An item in the World News Roundup section (AW&ST Dec. 16, 2002, p. 19) incorrectly stated the name of the president of the Philippines. She is Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. The item also misstated the name of the airport in Manila. It is Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
The Transportation Security Administration rang in the New Year by moving to 100% screening of all checked baggage for explosives as mandated by Congress, but the agency doesn't expect to achieve all-electronic screening until later this year.
NASA's New Millennium Program is pushing ahead with plans to demonstrate several advanced technologies in space that could enable science missions launching 10-20 years from now. A Feb. 5-7 workshop in Washington will outline the agency's needs in the areas of solar sails, formation flying, large space telescopes, precision landing on celestial bodies and aerocapture. New Millennium spacecraft focus primarily on validating new technology in space.
Jean-Michel Roy has been named vice president-training and flight operations for Airbus. He succeeds Pierre Baud, who retired Dec. 31 as senior vice president-training and flight operations. Roy was senior director of training policy.
BOEING WILL CONTINUE ITS WORK ON THE MID-TERM modernization of NATO's 17 E-3 AWACS air-surveillance aircraft, under a $278-million U.S. Air Force contract. The work is part of a $1.3-billion development effort that includes production options to install new operator consoles, flat panel displays, a new mission computer system with multisensor integration and other features on NATO's only alliance-owned and operated aircraft.
More than a century after Cochise, the legendary Apache Indian chief, eluded U.S. government troops by hiding in the mountains of southern Arizona, airlift crews flying low-level awareness training among the same peaks, valleys and rocks learn how to survive missile and fighter attacks.
The Air Force could benefit greatly from micro- and nano-technology but needs to bolster its R&D spending to take advantage of the emerging field, a National Research Council panel concludes. The study found numerous applications for the small-scale technologies for the Air Force, including "large, distributed fixed arrays and moving swarms of multispectral, multifunctional sensors" that could redefine how the military collects information. There could also be "new opportunities in propulsion and aerodynamic control," the panel's report states.
Air Lib, a French independent carrier desperately struggling for survival, is seeking state aid to implement another cost-cutting plan and inaugurate routes that it believes will help restore profitability. Airline executives also claim that an agreement with a Dutch investor will soon provide much-needed funding.
WORLD NEWS ROUNDUP Hughes and Boeing sectors face arms export charges Linked to assistance to Chinese following Long March 2E failures 16 First flight for reproduction Me262A fighter Future flights to expand flight envelope, focus on Mach number 16 China aims for its first manned space flight later this year After unpiloted liftoff of fourth Shenzhou spacecraft 17 WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS North Korea nuke crisis complicates Iraq buildup
The probable war with Iraq and tensions with North Korea make it likely that the Americans will be attacked by terrorists with weapons of mass destruction or disruption in 2003. So says David Kay, who led nuclear arms inspectors in Iraq in the early 1990s. Biological or chemical weapons attacks against U.S. interests abroad would be the easiest to mount because the materials are available and the chances of success are good. Attacks on U.S. soil are not out of the question but are more likely to be thwarted, he said.
Terry Scott (see photo) has been appointed test site manager for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics F-16 flight operations at Edwards AFB, Calif. She succeeds John Fergione, who has transferred to Lockheed Martin Aeronautics F/A-22 test operations, also at Edwards AFB.
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.
