Delta Air Lines has placed an order for 400 self-service kiosks from Kinetics Inc., as part of its effort to improve the airport experience for travelers. The kiosks, which will offer check-in capability for domestic and international flights, are in addition to 400 already in use. Delta becomes the second U.S. airline to use the Kinetics system for international check-in, said David Melnik, Kinetics founder and CEO. Northwest Airlines launched international check-in for its passengers last fall.
NASA investigation teams last week were reassessing potential risks associated with damage to space shuttle tiles and reinforced carbon-carbon leading edges caused by orbital debris. Other experts expressed concern that the known statistical odds of catastrophic failure due to a debris impact finally caught up with the shuttle program.
Delta Air Lines has set a new course for its maintenance, repair and overhaul operations by selecting a predictive monitoring technology to detect early warning signs of engine performance problems. Officials expect the real-time system will have a broad impact on its own flight operations and economics as well as for engine operations of other airline users of its maintenance program.
The reauthorization train is in the station but the FAA isn't ready to board. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) tells FAA Administrator Marion Blakey the committee will come up with a reauthorization bill "in the next couple of months, if not sooner," preferably based on a proposal from the FAA but on its own if necessary. John Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation aviation subcommittee, says his panel will "move quickly" to write a bill after Mar.
Stephen J. Cabot, chairman of the labor relations and employment law department of the Philadelphia law firm of Harvey, Pennington, Cabot, Griffith & Renneisen Ltd., has regularly negotiated union contracts on behalf of employers--not employees (AW&ST Feb. 3, p. 62).
Carlo Venturi has been appointed CEO of Alenia Marconi Systems, a joint venture of Finmeccanica and BAE Systems. He succeeds David Singleton, who will return to BAE Systems. Venturi was CEO of the Switzerland-based SIG Beverages. Andrea Pininfarina and Roberto Mazzei have been named to the board of directors of Alenia Aeronautica. Pininfarina is vice president/CEO of Pininfarina Holdings. Mazzei is professor of company finance at Milan Catholic University.
David Hughes (Washington), Frances Fiorino (New York), William Dennis (Singapore)
As the world's airlines brace for the effects of a possible Gulf War2, the most worried are the financially strapped U.S. carriers that are already struggling to survive a 10% drop in demand and soaring prices for jet fuel and insurance. The real question is how long would the war last. "If it is short and quick and reaches a pretty definitive conclusion, you get one answer. If it drags on, you get a different answer," said Boeing Chairman and CEO Philip M. Condit.
NASDA has shipped its fifth H-IIA launch vehicle to Tanegashima Island to launch Japan's first military reconnaissance satellites, but there's still no word on a launch date (AW&ST Jan. 27, p. 26). It's expected in March.
If success equals financial support, unmanned combat and reconnaissance aircraft have arrived. UCAVs snag $4 billion in the future years defense plan (through 2009, see p. 35), and the battle-tested Predator and the faster, higher-flying, turboprop-powered Predator B are earmarked for $1.2 billion. For Fiscal 2004, the Air Force requests $193.6 million for 10 Predators (MQ-1s) and four Predator Bs (MQ-9s), $41 million for R&D and $30 million for military construction. An additional 37 MQ-1s and 49 MQ-9s would be funded in the following five years.
Although it wasn't included in NASA's Fiscal 2004 space flight budget request, the $973-million biological and physical research budget is likely to change because of the Columbia accident. It included a new "human research initiative" that aims to "certify crew safety beyond low-Earth orbit over 100 days by mitigating the highest risks," and to cut the mass of life-support systems by a factor of three.
The FAA has turned down applications from American Airlines and AirTran Airways for extensions of the Apr. 9 deadline to equip all airline fleets with reinforced cockpit doors. American wanted a three-month extension for 15 of its 34 A300s, complaining that Airbus provided poor support--late delivery of service bulletins and parts. AirTran asked that the last 12 of its DC-9s be exempt through Oct. 25, when all of them are to be retired.
Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee named the country's first meteorological satellite Kalpana to honor Kalpana Chawla, the 41-year-old Indian-born mission specialist lost in the Columbia accident. An aeronautical engineer and avid pilot, she began work at NASA Ames Research Center in computational fluid dynamics before being selected as an astronaut. She was India's first woman in space and is a national hero there.
CAE President and CEO Derek H. Burney was incorrectly identified in the items about Aviation Week & Space Technology's 46th annual Aerospace Laurels selections (AW&ST Feb. 3, p. 26).
Gina DeSimone has been appointed vice president-engineering and programs for Boeing Air Traffic Management, McLean, Va. She was senior site executive for Boeing's space and missile defense operations in Huntsville, Ala. DeSimone succeeds Dennis Muilenburg, who has been named vice president-future combat systems at Boeing Integrated Defense Systems and manager for its Milestone B program.
Lower travel since Sept. 11, 2001, temporarily alleviated air traffic congestion, but the issue will reemerge as the summer tourist season begins. The FAA will be challenged to supply adequate numbers of controllers, and questions are being raised as to what the appropriate structure to do so will be. There is speculation that modernization of the National Airspace System would proceed more quickly if some parts of the organization changed to fee-for-service.
Boeing's January assessment of external tank insulation foam striking Columbia's wing appears to tell two tales. The verbiage predicts a safe return but the numbers are unsettling. An Aviation Week & Space Technology review of the assessment raises questions about official statements that it was conservative, and their judgment that potential damage to the orbiter's thermal protection system was not a safety concern.
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Congress slated NASA for $414 million more than it asked for in its Fiscal 2003 budget request last week as members opened their investigation into the Columbia disaster without seriously questioning whether the U.S. will continue flying humans to space.
Michael A. Taverna (Paris), Pierre Sparaco (Paris), Douglas Barrie (London)
In a surprise move, BAE Systems has ceded its shareholding in Astrium and U.K. military satellite joint venture Paradigm for no capital gain, marking a total and rather ignominious pullout from the space sector.
