Aeronavali, Alenia Aeronautica's maintenance, repair and overhaul arm, is slated to deliver the first all-cargo Boeing 767 twinjet by the end of 2004. The Italian group and Boeing revived an earlier plan, inked in 2000, to develop a freighter conversion program for the 767-200/-200ER. The encouraging cargo traffic forecast led to the renewed interest. Aeronavali's CEO Pompeo Sorice said, "Cargo, unlike some passengers, has no fear."
WORLD NEWS ROUNDUP Technical team probes Ariane 5 EC-A failure Expected to recommend measures needed to establish reliability 20 K9 rover begins testing in NASA's 'Marscape' facility Carries instruments for exploring, recording data on Mars' surface 21 WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS New missile defense plan bolsters multiple programs Unresolved funding and other obstacles could impact size of missile buy and the fielding schedule 24 Navy sets course for endurance UAV
To help mitigate the threat from terrorists wielding SA-7-style shoulder-fired missiles, the amount of time at low altitude during jet aircraft arrival and departure should be cut (AW&ST Dec. 9, p. 28). When I descend to Newark, for example, I may spend the last 20 min. or longer below 8,000 ft.--well within SA-7 range. Many other air carrier airports employ similarly high-exposure IFR procedures. Some of these could be altered to accommodate jet penetration-style arrivals and fast climbout departures.
Loss of the latest version of Europe's Ariane 5 with two expensive satellites on board won't have as big an impact on the worldwide commercial space insurance industry as it might have because the spacecraft weren't heavily insured. As a result, the industry is poised to turn in its first profitable year "after years of bleeding red ink," according to Phil McAlister of the Futron Corp., which closely tracks space insurance. So far in 2002 the insurance industry is in the black on space policies to the tune of $700 million, even with about $300 million in claims.
Doug Hacker has become executive vice president-strategy of United Airlines. He had been president of UAL Loyalty Services and the airline's executive vice president/chief financial officer.
The European Space Agency hopes to open negotiations with NASA early next year on a possible role in the U.S. agency's proposed Orbital Space Plane that would build on work ESA already has performed under the canceled X-38 program.
Activity in the U.S. and the Middle East appears to gives some credence to indications in Washington that war with Iraq could be as little as 6-8 weeks away. In the U.S., the Pentagon has called up 14,000 reservists in the last two weeks after months of declining totals.
Controllers were scheduled to make one last attempt to contact the Comet Nucleus Tour (Contour) spacecraft Dec. 20, and then give up the probe as lost if it didn't reply to their signals. As feared, Contour remained silent Dec. 18 during a 12-hr. session that used the 35- and 70-meter (115-230-ft.) Deep Space Network dishes to send startup commands to the spacecraft. A failure review team could issue preliminary findings as early as next month on why Contour apparently broke into at least three pieces near the end of a critical 50-sec.
U.S. government agencies held a three-day closed meeting in Washington on how to protect commercial airliners from man portable missiles, according to Aerospace Daily. The FAA and Transportation, Defense and State Depts. were involved in the meeting, which concluded Dec. 14. The findings were not announced.
Several successful flight tests in recent months weren't enough to salvage the B-1B's electronic warfare upgrade. The Pentagon last week issued a termination for convenience for the Defensive System Upgrade Program, which included installing a new techniques generator and fiber-optic towed decoy. The program ran into technical trouble last year when decoy testing encountered several problems and costs increased, causing Air Force planners to zero its Fiscal 2004 budget.
Ditmar Staffelt has been appointed aerospace coordinator of the government of Germany. He is a member of the Bundestag undersecretary in the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Labor.
The "Cyber Center" for Northrop Grumman's new Cyber Warfare Integrated Network is outfitted with multiple capabilities to show diverse network-centric warfare data displays from a variety of aircraft, UAVs and ground command-center perspectives. The facilities will tackle issues such as advanced system analysis and distributed mission training, and they will be used to improve time-critical targeting analysis and concepts for "effects-based" net-centric operations.
Your article on Boeing fuel pumps failed to account for similar problems with overheating fuel pumps in other Boeing aircraft (AW&ST Dec. 9, p. 48). From 1982-93, five Boeing KC-135s exploded in flight or on the ground due to overheated body tank fuel pumps, killing 39 people. Indeed, after two fatal explosions within a month in 1989, the fleet was grounded pending a solution, which was to leave 2,000 lb. of fuel in each tank to cover and cool the pumps.
The U.S. government should set up a National Counter-Terrorism Center for the "fusion and analysis" of foreign and domestic intelligence on terrorists to preempt attacks, according to the latest report of the Gilmore commission. The report to Congress and the President was prepared by a panel led by former Virginia Gov. James S. Gilmore and staffed by Rand. The commission believes the new center should be independent of the new Homeland Security Dept.
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Australia and Singapore have agreed to place sky marshals on board Qantas and Singapore Airlines flights operating the heavily traveled air route between the two countries. The agreement in principle is Australia's first security pact with a foreign government involving international flights, according to Australian Justice Minister Chris Ellison, who was attending an anti-terrorism conference at Bali Island, Indonesia, scene of a recent bombing. Australia has placed sky marshals on domestic flights following Sept.11.
The Australian government will establish a special forces command on an equal footing with its air, land and maritime commands to expand its counter-terrorism capability. It will also organize an additional commando company and support team as part of the new command along with existing units and the Special Air Service regiment. An Australian special forces group has just returned from four months duty in Afghanistan and Prime Minister John Howard said the military is on standby in case they are needed in a contingency as the U.S. edges closer to war with Iraq.
Unable to convince the U.S. Navy it should move the RQ-8A Firescout from development to production, Northrop Grumman is trying a new strategy: offer a more capable version of the helicopter UAV. The new system, the MQ-8B SeaScout, would feature a four-blade rotor instead of the three-blade design on Firescout. The change should boost endurance and payload capacity. Company officials are hoping the Navy will buy at least two of the systems--each including several UAVs--in the 2004 timeframe, although so far no official action has occurred.
Northrop Grumman has unveiled a major new Cyber Warfare Integration Network (CWIN) as part of an aggressive initiative to develop better network-centric warfare procedures and software for critical systems such as Global Hawk, Joint-STARS and the B-2, as well as future assets like UCAV and the Multisensor Command and Control Aircraft. We want to "refine the vision for dynamic network-centric battle operations in the 21st century," said Dale Burton, Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems' vice president for engineering, logistics and technology.
The race between Boeing and Airbus to clinch a deal with state-run Indian Airlines and Air-India for 60 aircraft remains heated as the Cabinet considers the matter.
Deutsche Telekom, which owns a 10.8% stake in Eutelsat, agreed to sell about 75% of its shares in the European telecommunications satellite operator to De Agostini, an Italian publishing group. PanAmSat and Intelsat are submitting rival bids to acquire a controlling majority in Eutelsat (AW&ST Dec. 16, p. 19).
NASA's two Mars Exploration Rovers (MERs) are scheduled to arrive at Cape Canaveral in January for final test, assembly and checkout in preparation for the first rover's launch about May 30. Both will fly on Boeing Delta IIs, with the second MER set for launch June 24. The rovers have been completing mobility tests at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (MER-2 is shown), and MER-2 is in the midst of its critical "surface thermal vacuum test" where rover systems are powered up in Martian temperature and pressure conditions.
