Widespread ills afflicting the U.S. airline industry are forcing modification of pilot scope clauses, allowing carriers the flexibility they need to survive.
Steven Lott, business editor of Aviation Week's Aviation Daily, has received the Eugene DuBois Award for aviation journalism from the New York-based North American Airlines Public Relations Assn.
Steve True is one of 12 general managers who have been promoted to area general managers for Orlando, Fla.-based Signature Flight Support. True will be based at San Francisco International Airport. The others are: Gary Daniels, Dallas Love Field; Dale Kariya, Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport; Geoffrey Heck, Las Vegas McCarran International Airport; Paul Shira, Chicago O'Hare International Airport; Craig Teasdale, Denver International Airport; Eric Hietala, Washington Dulles International Airport; Rick Cortez, St.
The LightWedge reading light lets users read in the dark while preserving night vision. The product is a thin acrylic lens placed directly on the page that evenly disperses light from two red-LED lamps, allowing the user to read charts, maps and books in the dark without a significant negative impact on night vision. Unlike white light, red light allows pupils adjusted for darkness to stay adjusted. No excess light bounces off the page. The unit operates on four AAA batteries that last up to 40 hr.
SLAMMING SHUTTLE SAFETY NASA's space shuttle safety organization looks good on paper but delve into how it actually works, and "you find there's no there there," retired Adm. Harold W. Gehman, Jr., tells the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. At the harshest congressional hearing on the shuttle disaster that NASA has faced so far, the chairman of Columbia Accident Investigation Board (photo, below right) described safety personnel as largely feckless for myriad reasons.
SWEEPING CHANGES FOR CARGO The U.S. Senate passed the Air Cargo Security Improvement Act (S.165) by unanimous consent on May 8, and the bill has been referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. The Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) and cosponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), calls for sweeping changes in air cargo industry security, including a requirement that all carriers develop an approved security plan for their facilities, operations, cargo and personnel.
The Transportation Security Administration is accepting applications online from commercial airline pilots for the Federal Flight Deck Officer program, with the next class expected to begin in mid-July at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Ga. Numerous classes will be trained after that before the end of Fiscal 2003 with the $8million appropriated by Congress for the program. The first prototype class completed training on Apr. 19. TSA pays for all training costs and required equipment, including 40-caliber semiautomatic handguns.
UNITED STATES Editor-In-Chief: David M. North [email protected] Managing Editor: James R. Asker [email protected] Assistant Managing Editors: Stanley W. Kandebo--Technology [email protected] Michael Stearns--Production [email protected] Senior Editors: Craig Covault [email protected], David Hughes [email protected] NEW YORK 2 Penn Plaza, Fifth Floor, New York, N.Y. 10121 Phone: +1 (212) 904-2000, Fax: +1 (212) 904-6068
June 3-4--Boeing MD-11/MD-10/DC-10/KC-10/KDC-10 Fleet Team Conference. Westin Long Beach (Calif.). Call +1 (562) 436-3000 June 6-8--Quad City 16th Annual Airshow. Davenport (Iowa) Municipal Airport. Call +1 (563) 285-7469 or see www.quadcityairshow.com June 10-11--NASA Ames Research Center Symposium. Santa Clara (Calif.) Convention Center. Call +1 (650) 604-1412 or see www.human-factors.arc.nasa.gov/eas
NEW SHUTTLE LEADERSHIP William Parsons, the director of the NASA Stennis Space Center tapped to replace Ron Dittemore as shuttle program manager later this summer, believes current space shuttle program processes are "pretty solid." "I do not foresee us going through making an awful lot of changes to the process of how we determine if we are ready for flight and we are safe for flight," Parsons said.
EUROPE-TO-MARS Europe's Mars Express, the ambitious orbiter/lander combination, is now scheduled to lift off for the Red Planet on June 2, after a faulty power distribution unit was removed and repaired. The mission's Soyuz vehicle will launch a little before midnight local time from Baikonur Cosmodrome. The mission will kick off a major new U.S. and European assault on Mars. If all the flights are successful, there will be a new orbiter flying above Mars and three new landers, two of them U.S. rovers, operating simultaneously on the surface by early 2004.
Daniel Weder has been appointed executive vice president-products and services and Martin Isler executive vice president-strategy and network for Swiss International Air Lines. Weder was vice president-cabin crew and succeeds Bjorn Naf, who is now CEO of the Swiss Express subsidiary. Isler was head of sales and marketing in Europe. He succeeds Matthias Hanke, who has left the company.
WORLD NEWS ROUNDUP 20 U.S. Coast Guard to procure two CASA CN-235-300Ms for maritime patrol, more due WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS 24 $4.3-billion RJ order belies sector's not-so-rosy future 26 US Airways orders more RJs to compete with low-costs INTERNATIONAL DEFENSE 28 U.K. feels constrained in developing its F-35 version 29 U.K. seeks millions for next- generation recon capability 30 Australia ups defense funds for modernization projects
Jon S. Teller's letter illustrates the absurdity of age-based mandatory retirement (AW&ST Apr. 21, p. 6). According to Teller, the FAA has a mandatory retirement age of 56 for air traffic controllers because some years ago a study was done which showed that people over that age suffer from "diminished mental capabilities." Was this study subjected to peer review, or, like the Age 60 rule for airline pilots, is it supported only by FAA deception and obfuscation?
HANDICAPPING THE X-PRIZE The competitors racing for the X-Prize are using a variety of configurations, not all of which make sense, according to an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics assessment by husband-and-wife team Marti and Nesrin Sarigul-Klijn. He is a Navy Test Pilot School graduate and was the chief engineer at the defunct Rotary Rocket Corp., and she is a mechanical and aeronautical engineering professor at the University of Calif. at Davis.
Leonard Brunette, Kent Fujimoto, Malia Mosman, Greg Peterson and Darren Schultz, all aviation students at the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences at the University of North Dakota, have won $12,500 Clay Lacy Professional Pilot Scholarships. They will participate in the Lacy program at the Experimental Aviation Assn.'s Aviation Center, Oshkosh, Wis.
MAN ON A MISSION U.S. aerospace companies that provide air traffic control and air traffic management (ATM) equipment and services, as well as those producing airport equipment, are being recruited by the Commerce Dept. to participate in a business development mission to China, Sept. 14-19. The purpose of the trip is to "build relationships and explore opportunities in a promising aerospace market," according to Joe Bogosian, deputy assistant secretary of commerce for Transportation and Machinery, who will lead the delegation.
NEW COMMAND The Australian defense ministry has established a Special Operations Command with a status equivalent to that of the maritime, land and air commands, highlighting the increasing importance of the elite forces to Canberra. In addition to its joint headquarters, the organization is made up of the Special Air Service Regiment, the 4th Battalion Royal Australian Regiment (Commando), two Tactical Assault Groups (West and East), 1 Commando Regiment, the Incident Response Regiment, and the Special Operations Combat Service Support Company.
Alan McCartney has become London-based vice president-business development of Boeing Air Traffic Management subsidiary Preston Aviation Solutions Pty Ltd., Melbourne, Australia. He was executive chairman of Ferranti Air Systems Ltd., Manchester, England.
The British government has been issued a stark warning that it faces paying $15 billion for the U.S. F-35 Joint Strike Fighter without guaranteeing its ability to independently support or upgrade the aircraft. Sir Richard Evans, BAE Systems Chairman and head of the Defense Industries Council, last week cautioned: "We have a serious problem on the Joint Strike Fighter in the U.K., and this is not just with industry."
The U.S. Air Force has awarded the Boeing/Northrop Grumman/Raytheon team a pre-system development and demonstration contract for weapon system integration of the new E-10A, the next-generation airborne ground surveillance and battle management command-and-control aircraft. The contract is valued at $210 million. Northrop Grumman is responsible for overall program management.
IVY LEAGUE The Defense Dept. has selected six universities to receive research grants worth $4.1 million in Fiscal 2003 and as much as $28.4 million over five years. The grants are part of the department's Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative that focuses on themes vital to national defense. These include research into polymers with the goal of discovering how to synthesize long chains of heteropolymers with a controlled and repetitive sequence, according to the Pentagon.
As a former naval aviator, with a tour of duty in Vietnam, and one who was not even born in the U.S., I can understand Karl Kettler's views regarding our President's military service (AW&ST Apr. 14, p. 6). However, I have always believed in the old adage that you can disagree without being disagreeable. The fact that you chose to print this letter as well as Denny Kroeze's response (AW&ST Apr. 28, p. 6) illustrates perfectly what this country is about, freedom of expression.
Editor-in-Chief David North (right) confers with Embraer test pilot Otavio Vaz Kovacs following an evaluation flight in the EMBRAER 170. North flew from the left seat with Kovacs in the right seat. Jens Peter Wentz monitored the flight as the test engineer. The 2-hr. flight was flown from Embraer's new test facility at Gaviao Peixoto. The 16,000-ft.-plus runway, situated between orange groves and sugar cane fields, is oriented to 200 deg. and 020 deg. Embraer photo by Doug Oliver.
Europe's most powerful communications spacecraft, the Greek Cypriot Hellas Sat, is maneuvering toward its geosynchronous orbit slot following a May13 launch on board the second flight of the Lockheed Martin International Launch Services Atlas V Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle. The mission marked the 65th straight success for an Atlas over 10 years, and the second in a row for Lockheed Martin's EELV.
