Robert D. Baker has been promoted to vice president-sales and marketing at Whittaker Controls Inc., North Hollywood, Calif., from marketing director for its ground fueling business.
South Korea demonstrated supersonic flight with its T-50 Golden Eagle last week, but the indigenously designed advanced jet trainer also is showing great stability at slow speeds with a low angle of attack, its design team reports.
ENSTROM HELICOPTER CORP. ended 2002 with nine deliveries including six in the second half of the year. These included 480B turbine-powered aircraft and 280FX piston-powered models. The Menominee, Mich.-based manufacturer has established a global network of 25 dealers and has undergone changes in management. Steve Daniels, who became president of the company in June, expects to deliver up to 18 aircraft this year.
Columbia Reentry Flight Director Leroy Cain said the moment one of his flight controllers reported abnormal sensor data from the orbiter's left wing during reentry Feb. 1, he thought of the launch impact debris analysis performed on the left wing in the days prior to reentry. "Did it flash into my mind . . . yes, absolutely. I and my other [controllers] knew we were in a very dire situation. But our training kicked in and we did what we needed to do."
Missile maker MBDA and SNPE Energetic Materials have merged their tactical missile propulsion activities into a new company, marking the first step in creation of a pan-European solid propulsion entity to compete with TDK of the U.S. (AW&ST Jan. 20, p. 24). The French-based Roxel will bring together SNPE-EADS joint venture Celerg, which supplies programs such as Europe's Aster antimissile weapon, and the Rocket Motors Div. of BAE Systems Royal Ordnance unit, which provides rocket motors for the Asraam air-to-air missile and other systems.
High-altitude airspace over the 48 contiguous states will get a capacity-enhancing makeover, beginning in May, as part of the FAA's rolling five-year plan for National Airspace System (NAS) redesign.
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SMA HAS APPOINTED AeroDiesel Engines in Monterrey, Mexico, as a distributor of SMA diesel engines. The company will promote, sell, retrofit and maintain engines installed in Cessna 182, 206 and 210-series and Piper PA-25 and PA-34 airplanes. This month AeroDiesel is scheduled to take delivery of a Cessna 182 fitted with the new powerplant, which burns jet fuel instead of aviation gasoline. The airplane will be on display at the AeroExpo2003 show on Mar. 6-9. SMA, owned by EADS, Renault and Snecma, plans to have approval for the Cessna 182 and TB20 this quarter.
The Italian army has taken delivery of its first upgraded A129 Mangusta CBT combat helicopters while it considers possible future enhancements to the aircraft. These initial units will be used for training purposes.
Attempting to placate both domestic political opinion and meet its NATO commitments, Germany will allow its E-3A AWACS personnel to be operationally deployed to Turkey, but with a caveat: that they be restricted to taking part only in defensive operations. Germany was one of three nations which had blocked such a deployment. However, NATO member states last week finally agreed to send forces to Turkey for "defensive measures" as preparations for a potential war with Iraq continue.
Battling to maintain its position in terms of providing strike weaponry, Raytheon is looking to launch its next-generation Paveway precision-guided bomb--Paveway IV--on the back of a British Defense Ministry contract for which the company is now bidding.
Mar. 10-11--European Transport Leaders Conference. Landmark Hotel, London. Mar. 12-13--Toulouse Symposium. Toulouse (France) Congress Center. 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.
Pratt & Whitney has completed FAA FAR 25 flight testing at Boeing Co. on its 94-in.-fan PW4000 engine. The testing centered on a new high compressor case design that was FAA FAR 35-certified in November 2002. The design, which is aimed at eliminating compressor surge at high-power take off, is being incorporated into new production engines and will be made available to airlines for installation at overhaul beginning in March.
Raytheon Co. received a $43.2-million firm fixed-price contract modification for an additional 142 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles, the third additional order in the Lot 16 contract, bringing the total order to 916. The award by the U.S. Air Force Air Armament Center Counterair Joint Systems Program Office at Eglin AFB, Fla., provides five additional years of options with a potential value of nearly $2 billion and a total of up to 5,000 missiles. They will be produced for the U.S.
Angela Phillips Diaz has become deputy associate NASA administrator for education. She was assistant associate administrator for policy and plans in the Office of Space Flight at NASA headquarters.
Cathay Pacific has completed the bulk of the transition to a new aircraft maintenance and inventory management system, replacing its home-grown Empacs system that was 25 years old. Besides shifting to the new architecture, about 1 million records had to be transferred from Empacs to the new Ultramain system, made by Software Solutions Unlimited of New Mexico.
The effort to improve security will more than double over five years, according to Instat/MDR. The top security budget item for 2003 is improving remote access for employees, business partners and customers. Sales of network security items worldwide were $2.3 billion in 2001 and are projected to reach $5.8 billion. The majority of this, $3.8 billion, will be for firewalls and virtual private network devices, Instat/MDR said. Intrusion detection devices will also have healthy growth.
House Science Committee members will get another whack at NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe this week, after the 4-hr. grilling on the Columbia accident they helped administer Feb.12 (AW&ST Feb. 17, p. 24). But this time, the topic will be the agency's Fiscal 2004 budget request, which was lost in the post-accident shuffle.
The June 16-22 Paris air show would not be affected by a congressional resolution set to discourage U.S. exhibitors from participating in the event, according to French air show executives. Rep. Jim Saxton (R-N.J.), late last week, was circulating the proposed resolution in a quest for support on the House of Representatives' floor after being joined by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, and Rep. Rob Andrews (D-N.J.), a member of the House Homeland Security Committee.
The Missile Defense Agency is sponsoring a technology transfer demonstration project, the Commercial Technology Exploitation Initiative. The undertaking, managed by the National Technology Transfer Center-Washington Ops, is intended to identify commercial, nondefense technologies that can enhance ballistic missile defense capabilities and forge relationships between MDA program elements and commercial industry. The initial meeting was held last October; project findings are scheduled for release this spring.
NASA Johnson Space Center documents from as far back as 1988 show that wing roughness, similar to that associated with the orbiter Columbia's left wing, could result in a catastrophic burn-through when combined with potentially significant wing impact damage resembling that being investigated in the Feb. 1 reentry accident.
Capt. William D. Pollock, who is chairman of the Air Line Pilots Assn. Master Executive Council at US Airways, has been appointed to the board of directors. He succeeds Capt. Chris Beebe, who has become national vice president-finance/treasurer.
CIRA (Italian Aerospace Research Center) in Capua received a contract from NATO Nahema (NATO Helicopter Management Agency) to perform icing tests of the T700/T6E1 GE/FiatAvio engine chosen to equip Italian navy and army NH90s. The work is to be carried out on a full-scale mockup of the NH90 upper deck in an icing tunnel that opened last year.
A nine-day "Schriever II" war game--which began last week and involves about 300 people from the civil, commercial and defense space communities--is exploring critical national security space issues. Through a complex scenario set in 2017, the wargame will look at the impacts current and near-term future space capabilities could have on terrestrial battles. In particular, the effects that laws, policies and strategies have on future space operations will be examined, and insights for "effects-based acquisition" programs will be developed.
