(First in a series of previously untold stories about the F-117's early days.) Depicting a symbolic nighthawk in flight and worn on a man's suit lapel, it's just a small, innocuous silver pin. But a red ruby in the hawk's eye silently speaks volumes. It says the pin's owner is part of a small, elite club--the U.S. Air Force's first group of operational F-117 Nighthawk pilots.
The Titan Corp. has won a five-year contract, with the potential value of $17.3 million, from the U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command to provide hardware system integration, design and support services for navigation sensor system interface systems.
Francesco Violante has been appointed managing director of Sita Inc. of Washington. He will succeed John Watson, who is expected to retire on June 30. Violante has been managing director/vice president for Italy, Israel, Turkey and Greece.
European Space Agency planners have set launch dates for long-planned missions to the Moon and Mars, and a decision on a new target for the delayed Rosetta comet probe is due soon. 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. The mission's Soyuz vehicle will launch a little before midnight local time from Baikonur Cosmodrome. Meanwhile, the first Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology (Smart-1) has been scheduled for an Aug.
A Russian Mil Mi-26 helicopter, operated by the Emergency Situations Ministry for firefighting, crashed earlier this month in the Chita region of the Russian Far East, killing all 12 people on board. The Mi-26 had dumped about 15 metric tons of water over a forest fire and was headed back to a reservoir to refill its canister. The crash occurred after the 60-meter-long wire on which the water canister was suspended swung backward and became caught in the helicopter's tail rotor, causing the aircraft to plunge to the ground.
Swiss International Air Lines is scheduled to form a low-cost/low-fare affiliate, Swiss Express, by November. The carrier will operate European city pairs. The unexpected move has Swiss taking a try at its predecessor's strategy, which involved a mainstream airline complemented by a regional carrier. (Swissair owned a controlling majority in Crossair.)
Boom-and-bust cycles are the bane of aerospace/defense companies' existence, but a recent industry survey may yield some valuable clues about how civil and military contractors might do a better job of working through them.
Northrop Grumman Corp. has won a $21-million contract from the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., to provide the TR107, a 1-million-lb.-thrust -class liquid oxygen/kerosene reusable engine that operates on an oxidizer staged combustion cycle.
LOT Polish Airlines has signed an agreement to acquire 10 Embraer 170 regional jets. The contract also includes options for an additional 11 aircraft, with a possible conversion to the Embraer 190 or 195. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in early 2004.
Shenzhen Airlines is to use two wet-leased Airbus A300-600 freighters to begin cargo services in September after obtaining approval from the Civil Aviation Administration of China. The services will mark the fourth dedicated freight network serving China's fast-growing markets. The initial network covers 25 cities.
New model introductions by Raytheon and Boeing failed to dispel the uncertainty pervading the business aviation community over the likely duration of the existing market downturn.
Even though total runway incursions may have decreased during the last three years, the numbers are still frightening (AW&ST Apr. 21, p. 60). It only takes one to kill a lot of people. Aviation's worst disaster took place on a runway in Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the 1970s.
Squabbling over a four-nation initiative to fast-track defense and foreign policy cooperation has subsided as European Union foreign ministers, meeting in Greece last week, moved to satisfy the key demands in the French- and Belgian-led proposal, while amending elements perceived to be directed against the U.S. and NATO (AW&ST May 5, p. 35).
AIAA, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics 3rd Cover Americom Government Services 16 Aviation Week Homeland Security Directory 11 Paris Air Show Opportunities 24-25** ARINC 12 Boeing Co., The 24-25* ELTA Systems Ltd./ Israel Aircraft Industries Ltd. 55 Embraer 57 ESRI 41 GE Aircraft Engines 2nd Cover Goodrich 59 GSA, FSS Services Acquisition Center 49 Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. 9 Howmet Castings 14
FIRE ONE Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) lambastes Airbus Military for selecting Europrop International's TP400 turboprop for the A400M military transport (see p. 26). Receiving an annual award from the Private Sector Council here last week, the Armed Services Committee chairman described the engine selection as purely political. Citing what Warner said was the lower-priced Pratt & Whitney Canada entry, and with comparable performance, the senior senator from Virginia said that a U.S. company would not have engaged in the same type of underhanded dealings.
NEW JET FOR JET As it celebrated its 10th anniversary as one of India's leading independent carriers, Jet Airways took delivery in Delhi last week of South Asia's first Boeing 737-900. The delivery also makes Jet Airways the first outside the U.S. to operate the three largest models of the 737 line, the -700, -800 and -900. Jet Airways started operations with four 737s and now operates 42 aircraft. It will fly the -900 with 32 business- and 138 economy-class seats.
FATIGUE CHECK An airworthiness directive takes effect May 14 requiring operators of nearly 1,000 Bombardier CRJ100s and CRJ200s to inspect for fatigue cracks of the pressure floor skin of the center fuselage at stations 460 and 513. Cracks were identified on an early model, a CRJ100, by Lufthansa maintenance technicians, which resulted in a Transport Canada airworthiness directive and the FAA's follow-through. Delta Air Lines' subsidiary Comair, the U.S. launch customer for the aircraft, found no cracks in its inspections. As of Feb.
Robert Wall (Washington), David A. Fulghum (Washington)
It wasn't so much bombs and missiles, but a small group of U.S. Air Force intelligence officials who held the key to one of the biggest successes of the Iraq air campaign--the near-total destruction of the country's highly touted integrated air defense system.
FIRE TWO Political operatives continue to marvel at President Bush's photogenic S-3 aircraft carrier fly-in. Some call it the mother of all photo ops. A few say the footage could come back to haunt him on the campaign trail if the economy really bombs. Meanwhile, some Democrats start a whispering campaign to foment reportage of "scandalous" details of the event. How much did it cost? Was the ship kept off-coast to allow time for the event? Why couldn't the prez have flown out on a helo? And so on. There was nothing subtle about Sen. Robert C. Byrd's approach, though.
Boeing faces disciplinary action on its Delta IV program as a result of federal investigations into the look it got at Lockheed Martin's Atlas V effort as they competed to win the U.S. Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle contract. This has complicated the Pentagon's efforts to drive down EELV costs, which are borne almost entirely by the military since the commercial market has fizzled.
USAF/INDUSTRY-PARTNER PLAN The U.S. Air Force Materiel Command will increasingly partner with industry to help its depots meet surge requirements, AFMC Commander Gen. Lester Lyles said. The partnering already is underway in a catch-up mode for operational systems such as the F-16 and C-17, and is part of production and life-cycle support planning for newer platforms such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and F-22.
The combination of increased speed, range, survivability, timely intelligence and precision translated to U.S. and coalition combat power or "deliberately decisive force" during the recent war in Iraq. And these elements are now the foundation of "a new American way of war," said the Pentagon's top uniformed officer.
General Dynamics Network Systems has been awarded a $10-million contract to provide base communications operations and maintenance at the Naval Air Systems Command Weapons Div. in China Lake, Calif. The contract is valued at $4 million for the first two years and provides for three, one-year options at $2 million each.
Many U.S. strictures over British defense-industrial relations with Washington are "absurd," according to a senior British government official. Lord Bach, minster for defense procurement, took the opportunity of the Society of British Aerospace Companies' annual conference here to make an impassioned plea for Washington to ease the rules governing defense collaboration, at least with London.
