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.
Northwest and Delta airlines are promoting voluntary leave programs to scale down workforces to levels that will match reduced flying schedules this year and in 2003. Delta is expected to present leave packages to as many as 1,500 employees in coming months. Internal communications regarding the workforce reduction were leaked prior to completion of the leave program, according to a Delta spokesman. Northwest notified flight attendants Oct. 2 that a voluntary leave program could affect a total of 1,600 people. After the terrorist attacks on Sept.
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. is developing strategies designed to expand its role in supporting new aircraft as well as 6,000 of its legacy aircraft in service with 60 countries. ``We don't believe there will be a clamor for integrated solutions across the board, but Lockheed Martin will be poised to provide more support'' while ensuring respect for our customers' needs, said William B. Anderson, vice president of customer support for the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co.
Air New Zealand last week contracted with Airbus for five A320-family aircraft, the first of which is to be delivered in October 2003. The powerplant choice has not yet been announced. The five aircraft, along with the carrier's 10 leased A320s, are to be operated on New Zealand-Australia and Pacific Island services. The carrier holds options for 20 aircraft of the same type.
Air Canada, wrenching itself from the grasp of dismal airline economics to report two consecutive quarters of profitability, may be emerging as the healthiest carrier in North America. Robert Milton, CEO of the only international carrier on this continent to report a net profit, US$39 million, in the second quarter, recently told a group of institutional investors his carrier expects ``a good, profitable third quarter'' and is looking at ``a more normalized state, barring the unforeseen.'' Third-quarter details will be announced on Oct. 25.
Belgium's BarcoView has been awarded a contract from Lockheed Martin to supply flat panel displays and graphics controller boards for air traffic control centers in the Northern California and Potomac regions.
A Cirrus SR-20 light airplane made a successful emergency descent Oct. 3 after the pilot deployed the built-in parachute system to lower the aircraft to the ground. The pilot, who was the sole occupant and walked away from the crash uninjured, elected to deploy the parachute after the left aileron separated from the airplane during a ferry flight near Lewisville, Tex., according to an official of Ballistic Recovery System, which manufactures the parachute system. The airplane had recently undergone maintenance.
The Transportation Security Administration is implementing a pilot program at four major airport hubs to test the use of sniffing dogs to clear U.S. mail for flight on commercial passenger aircraft. Current directives prohibit the shipping of certain mail on passenger aircraft, but there is $10 million in the Fiscal 2003 budget for mail screening efforts. In addition, the TSA is working on risk assessment for perimeter security (including airside and landside) and plans 20 airport access control pilot programs as required by the Aviation and Transportation Security Act.
Randy Buschling has been appointed chief operating officer and Rue Lynn Pugh corporate controller of LaBarge Inc. of St. Louis. Buschling was senior vice president and has been vice president-aerospace and defense. Pugh was a director of accounting and financial analysis.
