Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems has delivered the NSS-6 multimedia communications satellite to Kourou, French Guiana, for an Ariane launch early next month. The spacecraft carries 60 high-power Ku-band transponders that can be assigned in orbit to any of six spot beams covering the territory between the Eastern Mediterranean and Southern Africa to Australia, Japan and the Korean peninsula. It also has 12 Ka-band uplinks for interactive Internet access. New Skies Satellites, based in The Hague, owns the satellite.
Bombardier Aerospace has chosen Goodrich Hella Aerospace Lighting Systems' LED technology for the internal and external lighting on its Global 5000 intercontinental business jet. Deliveries of the lighting system are scheduled to begin early next year.
Steven Weinert has become division maintenance manager for flight services for the Keystone Helicopter Corp., West Chester, Pa. He was president of the Flite Tech Consulting Group, Vancouver, Wash.
As a result of Germany's reluctance to commit to earlier plans to procure 73 Airbus A400M airlifters, program go-ahead is now expected to be delayed until 2003. Service entry date would further slip to 2009. German Defense Minister Peter Struck is scheduled to submit an updated procurement plan by the end of the month. If Germany reduces its A400M order, he said, the aircraft price would remain unchanged--a key concern for other participating countries.
Raytheon has received a one-year, $74-million option on its Live Training Program from the U.S. Army Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation, to continue providing life-cycle contractor support for tactical engagement, instrumentation and range training devices and systems. The award is the fourth of seven one-year options under an eight-year $414-million contract awarded in 1999.
The Italian air force is poised to receive its initial Eurofighter Typhoon next-generation combat aircraft, as the government moves closer to remedying a funding shortfall. Executives from Alenia Aeronautica, builder of the twin-seat fighter, said the aircraft had undergone final assembly and ground testing and is due to fly shortly. Acceptance and compliance testing with the air force is expected to be completed before year-end.
David J. Gorney has been promoted to general manager of the Navigation Div. from corporate chief architect/engineer and general manager of the Office of the Chief Architect/Engineer of The Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, Calif. Harlan F. Bittner succeeds Gorney and has been promoted from principal director of the office's Systems Acquisition Support Directorate. Russell E. Averill has been promot- ed to principal director from systems director in the Electronic Programs Div. at the Chantilly, Va., facility; and Michael P.
Air Transat Capt. Robert Piche has received the Canadian National Assembly Medal of Honor for gliding a fuel-depleted Airbus A330-200 and its 304 occupants to a safe landing on Terceira Island, Azores, on Aug. 4, 2001. A fuel leak caused both engines to shut down when Flight 236 was over the Altantic Ocean, en route from Canada to Portugal.
Thales Group and SAS Flight Support have signed an agreement for the latter to acquire Aeronautical Services Group (ASG) of Thales Avionics Ltd. Based in Hersham, England, ASG provides navigation service packages to the aviation industry. Bjorn Alegren, president of SAS Flight Support, said the acquisition "will provide us with a complete product portfolio and a platform for further growth." The transaction is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year.
Noting that most U.S. airlines have rarely earned their cost of capital, former American Airlines Chairman and CEO Robert L. Crandall told Aviation Week & Space Technology he's skeptical that the industry will ever be competitive as long as there are so many carriers selling what has evolved into a commodity product, of which there is an excess for the sake of customer convenience.
Designing the Air Force's "smart tanker" to be smart and cheap isn't going to be easy, aerospace experts are telling the Pentagon. One imposing issue is antennas. "You'd like not to have to tear the superstructure apart to put a new antenna on," said an advanced concepts specialist. "The desire is to come up with conformal, thin, low-profile antennas that can be plugged in but still take the structural stresses and loads. For security reasons [the Air Force] doesn't want these aircraft to look like anything more than a Boeing 767. You want visual low-observability.
Philippine accident investigators late last week anxiously awaited the retrieval of the tail assembly--the last and most vital piece of wreckage from Laoag International Airlines Flight L-7585 from the murky waters of Manila Bay before confirming what caused an engine failure and the subsequent crash of the Fokker 27-600 on Nov. 11.
TRW Inc. has agreed to sell its automotive business to the Blackstone Group for $4.6 billion. If the transaction is completed, it would eliminate a major overhang to Northrop Grumman Corp., which expects to complete its purchase of TRW before the end of this year.
The 19-in. airborne VME rack RA2064x, designed to provide a compact off-the-shelf solution for avionics applications, meets the RTCA/DO-160D standard for avionics equipment and is suitable for use within a pressurized cabin. The convection-cooled rack has an operating temperature range of 40C to +65C (40F to +149F). The front panel of the new rack features output voltage indicators (+5V, +12V, 12V, +3.3V), an on-off switch with a protection mechanism to prevent accidental switching, and access to two internal SCSI 3.5-in. disk drives and a flash solid-state drive.
Michael Jacobs has become senior adviser on cyber and national security for SRA International, Fairfax, Va. He was director of information assurance for the National Security Agency.
The Mitsubishi MH-2000 utility helicopter is scheduled to return to commercial flight status next year, more than two years after a prototype crashed, killing the pilot and injuring five passengers. The accident prompted the company and Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to ground the helicopter, after three had been delivered. Investigators determined that a faulty tail rotor blade design caused a vibration that led to separation of the rotor. As a result, the government suspended the aircraft's type certificate.
A long decision-making roadblock at Italian space agency ASI that has stalled several important European space programs, including a major Venus mission and the Galileo satellite navigation system, appears to be coming to an end.
Paul E. Sterbenz has been named to the board of directors of TLX Inc., Scottsdale, Ariz. He is a retired vice president-flight operations for Southwest Airlines and a former member of the board of directors of U.K.-based Go Fly Ltd.
Colleen Barrett, president/chief operating officer of Southwest Airlines, has received an Inaugural Compass Award from the New York-based Women's Leadership Exchange. She and the other honorees are women who operate or own growth businesses. Barrett was cited for being the developer and keeper of Southwest's "innovative customer-focused culture."
Boeing rolled out the 777-300ER last week and said it would restart production of the 777-200LR. The 365-passenger 300ER has a range of 7,250 naut. mi. and features the introduction of the General Electric GE-90-115B engine with 123,000 lb. thrust. Pakistan International Airlines has formalized the purchase of eight 777s, including the first two 777-200LRs (also powered by GE90-115B engines) and three 777-300ERs. Air France will be first to take delivery of the -300ER in early 2004.
Daren Iverson has been promoted to vice president-contracts and finance/chief financial officer from director of contracts of Spectrum Astro, Gilbert, Ariz. He has been succeeded by Shari Weisbach, who was business manager for the Space-Based Infrared System Low program.
Honeywell has delivered the first three F124-GA-200 turbofan engines to Aermacchi for use in its M-346 prototype. The International Turbine Engine Corp., a joint venture with Aero Industrial Development Corp. of Taiwan, is scheduled to deliver four more of the turbofan engines for two additional prototypes to be used in the two-seat trainer's flight test program. Flight testing of the twin-engine aircraft is slated to begin in mid-2003.
D.S. Kohlberg wrote that arming airline pilots would make hijacking situations worse by placing firearms in the hands of untrained pilots (AW&ST Sept. 30, p.6). Two points about the armed pilot program proposed by the Airline Pilots Security Alliance and other pilot groups are: * No pilot group proposes to arm any pilot without extensive training in firearms handling and retention, as well as other applicable subjects.
Nov. 30-Dec. 1--First European Air Racing History Symposium. Holiday Inn Le Bourget-Garonor, Paris. Call +1 (703) 684-6032 or e-mail: [email protected]. Dec. 4-5--Quebec Assn. of Air Carriers Inc.'s 27th Annual Convention & Trade Show. Hotel Loews Le Concorde, Quebec City. Call +1 (418) 871-4635 or fax +1 (418) 871-8189. Dec. 4-5--Fourth Annual Information Technology & Digital Data Conference. Europa InterContinental Hotel, Brussels. Call +44 (207) 931-7072 or fax +44 (207) 931-7186.
The launch of Endeavour carrying a $390-million Boeing systems truss and the Expedition 6 crew to the International Space Station was, as of late last week, tentatively rescheduled for late Nov. 18, following the repair of a gaseous oxygen leak that scrubbed the original launch attempt Nov. 11. Engineers, however, were assessing whether possible metal fatigue in the oxygen line could be a fleet-wide issue with more serious schedule implications.
