Northrop Grumman and Raytheon Co. have formed a team to compete for the Missile Defense Agency's Kinetic Energy Interceptor program. Northrop will lead the team and serve as systems integrator, while Raytheon will serve as the principal subcontractor responsible for developing and integrating the interceptor and a significant portion of weapon system engineering. The program is designed to produce interceptors capable of shooting down enemy ballistic missiles during their boost and ascent phases of flight.
Germany's DLR is concerned that a new destination for ESA's Rosetta comet rendezvous flight could cause the spacecraft's lander mission to be scrapped. The lander supplied by DLR was designed for the comet Wirtanen, and can only be reused if the new target is of similar size and shape. ESA scientists and engineers have been given 12-30 months to find a suitable target to replace Wirtanen, which was abandoned when the Rosetta launch had to be postponed because of uncertainties related to the Ariane 5 booster (AW&ST Jan. 20, p. 23).
The U.S. Transportation Dept. Inspector General's Office has recommended reopening a probe of the foreign ownership structure of DHL Worldwide Express (DHLWE). An initial review of the ownership issue two years ago, spurred by complaints from UPS and FedEx, was dismissed (AW&ST May 21, 2001, p. 65). But the American parcel express carriers asked the department last summer to take another look.
I found Stephen J. Cabot's Viewpoint extremely hypocritical. A board of disinterested arbitrators did not determine Mr. Cabot's compensation and he would no doubt object to being compared to the average, poorly compensated lawyer in a binding-arbitration hearing.
Bombardier Inc. is fast becoming the aerospace industry's poster child for what can go wrong, seemingly, all at once. Management shakeups. Questionable accounting. Weak earnings and cash flow. Depressed market conditions. Declining sales. Massive job cuts. Poor employee morale. Key customers fighting for survival. What else can go awry? Plenty, apparently.
Motorola Inc. agreed to pay $12 million in an out-of-court settlement of five pending claims by Chase Manhattan Bank involving the bankrupt Iridium LLC. Under the agreement, Motorola will not continue to appeal a judgment totaling $371 million it paid last April to Iridium's secured lenders, with Chase as their agent. However, Motorola said it would continue to fight a $4-billion claim by unsecured Iridium creditors growing out of Iridium's August 1999 bankruptcy filing.
U.S. aerospace industry employment has reached its lowest level since 1953, dropping to 689,000 at the end of 2002. Industry officials blamed the alarming statistic on several converging factors, including the crisis in civil aviation and commercial space, company mergers and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The Aerospace Industries Assn. has called for an interagency task force to develop a national plan to reverse the slide.
Mar. 18-19--28th Annual Aviation Forecast Conference. FAA and Airports Council International-North America. Washington Convention Center. Call +1 (202) 293-8500 or see www.aci-na.org Mar. 18-19--Aerospace Corp.'s 2003 Radio Frequency Interference Forum. Intelsat headquarters, Washington. Call +1 (310) 336-6805 or see www.aero.org/conferences/rfiforum Mar. 18-21--TSC Corp.'s Aircraft Maintenance & Reliability Seminar. Crowne Plaza Hotel, Tampa, Fla. Call +1 (727) 785-0583 or see www.tsc-corp.com
William Anthony (Tony) Rice has been named to the board of directors of Atlantic Coast Airlines Holdings Inc. He is chief executive of U.K.-based Tunstall Holdings Ltd. and had been group managing director of business development and ventures for BAE Systems and CEO of the Airbus Finance Co.
Northrop Grumman has delivered the Beacon Illuminator Laser (BILL) to the Missile Defense Agency's Airborne Laser (ABL) program. The high-power, solid-state laser, which is a key part of the ABL beam control and fire control system, would measure atmospheric turbulence to increase lethality of the ABL megawatt chemical laser. The BILL beam illuminates a small spot on the target and measures the distortion of reflected light caused by turbulence in the air, thereby allowing a deformable mirror to make corrections to the laser weapon.
I was astonished to read Stephen J. Cabot's Viewpoint proposing to reduce inflationary pressures by cutting the salaries of the people who do the work (AW&ST Feb. 3, p. 62).
Thurston Eric Womble (see photos) has been appointed Arlington, Va.-based vice president-programs for the Northrop Grumman Corp. of Los Angeles. He was military legislative assistant to U.S. Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss). Philip A. Odeen, former chairman of TRW Inc., has been appointed to board of directors.
Missile tests by North Korea are prompting the Japanese government to review their post-World War II military policies. Officials are reviewing how to amend the law to allow the military command to react rapidly to a ballistic missile threat. Opponents, however, are concerned about weakening civilian control. Existing law requires approval by the prime minister and the National Security Council before defensive forces can be called into action.
6-10A Correspondence 10B Who's Where 12-13 Market Focus 15 Industry Outlook 17 Airline Outlook 18-19 World News Roundup 21 In Orbit 23 Washington Outlook 62 Classified 64 Contact Us 65 Aerospace Calendar
There must be some compelling reason for the European Space Agency (ESA) to be planning to spend $3.28 billion on the Galileo satellite navigation system, which appears to be totally redundant to GPS. Any reason beyond the purely political escapes me. At the same time, $650 million for a second Soyuz crew rescue vehicle for the International Space Station is said to be "too expensive." A second Soyuz would allow a doubling of the ISS crew and offer a much better use of scarce space funds than Galileo. I hope ESA will reexamine its funding priorities.
Newly adopted measures will enable the European Commission (EC) to quickly create an all-new legal framework to handle bilateral relations between the European Union's (EU) 15 member states and the rest of the world. According to EC Vice President Loyola de Palacio, the initiative clears the way for the opening of negotiations between EU members and the U.S., "an uppermost priority." Measures include a negotiating mandate covering air traffic agreements with third countries.
Charter carrier Britannia Airways signed a $1.6-million contract with IBM to equip 430 pilots with IBM Thinkpad X24 laptop computers to be used to access manuals for the Boeing 757 and 767 during flight. The agreement follows a trial that included certification of the units to standards pertaining to altitude, decompression, overpressure, electromagnetic current and other requirements set forth by the U.K.'s Civil Aviation Authority.
Southwest Airlines, tightening its grip in the Eastern region, next month is to begin a $65-million construction of a new wing at New York's Long Island MacArthur Airport terminal, a move that will enable the carrier to increase services in the region--not to mention stir up the low-fare competition.
While "space" has become an essential, integral part of the U.S. economy, the military use of space has a long way to go, according to Air Force generals who participated in the recent Schriever II space war game. The employment of space for military purposes today has evolved to about the same maturity level as the use of aircraft during World War I, a one-star suggested. Spacecraft now perform "force enhancement" duties such as reconnaissance, surveillance, navigation, missile warning and communications.
Senior Editor David Hughes (right) and aviation photographer Jim Haseltine flew on a C-17 mission from the U.S. to Germany that was delayed due to a major snowstorm on the East Coast. Interviews over two days at USAFE's Rhein-Main Air Base provided a snapshot of the third largest airlift in history (see p. 56). In 1996, Hughes wrote about a C-17 mission from Rhein-Main to Tuzla, Bosnia. He flew the C-5 and C-141 in the USAF Reserve before retiring.
The Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) began to examine NASA's overall chain of command for assessing shuttle program risk, at the board's first public hearing here Mar. 6. The initial hearing set the stage for a more formal examination of shuttle safety management issues, such as how the flight readiness review (FRR) process allowed the launch of the STS-113 mission last November followed by Columbia in January--after a serious Lockheed Martin external tank debris incident on the STS-112 flight last October.
Herb Archer (see photo), a program manager for BAE Systems Information and Electronic Warfare Systems, Nashua, N.H., has won the division's Albert B. Wight Award. Archer was cited for leadership in developing a rapid prototype digital receiver for the F/A-22 Raptor and F-35 programs.
Tracy Rogge has been promoted to vice president-finance from controller for Delaware North Parks Services of Spaceport Inc., which operates the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex for NASA. Rick Hensler has been named marketing director, Jeannette Petrolia director of education/general manager of the Astronaut Hall of Fame and Steve Geis director of operations and guest services.
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) have found a massive cloud of gas around Jupiter using a new imaging technique and one of the instruments on NASA's Cassini Saturn probe. Ringing the planet at the orbit of its moon Europa, the neutral gas torus was created by the action of radiation on the moon's water-ice surface. "Where Io's volcanoes are constantly spewing . . .
Space shuttle wing leading edge tiles experience sizable aerodynamic forces, which is why they are bolted on instead of glued. The forces on the bolts and their mounts on the leading edge frame apparently include significant shear and compression.
