BIDDING BAN Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport banned NEC Corp. from participating in project bids for a two-month period. The ministry's decision was rendered because of a failure of the NEC-developed air traffic control system that wreaked havoc on Mar. 1: A 1-hr. breakdown affected more than 1,600 flights and 300,000 passengers. The ministry claims the manufacturer was aware of the system defect, but had not alerted the transport authority.
Europe Off to Mars Europe is poised this week to set out on its first mission to Mars, kicking off a new round of solar system exploration that will also take it to the Moon, the asteroid Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Venus, Mercury and Titan. The European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter/lander is due to lift off from the Baikonur, Kazakhstan, Cosmodrome on June 2, atop a Starsem Soyuz/Fregat rocket. The Fregat version was developed with ESA funding for ESA's Cluster 2 satellites, launched in mid-2000.
Michael Redenbaugh (see photos) has been named CEO of Fort Worth-based Bell Helicopter Textron. He succeeds John Murphey, who has become chairman emeritus. Redenbaugh was vice president/general manager of Honeywell Propulsion Systems and acting president of Honeywell Engines, Systems and Services. He also has been vice president/general manager of Honeywell's Military Helicopter and Industrial Engine business.
TOOL TIME A metal-cutting technology acquired by Cincinnati Machine from bankrupt Swedish firm Modig Machine Tool AB offers a low-cost alternative for producing aerospace parts including stringers. A $7-million order was placed from an unnamed airframe subcontractor for three pieces of equipment that employ the new system. Two high-speed cutting spindles are attached to a rotating drum to cut long, thin parts, avoiding expensive fixturing. Relocation from Cincinnati to Hebron, Ky., is planned for this summer.
Ulrik Svensson has become chief financial officer of Swiss International Air Lines. He succeeds Thomas Hofmann, who has left the company. Svensson was managing director for finance.
Gregory Hall has been named senior vice president-maintenance and engineering for United Airlines. He succeeds Ron Utecht, who has retired. Hall was vice president-line maintenance.
Satellite Power The British Defense Ministry is working on a classified next-generation intelligence system that will allow it to more fully exploit its access to U.S. space-based satellite reconnaissance imagery.
ARMY UAV The U.S. Army is buying three General Atomics I-GNAT unmanned aircraft under an $8-million contract. The first of the aircraft is to be delivered to the service next May. The UAV is supposed to aid the Army in determining how best to employ UAVs as it revamps its force structure under its "Objective Force" concept. I-GNAT carries a 200lb. payload or can stay airborne for 50 hr. The UAV also is used by the CIA.
SOLAR SYSTEM SLICE The Mars Global Surveyor orbiter turned away from the Red Planet May 8 and used its well-exercised camera to capture six other celestial bodies in a single frame. Taking advantage of an alignment in the orbits of Earth and Jupiter, MGS delivered an image that included the two planets, plus the Moon and three of Jupiter's four Galilean satellites--Callisto, Ganymede and Europa.
Virgin Atlantic Airways is pouring cold water over speculation it might be the target of a bid by archrival British Airways. Suggestions that ongoing discussions between Virgin Atlantic and BMI might prompt British Airways (BA) to attempt a block by bidding for Virgin were met with derision from that carrier's senior management.
ASTAR IS BORN The expected new owners and management of DHL Airways have selected another name, Astar Air Cargo Inc. (pronounced A-Star), for the cargo and express carrier (AW&ST May 26, p. 51). The "improved" moniker will become effective June 30 when the $57-million buyout of DHL Airways, led by John Dasburg, former CEO of Northwest Airlines, is scheduled for completion. Dasburg said the name stresses the cargo carrier's revised operating plan.
The Technology Directorate of the U.S. Homeland Security Dept. will be working closely with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) of the Commerce Dept. to develop technical solutions for homeland security. A recent memorandum of understanding between the departments gives the Technology Directorate greater access to NIST work on the detection of chemical and biological agents as well as explosives. NIST also will assist industry in bringing homeland security technologies to market, including helping companies meet requisite standards.
The European Commission has cleared EADS' acquisition of BAE Systems 25% share in space company Astrium. This gives EADS sole ownership of the company.
The FAA has issued a Notice of Proposed Rule-Making (NPRM) for an airworthiness directive that would require operators of Airbus A330 and A340 aircraft to conduct detailed inspections of the rudder travel limitation units. The NPRM was issued after the French DCAG airworthiness authority advised the FAA it had received reports of abnormally stiff rudder pedal application in flight and ground tests.
Arturo A. Rosales, director of Americas programs and business development for Boeing Satellite Systems, has been named one of the U.S.' 50 most important Hispanics in business and technology by Hispanic Engineer & Information Technology magazine. He is responsible for executing commercial satellite programs in North and South America, and has overseen commercial and government programs based on the Boeing 601 satellite product line.
Michael A. Dornheim (Los Angeles), Craig Covault (Cape Canaveral)
Rover Launch Delayed The first of two U.S. Mars Exploration Rovers will be launched at least three days later than planned--no earlier than June 8--following a NASA decision that project managers need at least three extra days to complete critical prelaunch reviews tied to both vehicles.
Michael Tuttle has been appointed general manager of the Aviation Div. of the Omni Energy Services Corp., Carencro, La. He was regional sales manager for Gulf of Mexico operations for Air Logistics.
Ukraine last week dispatched accident investigators to Tabzor, Turkey, to help Spanish and Turkish aviation officials determine the cause of the May 26 crash of a Yakovlev Yak-42 that killed all 12 crewmembers and 62 Spanish military personnel on board. According to the Ukrainian news agency, the charter flight operated by Ukrainian-Mediterranean Airlines (UM Air) was en route from Kabul to Zaragoza, Spain, with service members returning home from a four-month peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan.
GA Riding 'Highway-in-the-Sky' General aviation aircraft are finally catching up with some of the advances found in the latest commercial transports and military cockpits, and in one particular sphere--display innovations--GA is actually taking the lead.
BARTER BOGEYS NASA may not have gotten its money's worth from about $1.5 billion in barter deals with its international partners on the space station, but there's no way to know because the procedures for estimating and documenting the value of goods and services received were inadequate. That's the conclusion of a September 2002 audit report by the agency's inspector general, obtained last week under the Freedom of Information Act. The report suggests NASA may have low-balled the value of shuttle and communications services in bartering for station hardware.
SWITCH HITTER Military space operators can now configure their own communications systems to reach satellites via remote tracking stations--the largest fundamental change in space operations during the past 15 years. Officials of the 50th Space Wing say data fed to and from space operations centers are now automatically switched through tracking stations, freeing 31 technicians who had previously handled the switching manually.
Executives of EurocopterUSA in Grand Prairie, Tex., said its operations in North Texas will not be shut down and moved to a new site in Columbus, Miss. Instead, the company plans to expand the Grand Prairie facility in the near future to handle increased deliveries of helicopters to the North American market, and in particular to customers in the U.S. Operations at the Mississippi facility would center on the manufacture of certain parts, while the personnel in Texas will continue to focus on assembly and completion of new helicopters shipped from France.
Exploring the Envelope Investigators at the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory here are now advocating two series of flight tests to fully explore the hypersonic propulsion potential of hydrocarbon-fueled supersonic combustion ramjets.
