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.
The company's Structural Anomaly Mapping (SAM) is, in effect, the first CAT-scan for business jets and can be used to uncover cracks and corrosion in metal, and debonding and delamination in composites. SAM can be programmed to inspect a super-midsize to large aircraft in 10-12 hr., moving all around it and examining every part to create a three-dimensional digital image with sensors that include a low-frequency acoustic source and a laser vibrometer. SAM can penetrate as much as 12 in. into the structure.
Boeing is talking to Israeli officials--including former fighter pilot and ambassador to the U.S. David Ivri--about leading Boeing Israel. Ivri, who is also a former director-general of the Defense Ministry, is of a similar stature to those named to lead Boeing's operations in Italy and Australia. Israel is technologically and economically attractive to Boeing, which already is building parts of the Arrow anti-ballistic air defense system. Moreover, Israel is in the market to lease replacements for its aging Boeing 707 tanker.
THINKING BIG John B. Hayhurst, the ever-optimistic president of Boeing Air Traffic Management, hopes the FAA's Operational Evolution Plan (OEP) for a phased integration of ATM upgrades will morph into a more advanced and broader approach in the next two or three years. In Boeing's view, the existing OEP will not produce improvements soon enough. But Hayhurst has yet to reveal just how Boeing would accelerate OEP improvements and speed the transition to a more satellite-based system at the same time.
WHEN IN DOUBT, REORGANIZE Northrop Grumman plans to swap business units around to concentrate similar capabilities better within operating sectors. The Global Information Technology, Civil Systems, and Mission Systems Europe units will move from the Mission Systems sector to the Information Technology sector. Completing the swap, the Defense Mission Systems unit will move the other way, from the InfoTech sector to the Mission Systems sector.
L-3 Communications Corp. has received certification for the eXaminer 3DX 1000 Explosives Detection System, which is designed to check small amounts of explosives in checked bags. The machine combines high-resolution computed tomography with traditional X-ray technology to produce crisp, clear three-dimensional images that can be displayed in a multi-view format. It was developed in partnership with Analogic Corp.
Prof. John C. Knight (University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.)
The dependability of the F/A-22 avionics software as described in your article "Code Red Emergency" (AW&ST June 9, p. 35) is deplorable. Clearly, a wide variety of serious technical flaws have been made in the development of this aircraft's software system. Such dreadful software performance is not inevitable. Many techniques exist that permit complex software systems to be built effectively, and many complex avionics systems have been built and deployed.
Despite having already flown combat reconnaissance missions in two conflicts, only this month was Northrop Grumman's first production unmanned RQ-4A Global Hawk rolled out at the company's manufacturing center in Palmdale, Calif. It is the eighth Global Hawk built, and its first flight will come later this month. The initial seven went into service as part of an advanced concept technology demonstration. They have now logged more than 3,000 flight hours, over half of them on operational missions.
JAPAN EYES REGIONAL TRANSPORT Boeing, Bombardier and Pratt & Whitney are assisting Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in a market study for a future regional transport. Under a contract from Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, MHI is to build technology demonstrators for a 30-passenger-class aircraft. Although the contract calls only for development, construction and flight testing of a demonstrator, the ministry and MHI hope to move toward production at the end of the contract in March 2008.
You can now register ONLINE for Aviation Week Events. Go to www.AviationNow.com/conferences or call Ryan Leeds at +1 (212) 904-3892/+1 (800) 240-7645 (U.S. and Canada Only) Sept. 16-18--MRO Europe, Cardiff, Wales. October--Network-Centric Conference. Washington. Oct. 28-30--A&D Programs & Productivity Conference & Exhibition. Arlington (Tex.) Convention Center. Nov. 11-13--MRO Asia Conference & Exhibition. Bangkok Intercontinental Hotel.
ORANGE AIRLINES The U.S. aviation system is effectively in Code Orange these days, while the rest of the world stays Yellow. A new warning that terrorists still target commercial aircraft draws immediate security responses that will add to travel disruptions. As the State Dept. eliminates programs that permit travelers to make stops in the U.S. on their way from one country to another without getting a U.S. visa, airlines scramble to reroute passengers or refund fares.
Neil P. Bloomfield, vice president-tactical systems for Baltimore-based Smiths Detection, has been appointed director at large of the Nuclear Biological Chemical Industry Group Board.
In a recent interview with Aviation Week & Space Technology, Rainer Hertrich, EADS' German-based CEO, called the Eurofighter "the most cost-efficient weapon system today" and predicted that it would be a strong competitor against Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in the export market.
The Experimental Aircraft Assn.'s AirVenture 2003 exhibition proved to be an aeronautical extravaganza replete with dozens of new aircraft designs, spaceplane projects and a grand celebration of the first 100 years of aviation.
Tina Lange has been named media relations specialist for Boeing's Florida operations at the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fort Walton Beach and Cecil Field in Jacksonville. She was market development manager for the newspaper Florida Today.
