With prototype directed-energy weapons ready for use in Iraq, Pentagon planners are now considering how to protect U.S. assets from the effects of such weapons. They produce spikes of high-energy microwave and radio-frequency waves to scramble computer memories and damage sensitive electronics. But focusing their effects has always been a problem. Now the Pentagon wants improved protection for its GPS and electronic intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems.
Announcing intentions of starting a Hooters Air charter service, Hooters of America Chairman Robert H. Brooks late last month purchased Pace Airlines, a division of Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Piedmont Hawthorne Aviation. Pace has a fleet of 17 Boeing 737-200/300/400 and 757 aircraft and offers scheduled and nonscheduled charter flights, and corporate shuttle services. Financial terms of the agreement, when operations are to start up, and details of how or if the restaurant image of scantily clad waitresses would be carried aloft, were not disclosed.
Aerojet recently test fired a flight-weight controllable thrust motor at its Sacramento, Calif., facility. The company said it met all performance objectives in the 44-sec. static test firing. Other specifications were not released. The initial use for the motor will be the Raytheon NetFires Precision Attack Missile. The program's goal is to support longer range, shorter time-to-target performance for a multimission vehicle.
Frank Houston (see photo) has been named president of Korry Electronics of Seattle, a subsidiary of Esterline Technologies. He succeeds Alan Cornell, who has become head of Esterline's European operation, Paris-based Auxitrol Technologies. Houston returns to Korry after being president of Esterline's Advanced Input Devices, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
Scott Praven has become senior vice president-marketing, Chris Bowers senior vice president-sales and reservations and Dan Walsh vice president-sales for United Airlines. Praven was chief operating officer for UAL Loyalty Services. Bowers was senior vice president-marketing and sales. Walsh was vice president-North American sales for the Eastern U.S.
A research team of Valeria Volpi, Maurizio Apra, Marcello D'Amore, Sabrina Sarto and Alberto Scarlati from Alenia Aeronautica and La Sapienza University of Rome has won the Society of Automotive Engineers' Wright Brothers Medal. They used mathematical models to analyze the inflight impact of lightning electromagnetic field on electronics circuits.
The U.S. State Dept. has charged Hughes Electronics Corp., former owner of Hughes Space and Communications, and Boeing Satellite Systems, its present owner, with 123 violations of the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, in connection with their assistance to China following failures of the Long March 2E launcher in January 1995 and February 1996. The companies face fines of up to $500,000 per violation and being barred from receiving U.S. export licenses.
Testing of Lockheed Martin's AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile is slated to resume in February after being abruptly halted by the Air Force because of two failures in October. Formal operational testing would resume a month later. Lockheed Martin is tightening the tolerance on the control surfaces since one failure was caused by a malfunction in an actu- ator, leading to one of three control surfaces not responding properly to guidance inputs.
Astronomers have used the quick-response time of the international High Energy Transient Explorer (Hete-2) and its Internet-based observatory-alert system to image the visible signature of a type of gamma ray burst that typically fades so fast it is known as a "dark" burst. The visible light associated with the burst Hete detected and pinpointed on Dec. 11 faded completely after 2 hr., but because of the quick alert several telescopes were able to image it.
The YAL-1A airborne laser prototype aircraft arrived at Edwards AFB, Calif., last month to have the laser installed and flight test work conducted, leading to the attempted shootdown of a boosting ballistic missile by the end of 2004.
Northrop Grumman is upgrading the Litening ER targeting and navigation pod, extending its effective detection range and improving the accuracy of target coordinates when using GPS-guided weapons. Designated the Litening Advanced Targeting (AT) system, the upgraded pod has completed initial evaluations at the Air National Guard/Air Force Reserve Test Center, and follow-on testing is planned to begin in March. Production of Litening AT systems and retrofit kits for earlier pods is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2003, according to company officials.
William B. Scott (St. Joseph, MO.), William B. Scott (Ft. Huachuca, Ariz.)
If a shooting war is launched in Iraq early this year, graduates of a nine-day airlift tactics training course here will have an excellent chance of surviving encounters with enemy fighters and attacks from surface-to-air missiles.
Following the unpiloted launch of China's fourth Shenzhou spacecraft, Beijing indicated last week that it aims to fly the spacecraft with its first crew in the latter half of 2003. The announcement came in official news service and newspaper reports and quoted Yuan Jie, director of the Shanghai Aerospace Bureau.
Kenn Ricci and Dick Dodson (see photos) have been named to the advisory board of Atlanta-based Mercury Air Centers Inc. Ricci is chairman/CEO of Flight Options, while Dodson is president/CEO of BeachQuest and former president/CEO of BBA Aviation Services.
US Airways' Chapter 11 reorganization plan--premised on reduced costs, a growing fleet of regional jets and code sharing with United Airlines and eventually the Star Alliance--envisions an operating profit in 2003 and net profits from 2004 through the rest of the decade. The plan and a related disclosure statement also provide insights into US Airways' tactics in securing loan and investment commitments from Retirement Systems of Alabama (RSA), to finance it through and out of bankruptcy protection, and in wringing cost concessions from its labor unions.
Lockheed Martin has essentially completed a three-year process of integrating its Space Systems Co.'s missiles and satellite operations with the formation of the Space & Strategic Missiles division as of Jan. 3. G. Thomas Marsh, currently president of Space Systems' Astronautics division, will be president and general manager, reporting to Space Systems Executive Vice President Albert E. Smith. Marsh's two principal deputies will be Michael C. Gass as vice president of Space Launch in Denver and Leonard F.
Hamilton Sundstrand Sensor Systems received a U.S. Army production contract to deliver their chemical and biological weapon detector--the Chemical Biological Mass Spectrometer Block II. The CBMS II units will be fielded on the Joint Services Light Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Reconnaissance System managed by the U.S. Marine Corps and the Army's Stryker Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Reconnaissance Vehicle program.
David A. Fulghum (Washington), Robert Wall (Washington)
Some Pentagon war planners are now looking at the first half of February as the most likely time for an attack on Iraq, immediately after U.S. representatives present "direct evidence" to the U.N. Security Council that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.
Did anyone actually think United Airlines would receive a government loan guarantee when the White House's Texas cronies from Continental and American airlines were so vocal and visible in their opposition to it? Sure, United had financial problems before Sept. 11, 2001, but so did most of the other full-service carriers. The vultures are circling the wounded United, just waiting to pick at the remains.
About 20 large military communications and secret National Reconnaissance Office relay spacecraft worth $3-4 billion are under development for launch over the next 10 years, giving a much needed stimulus to satcom developers and enhanced data and network-centric capability to the U.S. in a dangerous world. While this initiative is underway, the Defense Dept. and NASA are increasing their coordination of advanced satcom technology development, especially laser communications, which promise to provide major new battlefield capabilities.
Garuda Indonesia's business was hit so hard by the Oct. 12 terrorism bombing on Bali that it has put a planned fleet expansion on hold. An airline official said plans to buy four 747-400s are under review because international operations have been cut back. The airline is unsure whether it will defer delivery of the 18 Boeing New Generation 737s and six 777s it has on order or whether it will exercise three options on Airbus A330s.
In a market dominated by "economic decline and terrorist overhead," Boeing still wants to pursue a new design for a long-range aircraft that can carry 200-250 passengers. But not with the futuristic Sonic Cruiser.
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Coaxing airlines to participate in the Air Force's Civil Reserve Air Fleet has been difficult almost since the CRAF program was created nearly 53 years ago, and a new General Accounting Office (GAO) report finds more of the same. Under current incentives, only CRAF participants can bid for peacetime cargo and passenger business, which more than doubled to $1.28 billion in Fiscal 2002 due to Afghanistan operations. But some airlines find less value to this than meets the eye.
