One of your correspondents hit the nail right on the head on the Boeing 7E7. The engine is what is driving the design. If it had not been for the CFM56, the 737 line would have shut down years ago. If the 747 is Boeing's cash cow, then the 737 is its golden calf. Boeing has always built a super aircraft but to bring them to the table, you would have to drag them.
Midwest Express Holdings, parent company of Midwest Airlines and Midwest Connect, which averted filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in mid-July, reported an operating loss of $1 million in the second quarter. Midwest Airlines CEO Tim Hoeksema said "our outlook is significantly improved," although conditions in the industry--such as aggressive competition and continued high fuel prices, remain serious challenges.
Northwest Airlines has awarded Snecma Services a long-term maintenance-per-flight-hour contract covering 300 CFM56-5A turbofans powering Airbus A319s and A320s.
After winning the $18.9-billion contract to build the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in the summer of 2002 placed a $12.3-million order with Ingersoll Milling Machine Co. for custom-made machine tools to produce parts for the stealthy tactical aircraft. As of April of this year, Lockheed Martin had paid Ingersoll more than half the contract price but it still had no machines delivered. Then came the jarring news. Ingersoll had shut down.
Louis Le Portz has been elected commissioner general of the Paris air show by the board of the Gifas French aerospace industries association. He is chairman/CEO of Messier-Dowty. Le Portz succeeds Yves Bonnet, who has retired.
NASA has finally issued the report on the crash of the X-43A hypersonic propulsion testbed, which fell into the Pacific Ocean two years ago during the initial phase of boost by a modified Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus XL first-stage rocket.
WEATHER CHANNELS Mitsubishi Electric Corp.'s Kamakura Works, prime contractor for Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Multifunctional Transport Satellite-2 (MTSAT-2), has received an advanced five-channel imager for the spacecraft. Covering visible-light and long-wave-infrared wavelengths, the ITT Industries-built imager is scheduled to fly in 2006. It is an upgraded version of the imager on U.S. Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites, and similar to units that will fly on European weather satellites.
CONFRONTING GALILEO The White House is drafting a new space policy on the future of precision navigation and timing. The assessment will examine the future road map for GPS and systems that could augment the satellite system, says Kathleen Peroff, a national security expert at the White House Office of Management and Budget. A key question is what stance the U.S. should take in relation to Galileo, the planned European counterpart to GPS. The review is one of a series the Bush administration is undertaking to update space policy.
That a 3-4-lb. chunk of foam insulation, striking the shuttle wing at high velocity, could cause serious damage is hardly a revelation. Straws have been known to penetrate tree trunks during tornados. It is difficult to understand why NASA would conclude that the foam strike resulted in little or no decrease in the tiles' ability to withstand the stresses of reentry.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) of Australia's board last week ended the appointment of Mike Toller, director of civil aviation, effective Aug. 8. Transport Minister John Anderson said the deputy director will fill in for about 4-6 weeks, at which time Toller's replacement is to be announced. Anderson added that the parting of the ways was "entirely amicable" and that even Toller, who headed CASA "during a very turbulent five years," thought a change would be a good idea.
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Lynne Osmus has become assistant FAA administrator for the Office of Internal Security and Hazardous Materials. She has been chief of staff to two previous FAA administrators and was senior adviser to the deputy administrator coordinating security issues between the FAA and the Transportation Security Administration.
CZECH CHECK Thales Air Traffic Management is under contract to supply one 970S Mode-S monopulse secondary surveillance radar (SSR) to the Czech Republic's Air Navigation Services for installation at Pisek, southwest of Prague. The Mode-S radar--the first for the Czech Republic--is seen as an important addition to the country's modern air traffic management system. Thales also will upgrade the ATM computers to process Mode S-data.
If JSA Research analysts are correct in their assessment of small-cap DRS Inc., the fast-growing defense electronics manufacturer could become one of the aerospace industry's hottest equities in the second half of 2003.
ROCKWELL COLLINS AND SHIMADZU CORP. of Kyoto, Japan, will codesign a projection display for electronic warfare information on the Japanese F-15J aircraft. Projection display technology also is being used in the Joint Strike Fighter and F-18E/F, but this is the U.S. company's first international contract. Collins' Kaiser Electronics will provide the technical data package and design support to Shimadzu for the 4.5 X 4.5-in. reflective micro-LCD projection-based display.
TUI, ACCOR ALLIANCE Europe's No. 1 travel company, TUI, has concluded a strategic alliance with France's Accor intended to improve the distribution of TUI services in the French market and to increase the number of hotels it can offer leisure travelers. Accor controls a quarter of the travel bureaus in France, and runs more than 4,000 hotels worldwide, 180 of which are involved in the current agreement.
The Pentagon left no doubt that it found Boeing guilty of wrongdoing during the 1998 Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) competition, and has suspended indefinitely three Boeing space divisions and shifted seven launches to its competitor Lockheed Martin.
Sostar, one of the consortiums vying for NATO's Airborne Ground Surveillance (AGS) system, says it has completed the critical design review for its Sostar-X demonstrator, intended to show the viability of its concept. Sostar--which includes Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics Canada, EADS, Thales, Galileo Avionica of Italy, Spain's Indra and Dutch Space--is competing with a rival team headed by Raytheon and BAE Systems. Requests for proposals are expected to go out this month, with a selection early next year.
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USAF Brig. Gen. Paul J. Selva has assumed command of the Tanker Airlift Control Center, Scott AFB, Ill., from Maj. Gen. Edward L. LaFountaine. Selva was vice commander. LaFountaine will be director of logistics and security assistance at Headquarters U.S. European Command, Germany.
The sport aviation industry is facing tough political and operational challenges as it struggles to defend the freedom to fly, while attempting to attract new pilots and increase its role as a portal for technology innovation. The Experimental Aircraft Assn., based in Oshkosh, Wis., and other general aviation groups are working with the Transportation Security Administration and FAA to minimize the impact of federal security measures on a person's freedom to fly, said EAA President Tom Poberezny.
