Rick Maloney has been appointed dean of the College of Aviation at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. He was vice president-flight operations/system chief pilot for United Airlines.
MINI KILL VEHICLES The U.S. Army plans to narrow the field of contractors working on the miniature kill vehicle (MKV) project, with an eye to hover testing a demonstration system in 2005. The Army Space and Missile Defense Command, since early last year, has been working with Science Applications International Corp., Schafer Corp. and Lockheed Martin on different MKV designs. The hover-test articles the winner would have to provide should be of the same configuration as eventual flight-test kill vehicles, the Army stressed.
The Pentagon's ambitions to add a boost-phase-intercept (BPI) element to its missile defense architecture have run into choppy waters. Congress is threatening to slash funding, while an independent scientific group is questioning the feasibility of the multibillion-dollar endeavor.
NEW TEST CENTER Smiths Aerospace opened a purpose-built test facility in the U.K. last week to develop and qualify actuation systems for the F-35B variant of the Joint Strike Fighter. The test center is associated with actuation equipment for the Rolls-Royce liftfan for the short-take-off vertical-landing version of the aircraft.
Union sources say the French government plans to transform Paris Airport Authority ADP into a limited company in which the government will retain a 51% share. The change is to be announced at the end of July.
SOLDIERING ON As part of the U.S. Army's evolving Future Combat Systems (FCS), prime contractors Boeing and SAIC have added 15 partners to the umbrella modernization projects that should provide new ground equipment, unmanned aircraft and other surveillance, reconnaissance and communications tools. Among the newly named participants are BAE Systems, working on integrating communications between air vehicles; Northrop Grumman, involved with sensor procurement and integration for air vehicles, and Textron Systems developing unattended ground sensors.
Robert Pugh has been selected as a fellow by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Kirtland AFB, N.M. The fellows program recognizes AFRL's military and civilian scientists and engineers for their research and development accomplishments or technical program management. Pugh is associate chief scientist of AFRL's Space Vehicles Directorate.
John Alp (see photo) has been named general manager for the Brisbane (Australia) Training Centre of Seattle-based Boeing subsidiary Alteon Training. He was regional general manager of CAE Australia.
Itzhak Beni (see photo) has become president/CEO of Israel-based Tadiran Electronic Systems Ltd. He remains president/CEO of Tadiran Spectralink Ltd. and a director of Dekolink Wireless Ltd.
ETHIC CLEANSING Boeing moves to stanch criticism of its corporate ethics by naming former U.S. Sen. Warren B. Rudman (R-N.H.) to lead an independent review of its policies and procedures on the handling of competitive information. The Air Force and Justice Dept. are investigating whether Boeing misused proprietary information from Lockheed Martin in the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program (AW&ST June 16, p. 74).
Ken Stackpoole (see photo) has been named director of government relations for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Fla. He has been special assistant to the president and director of flight training.
TERRIFIED The new chief of Central Command, Army Gen. John Abizaid, confirms from the Pentagon that at least two U.S. aircraft had man-portable missiles fired at them in Iraq during the last two weeks. In fact, the general said he was on the flight deck of a C-130 that had warnings of an incoming missile. "The guy made a hard right bank, and we fired off all of our flares," Abizaid said. "These guys were from the Oklahoma [Air] National Guard, and they actually thought it was fun.
BOMBARDIER RECREATIONAL PRODUCTS division is in the final stages of developing its new Rotax 936 V-6 engine for aviation applications. The engine can burn aviation gasoline or motor fuel, and features a single overhead camshaft, electronic-controlled single-lever power control, electronic ignition, an all-aluminum crankcase and water cooling. According to Bombardier, the baseline, naturally aspirated engine is rated at 220 hp.; a turbocharged version produces 300 hp. The company has flown the engine for more than 120 hr.
HUMAN RATING Future human-rated NASA spacecraft must include crew escape capabilities throughout the flight profile, including reentry, under new guidelines issued by the agency's Office of Safety and Mission Assurance.
COST ACCOUNTING Intrigued by renewed congressional interest in a large, ultra-long-endurance (24-hr. or more), very stealthy, unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, specialists who gathered here last week for UAV events said they have been doing some back of the envelope calculations of what the systems would cost. Research and development would run about $1 billion. Adding that to the price of building 12-24 airframes would result in a total program cost of $100-200 million per aircraft, they figure.
Several European air forces flying mid-life-upgraded (MLU) F-16s are acquiring day/night targeting systems that enable precision-guided weapon deliveries, substantially improving their contributions to coalition campaigns. The Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark have equipped their fighters with Lockheed Martin-built enhanced Lantirn targeting pods, and Norway recently contracted for the company's new Pantera pod--an export version of the U.S. Air Force's Sniper targeting system (AW&ST Feb. 5, 2001, p. 60).
NAVY MH-60RS Lockheed Martin has won a contract to begin production of the MH-60R helicopter for the U.S. Navy. The low-rate production (LRIP 2) award includes the initial release of $17 million to purchase components with long lead times. Four engineering and manufacturing development Phase II--and five LRIP I--aircraft have been delivered under the ongoing development program. The second lot is for six MH-60Rs, with ultimate production quantities of 254 aircraft expected. Full funding for LRIP 2 is anticipated in the Fiscal 2004 Defense Dept.
ISS BATTERIES Boeing and a subcontractor, Space Systems/Loral, will share a seven-year, $145-million NASA contract for 40 replacement battery units for the International Space Station. When it is complete, the station will carry a total of 48 of the nickel-hydrogen batteries on four truss sections to provide continuous power to ISS systems when the station's solar arrays are shadowed by the Earth. Boeing is already under contract to supply batteries for one of the truss sections, and the new contract covers the remaining three sections.
Lufthansa German Airlines is reportedly considering an equity investment in rival Swiss International Airlines as the beleaguered Swiss carrier continues to fight for survival.
After weeks of internal Pentagon haggling over wording, the U.S. Air Force finally has sent to Congress its recommendation to lease 100 KC-767A tankers. But the service and Boeing immediately found themselves on the defensive, having to make the case that the multibillion-dollar arrangement is a good deal.
Aviation Week & Space Technology took a break this year from its Top-Performing Companies study to develop an updated profile of the overall competitiveness of the aerospace/defense and airline industries. While it's difficult to generalize--for example, some of the challenges facing government contractors and commercial aerospace companies are very different--we believe the analysis will ring true for anyone who has been closely following the ups and downs of both sets of players.
EXECUTIVE CHARTER OPERATOR INNOTECH-EXECAIRE Aviation Group, headquartered in Montreal, has been named the first Canadian affiliate approved to provide point-to-point flights for members of Delta AirElite Business Jets. Delta AirElite, which is a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, has more than 300 jets located in key cities in the U.S. and Canada for use by its customers. It maintains a fleet of Bombardier Challenger and Learjet aircraft, as well as Gulfstream and Cessna Citation jets.
Royal Netherlands Air Force F-16s carrying GBU-12 500-lb. Paveway II laser-guided weapons and Enhanced Lantirn targeting pods return from a mission in Afghanistan earlier this year. Lantirn laser designators can be fired from altitudes up to 40,000 ft., enabling the delivery of precision weapons over high terrain (see p. 44). Crews from the Dutch, Danish and Norwegian air forces based at Ganci Air Base (Manas International Airport) in Kyrgyzstan
I'd like to congratulate U.S. Rep. John L. Mica (R-Fla.) on his quest to punish those who would dare to think differently from America. But he needs to dig deeper than the Paris air show. What about all those companies that are using Catia? Surely there is an American product they could use. If not, they could go back to slide rules and drafting tables. And what about those airplanes with CFM engines? Or those airlines that are flying Airbus aircraft? I hope no government employees or contractors are riding on any of those.
Lockheed Martin launched its biggest Atlas V yet July 17, with two Aerojet solid rocket boosters and a 5.4-meter Contraves fairing to accommodate the Rainbow 1 TV broadcast satellite owned by New York's Cablevision. The first in the Atlas V 500 series rockets lifted off from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral at 7:45 p.m. EDT, and delivered its 9,500-lb. payload to geostationary transfer orbit 1 hr. 40 min. later. It was the third launch of the Atlas V common core booster.
