David A. Fulghum (Ben Gurion International Airport, Israel)
Security from terrorist attack by anti-aircraft missiles may be available for as little as $2-4 per airline ticket, says a top Israeli official, an investment that would be dwarfed by the human, financial and equipment costs that would result from the loss of even a single airliner and its passengers. Moreover, the country's aerospace researchers are already showing a lineup of installation-ready products that range from cheap, simple chaff and flare combinations to next-generation devices that use a "cocktail of jamming codes" to send missiles off track.
Now 3D models are available for virtually any city in the world. This includes all locations where traditional mapping products are either outdated or not available for reasons such as restrictions imposed by local governments. These include South America, Africa, India, China and many other Asian nations. The company has developed software that allows its proprietary 3D modeling tools to support imagery collected by the DigitalGlobe QuickBird satellite.
These cable assemblies are designed for airborne systems and military ground combat vehicles. They are custom engineered and manufactured using all appropriate Mil-Spec wire, cable, boots, transitions, tubing, contacts, terminals, connectors, backshells and adapters. Featuring hand-soldering to Mil-S-45743, Mil-Std-1460 and Mil-Std-2000, the assemblies integrate RF and DC wiring and are packaged according to mil-specs.
An Australian dual-use telecom satellite is now in orbit, following launch atop an Ariane 5 booster on June 11. The vehicle also carried a Japanese direct TV satellite, BSat-2c.
Wes Bush, president of Northrop Grumman Space Technology, and Joanne Maguire, vice president-special programs of Lockheed Martin Space and Strategic Missiles, have been elected to the board of directors of the Colorado Springs-based Space Foundation.
BAE Systems is ratcheting up the pressure on the British government on a proposed jet trainer deal, warning that a failure to opt for a new variant of its Hawk would surely kill the aircraft's export potential. The government is in the final stage of determining whether to go with the Hawk 128 to meet its jet trainer requirement, or to open a competition.
Michael Mecham (San Francisco), Michael A. Taverna (Paris)
Boeing plans to complete all deployments by June 23 so checkouts can proceed toward an Aug. 17 start of service for Thuraya-2. The satellite was carried aloft by a Zenit-3SL from the Sea Launch Odyssey Platform near the equator in the Pacific Ocean.
NEW E-CARGO CUSTOMERS Global Freight Exchange, better known as GF-X, has picked new customers for the electronic cargo-booking service in spite of fresh competition from a North American rival. The U.K.'s bmi British Midland cargo committed to the service, which allows freight forwarders to make electronic bookings at any time. Capitol International, a general sales agent, also joined recently. Cargolux renewed its commitment for a year and BAX Global became a full member.
Despite broad satisfaction with the intelligence flow from three F/A-18D squadrons providing battlefield reconnaissance, U.S. Marine Corps officials realize they need to fix reliability and improve timeliness to make the system more valuable for future conflicts.
ON THE BALL Not much slips past the lawyers in the Transportation Dept.'s general counsel's office. On Mar. 1, the Transportation Security Administration was transferred from the Transportation Dept. to the Homeland Security Dept. And on June 10, the head of the TSA, James Loy, was removed from the line of succession to be secretary of Transportation should the secretary, and others ahead of Loy in the line, be absent or unable to serve.
The aggressive three-year program to build and test the two Mars Exploration Rovers "was too short of a development for a mission of this complexity" and resulted in a "less efficient" project than managers would have preferred, said Peter Theisinger, MER project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Greg Arnold, president/chief operating officer of TAC Air, has been elected chairman of the Alexandria, Va.-based National Air Transportation Assn. (NATA). New board members are: William T. Greenwell, chief financial officer of Frederick (Md.) Aviation and chairman of NATA's Business Management Committee; Jake Cartwright, president/CEO of TAG Aviation USA; and Sally Leible, president of Airport Terminal Services of St. Louis.
Rolls-Royce is banking on naval and industrial versions of its Trent and RB211 engine lines to help tide it over until the commercial aerospace business perks up again. Weighed down by the global airline slump and the collapsing business aviation market, commercial engine deliveries declined 37% last year, and are not forecast to recover before 2005 at the earliest (AW&ST Mar. 10, p. 46).
China has rolled out the first prototype of its FC-1 light fighter, with first flight possible as early as the third quarter of this year. The aircraft is being developed by CAC1, with partial funding by Pakistan, but with China's People Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) showing little enthusiasm for the design.
Rick Masoni, who has been executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems, Newtown, Pa., also will be vice president-business development. In the latter position, he succeeds Chuck Stees, who has become chief financial officer for the Denver-based Space Imaging Corp.
It's an ambition that recalls World War II, when aircraft factories cranked bombers by the thousands. Boeing is envisioning such an efficient supply chain for its long-range 7E7 mid-size twinjet that it will be able to roll one off the assembly line every three days. In today's terms, with aircraft more unique and complex, that would be very fast, certainly a far cry from the current standard of one every 13-17 days.
Steven H. Gardner has become chief technical officer of Advanced Remote Communication Solutions Inc. of San Diego. He was director of engineering for Conexant Systems.
In a tight competition, Raytheon has been selected over an MBDA/Boeing team to meet the British Royal Air Force's Precision Guided Bomb (PGB) requirement. The Paveway IV was chosen rather than the Joint Direct Attack Munition. The PGB program is worth 300 million pounds ($500 million), including 180 million pounds for integration costs on the Harrier GR9, Tor- nado GR4 and Eurofighter Typhoon.
Although I am certain Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Richard Myers has much greater access to information about the Iraq war than I do, I do not believe the U.S. military has learned much from that short war (AW&ST May 12, p. 38). The Iraqi military had many strategic and tactical delinquencies, and were fighting with outdated equipment. For example, American tanks were nearly impervious to any weapons available to Iraq.
Saab's Aerotech Telub has received an order valued at $3.6 million from the Swedish Defense Material Administration reconstruction of the Missile System 77 project. The contract covers project management, modifications, and target radar and gun mounting components.
This fully sealed, harsh environment panel potentiometer is a shaft-driven sensor that can be used in both position feedback and operator input (panel) applications. The device is rated to meet the requirements of International Electrotechnical Commission 529 for enclosure protection IP66 and IP67. This new-generation sensor assembly offers a slim design with low-electrical noise performance using a proprietary "LN" conductive plastic "ink" formulation. The unit can withstand more than 1-million full rotation cycles.
HELI-DYNE SYSTEMS INC. HAS ACHIEVED CERTIFICATION OF A single/multiple-camera/monitor installation for Bell 212- and 412-series helicopters as well as the Bell 430. Designated as the Airborne Video System (AVS), the installation provides pilots with a clear view of areas beneath the aircraft that could only be seen using external mirrors. Steven Hanzelka, manager of new business development for the Hurst, Tex.-based company, said the first AVS is operating on a Bell 430 in Veracruz, Mexico.
Once upon a time, all that separated the U.S. and Europe was a pond. Or so it seemed. But as the Paris air show gets underway this week, the transatlantic tensions are obvious. Washington's pique with the coalition of the unwilling on the war in Iraq led it to ground military aircraft at the show and order generals to stay home. Some U.S.-based companies followed suit, telling top executives to skip the meet. How ridiculous, their European counterparts say, that an honest policy difference would lead to such a juvenile retort.
The FAA has finally commissioned the first Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (Stars) at a major airport after years of delay, and the agency is gearing up for a nationwide rollout to replace obsolete equipment.
TEAMING UP Spectrum Astro has teamed up with OHB-System of Bremen, Germany, for joint work on international missile defense programs. The two medium-sized companies hope their combined skills will allow them to compete successfully against larger competitors for development and production work in the field. OHB-System has completed critical design review on the German defense ministry's SAR-Lupe program and is starting work on the five-satellite synthetic aperture radar constellation.
