Mar. 27-28--Defense Budget Conference. Holiday Inn, Rosslyn, Va. Apr. 15-17--MRO 2003 & MRO Latin America. Broward County Convention Center, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. May 6-8--Aerospace Defense & Finance Conference. Grand Hyatt Hotel, New York. May 14-16--Homeland Security Summit & Exposition. Hyatt Regency Crystal City, Arlington, Va. June 16--Top 100 Stars of Aerospace, Paris (during the Paris air show). Sept. 16-18--MRO Europe, Cardiff, Wales. Partnerships
As Boeing and interested airlines begin the back and forth process of defining its proposed 7E7, the jet manufacturer needs to reassure potential customers the aircraft will actually be built, and that target performance will not be compro- mised by trying to cover too many bases.
L. Denis Desautels, former auditor general of Canada and now executive director of the University of Ottawa's Centre on Governance, has been named to the board of directors of Montreal-based Bombardier Inc.
Jacques S. Gansler has been appointed to the board of directors of Alphatech Inc., Burlington, Mass. He holds the Roger C. Lipitz Chair in public policy and private enterprise at the University of Maryland School of Public Affairs and was undersecretary of Defense for acquisition, technology and logistics.
France is developing basic technologies for directed-energy weapons and is attempting to cobble together a European effort in this area. The technology focus is on high-power microwave (HPM) devices and not laser-based systems, which the French think are at least 15 years away. But they are also funding limited research in key areas, particularly solid-state lasers, in the event there's a technological breakthrough.
The fact that the STS-107 launch is not the first instance of insulation coming off the tank and hitting an orbiter during launch raises the question of why nothing has been done to prevent these repeated events. Although the cause of insulation coming loose is apparently unknown, it should be simple to prevent loose insulation from hitting the orbiter. Because the insulation is extremely light, it would seem that simply wrapping the tank with something that would retain any loose chunks of insulation could be done easily, with little weight penalty.
Thank you for the Feb. 10 cover "The Columbia Tragedy." I had been wondering what image you would choose and was so pleased and touched when I saw that instead of another photo of the tragic reentry. You chose a far more subtle and poignant space-related image. It spoke directly to my heart. You have fortified my opinion.
David A. Rossi, Jr., a space business advocate who helped get two commercial space companies off the ground, died Feb. 19 of cancer. He was 46. A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and Harvard Business School, Rossi was the fourth employee of Orbital Sciences Corp., where he held a series of executive positions from 1983-91. He ended his career as president and CEO of Spacehab Inc., which he joined in 1991 as vice president for business development.
The Transportation Dept. and the would-be alliance of Delta-Northwest-Continental have stepped back from the brink. Little more than a month ago, the airline trio decided to start code sharing without regard to conditions the department said were needed to protect the public against anticompetitive abuses. In response, the department started to prepare an enforcement proceeding to curb the carriers.
At least some U.S. officials want to play hardball over the North Korean interception of a RC135S Cobra Ball aircraft that was flying about 150 mi. offshore observing preparation for upcoming missile tests. North Korea fired off two Rodong ballistic missiles, with the range to hit Japan, in February, and more tests are expected.
Stephanie Skorik (see photo) has been named manager of business development for The Company Jet, Grand Rapids, Mich. She was vice president-business development for Strong Capital Management.
As I read your Laurels 2002 citations in the Feb. 3 issue, I was struck by the depth of managerial, engineering, scientific and operational talent that makes up what we so loosely and indiscriminately call the aerospace industry. Your plain-talk explanations of why each achievement was important helped establish a critical perspective that often is missing from other awards announcements.
The first Mars Exploration Rover (MER) has arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and is being processed for a May 30 launch on a Boeing Delta II rocket (see photo). The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California is leading the MER project, which involves sending two rovers separately to Mars for arrival on Jan. 4 and 25, 2004.
Aaron Todd has been named CEO of the Air Methods Corp. of Denver. He will succeed George Belsey, who is scheduled to retire in June. Todd has been chief operating and financial officer. Belsey will continue as chairman through 2004.
Alitalia and Italian domestic carrier Meridiana expect to complete a code-share agreement by Apr. 15. The contract will allow Alitalia to regain lost ground in the lucrative and increasingly competitive domestic market. Meridiana, whose stronghold in providing routes to Sardinia has eroded, will gain a linkup with a major carrier's route network. Alitalia chose Meridiana over leading candidate and current code-share partner Volare Group. Vincenzo Soddu, Volare CEO, said the main reason for the switch was strong opposition from Alitalia's powerful pilots' union.
Japan Air System Corp., the new parent company for the merged Japan Airlines and Japan Air System, has postponed setting up a new cargo airline. The original plan was to establish separate business units for domestic and international passengers, and air freight by 2004. But the corporation is considering whether formation of a separate cargo airline will prompt the U.S. to ask for flight rights for another U.S. carrier in exchange for accepting the JAL freight carrier.
John M. Danko has been promoted to executive vice president/general manager from deputy general manager of the Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Space Systems Group, Dulles, Va.
Cargo pilots would be allowed to carry firearms under bills introduced in Congress. Putting bills into the hopper were Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) and Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) along with eight co-sponsors. Boxer said leaving cargo pilots without arms presents a "dangerous loophole," because cargo jets are nearly as tempting a target for terrorists as passenger craft are. In many ways, cargo carriers have less security than passenger lines. A 747 freighter headed overseas is loaded with just as much fuel as a pax version.
Former astronaut Eugene A. Cernan, commander of the last Apollo mission to the Moon, proposed that America send a high school student into space (AW&ST Dec. 23, 2002, p. 62). "If we can send a 77-year-old into space, why not a 17-year-old?" As a former high school teacher of computer-aided design and drafting, I can attest to the importance of his comments.
Cementing Western European political support for combat operations against Iraq is only one of the problems slowing preparations for an offensive there. Non-political barriers include difficulties in penetrating the overlapping computer networks that carry Baghdad's military and civilian communications, the shortage of U.S. tanker aircraft, the continuing threat of Iraq's air defenses and the need to reinvent or at least hone modern techniques for close air support, a skill that has languished since the war in Vietnam.
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Sigmar Wittig, head of the German aerospace center DLR, said that despite its space-budget woes Germany might be willing to increase funding for the Ariane program if the scope of work for its industry is enlarged. Bonn, which has long bridled at what it perceives to be inadequate recognition of its contribution to the program--particularly with respect to France--has welcomed the ongoing reevaluation of the Ariane launch system and the French role in it that was triggered by the EC-A failure.
On an average day, there are 22-25 C-17 departures from Rhein-Main Air Base, Germany, for destinations in the Centcom Area of Responsibility including Kuwait (see p. 56). Civilian contract carriers also are supporting the airlift, which is helping to prepare the U.S. for a showdown with Iraq. Photo by Jim Haseltine.
I shed no tears for the death of an aviation disaster litigation lawyer (AW&ST Feb. 24, p. 17). Litigation has led to a sad shift in the focus of airplane accident investigations: Cause has become secondary to guilt. Am I a victim of the practices of litigation lawyers? No doubt. Insurance premiums are higher than they ought to be, and airlines cannot but reduce service in order to pay for liability insurance to cover events for which no one in his right mind would hold them responsible.
The Columbia Accident Investigation Board is considering whether small but critical "gap-seal tiles" that bridge the orbiter's reinforced carbon-carbon leading edge with larger tiles on the lower wing surface could have failed after being struck by foam from the Lockheed Martin external tank.
