BAE Systems dismissed as "abso- lutely groundless" bribery allegations in a British newspaper regarding the now defunct sale of the Gripen fighter aircraft to the Czech Republic.
EADS is circling the wagons again with a reorganization of its space units, effective this week, to focus management of launchers and human spaceflight here and satellite manufacturing in France. Designed to help the struggling sector meet U.S. and Russian competition in a market expected to remain flat at best until mid-decade, the reorganization includes as many as 3,300 layoffs announced previously. When it is completed EADS facilities around Europe will be more specialized "centers of excellence" as the company eliminates redundant capabilities.
LEASE IS MORE Production lines at Mitsubishi, Fuji, Kawasaki, ShinMaywa and Japan Aircraft Manufacturing Corp. (Nippi) will be kept busy until at least 2010 thanks to the U.S. Air Force's decision to lease 100 Boeing 767-200ER modified troop/transports. The five Japanese airframe manufacturers are partners in the 767 program. Japan's first shipset is to leave for Seattle next January. Mitsubishi makes the aft fuselage, Kawasaki the forward/center fuselage, Fuji the wing/fuselage fairing, and ShinMaywa and Nippi build wing and fuselage components.
The InSite Plus Monitoring and Management System provides real-time assessment of a facility's essential equipment and operations. Based on industry-standard PC technology utilizing Microsoft Windows OS and application software, the product is custom programmed. Designed for use with the company's uninterruptible power supply systems and switchgear, the system is designed so operators can quickly diagnose and resolve a problem.
As the international aerospace industry prepares for the 45th Paris air show, it is still contending with what could be regarded as a "perfect storm" of perilous conditions. The confluence of a sour global economy, an international health scare, a bloated backlog of aircraft and the potential for rifts between nations to widen even further could seem, to say the least, discouraging. And yet, on the horizon the economy is showing signs of a rebound, the market is imposing some "reality checks" on airline management, and rifts can be mended and have been in the past.
It has long been customary for aerospace and defense companies to use the Farnborough and Paris air shows as the most desirable venues at which to announce new orders, product launches and transatlantic partnerships. And why not? Both events are media circuses, with one-upmanship the name of the game. No doubt, this time-tested pattern will be repeated time and again throughout the 2003 Paris air show this week.
Delta, Northwest and Continental sold convertible notes. American renegotiated loan covenants. United is trying to put together its Chapter11 reorganization plan, while US Airways is nearly through its first quarter following reorganization. And Southwest sails on through what almost certainly will be its 49th consecutive profitable quarter.
Six decades after a group of German rocketeers painted a fanciful Moon maiden on the first rocket to reach outer space, Europe is on the verge of sending a spacecraft to explore Earth's satellite and hopefully answer some old questions about how it was formed.
DHL Airways and rival cargo operators exchanged legal brickbats last week in the Airways citizenship case before U.S. Transportation Dept. Administrative Law Judge Ronnie Yoder. FedEx, UPS and Lynden Air Cargo sought the judge's approval of depositions of DHL Airways Chairman John Dasburg, DHL Worldwide CEO Uwe Doerken, Deutsche Post World Net, CEO Klaus Zumwinkel and Washington lawyer Michael R. Klein. Counsel to DHL Airways asked the judge for confidential treatment for certain documents and to limit access to them.
HOT SEAT After a three-year search and commensurate suspense, the FAA finds its man. Russell Chew, a line-qualified captain and 20-year American Airlines veteran, will leave his post as the carrier's managing director of system operations control to become the agency's first chief operating officer, starting Aug. 1.
Regarding the letter "Boeing Should Go for the 7E7" (AW&ST May 12, p. 6), Airbus has been working on a fuel-efficient, high-reliability, low-cost aircraft. POA, ANTLE and EEFEA are all programs that will lead to Airbus incorporating reduced NOx emissions, lower fuel burn and a more electric content into current aircraft, as this technology is proven from 2008 onward. Boeing is not coming up with something technically innovative; it is merely responding to the direction in which Airbus already is headed.
In a suit that could bring a billion-dollar judgment, Lockheed Martin has alleged that Boeing hired a key former employee from its Atlas rocket program to gain access to proprietary technical and cost data in order to win the U.S. Air Force's "winner-take-all" Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle competition. A Lockheed Martin official said the decision to sue is "highly unusual; it's almost unprecedented." Citing a pattern of abuse, he said the company "cannot turn the other cheek on this. It is serious and grave."
Henry Dubois has been promoted to president of DigitalGlobe, Longmont, Colo. He will continue as chief operating officer/chief financial officer. Herb Satterlee remains chairman/CEO.
BUGLER, SOUND RECALL Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld presses his interests in transforming the military into more agile interconnected forces with nominations he is asking President Bush to send to the Senate for approval. He wants second terms for space-savvy Air Force Gen. Richard B. Meyers as chairman of the Joint Chiefs and for vice chairman Gen. Peter Pace, the first Marine to serve in that post. In a real eyebrow-raiser, the Army's new chief of staff won't come from the ranks of generals now on active duty. Rummy has picked retired Gen. Peter J.
Jim White (see photo) has been appointed president of the Herndon, Va.-based Computing Systems business unit within the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Information Technology Sector. He led federal units at Sybase, i2, Platinum Technologies and the Digital Equipment Corp.
One problem I have with people who complain about age restrictions for airline pilots or air traffic controllers is that they never propose an alternative. Age is not just a number. If not age 56 or 60, then how long should these people be allowed to work? Age 65? Age 70? Until they drop? As someone who might be riding with one of them, dying with their boots on is not an option.
CONTROLLABLE-THRUST TRIAL Aerojet, a GenCorp Inc. company, recently conducted a test flight of a controllable-thrust solid rocket motor at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. The test required the motor to provide on-command thrust on a real-time basis for the NetFires Precision Attack Missile, part of the Defense Dept.'s NetFires program. The motor met all prescribed objectives. On-command thrust provides the capability for longer range, shorter time-to-target and multi-mission flexibility for each launched motor.
Kevin J. Quinn has been named vice president/general manager of the Commercial Power Systems of Phoenix-based EaglePicher Technologies. He was corporate vice president-strategy and business development for EaglePicher Inc.
The U.S. Marine Corps is mulling the acceleration of several AV-8B Harriers upgrades, having seen features it liked and others it would have wanted to have on hand during the conflict in Iraq.
W. Steve Albrecht has been appointed to the board of directors of SkyWest Airlines. He succeeds Henry Eyring, who has resigned. Albrecht is associate dean of the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University.
It has always surprised me that whenever Europeans develop and produce aero- space systems that provide self-sufficiency to Europe and/or compete in world markets with similar U.S. systems, comp- laints find their way into your magazine (AW&ST Apr. 21, p .6). The writers would deny people in the the rest of the world the right to invest as we see fit, as the U.S. rightly does when its security, self-sufficiency and/or economics are at stake.
Alain Albarello (see photo, p. 38) has been appointed chairman/CEO of Thales Computers, Toulon, France. He was director of the Inboard Technology Center for Thales Underwater Systems.
Technicians working on Europe's Columbus International Space Station (ISS) module here will soon begin integrating specialized experiment racks into the laboratory on a schedule that would support an October 2004 launch if there were space shuttles to carry it and a place to dock it once it reaches orbit.
TRANSONIC DROP TESTS French space agency CNES has started drop testing a high-speed transonic flight demonstrator developed by NASDA and the National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan. Three or four flight tests are planned by mid-July. During each test the demonstrator, a quarter-scale model of the Hope-X spaceplane known as HSFD 2, is released from a CNES stratospheric balloon from an altitude of 30 km. (19 mi.) and recovered by parachute, with an air-bag assist. Data analysis will focus on the transonic flight phase between 20 km. and 10 km. altitude.
