The U.S. Air Force has chosen the Titan Corp. to support the service's Protection Command and Control System Program Office at Hanscom AFB, Mass. The agreement has a $33.2-million potential and will be exercised through December 2006.
Microwave technology manufacturer Herley Industries Inc. of Lancaster, Pa., purchased U.K.-based EW Simulation Technology Ltd. (EWST), a producer of electronic warfare simulator systems for military contractors. The privately-held company has a funded backlog of $16 million and hopes to achieve double-digit revenue growth as electronic warfare markets grow.
The focus on the safety of firefighting aircraft has resulted in an airworthiness directive (AD) on Lockheed's 1940s-vintage P2V Neptune, a Navy patrol aircraft that has been converted to fire-bombing. Reports of extensive cracking on the lower wing surface between the fuselage and engine nacelles prompted AD 2002-19-13, which calls for a detailed inspection around all access holes in that area within five flights or by Oct. 6, and repeated every five flights. Also, dye penetrant inspection of these areas is necessary every 50 flights and by Oct. 6.
British Royal Air Force Tornado F3 aircraft were scrambled Oct. 3 as a precautionary measure following concern over passengers' comments overheard on a British Airways Boeing 777 inbound from the U.S. to London Heathrow Airport. The F3 provided a combat air patrol, and had visual contact with the aircraft. The BA flight landed without incident, and the passengers were questioned.
In a sign the Air Force and Boeing are inching toward lease of 100 Boeing 767-200 tankers, the service begins informal discussions with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to ensure the terms are palatable. Service leaders want to avoid proposing a deal only to have it shot down by OMB, which will determine whether lease terms meet government regulations. OMB officials earlier expressed skepticism that such a deal could be crafted. The Air Force also has yet to get the blessing from the Pentagon.
Bell Helicopter Textron officials are projecting FAA certification of the BA609 commercial tiltrotor in 2007, assuming the MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor program does not encounter further setbacks or major delays. Initial engine runs of the first BA609 are tentatively scheduled to begin in the next four weeks at Bell's research and development facility in Arlington, Tex., according to the company.
The Transportation Dept. decided last week to allow United Airlines and US Airways to carry out their code-share and frequent-flier agreements, subject to complicated Justice Dept. conditions and the threat of further reviews if the airlines seem to be reducing competition. The carriers' original agreement, submitted for review on July 25, provided for code sharing throughout their networks. To avoid government action to block the deal, they agreed to a Justice Dept. restriction that bars code sharing involving local traffic on nonstop routes served by both.
About 30,000 fuel pumps on Boeing 747, 757 and 737-600/700/800/900 transports are the subject of FAA airworthiness directives (AD) issued Aug. 30 and Sept. 30, after reports were received of misrouted wires becoming chafed and causing arcing in areas exposed to fuel tank vapors. The AD compliance date is Oct. 14. In most cases, the effect on operations is small--enough fuel must remain in the center wing tank to keep the pumps covered and submerge any arcing.
In one of the worst accidents in Indian naval aviation, two Ilyushin-38 maritime reconnaissance aircraft collided Oct.1 in midair during an air show near Goa at INS Hansa Naval AB. The 16 dead include seven lieutenant commanders. India had only five Il-38 antisubmarine warfare aircraft in its inventory, so losing two will put a significant strain on a nation with a 4,300-mi. coastline to patrol. Both of the crashed aircraft underwent major overhauls in Russia in 1996 with the intent to keep them in service until 2015.
Navy officials want to evolve the Cooperative Engagement Capability to be cheaper and to share data such as signals intelligence, but for the program to survive, the most important change could be expanding the user base throughout the military. While senior military officials are pleased with what the Navy has done in recent years, they believe the time has come for a major shift in philosophy. The problem with CEC is ``it is a very difficult club to join. That, by definition, in my world is not network-centric,'' said John P.
The activation of U.S. Northern Command (NorthCom) last week marked the first time a single military commander has been charged with protecting the U.S. homeland since the days of George Washington. The new unit's creation under the Pentagon's 2002 Unified Command Plan was prompted by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which highlighted Defense Dept. and government interagency weaknesses attributable to no ``unity of command'' for homeland defense and security.
When the Navy deploys the latest version of the E-2C Hawkeye, it will also finally field the first airborne node of its new communications architecture and greatly expand the reach of its network-centric warfare vision. The fielding of the new hardware is only a small, first step. Service officials acknowledge it will likely take awhile before they know how to fully exploit the capability they are about to receive. The Hawkeye 2000 upgrade is designed to overhaul the carrier-based surveillance aircraft's aging battle management equipment.
Martin W. Phillips (see photo) has been promoted to Atlanta-based global practice executive for aerospace within IBM Global Services' Business Innovation Services. He was a national practice executive and had been chief financial officer for the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works.
In an effort to reduce interoperability problems, NATO members have devised a set of standards that should lead to the development of unmanned aircraft capable of aiding other NATO militaries. The use of UAVs throughout NATO countries has been growing steadily in recent years, but little progress had been made to ensure the various systems could support coalition partners.
Teledesic LLC is preparing to shut down its efforts to develop a satellite-based ``Internet in the sky,'' ordering Italy's Alenia Spazio to stop work on its first two medium-Earth orbit (MEO) satellites and scaling back to a skeleton staff at its Bellevue, Wash., headquarters. Cellular telephone pioneer and Teledesic Co-CEO Craig McCaw cited ``an unprecedented confluence of events in the telecommunications industry and financial markets'' in announcing the shutdown last week.
Rockwell Collins has been selected by the U.S. Coast Guard to provide additional avionics maintenance repair and technical support on its 17 HU-25 Falcon Jets. Under the six-year work order, Collins Aviation Services will provide spares management and maintenance, repair and technical services.
Australia is beckoning. Air Paradise International will launch services from Denpasar, the gateway to the popular Indonesian resort of Bali, to Perth and Melbourne on Oct. 28. Using two Airbus A310s leased from Singapore Airlines, it also will open a Denpasar-to-Jakarta route. The airline's plans include services to South Korea and Taiwan. Few carriers, including Indonesia's Sempati Air and Merpati Airlines, have succeeded on the Perth-Bali route. Also on Oct.
The shuttle program is to resume flight operations this week with managers placing increased attention on flight safety and service life problems that can arise from subtle ``combined environments'' for which the hardware has not been tested. The program has been grounded since late June due to cracks discovered in orbiter hydrogen flow liners. Evidence indicates that the multiple cracks occurred because of combined dynamic effects not considered in original component designs, but now coming to light as the vehicle ages.
Italy expects to significantly improve its ability to pursue icing-related studies after completing new research facilities. The Italian aerospace research agency (CIRA) recently inaugurated a new icing tunnel at Capua, near Naples. It will realistically reproduce icing conditions and enable flight safety experts to conduct sophisticated tests on behalf of scientists, airworthiness authorities and industry. The tunnel can duplicate cloudy conditions as specified by prevailing and proposed FAR/JAR regulations.
Free classes on fundamentals of surface design with Catia V5 are being given by EADS Matra Datavision at its North American offices and at aerospace companies wanting group instruction. For more info, call Donna Hendges, +1 (877) 228-8375, or e-mail [email protected]. . . . Stenbock & Everson's flight planning system puts together a variety of information on a single Web-page chart. FlightPrep can create a route in sectional or IFR map format and add temporary flight restrictions, special-use airspace and NexRad weather, and also provide approach charts.
With collaboration in the areas of passenger carriage and air cargo in full swing, SkyTeam leaders Air France and Delta are increasingly focusing their attention on maintenance repair and overhaul operations. Part of the impetus for the move came from Delta's MRO organization, Tech Ops, which began three years ago to transform itself from a purely in-house operation to one actively seeking third-party business. But Tech Ops' transatlantic alter-ego, Air France Industries (AFI), has been pushing for it almost since the inception of SkyTeam (AW&ST May 20, p.
Herley Industries has received a $1.63- million award from Composite Engineering for product development and manufacture of the primary avionics electronics suite for the U.S. Air Force subscale Skeeter aerial target.
According to the Airports Council International, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) retained its position as the world's third-busiest facility in 2001. The airport recorded 783,546 operations last year, trailing Chicago O'Hare and Atlanta Hartsfield airports. Compared with 2000, DFW slipped to sixth in terms of total passengers with more than 55 million people using the facility. Airport officials expect passenger count to return to 2001 levels early in 2003 and rebound in 2005 when a new international passenger terminal begins operating.
The international community faces a ``guaranteed supply chain of instability,'' according to NATO Secretary General George Robertson. He warned the members of a NATO conference in Brussels that the Caucasus, Central Asia, Northern Africa and the Middle East ``all offer a rich current and potential cocktail of instability.'' Robertson added this instability will spill over more often into Europe and North America than in the past. In addition, there will be more fanatical terrorists like those of Sept.
