German government opposition to sale of key aerospace and defense assets to foreign owners could scuttle talks by DaimlerChrysler to sell engine maker MTU. Talks are said to involve U.S. and U.K. investment funds, in particular Carlyle Group, which earlier this year acquired Fiat Avio jointly with Finmeccanica. German Economics Minister Wolfgang Clement has said he would fight a foreign takeover of MTU.
The Honeywell engineering team that developed the Enhanced Ground-Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) is developing an "assisted recovery system" to take control of an airplane before a pilot flies inadvertently into the ground or a hijacker flies deliberately into a building or other structure. Testing is underway in the company's King Air C90 testbed aircraft at Paine Field in Everett, Wash., and consists of some experimental software running on a laptop computer.
BAE SYSTEMS has won a $6-million production contract from ATK Integrated Defense Co. to supply the AN/AAR-47(V) missile warning sensor. The common-housing missile and laser warning system will be installed on more than 3,000 U.S. Navy and Air Force helicopters and transport aircraft. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in March 2004.
NEW RADAR FOR TAIWAN Taiwan is getting three new approach control radars under the USAF Foreign Military Sales program, with first delivery in 2005. The ITT Gilfillan MPN-14K systems have a 2.7-2.9-GHz. surveillance radar with a solid-state transmitter and a 9.0-9.6-GHz. precision approach radar with an active array comprising about 200 solid-state transmit/receive modules. Controller stations have multimode color displays. The $74-million contract also upgrades seven existing systems that were delivered in 1992.
PENSIONS AND POLITICS U.S. Sen. Peter G. Fitzgerald (R-Ill.) said recently it's financially irresponsible for United Airlines to help pay for Chicago O'Hare's $6.6-billion expansion plan when UAL is bankrupt, owes its employee pension plan $7.5 billion and is in default on bonds issued to pay for its existing terminal at O'Hare. Fitzgerald plans to introduce legislation this autumn to protect the pensions of active and retired workers at United.
USN Vice Adm. (ret.) Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr., who is administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has been named U.S. representative to the intergovernmental working group on Earth-observation systems that will monitor global climate and environmental systems.
LABOR ON THE HILL . . . Conflict over the FAA reauthorization compromise-that-wasn't-really-a-compromise is heating up, not cooling off, during Congress's August recess. Democratic leaders, who never signed the conference bill published as Congress was leaving town, say they'll oppose the removal of anti-privatization language won earlier by labor in the separate House and Senate bills the conference bill was to reconcile.
The Lockheed Martin F-35 is being designed with a computer architecture flexible enough to carry the air vehicle from cradle to grave and take advantage of well-supported commercial software and ever improving processors. For example, the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will use a mission-critical computing architecture designed to buffer software from processors with "middleware" so the old chips can be replaced as needed.
Mr. North talks of a major aerospace industry workforce shortage within the next 10 years (AW&ST Aug. 4, p. 54). If I read another article to this fact I will have to scream. Everyone has been talking about shortages for at least the last 15 years. What shortage? Apparently the so-called experts who keep predicting this have not kept up with the industry. There is no shortage now, nor has there ever been. Not as long as the FAA keeps letting everybody send their aircraft overseas to get repaired. We in the U.S.
Information Technology Assn. of America workforce surveys conducted this year and in 2002 found significant differences between the needs of IT and non-IT companies.
Lockheed Martin Space & Strategic Missiles of Sunnyvale, Calif., has received a patent for a near-zero-erosion, net-molded ceramic rocket nozzle throat for solid rocket motors. The new ceramic material promises to improve solid rocket motor affordability and performance compared with the current state-of-the-art 4D carbon-carbon material.
While many new munitions are being designed to loiter over the battlefield, an additional category is needed that can first travel a long distance to get to the conflict or strike at targets that are seemingly too far away to be in danger.
Cap Parlier has been appointed engineering services manager for Senior Aerospace Composites, Wichita, Kan. He was vice technical director for business aviation for Piaggio Aero Industries, Genoa, Italy.
BOEING DROPS SOFTWARE PROJECT Boeing and Chennai-based (Madras) Ramco Systems have ended their joint venture Enterprise One effort to build a comprehensive maintenance management software system for airlines. The effort was not seen as a core business application for Boeing. Ramco was to supply key software modules to Boeing to support airline engineering staff. Logistics functions, including spare parts procurement and inventory control, were included, according to Ramco Vice Chairman and CEO P.R. Venke-trama Rajha.
Terry Mularkey (see photo) has been named director of alumni/parent relations of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Fla. He was director of development for athletics.
With a pending deployment of military forces to Afghanistan, Canada has decided to buy Sperwer tactical unmanned aerial vehicles to meet its short-term intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) needs and as a first step toward addressing the Army's longer term UAV requirements. Quebec-based Oerlikon-Contraves is serving as the prime contractor on the C$33.8-million ($24.5-million) contract, with Sagem supplying the UAV. The deal includes four UAVs, two control stations, training and logistics support.
Lockheed Martin said last week it will bid on the Homeland Security Dept.'s $1.5-billion U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indication Technology contract to develop an automated system to track the entry, visit and exit of foreign nationals. US VISIT is designed to make entering the U.S. easier for legitimate travellers and harder to enter, stay or exit illegally.
Faced with debts, image problems and a grounded fleet, Thailand's Angel Air has asked Bangkok Airways to take over not only its assets and operations, but also its debt. But Bangkok Airways, the country's most successful and profitable private carrier, is busy expanding and says Angel Air has too poor an image to warrant such a deal.
UNITED STATES Editor-In-Chief: David M. North [email protected] Managing Editor: James R. Asker [email protected] Assistant Managing Editors: Stanley W. Kandebo--Technology [email protected] Michael Stearns--Production [email protected] Senior Editors: Craig Covault [email protected], David Hughes [email protected] NEW YORK 2 Penn Plaza, Fifth Floor, New York, N.Y. 10121 Phone: +1 (212) 904-2000, Fax: +1 (212) 904-6068
END OF THE ROAD Helsinki-based Air Botnia is leasing two RJ85 and two RJ100 jet transports from BAE Systems Regional Aircraft. The deal marks the end of the Avro RJ manufacturing program. A total of 390 BAe 146/Avro RJ airplanes have been built. Air Botnia operates five of the aircraft.
NEW COMPETITION In November, AirBlu, a startup regional carrier, is scheduled to begin operations in the Italian market. The airline would operate from Trieste Ronchi dei Legionari Airport and offer a number of direct flights to European destinations such as Paris and Bucharest. To reduce capital investments and risk, plans call for the airline to forge agreements with established carriers to provide aircraft and crewmembers to AirBlu, probably under a wet-lease program. Selection of partners is to be announced by the end of this summer.
Aviation pundits' predictions that Asia could be next in line for the budget airline boom are gaining ground. South Asia is about to get its first discounter: Bangalore-based Air Deccan is set to start a series of point-to-point services on Aug. 25 with four 48-seater ATR 42-300s.
CALIFORNIA'S OTHER ROCKET While Burt Rutan's suborbital manned vehicle that will barely reach space grabs all the headlines, the other California rocket program--the one designed to make money by going all the way to orbit--is quietly advancing near El Segundo with two major commercially funded rocket engine developments. Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) has successfully test fired a 7,500-lb.-thrust upper stage engine for the new commercial Falcon rocket set for launch in the next 12-18 months. It earlier test fired a much larger first-stage engine.
