Former space shuttle commander Rick Searfoss has been named chief judge of the X Prize Competition. The $10-million prize is intended for the first team to fly a privately financed reusable three-person spaceship to an altitude of 62 mi. and repeat the trip within two weeks. Dennis Tito, founder/chairman/CEO of Wilshire Associates and one of the two civilians who have ridden with the Russian Space Agency to the International Space Station, has been elected to the board of trustees of the St. Louis-based X Prize Foundation.
Harry Pinson has become head of the Houston office of Lazard LLC. He was an investment banker for aerospace companies and airlines at Credit Suisse First Boston Corp.
LEGAL COSTS The State Dept. moves to block $42.9 million this year in foreign military financing (FMF) and $608,000 in training assistance because of legislation concerning the International Criminal Court. Washington is demanding ICC members agree not to extradite U.S. citizens to the court, or face the loss of those funds. Some members are exempt, such as NATO countries, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and Jordan. Most of the money blocked, about $32 million, would have gone to non-NATO European countries.
LUFTHANSA LOOKS EASTWARD Services between Europe and Asia are increasing, with several routes--including Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong--returning to pre-SARS levels. Lufthansa's Frankfurt-Beijing frequencies, for instance, had increased 40% by the end of July. Daily services to Beijing were restored. On Sept. 2, the airline will operate Boeing 747s on the route instead of Airbus A340s. On the same date, Lufthansa is to commence thrice-weekly flights between Munich and Shanghai.
GIVE AND TAKE Just after the Homeland Security Dept. and its Transportation Security Administration warned airlines of possible attempted suicide hijackings, news leaked out that the agency wanted to cut back funding for the air marshal program. Howls of protest could be heard from Democrats and a few key Republicans on Capitol Hill. Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse explained that the spending plan for the remainder of Fiscal 2003 just submitted does suggest cutting $104 million from the more than $500 million for the air marshal program.
Steve Huggins (see photo) has been named senior vice president-strategy and business development/executive liaison with Boeing for the Goodrich Corp., Charlotte, N.C. He was senior vice president-strategic resources and information technology.
Avoiding the threat of further labor action, British Airways has cut a deal with the trade unions after revealing that the initial cost estimate of a two-day strike at London Heathrow Airport last month was 30-40 million pounds ($48.3-64.4 million). A climate of distrust between management and staff culminated in a walk-out by BA check-in agents at Heathrow over the forced implementation of electronic time clocks. The dispute threatened to escalate and undermine the carrier's financial performance, which has improved in recent months.
Rockwell Collins has won a contract to provide communications and navigation systems for six new Air Hong Kong Airbus A300-600 aircraft and on four options. Aircraft deliveries are scheduled to begin in the latter half of 2004.
Moving to secure access to a lucrative U.S. market, engineering group GKN is to acquire rival canopy and transparencies manufacturer Pilkington Aerospace, giving the company a preeminent position in the combat aircraft market. GKN will pay 42 million pounds ($68 million) for the Pilkington business unit, with the deal expected to be concluded by September. The acquisition is part of an aggressive growth strategy on the part of GKN Aerospace Services, the aim being to double annual revenues within the next 3-5 years.
Australia is deploying four Aerosonde unmanned aircraft to the Solomon Islands as part of the regional assistance mission there. It is Australia's first deployment overseas of unmanned aerial vehicles. The air vehicles will carry electro-optical and infrared sensors and communications gear. The UAVs are part of a development effort run by the Australian Defense Ministry's science and technology organization (DSTO). Army scientists and DSTO personnel will operate the systems.
A318 FOR FRONTIER Denver-based Frontier Airlines last week received the first of five Airbus A318s on order. All five aircraft, which will be powered by CFM International CFM-56 engines, will seat 114 passengers in single-class configuration. The airline also plans to lease two A318s, one of which will be delivered in May 2004, and the other in May 2005.
CALL TO ATTENTION Extreme business cycles challenge original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to do a better job of managing uncertainty and reducing lead times (AW&ST May 12, p. 47). Exemplary Software hopes to answer this need. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company's Exemplary cX is designed to handle supply chains with complex, high-volume routings, providing users with visibility and collaborative process management for inventory replenishment and analytics. Only the items that require attention are flagged.
IT AIN'T OVER 'TIL . . . Efforts to save Chicago's Merrill C. Meigs Field go on despite the FAA's recent decision to decommission operations there and the approval of a $1.5-million contract by Chicago's Park District for completion of the airport demolition. The National Business Aviation Assn. is exploring what options, if any, remain to save the airport and encourages concerned individuals to contact their elected officials via NBAA's Contact Congress web site: www.nbaa.org/congress.
French space agency CNES has engineered a management reshuffle, marking the third and final phase of a thorough reorganization designed to put the troubled agency back on its feet.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair may have spent part of the weekend of July 26-27 reviewing a Defense Ministry decision on whether to move ahead with purchasing a new model of the BAE Systems Hawk jet trainer. Officials were working to be in a position to submit a recommendation to Blair late last week.
MISSED CONNECTIONS The intelligence community knew as far back as 1994 that terrorists were "contemplating . . . the use of aircraft as weapons." And, senior military officials were "reluctant to use U.S. military assets to conduct offensive counterterrorism efforts in Afghanistan, or to support or participate in CIA operations" against Al Qaeda before Sept. 11, 2001. So says the 800-page-plus report of the joint inquiry into 9-11 by the House and Senate intelligence committees.
COMMERCIAL IMAGERY Proposals for the National Imagery and Mapping Agency's $500-million NextView program were due last week, with the government slated to pick a winner or winners by the end of September. Under the project, NIMA will help finance commercial imaging satellites and, in return, receive preferred pricing and access. NextView calls for one or two satellites with a resolution of at least 0.5 meters, but with a desired performance of 0.25-meter resolution.
DRAW DOWN The Air Force is cutting 5,099 military and civilian personnel and 1,055 paid reserve slots in the latest restructuring. Hard hit are educational institutions like the Air University and Officer Training School at Maxwell AFB, Ala., the Air Force Academy, the Defense Languages Institute and Inter-American Armed Forces Academy. Those gaining slots in the restructuring appear to reflect trends in support of intelligence-gathering, special operations, and command and control.
U.S. lawmakers and the General Accounting Office (GAO) see problems in the international arrangements underlying the Joint Strike Fighter program. Their concerns echo complaints from European government and aerospace industry officials, who also have expressed misgivings about how the transatlantic relationship is playing out.
New York-based Cablevision hopes to shoehorn its way into the direct-to-home satellite television market with the Rainbow 1 satellite launched July 17 on an Atlas V. Lockheed Martin built the high-power Ku-band spacecraft on its A2100 bus for service at 61.54 deg. W. Long. Cablevision's planned Rainbow DBS spinoff is set to begin offering more than 100 channels through 18-in. rooftop dishes later this year.
I was saddened to read about the Raytheon Aircraft Co.'s project to destroy all of the Beechcraft Starship I business aircraft by the end of this year (AW&ST June 30, p. 44). Unfortunately, I will only be able to tell my children and grandchildren about the exotic Starships as I will be unable to show them an actual example.
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.
Robert W. Baker, the late vice chairman of American Airlines, has been honored posthumously with RTCA's 2003 Achievement Award. He was recognized for advancing the concept of government/industry partnership and for much of the success of the RTCA Free Flight Steering Committee during his seven years as its chairman.
MASS ACCEPTANCE SOUGHT Access 5--a team of UAV industry specialists--is going to present on July 30 the results of its four-month-long study on how to get unmanned aircraft accepted into national airspace. Team members will address senior aerospace industry, defense, NASA and FAA officials in Washington. The organization has received some funding to start its transition program at the beginning of Fiscal 2004. It is hoped the study's findings will generate a consensus about the value of this program to the future of aviation and aviation safety.
