NASA has narrowed the field of candidates for its planned Mars Scout mission to four, and will spend the next nine months choosing among them for a spacecraft to send toward the red planet during the 2007 planetary launch window.
WORLD NEWS ROUNDUP Russian company nears deal for Fairchild Dornier Will acquire 728 jet program, Airbus component business 18 T-50 reaches 40,000 ft. as flight program advances Evaluation included flutter, control and stability tests at Mach 0.6 19 AIA sees 'creeping crisis' for U.S. aerospace industry Plummeting sales of civil aircraft leading way, says trade group 19 WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS United flying headlong into an uncertain future
Wolfgang Mayrhuber, who has been group vice chairman and head of Lufthansa's airline business and was chief of Lufthansa Technik, has been named to succeed Group Chairman/CEO Juergen Weber when he steps down in June. Weber is expected to remain chairman of the supervisory board.
Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) is nearing a decision on how to respond to low-cost competition in its home market. President/CEO Jorgen Lindegaard said a final strategy will be ready in the first quarter of 2003, but has revealed that SAS probably would establish a "Scandinavian Lite" carrier. It would offer single-class service and operate five airplanes initially. The new airline would use SAS pilots and cabin crews, but altered work contracts are under negotiation, he said.
Tom Sarama (see photos) has been appointed vice president-strategic programs of the Raytheon Aircraft Co., Wichita, Kan. He was vice president-engineering and has been succeeded by David Riemer, who will be vice president-product development and engineering. Riemer was vice president-government business and has, in turn, been succeeded by Sherry Grady, who was director of the Trainer Systems Div. Bob Feazell has been named director of the Hawker and Horizon certification program and Glenn Oka director of product assurance.
General Dynamics Corp. and Boeing Co. have succeeded in temporarily blocking the Defense Dept. from collecting $2.3 billion the U.S. government claims the defense contractors owe stemming from the Pentagon's cancellation of the A-12 program. The U.S. Court of Federal Claims issued a stay of its August 2001 decision, stating that immediate collection of the money is not in the national interest. The court also noted that the issues on appeal are substantial, and the appeals court will want to closely examine a number of them.
Fairchild Dornier administrator Eberhard Braun and the Basic Element/Irkutsk Aircraft Production Organization consortium are nearing their decision on the proposed transfer to Russia of the 728 twinjet program and Airbus components businesses. Late last week, both parties were still trying to reconcile divergent views on the transfer of rights. Braun originally hoped to complete a final agreement in early December, but contractual details proved too complex.
Al Stephens has been appointed station manager at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Chris Rupprecht station manager at Albany (N.Y.) International Airport and Chris Johnson station manager at Birmingham (Ala.) Municipal Airport for Southwest Airlines. Stephens was station manager at San Diego, while Rupprecht was customer service manager at Baltimore/Washington International Airport. Johnson was assistant station manager at Oakland (Calif.) International Airport.
A planned Dec. 12 extravehicular activity by International Space Station Expedition 6 crewmen Navy Capt. Ken Bowersox and cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin was postponed until January because of a medical problem affecting one of them. Medical privacy issues prevent NASA from describing the condition, which will delay the crew's ability to back up the transfer of the ISS mobile transporter from the far port end of the ISS to its desired parking location on the center of the truss.
Russia's minister for economic development and trade, German Gref, is reported to have criticized Tupolev over the lack of progress on its Tu-334 regional jetliner. Gref warned that unless substantial progress was made, Russia faced losing its commercial aircraft sector within the next few years.
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Raytheon Co. appointed Edward S. Pliner, 44, as its new chief financial officer last week, following the resignation of Franklyn A. Caine. In November, the Securities and Exchange Commission hit both Caine and the company with cease-and-desist orders because Caine conveyed to Wall Street analysts market-moving information, without providing it simultaneously to the public. Other financial setbacks also beset Raytheon during Caine's three-year tenure as CFO. Pliner previously was vice president and controller for Raytheon.
Boeing is considering a further development of its 747 family, the 747-800. The aircraft could feature a stretched fuselage and new engines. Meanwhile, its much-vaunted Sonic Cruiser program is being overtaken by a slower design. Alan Mulally, president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, told the British Aviation Club in London late last week that the next new aircraft from the company would be an ultra-efficient design in the 200-250-seat category with availability in 2007-08. Cruise speed would be similar to the 747's, rather than in the transonic region.
Space buffs and Mars-direct boosters have been understandably dismayed at the latest exploration scheme to emanate from the ninth floor of NASA headquarters--understandably but unnecessarily.
Charles H. Noski, retired vice chairman of AT&T, and USN Adm. (ret.) Charles R. Larson have been named to the board of directors of the North- rop Grumman Corp. of Los Angeles. Larson is a consultant on defense, foreign policy and education issues, and a former member of the board.
A Pentagon initiative to combine the military services' unmanned combat air vehicle efforts is slated to be up and running next year, although many of the details about how the cooperation would unfold are still being negotiated.
As business over the Web rises, so does the need for security. This can be accomplished with software, but hardware solutions are another route. A study by market research firm In-Stat/MDR (www.instat.com) predicts that encryption chip sales will increase by almost a factor of eight over a five-year period, from $75 million in 2001 to $575 million in 2006. During that period, the amount of encrypted data transfer is expected to double every year, or rise by a factor of at least 32. The cost per encrypted kilobit/sec. will plummet.
About AA Flight 587, Michael A. Dornheim wrote "pilots in rare circumstances, often while recovering from a stall or upset, in fact do move the rudder back and forth, usually overcontrolling the airplane and making their situation worse." In 20,000 flight hours in different aircraft types, this maneuver never came to mind. We should regret that the manufacturers did not advise about the risks of such a maneuver, but also question those who taught such a practice. This type of maneuver is of no use with an airliner, even after an upset or a stall.
Frank Morring Jr. (Washington), Michael A. Taverna (Paris)
Failure of an upgraded version of the Ariane 5 space launch vehicle sets Europe's faltering commercial space industry back even further, but ripples from the mishap are likely to reach Arianespace's competitors as well. Jean-Yves Le Gall, chief executive officer of the Paris-based launch services company, put the best face possible on a bad situation following the Dec. 11 mishap, in which the new rocket was destroyed when it went out of control and began to fall from the sky even before its new upper stage ignited.
GasTops received a launch production order from Pilatus Aircraft of Switzerland for 200 engine health monitoring sensors for engines in PC-12 turboprops. The order calls for the technology to be used as a standard feature on all new PC-12s beginning in spring 2003. The sensors will also be offered as a retrofit for existing PC-12s. The Ottawa company's MetalScan system is designed to alert maintenance crews and pilots of progressing mechanical engine and gearbox damage well before a failure occurs. This is its first order for a civil aircraft.
The article on Airbus A300 and A310 rudders (AW&ST Nov. 25, p. 44) states, "Past airline incidents . . . show that in rare but significant cases pilots have kicked the rudder from one stop to the other, in a manner that exceeds the design and sometimes even ultimate loads on the tail."
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