The Transportation Security Administration last week contracted with Lockheed Martin Services to provide specialized security training to TSA passenger and baggage screeners. Under the terms of the initial agreement, valued at $8.9 million, Lockheed Martin will aid the TSA in designing, developing and implementing programs, such as Federal Flight Deck Officer training.
HARD LESSON The Army shifted tactics after a wave of Apaches sustained battle damage early in the Iraq conflict, according to the commander of V Corps, Lt. Gen. William Scott Wallace: "We learned from our mistakes, we adjusted and adapted, based on what we learned, and we still used the Apache helicopter in a significant role during the course of the fight." In a widely reported encounter in Iraq, one Apache was lost to ground fire and almost all in the formation were damaged (see p. 63).
RECORD FREIGHT FOR NARITA A 30% increase in exports of electronic parts and components to Asian destinations helped push Tokyo's Narita Airport to a record 2,030,149 metric tons in air freight for fiscal 2002. The airport couldn't have done it without the opening in April 2002 of a second runway, which increased daily movements from an average of 360 to 490.
Lockheed Martin and Spectrum Astro are teaming to compete for the U.S. Air Force's GPS 3 program. In 2000, Spectrum Astro lost in the first round of design contracts, which USAF awarded to Boeing and Lockheed Martin. For the next phase, the service plans to award two $20-25-million design maturation contracts this year, with one development contract to follow in mid-2005. First launch of the more jam-resistant GPS satellites is planned for 2012, although the Air Force is asking the Pentagon to approve a two-year acceleration.
(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.
