EXIT PLAN The military should be more aggressive in using covert operations to combat the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) weapons, argues Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). That would be one facet of the more aggressive counter-proliferation strategy the senior lawmaker is advocating. Kyl says the intelligence community needs to get sharper on figuring out exactly where countries such as North Korea are performing work on NBC programs. However, he says the U.S.
Air Midwest Flight 5481 lasted 70 sec.--and resulted in hundreds of hours of accident investigation which so far have bared maintenance and weight-and- balance shortcomings that beg for remedial action.
A year of closely monitored flight testing has led to a reversal of fortune for the V-22, with senior Pentagon officials giving their blessing to take the tiltrotor off life support and into a higher production rate.
James Corcoran (see photo) has been appointed director of commercial services for Honeywell International in Phoenix. Hewas systems integration manager for the Primus EPIC flight management system.
Boeing has appointed Yves Galland vice president of international relations and president of Boeing France. Galland, a former member of the European Parliament in the 1980s and 1990s held ministerial positions in right-wing French governments, including international commerce, and later returned to the private sector.
Austerity measures, furloughs, fleet realignments and route reductions have paid off for four major international carriers that turned profits in fiscal 2002-- but the combined effects of the Iraq war, the SARS crisis and terrorism do not bode well for 2003.
In warfare, the maxim that "the only constant is change" has never been so true. Every time American forces engage in conflict, our potential adversaries learn more about our capabilities and tactics. For example, after the first Persian Gulf war, the Chinese government, shocked by our forces' technological advantages, launched a series of ongoing reforms to modernize that nation's military.
Pierre Chao has become a senior adviser at Credit Suisse First Boston. He has been the firm's senior aerospace/defense analyst. Chao has been succeeded by Jim Higgins, who was the firm's airline analyst.
The business aviation community fears the consequences of planned new U.S. operating rules for fractionally owned aircraft, for which there are no corresponding requirements in Europe.
ORBITAL SHIPS BSAT Orbital Sciences Corp. shipped its BSAT-2c Japanese geostationary communications satellite to Kourou, French Guiana, where it is scheduled to be launched on board an Ariane 5 rocket in mid-June. The BSAT-2c satellite is the third direct-broadcast television spacecraft Orbital has manufactured for Japan's Broadcasting Satellite System Corp. (BSAT) (below).
Final processing of the two Mars Exploration Rovers set for launch on Delta II boosters June 5 and June 25 has involved the most intensive twin lander spacecraft assembly and checkout flow at the launch site here in more than 25 years. The twin spacecraft effort, tied to a short Mars launch window, harkens back to a time when the U.S. space program routinely sent dual identical missions to the planets--a strategy once abandoned, now revived for the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Program.
ISRAEL/U.S. TEAMING Israel's Electro-Optics Industries Ltd. (El-Op) is teaming with AeroAstro Inc. in Boston for the development of advanced micro and nano space systems and components, with a special focus on remote sensing and optical systems. With the teaming agreement between the two companies in place, an equity investment by Elbit Systems for a minority share of AeroAstro is anticipated to be concluded as soon as regulatory authority is obtained. Since its inception in 1988, AeroAstro has been advocating and developing small, low-cost spacecraft.
Andy Nativi (Genoa, Italy), Michael A. Taverna (Paris)
Italy's Finmeccanica is moving to parlay recent and pending aero engine, trainer and satellite services acquisitions into a renewed strategy for aerospace alliances. Under a new management team installed in mid-2002, the Rome-based conglomerate has been working feverishly to put together a strategy capable of making it a major player in defense and space, as it has in the rotorcraft field (see story on p. 28). With backing last week from shareholders for another three-year term, management is now set on putting that strategy into action.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee last week unanimously approved "Flight 100--Century of Aviation Reauthorization Act," the four-year, $59-million FAA reauthorization bill. H.R. 2115 included an amendment that would decrease the number of additional slots at Washington Reagan National Airport to 20 from 36.
NOW HEAR/SEE THIS The U.S. military wants to enhance its propaganda toolbox with an eye to fielding radio/TV broadcasts through 2013. Additionally, the U.S. Special Operations Command, which runs the Pentagon's psychological ops program, is hoping to target new technologies. The new tools should be able to include Internet features and text messaging, as well as reach cellular telephones. The command plans to run an analysis-of-alternatives next fiscal year. The technologies should allow dissemination of messages up to 750-naut.-mi. range.
China has become the seventh Asian country to reduce landing and air navigation charges at key international airports as a benefit to carriers hit with falling revenues from the SARS virus. This is in response to an appeal by the International Air Transport Assn. and involves a 20% cut for operations in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
The British Defense Ministry is looking to overhaul how it will field the Eurofighter Typhoon, as well as grappling with number issues and weapons integration demands. Originally, the British Royal Air Force intended to field four squadrons in the air defense role by 2007, with a further squadron in the air-to-surface role, along with an additional two multirole units in 2009.
Daniel Brandenstein, Robert (Hoot) Gibson and Sally Ride are scheduled to be inducted June 21 into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Brandenstein piloted one shuttle mission and commanded three others, including the first flight of Endeavour, and later was chief of the Astronaut Office. Gibson commanded four of the five shuttle missions on which he flew. Included was the first docking of a shuttle with Russia's Mir space station. On the seventh shuttle mission in 1983, Ride became the first American woman to fly in space.
HOUSECLEANING An overbilling scandal has prompted Kawasaki Heavy Industries to move Toshihiko Tahara, a director of KHI's Aerospace Div., to the president's post at Kawasaki subsidiary Nihon Hikoki (Nippi) in place of Yoshimasa Tanaka (AW&ST May 19, p. 42). KHI also created a chairman/CEO position at Nippi to which it has nominated KHI Managing Director Takatsune Sugo. The nine remaining Nippi board members resigned, but have not been replaced.
CHEAP IS DEAR Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries is busy repairing sets of "cheap" screws in the fuel control system of F-3-30 engines that power the Japanese air force's Kawasaki T-4 interim trainers. From May 2002 to February of this year, four T-4s suffered a loss of thrust after takeoff that prompted emergency landings. Metal fragments from aluminum screws in the fuel control system appear to be the cause.
DHL Airways, the express carrier under attack as a pawn of a foreign government, is heading for a transformation--new ownership, new name. DHL Chairman John Dasburg teamed with two colleagues last week in a $58-million plan to complete the 100% acquisition of the express operator by June 30. The buyout was simultaneously an investment in an airline and a strategy against the charge that the carrier has been operating under control of DHL Worldwide Express and the German Post Office, in violation of U.S. laws.
BUSY AT THE CAPE At least 11 major expendable booster missions remain to be flown at Cape Canaveral through the rest of 2004. These include five Boeing Delta II missions and two additional Delta IV Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle flights. The Delta IVs include the first launch of the Heavy version in September that will use three oxygen/hydrogen-powered common booster cores with three Rocketdyne RS-68 engines as the first stage.
CAPITAL IDEA The National Capital Region--a broad area that includes Washington and its suburbs--has quietly been equipped with an integrated air defense system, a response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It comprises not only fighters flying combat air patrols (CAPs), but Customs Service H-60 Black Hawk helicopters, surface-to-air missiles and air defense artillery. The frequency of air patrols and location of air defense sites is closely guarded information, but officials are now acknowledging their existence, a change from not long ago.
Grand Canyon Helicopters has taken delivery of the first of two Eurocopter EC130 helicopters for use in sightseeing flights and work for the U.S. Forest Service.
