THE U.S. ARMY IS SEEKING AN AIR DEFENSE SYSTEM to protect ground forces against a barrage of as many as 720 projectiles, including mortars and unguided missiles. The desired system, described to attendees at the recent IEEE Aerospace 2003 conference in Big Sky, Mont., would engage incoming weapons at ranges of 2-80 km. Recent laboratory work at the Army Aviation and Missile Command's Redstone Arsenal, Ala., explored the concept of low-cost, 40-mm.-dia. bullets that would guide to the targets on the reflected energy from a Ka-band fire-control radar.
The company is offering two free videos on propeller care and maintenance. The first, "Propeller Care & Maintenance for Professionals," runs 30 min. and is aimed at aviation maintenance professionals. It explains how to perform an annual inspection of a propeller, and provides guidance for on-wing propeller inspection, repair and maintenance, as well as an overview of a propeller overhaul. FAA Great Lakes Region Aviation Maintenance Technician of the Year (2001) and Hartzell technician Mark Runge narrates the video. A 10-min.
Training in the federal flight deck officer program begins this week for 48 pilots at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Ga. This is where many federal air marshals are also trained initially. The pilots were selected from 100 nominated by the Air Line Pilots Assn. and the Coalition of Air Line Pilots Assns. after they completed cognitive and psychological applications and passed background checks. The group includes a mix of short- and long-haul pilots from a variety of carriers and includes men and women.
Arianespace CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall says that when the European space ministers meet on May 27 to approve a slate of programs intended to get the Ariane 5 launcher back on its feet, they will be presented with a bill well in excess of 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion).
AnaMaria Favela has been promoted to regional manager for Central America from district sales manager in Mexico City for Delta Air Lines. She has been succeeded by Tony Torres, who was sales manager in Guadalajara, Mexico. In turn, he has been succeeded by Gerardo Gomez, who was a sales representative in Guadalajara.
As might be expected in a business with a desert full of surplus aircraft, aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul is in a "show-me" mode when it comes to buying new software solutions.
John Alexander has been appointed vice president-Americas for training operations and Andrew McIntosh as London-based vice president-Europe for Seattle-based FlightSafety Boeing International. Chris Johnson-Pasqua has succeeded Alexander as general manager of the Long Beach (Calif.) Training Center. McIntosh was general manager for European operations. Martin Schaaf is the new general manager of the Miami Training Center.
FLY BYE Delta Air Lines retired its last Boeing 727 on Apr. 6 following a flight from Greensboro, N.C., to Atlanta. An airline official said this was the final scheduled flight of a 727 by a major U.S. carrier. Delta began flying the airplane in 1972 and eventually operated 184 of the three-engine jets. With retirement of the 727, Delta has reduced its fleet to six types--MD-88/-90, MD-11, Boeing 737, 757, 767 and 777. Plans call for grounding the last three MD-11s and reducing fleet types to five by December.
Gordon Phillips (see photo) has become London-based vice president of Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum Aviation, working on terminal projects for London Heathrow, Severnside International and Cork International airports. He was a senior associate at Seattle-based NBBJ.
F. Suzanne Jenniches (see photo) has been named vice president/general manager of the Government Systems Div. of Baltimore-based Northrop Grumman Corp. Electronic Systems. She was vice president of the Communications Systems business unit.
VISUAL AIDS As the House and Senate were jockeying back and forth on how much airline aid to put in the Iraq war supplemental appropriation, the Air Transport Assn. lobby starts publishing weekly data on U.S. international carriers' traffic and capacity. For the week ended Apr. 6, domestic traffic was down nearly 15% year-over-year and Atlantic and Pacific were off more than 25%. Carriers cutting capacity couldn't keep up--Atlantic capacity was down only about 12% and domestic 5%, and Pacific capacity actually was up more than 2%.
COLUMBIA REPLACEMENT Add another voice to the NASA advisers who believe it would make more sense to build a new space shuttle orbiter to replace Columbia than to develop a smaller, less capable Orbital Space Plane (OSP) using essentially the same technology. Richard D.
Alitalia said it will shed up to 6-7% of its flights and cut up to 1,200-1,400 jobs. The cuts will affect mainly domestic and European routes and will start in the second half of the month. Alitalia's current workforce is 22,536 persons.
GARMIN FOR CESSNA Cessna Aircraft Co. has selected Garmin International to supply avionics for its Citation Mustang business jet. The G1000 electronic, fully integrated suite will include two 10-in. primary flight displays and a 15in. multifunction display. Cessna anticipates FAA certification of the Mustang in mid-2006.
The Thermal/ IR Camera Kit expands the capabilities of the company's IR Telescopic Camera Kit by adding a second thermal camera for viewing in darkness. The user can switch between the two camera functions. The camera mounted on the end of a 13.8-ft. carbon fiber telescopic pole can be used for searching buildings, ships, aircraft and vehicles for firearms, explosive devices, contraband and criminal suspects. Also available is a shoulder-strap equipped field monitor; a heads-up display unit that avoids emission of stray light is optional.
(While I see where Mr. Probert is coming from, I do not agree that there is no future in space or aerospace for the world's young people. As a number of the Reflections articles stated, the mere fact of dreaming and enduring persistence made these dreams come true for those individuals. There are more than sufficient challenges facing our industry, but they will be met and overcome because that has been our heritage and it is our future. As one example, I invite Mr.
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Raymond J. Lutz (see photo) has been appointed vice president-business development and strategic planning for Chicago-based DHL Airways. He was senior vice president-marketing and sales for Skyway Freight Systems.
USAF Gen. (ret.) Robert Oaks and Paul Kaminski have received 2002 Distinguished Graduate Awards from the U.S. Air Force Academy. Since retiring from the Air Force, Oaks has been vice president-compliance and safety for US Airways and later president for southern Africa of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Kaminski is CEO of Technovation Inc. He was an early executive of the National Reconnaissance Office and is considered responsible for developing guidance components of the Minuteman missile.
Robert Wall (Forward Operating Base, Iraq), Robert Wall (USS Boxer, Persian Gulf)
Marine Corps CH-53Es are suffering serious sand-induced engine problems in operations in Iraq, repeating an experience the service endured 12 years ago during the 1991 Persian Gulf war.
SAS Scandinavian Airlines has announced a plan to reduce unit costs by 30%--its third streamlining effort since the beginning of the airline crisis. The plan calls for cutting 4,000 jobs among cockpit and cabin crew and ground handling, engineering, sales and general administration staff. SAS estimates the measures will save up to 8 billion crowns ($935 million) through 2005.
The Ariane program received a bit of good news last week when the 5 G returned to flight after a four-month hiatus, carrying India's Insat-3A and PanAmSat Galaxy XII into orbit, while India ordered two more launches.
WEATHER WATCHER Eumetsat, the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, has picked Alcatel to build the fourth Meteosat Second Generation (MSG4) spacecraft. Ground delivery of the 391million-euro ($415-million) weather satellite, a duplicate of the MSG1 launched Aug. 28, 2002, is set for 2007. Alcatel heads a consortium building all MSG spacecraft.
MAKING PROGRESS Two independent airlines in India, Jet Airways and Air Sahara, are steadily increasing their market penetration against state-owned Indian Airlines and Air India. Jet Airways increased its share to 48.7% last year, and the smaller Air Sahara saw its portion nearly double to 8.6%. Nandini Verma, vice president of Jet Airways, said promotion packages, yield management and utilization rates on aircraft have contributed to the carrier's penetration of the market.
FIRST FLIGHT The second of two aircraft in Boeing's 777-300ER test program made its initial flight Apr. 6 at Everett. The airplane was flown by senior test pilot Suzanna Darcy- Hennemann and Joseph MacDonald, senior engineering pilot for the 777 program. The aircraft flew for 2 hr. 24 min. before landing at Boeing Field in Seattle. The airplane will conduct tests of the GE90-115B engines. The first 777-300ER has accumulated more than 100 hr. since taking off for the first time Feb. 24.
