Don Francis has become vice president/chief information officer for InVision Technologies, Newark, Calif. He held those positions for E-M Solutions Inc.
Among the commission's recommendations are: * Government commitment to "increased and sustained investment," and to facilitating private investment, in the aerospace sector. * Rapid development and deployment of a highly automated air traffic management system beyond the scope of the FAA's Operational Evolution Plan. * FAA certification of aerospace systems by process rather than by product, with incentives for early implementation. * Streamlined development of new airports and runways.
High landing and navigation charges, indecision on a policy for leasing four major airports and a freeze on privatized ground handling bids have left Indian airports facing a sea of lawsuits and in a state of suspension for attracting investors.
While David M. North's editorial "Here's How to Motivate Students Toward Aerospace" (AW&ST Oct. 14, p. 70) offered a number of suggestions for motivating students in Grades K-12 to develop technical skills, it neglected one important point.
Craig Saddler has been appointed president of the Boeing Travel Management Co. He succeeds Bob Jouret, who is now vice president-financial services/chief financial officer for the Boeing Shared Services Group.
Arianespace has won a contract to launch Indonesia's Telekom-2 communications satellite. The launch, set for the second half of 2004, was the company's third Asian deal (after Thailand's Ipstar-1 and India's Agrani-2) and 11th overall for the year. Meanwhile, Arianespace set Nov. 28 as the final launch date for the Ariane 5 EC-A, a higher-power version of the heavy-lift launcher with a cryogenic upper stage. The launch has slipped several times due to delays in delivery of the French experimental telecom satellite, Stentor, and Eutelsat's Hotbird 7.
NASA's revised Fiscal 2003 budget plan could lead to a larger International Space Station (ISS) crew than the seven planned before funding shortfalls cut it back to three, but it doesn't resolve how even those three will be accommodated after 2006. And while NASA wanted to move quickly on the new plan, Capitol Hill gave no indication last week it would go along.
UNITED STATES Editor-In-Chief: David M. North [email protected] Managing Editor: David Hughes [email protected] Assistant Managing Editors: Stanley W. Kandebo--Technology [email protected] Michael Stearns--Production [email protected] Senior Editor: Craig Covault [email protected] NEW YORK 2 Penn Plaza, Fifth Floor, New York, N.Y. 10121 Phone: +1 (212) 904-2000, Fax: +1 (212) 904-6068
For the last few years, it has been a given that the first company to successfully combine data from many intelligence-gathering sensors--while compensating accurately for all the different physics and time latencies involved--and use the product to present a single, unified picture of the battlefield will spring to the top of the defense industry.
Intense radiation near Jupiter sent the Galileo probe into a preprogrammed safe mode Nov. 5, but not before it recorded some data as it flew within 99 mi. of the small moon Amalthea on the way to its closest encounter with the planet itself. Controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will try to reactivate the spacecraft and recover the data before Galileo's scheduled impact with Jupiter in September 2003, but no more data-gathering flybys were planned.
An investigation team formed late last week will seek to determine causes for the crash, on Nov. 6, of a Luxair Fokker 50 near Luxembourg airport, the carrier's home base. The 50-seat twin turboprop operated the Berlin-Tempelhof/Luxembourg-Findel route under a code-share agreement with Lufthansa CityLine. During its final approach, after an uneventful flight, the F50 hit the ground in heavy fog about 6 mi. from the runway's threshold. Two of 22 passengers and flight crews on board survived. The F50, registration LX-LGB, had been delivered to Luxair in 1991.
Saudi Arabian officials now say there is no blanket rejection of U.S. aerial operations from their bases if there is conflict with Iraq. However, Pentagon officials have had three options in mind all along. "Plan A was to fly both support and combat out of Saudi Arabia," a senior Air Force official said. "Plan B was to fly support aircraft only, and Plan C was to fly no aircraft from their bases. A lot of the combat aircraft are already in Kuwait, and that's closer anyway.
Europe's Joint Aviation Authorities recently awarded the CAE Tropos commercial flight simulator Level-D certification. The technology has been integrated for use with a Boeing 737 full-flight simulator at CAE's Amsterdam aviation training center. Using calligraphic light points, it is able to provide more visually realistic runway lighting for training in low visibility, more accurate height and speed cues for pilots practicing takeoffs and landings, and ultra-sharp textures for more lifelike details around airports and runways, according to the company.
American Eagle Airlines officials are proceeding with the sale of subsidiary Executive Airlines to remain in compliance with scope clause mandates contained in its contract with the Allied Pilots Assn., which represents pilots at American Airlines. Peter M. Bowler, president of American Eagle, said last week the decision to sell the airline was driven chiefly by the need to comply with the scope clause, which limits the number of available seat miles American Eagle can fly while American Airlines pilots remain on furlough.
Three U.S. airlines, two small and one among the largest, won a little breathing room last week in their struggles to stay afloat financially. The rest kept plugging. Frontier Airlines and Aloha Airlines won conditional approval from the Air Transportation Stabilization Board (ATSB) of loan guarantees to cover 90% of borrowings critical to their survival. Subject to sweetened terms and negotiation of legal documents, the ATSB will guarantee $63 million of $70 million in Frontier loans and $40.5 million of a $45-million Aloha financing.
The regional arm of flag carrier Singapore Airlines (SIA), long in the shadow of its parent, is coming of age. Tourist-oriented SilkAir's long-term plans include a fleet expansion to 16 aircraft from nine by 2007 and a doubling of its investment in market development to S$16 million ($9.4 million).
The Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) is urging flight crews to be alert for incorrect indications of localizer and glideslope signals that could lead to controlled flight into terrain.
James A. Thomas, 3rd, one of six new airport federal security directors, has been named FSD at Norman Y. Mineta San Jose (Calif.) International Airport. He was CEO of the Nuclear Arms Control Div. of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and had been base commander of Cannon AFB, N.M. Force Base in Ohio. The other new FSDs are: Luis Munoz Marin International Airport, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Marlene M. Hunter, who was special agent in charge of the San Juan Div. of the FBI.; Rio Grande Valley International Airport, Harlingen, Tex., George R.
The European Court of First Instance has struck down yet another European Commission merger decision, further fueling speculation that an EC ruling last year blocking an alliance between General Electric and Honeywell may be reversed. The court pronouncement, related to a merger between a pair of packaging companies, Tetra-Laval and Sidel, was the second in as many weeks and the third since midyear to find fault with the EC's merger review procedures (AW&ST Oct. 28, p. 23; June 17, p. 26).
In a homeland defense simulation here that pitted a fictional National Security Council against an uncertain terrorist threat, the "national leaders" decided to ground general aviation and air cargo carriers as a precaution. However, it wasn't even possible for the NSC to know at the end of the exercise that its actions had headed off attacks, or if the threats had been a hoax.
Capt. Joe Bentley's letter and the responses bring up the point that there is a single point of failure possible in airport security within the U.S. This was demonstrated recently by the passenger who flew with a loaded pistol, only to be caught at a checkpoint for a connecting flight.
The 3i European venture capital group and SR Technics management jointly concluded an agreement with the bankrupt SAirGroup to buy out SR Technics for 425 million euros. SR Technics, which has 2,900 employees, has 750 million euros in annual revenues.
Jeremy Wertheimer, president/CEO of ITA Software, Cambridge, Mass., has been named by Mass High Tech magazine as one of the high-tech 2002 All-Stars. The program profiles New Englanders who have made impacts in their technical fields. Wertheimer was named winner in the Internet technology category.
Rolls-Royce has signed a long-term aftermarket support agreement with Virgin Atlantic Airways covering the Trent 500 engines for the airline's Airbus A340-600 aircraft. The $325- million contract covers 10 aircraft through 2016.
Air Canada will retrofit its fleet of Airbus A319/A320/A321s and equip its new A340-500s with Amsafe Aviation's Inflatable Restraint System Version 1.5. Installations will be performed on up to 18 aircraft by late 2003.
