Aviation Week & Space Technology

Daniel Hastings, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, has been named to receive the Losey Atmospheric Sciences Award for "achievements in space-plasma interactions with space systems and for leadership in USAF aerospace programs."

Either Flight Safety Foundation President Stuart Matthews needs to more clearly articulate his vision on telemetry from commercial aircraft (AW&ST Nov. 11, p. 15) or you have left out a large portion of the story--namely, who's going to be looking at this telemetered data?

Canada Transport Minister David Collenette, last week, made clear his position on firearms in the cockpit: no guns for Canada's airline pilots. "We want the individual to focus on being a pilot, not a law enforcement officer," said Collenette in testimony before a Canadian senate committee on National Security and Defense. Opening a can of possible border issues, he expressed concerns about allowing armed pilots of U.S. airlines on Canadian terra firma. "We cannot prevent U.S. carriers from having pilots that are armed flying over Canada or to Canada.

The General Accounting Office (GAO) chides the military services for failing to fully support advanced concept technology demonstration programs. The solution, the congressional auditors opine, is to have the Defense secretary decide whether the services should acquire technologies that are proven under the ACTD program. That would probably suit Donald Rumsfeld; the secretary has already been laying down the law to the services about interoperability and connectivity of the services' various systems (AW&ST Nov. 11, p.32).

As painful as bankruptcy will be for United Airlines employees, shareholders and some suppliers--a UAL Corp. Chapter 11 filing now appears all but certain (see p. 43)--there is a silver lining in this otherwise dark cloud that has been hanging over the ailing U.S. airline industry.

Central/Southern US: (AL, AR, CO, IA, KS, LA, MO, MS, OK, TN, TX, UT), Central & South America: See Tom Davis above. Northwest US: (Northern CA, ID, MT, Northern NV, OR, WA), Western Canada: (BC, AB) See Bill Madden above. Western US: (Southern CA, Southern NV, AZ) Soulek & Associates; (818) 762-9988; Fax: (818) 762-9972; e-mail: [email protected] Midwest/Northern US (IN, KY, MI, MO, OH, WV, IL IA, WI, MN, WY, ND, SD, NE), Central Canada (MB, SK): See Chuck Talley above.

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European airline executives believe the current slow recovery in traffic will accelerate in 2003. However, the results may be mitigated by double-digit growth and soaring market share for low-cost carriers.

Bob Shaffer, manager of the Dubois-Jefferson County (Pa.) Airport and a member of the board of directors of the Aviation Council of Pennsylvania, and Arizona State Rep. Linda Binder have been named to the board of directors of Regional Aviation Partners of Phoenix.

Central/Southern US: (AL, AR, CO, IA, KS, LA, MO, MS, OK, TN, TX, UT), Central & South America: See Tom Davis above. Northwest US: (Northern CA, ID, MT, Northern NV, OR, WA), Western Canada: (BC, AB) See Bill Madden above. Western US: (Southern CA, Southern NV, AZ) Soulek & Associates; (818) 762-9988; Fax: (818) 762-9972; e-mail: [email protected] Midwest/Northern US (IN, KY, MI, MO, OH, WV, IL IA, WI, MN, WY, ND, SD, NE), Central Canada (MB, SK): See Chuck Talley above.

Alene (Leni) Kaufman has been appointed vice president/chief information officer for the Newport News (Va.) Sector of the Northrop Grumman Corp. She was a program director for the Integrated Systems Sector, Melbourne, Fla.

The Royal Saudi Air Force is looking to upgrade its AN/FPS-117 long-range radars. The country maintains 17 L-band air surveillance radars that became fully operational in 1996 under the Peace Shield program. All 17 of the real-time three-dimensional data-capable Lockheed Martin-built radars are to be upgraded. In addition to replacing obsolete components, the Air Force says Saudi Arabia should receive improved capability out of the deal, which is expected to take the form of a Foreign Military Sales agreement with the U.S.

Capt. Steve Borgess seems to have forgotten the American Airlines pilots' illegal sickout in 1999. The U.S. Supreme Court let stand a $45.5-million fine for his Allied Pilots Assn.'s action. Airline unions no longer negotiate contracts under the Railway Labor Act. They extort them by illegal job actions. U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) correctly stated that the problem with the industry is pilot greed (AW&ST Sept. 18, 2000, p. 21). Thus we see the bill to establish an airline labor dispute act being considered by Congress. Capt. (ret.) John McElhaney

Earth-observing systems developed for NASA's climate-change research continue to draw military interest, to the extent that the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) has assigned a full-time representative to the space agency. Lately, NIMA has its eye on ICESat--the Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite--set for launch this month. The laser altimeter on board will provide a worldwide elevation map developers hope will be accurate to within 0.3 mm over a year's time.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), U.S. Air Force and Boeing have begun flight testing of the second X-45A unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV). The aircraft flew for the first time Nov. 21 at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB, Calif., completing a 29-min. mission. It reached 195 kt. and 7,500 ft. altitude.

George Webster has become director of system operations control at the Denver headquarters of Frontier Airlines. He was director of system operations control-dispatch for America West Airlines.

Please refer to the Correspondence page.

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United Airlines Chairman and CEO Glenn Tilton hopes to return the airline to profitability within three years, if unions approve his turnaround plan and the carrier receives ATSB approval for a $1.8-billion federal loan guarantee. Tilton, speaking at his first press conference in his new job at the recent Star Alliance chief executive board meeting in Rio de Janeiro, stated that according to the business plan the airline would make an operating profit in 2004 and a net profit in 2005.

As the Pentagon considers fielding an operational Airborne Laser, managers want to change the airframe that accommodates the boost-phase intercept system. The prototype ABL currently being assembled and tested, called the Block 2004 configuration, uses a Boeing 747-400F freighter. But for follow-on aircraft--Air Force planners envision a fleet of seven ABLs--managers want to transition to a regular 747-400. It would allow the crew to be housed upstairs and provide for better weight distribution of the laser modules in the main cabin section, program officials say.

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Jeffrey Plaut has been promoted to project scientist from deputy project scientist for NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey mission, based at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. He succeeds R. Stephen Saunders, who has retired.

Cargo traffic for the first eight months of the year was up 2% and passenger traffic down 6%, compared with the same period last year, according to the Airports Council International August traffic report. For August, Middle East airports saw a 20% increase in cargo volume compared to same month last year, handling 222,297 metric tons of cargo.

Lufthansa Technik will overhaul 12 Pratt & Whitney PW4000 turbofans installed on American Airlines Boeing 767s.

The National Security Agency recently awarded Titan Corp. the largest single contract in the company's history. Titan will be prime contractor for the Enterprise Architecture and Decision Support (EADS) program, valued at a potential $533 million over two years. EADS supports NSA's continuing effort to transform its national security missions of providing foreign signals intelligence and protecting national security-related information systems using industry partners.