The 7,000-lb. French Alcatel Eutelsat W5 spacecraft launched by the first Delta IV will be parked south of Karachi, Pakistan, where it will give Eutelsat a major new foothold to sell communication services to China, South Korea, Japan and other Pacific Basin users as far south as Australia. "Eutelsat W5 will provide a full range of digital communication satellite capability, including information technology, Internet and video services," said Volker Steiner, Eutelsat director for commercial operations.
Hendrik Falk has been appointed vice president-sales for Europe, Africa, the Middle East and India for Polar Air Cargo, Long Beach, Calif. He was director of sales for Southeast Asia and Australia for Lufthansa Cargo.
Gerald L. Gitner has been named non-executive chairman and Robert W. Zoller, Jr., president/CEO of Kitty Hawk Inc. of Dallas. Gitner is chairman of D.G. Associates Inc. and has been chairman/CEO of Trans World Airlines. Zoller was a principal and founder of International Management Solutions, West Palm Beach, Fla., and has been president/chief operating officer of Hawaiian Airlines. Gitner and Zoller succeed Tilmon J. Reeves, who was chairman/president/CEO.
As the complication and intensity of battlefield electronics increase, the U.S. premier signals intelligence-gathering aircraft is undergoing an upgrade in capability. Already, two RC-135 Rivet Joint aircraft are now in the newest Baseline 7 avionics configuration and scheduled for deployment in January.
The Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) is urging judicial authorities to refrain from interfering with "well-tested processes" that identify the cause of accidents involving airline transports. Stuart Matthews, president/CEO of FSF, said efforts to reduce accidents could be adversely affected by "draconian attempts to improve aviation safety through criminal punishment for inadvertent mistakes." FSF cites the actions of prosecutors in France, Greece, Italy, Japan, the U.S.
Jim Haseltine captured this airborne shot of one of the two upgraded RC-135 Baseline 7 Rivet Joint aircraft now assigned to the 55th Wing at Offut AFB, Neb. More powerful engines have improved takeoff and altitude performance and increased on-station time (see p. 54). Crew stations were updated to ease workload and increase interoperability with other services' signals intelligence-gathering aircraft.
Boeing has scheduled 40 extended-range twin-engine operations (ETOPS) test flights--the longest a 19-hr. endeavor that skirts Antarctica--for the 777-300ER, as the company positions the big twin-engine aircraft to match the performance of its long-range champ, the 747-400. Flight tests of the extended-range -300 are to begin in late January, following certification of its General Electric GE90-115B engine. Two fully-instrumented test articles are set for the program--the first concentrating on the airframe and systems, the second on the new engine.
James F. Gerwien has become chief operating officer of Ontic Engineering & Manufacturing Inc., Chatsworth, Calif. He was business unit manager for Eaton Aerospace subsidiary Vickers Fluid Power, Jackson, Miss.
European manufacturer EADS is making another push to bolster its leading position to supply the U.S. Coast Guard's new maritime surveillance aircraft, and executives are eyeing a U.S. production site for a future Army transport program. With uncertainty hovering over key decisions on the Coast Guard's maritime patrol aircraft modernization plan, EADS is pursuing a two-pronged strategy. One promotes a combined package of its CN-235 Extended Range aircraft with the tactical workstations, while the other pushes the two as separate entities.
One year after it was established, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration met its first congressionally mandated deadline by completing deployment last week of federal screeners to 429 commercial airports. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta said TSA has "defied the critics" who said it couldn't be done. The agency has also hired more than 44,000 screeners in that time and 158 federal security directors. Mineta also said the agency is ready to manage the surge in traffic over the holidays and will meet the Dec.
Europe's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory has obtained the first reliable measurement ever of the mass-to-radius ratio of a neutron star, providing a glimpse of the possible makeup and structure of these objects that are believed to be among the densest in the Universe. Studying neutron star EXO 0748-676, scientists led by Jean Cottam of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center measured the gravitational red shift of iron atoms detected in the star.
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ANCHORAGE CENTER USED AUTOMATIC Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast to locate a downed aircraft last month, leading rescuers to the crash site and saving a pilot who might not have survived overnight. When the aircraft disappeared, its ADS-B track was used to locate the wreckage. ADSB came to Alaska as part of the Capstone demonstration to enhance the safety for bush pilots of selected general aviation type aircraft, which were equipped with GPS, a digital terrain database and a data link (AW&ST Sept. 18, 2000, p. 68).
U.S. astronaut Richard F. Gordon, Jr., and Horizon Air founder Milton G. Kuolt, 2nd, have received 2002 Pathfinder Awards from the Museum of Flight in Seattle as selected by its board of trustees and the Pacific Northwest section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. The awards recognize contributions to the legacy of aerospace.
Aldridge was peppered with questions last week about the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's work designed to probe records of most credit-card transactions to see if any patterns point to a terrorist at work. Darpa projects usually aren't controversial, but the Total Information Awareness research effort has set off a firestorm due to privacy issues and because it is headed by John Poindexter. Aldridge said Poindexter's feasibility study will not use real data, so there should be no privacy issues.
The status of electronic warfare progress may not be as bad as stated (AW&ST Oct. 28, p. 54). The ALE-50 in Kosovo on the B-1 was effective and saved 19 aircraft. The ALE-55 is coming along and the Comet is a promising infrared countermeasures program, but then again Congress budgeted $14 million for the Israeli I-Tald program for which there is no stated requirement, just politics. If you think electronic warfare is badly off just look at U.S.
TSA notified private charter carriers that the new security rules that will apply to aircraft weighing 95,000 lb. or more should be out soon. The final rule was supposed to be issued on Nov. 1 with compliance required by Dec. 1. TSA says once it issues the final rule, carriers will be given at least 30 days to comply.
Jack Sellers, assistant professor of aviation sciences technology at Tulsa (Okla). Community College, has been elected president of the Auburn, Ala.-based University Aviation Assn. Gerald P. Chubb, associate professor at Ohio State University, is president-elect. Stephen M. Quilty, associate professor of aviation studies at Bowling Green (Ohio) State University, has been reelected vice president. Jacqueline R. Luedtke, associate professor of aviation at Daniel Webster College in New Hampshire, has been reelected secretary-treasurer.
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. is seeking long-term, firm commitments from its supplier base to help meet stringent customer requirements for the schedule and affordability associated with the F-35, F/A-22, F-16 and C-130J programs. At a supplier conference hosted by LMAC earlier this month, senior company officials promised the business will exceed $4 billion annually providing vendors meet the company's mandates for cost, schedule and responsiveness, according to Mike Walters, vice president of material management.
Why would a sophisticated airborne intelligence-gathering system like Rivet Joint be needed against a seemingly primitive military foe like the Taliban or Al Qaeda in Afghanistan? Because in several respects--including human intelligence gathering and secure communications--they are actually among the world's sophisticated practitioners, and their wireless networks serve as the central nervous system of Al Qaeda's military reconnaissance and command structure.
George W.S. Abbey, former director of Johnson Space Center and long a central figure in NASA's human spaceflight activities, will retire on Jan. 3, 2003. Abbey joined the Apollo program at JSC as an Air Force captain in 1964, and became a civilian NASA employee there in 1967. After rising through the JSC flight operations bureaucracy, he was appointed center director in 1996. He held that post until February 2001, when Administrator Daniel S. Goldin shunted him aside after big funding shortfalls in the ISS program came to light.
Datamat has received a $5.6-million contract from Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. to operate and support the C-130J National Training Center for the Italian air force. The facility is located in Pisa, which is home for the 46th Air Brigade that is scheduled to receive 22 of the four-engine transports. The contract is effective beginning in January and is part of an industry offset package provided by Lockheed Martin.
