid to make the V-22 tiltrotor more affordable, the Pentagon plans to spend about $360 million during the next several years to improve how the Marine Corps and Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) aircraft are built, and to reach a price of $58 million per copy in 2010.
Robert Wall (Washington), Craig Covault (Cape Canaveral)
Overwritten requirements, excessive monitoring and misguided organizational changes have taken their toll on the creativity and effectiveness of the National Reconnaissance Office, complain former representatives of the agency that builds U.S. intelligence satellites.
BIG PROPELLER Ratier-Figeac has been selected to supply propellers for Europe's A400M airlifter. The French subsidiary of Hamilton Sundstrand will begin building the huge 6meter-dia. (20-ft.) props in 2007.
GE Aircraft Engines has won an order worth $600 million to provide CF6-series powerplants for 22 China Airlines aircraft--12 Airbus A330-300s, six Boeing 747-400s and four 747-400 freighters that the Taiwanese carrier ordered last October. China Airlines already operates 11 GE-powered 747-400 freighters and has two additional ones on order.
SLOW GROWTH Officials of the International Civil Aviation Organization expect airline traffic worldwide to rebound during 2004-05 and grow 4.4% and 6.3%, respectively, in those years. There will be zero growth this year, thanks to the war in Iraq and SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), according to ICAO. Passenger traffic in North America will not regain levels experienced in 2000 until 2004, and the Asia-Pacific region, hit hard by SARS, will lose 0.8% of its 2002 traffic but gain 4.9% in 2004 and 6.8% in 2005, outpacing the world average.
. . . AND IN COURT Transportation Security Administration workers aren't unionized, but that didn't stop the American Federation of Government Employees from going to federal court seeking an injunction to prevent the agency from making further layoffs, and from hiring screeners who aren't among those already laid off.
BACK TO BASRA British Airways has received permission from the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq to resume service to Basra, and plans two flights each week via Kuwait. A date for startup will be determined by the airline and CPA. Alan Burnett, regional director for the airline in the Middle East and Africa, said the first priority is to provide service to Basra, followed by flights to Baghdad when the airport is opened to commercial traffic. British Airways has a history of serving Iraq but ceased operations there before the Persian Gulf war in 1991.
The first gliding flight of Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne this month demonstrated a clean separation from its carrier aircraft, took it from stall speed to 150 kt., and was capped by a smooth landing at the long, paved runway here. SpaceShipOne is an air-launched, rocket-powered craft designed to climb vertically to 100 km. (328,000 ft.) carrying up to three people, then enter the atmosphere and glide back to the airport (AW&ST Apr. 21, p. 64).
There is a tantalizing vision flickering before the eyes of those mapping the unexplored territory of network-centric warfare. It is a fleet of fast, stealthy, unmanned, strike/reconnaissance aircraft that can fight a war largely unencumbered by human intervention.
L-3 Communications has received a work order from Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems Sector to supply M11 digital video electro-optic/infrared countermine step-stare sensor systems in a four-year $8.4-million contract. The systems are slated to be used in the U.S. Army's airborne standoff minefield detection system.
British defense-engineering specialist Insys has been awarded a $14-million assessment phase contract for the British Defense Ministry's lightweight mobile artillery weapons system program. The contract covers development of a systems demonstrator and has a potential value of $160.2 million with all options exercised.
THE FAA HAS ACCEPTED a key building block for the En Route Modernization (ERAM) program, which was awarded to Lockheed Martin in July 2002. The company's En route Communications Gateway (ECG) will transmit radar surveillance data to the FAA's 20 Air Route Traffic Control Centers, which control high-altitude air traffic and serve as the hubs of the National Airspace System.
