BRICK AND MORTAR Turbomeca Engine Corp. is expanding its overhaul and repair facility in Grand Prairie, Tex., to support manufacture of its Arriel turboshaft powerplant in the North American market. According to Russ Spray, TEC's new president/CEO, the company will build 100 of the 400 Arriel-series powerplants scheduled to be produced this year, boosting the number of engines manufactured annually in North America to 130. Plans call for eventually increasing production in Texas to more than 200 engines each year. Modifications to the facility are underway.
Ron Gable has become president of Atlanta-based Velant Inc. He succeeds Don Ratliff, who will remain CEO. Gable was general manager of the Enterprise Business Unit of Scient Inc.
TURNING POINT Growing Pentagon interest in small, responsive, low-cost launchers had to be jump-started. Last year 18 members of Congress invited Air Force Undersecretary Peter Teets to Capitol Hill to hear a presentation on low-cost launchers by Jim Wertz, president of Microcosm, a small Los Angeles-based company that has been developing and testing the concept for a decade (AW&ST Apr. 7, p. 70). The company had been getting much of its funding at congressional direction.
Access Five, which is trying to win approval for unmanned aircraft to venture into national air space within five years, just completed its kickoff meeting in Tampa, Fla., which included, for the first time, participation by FAA officials. They joined representatives of seven major aerospace companies, NASA and the Defense Dept. The major achievement was to start detailed planning of the effort to integrate unmanned aircraft. The results are to be finished this summer and the organization to start work on Oct.1.
NEW TECH CENTER Rolls-Royce has established a joint engine technology center in Cottbus, Germany, in collaboration with Brandenburg Technological University. BTU is active in combustion, aerodynamics, fluid mechanics, structural and machine mechanics, vibration and other engine- and drivetrain-related areas of research. Brandenburg is home to the engine manufacturer's regional/business aeroengine enterprises.
John I. Williams, Jr., has been elected president of the Concord-based Massachusetts Business Aviation Assn. He is vice chairman of Sentient Jet of Norwell. Other board members and officers are: John T. Cooney, director of aviation for the Liberty Mutual Group of Boston; Fred Gevalt, president of Air-Charter Guide of Cambridge; Larry Jorash, area general manager for Signature Flight Support facilities at Boston Logan International Airport, Hanscom Field in Bedford and Bradley International Airport, Windsor Lockes, Conn.; lawyer Edward H.
British-based Deutsch Military & Aerospace Ltd. will provide filtered connectors for the digital thermal control units on NH-90 helicopters. Deutsch will supply up to 243 connectors with options for 55 over the next 10 years.
THE MONEY ROLLS IN . . . Airlines will get less than they wanted but more than the Bush administration would like from the war supplemental appropriations bill, savvy speakers tell the American Bar Assn.'s annual air and space law forum. Northwest Airlines' government affairs chief, Andrea Newman, thinks $3.1-3.2 billion is a likely amount and notes that the White House, however unhappy, hasn't threatened a veto.
NavCanada last week claimed Air Canada's filing for bankruptcy protection could lead to a bad debt expense of about C$44 million ($29.8 million) (see p. 58). The figure represents amounts owed to NavCanada by the mainliner and Jazz Inc. and Zip Airlines up to the Apr. 1 bankruptcy filing date. Should NavCanada not be able to collect the amounts, they will be reflected as a bad debt expense and be recovered in future customer service charges.
DRS Technologies Inc. has received a $5-million work order to produce the Neptune maritime unmanned aerial vehicles for the U.S. Navy. The Neptune was developed for tactical military operations and civil applications when runways are unavailable.
NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH The U.S. Army is testing flight imagery software for drones that NASA used on the X-38 crew recovery vehicle testbed in an effort to make drone operations safer and more efficient. The SmartCam 3D system, designed by Rapid Imaging Software and NASA's Johnson Space Center, takes video from the drone camera and superimposes three-dimensional portrayals of no-fly zones, runway approach paths and other useful information.
DIGGING DEEPER FOR DEEPWATER The Coast Guard's "Integrated Deepwater" program should be expedited, Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.), the chairman of the House subcommittee on maritime transportation, tells a hearing. The program calls for the service to acquire 91 ships and upgrade 49 more, as well as to acquire 35 fixed-wing aircraft, 34 helicopters and 76 UAVs and upgrade 93 helicopters.
Consequences on the ground from the Columbia accident could have been far worse. NASA General Counsel Paul Pastorek told a space insurance conference in Rome last week that only 66 claims for barely $500,000 in damages had been filed to date--a small sum considering the amount of debris that rained down over Texas and neighboring states after the incident. Of the lawsuits filed, 31 have been referred to adjusters for settlement.
SEE AND BE SEEN Honeywell is introducing a new collision avoidance system for small aircraft that advises pilots where to look for other traffic. The Bendix/King KT73 transponder (with Mode S capability) can receive data from FAA ATC facilities through the Traffic Information Service. The KT73 links the data to an electronic cockpit display to project a map of up to seven nearby aircraft. The system also features a voice warning when a potential conflict with another aircraft is imminent, according to the company. The KT73 costs about $5,300, not including a display.
Douglas Barrie (London), Michael A. Taverna (Paris)
Poised for a critical engine decision, anticipated this week, some nations involved in Europe's protracted efforts to launch the A400M airlifter are also talking up the addition of further partners in the program. A European engine consortium comprising Rolls-Royce, MTU and Snecma has been wrestling for the 800-plus engine order with Pratt & Whitney Canada.
At anti-U.S. demonstrations in Scandinavia, one favorite antiwar song is "Surrounded by Enemies" by Norwegian Nordahl Grieg. The protesters seem to disregard that Grieg died valiantly in 1943 during a bombing mission over Germany in the eventually successful effort to save the free world. Some of us are proud that Denmark is backing U.S. and coalition efforts to once again fight for freedom without asking anything in return.
Peter Wright, Sr., founder of the Keystone Helicopter Corp., West Chester, Pa., has been selected to receive Overhaul & Maintenance magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award. Overhaul & Maintenance is a sister publication to Aviation Week & Space Technology. Wright was chosen for his "insight and innovation in providing maintenance, repair and overhaul helicopter services for 50 years."
The story about dropping a bomb, inside a bomb hole, inside a bomb hole for the Saddam Hussein bunker attack is illustrative of doing things the hard way. Back in 1980, rocket-boosted penetrators of fairly good size (5-6-in. diameter, 200 lb., D6AC steel) were being fired against concrete slabs for testing at the Sandia National Laboratories. We could use some of them now. What became of the program? Apparently not much in the last 23 years.
The aerial hunt for Iraqi Scuds has resulted in a number being located and destroyed by U.S. Air Force strike aircraft. One was attacked near the start of the war by Capt. Mary (Ginger) Melfi, an F-15E weapon systems officer (WSO), who has flown almost nightly since the war started with the 336th Expeditionary Fighter Sqdrn. After the war, she is slated to retrain as a C-130 pilot.
The Air Force Research Laboratory will conduct captive-carriage flight tests of a quick-response, microsatellite launch vehicle (MSLV) to determine the feasibility of air-launching a three-stage booster from an F-15E fighter. There are no plans to actually launch an MSLV, but the program will validate the concept in preparation for a future flight demonstration. Four captive-carriage flight tests of a 22-ft.-long, 50-in.-dia. MSLV on an F-15E are scheduled to begin at the Air Force Flight Test Center (AFFTC), Edwards AFB, Calif., late this spring.
DIGGING IN FOR A DOWNTURN SES is counting on a string of new long-term deals, including one with EchoStar concluded a week ago (AW&ST Mar. 31, p. 18), to help offset an income drop stemming in particular from renegotiation of a lease contract with KirchMedia's Premiere World channel last year. Nevertheless, Chairman/CEO Romain Bausch said the new business would not be enough to prevent a revenue decline this year, after a long period of continuous growth, due to the deteriorating economic outlook.
