The Pentagon is finalizing its strategy on how to meet the military's future airborne communications intelligence needs after failing in an earlier attempt, but it still is looking for the money to jump-start the effort. The decision to again pursue an airborne comint project was made after months of deliberations at the Pentagon, with the Army and Air Force vying to lead the effort.
Aerospace supplier Precision Castparts Corp. exited the automotive machine tool business, effective Sept. 29, with the closure of its PCC Olofsson facility in Lansing, Mich., and the withdrawal from its relationship with Design Technologies International of Raciborz, Poland. In addition, PCC Specialty Products, based in Wexford, Pa., will be closed and consolidate under J&L Fiber Services. Precision Castparts faces a $23-million pretax charge from discontinued operations in the second quarter of fiscal 2003.
The U.K. government has made an unusual move in releasing a report on Iraq's military programs that contends Saddam Hussein is actively developing weapons of mass destruction and ``with them the ability to inflict real damage upon the region and the stability of the world,'' said Prime Minister Tony Blair. The analysis was gleaned from secret data and is a product of the security-shrouded Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), which includes the heads of the nation's three intelligence and security agencies and the chief of defense intelligence.
FedEx Express' International Priority (IP) volume increased 7% in the three months that ended Aug. 31, the first quarter of the company's fiscal year. That doesn't sound like much, but it's the fastest growth for IP since winter 2000-01, and it helped push FedEx Express' quarterly revenue to $3.93 billion, up 5% from the 2001 quarter, and its operating income to $128 million, up 6%. The other major factor in these gains was continued high volume in FedEx's U.S. Postal Service contract, increased over original estimates because post-Sept.
The European Space Agency is attempting to help jump-start a plan to streamline Europe's satellite industry, as it already is doing for the launcher sector (AW&ST June 24, p. 52). Speaking Sept. 12 in Toulouse, France, ESA Director General Antonio Rodota deplored Europe's failure to reshape its commercial satellite business despite two years of effort.
Airlines took their financial plight and proposals to relieve it to Capitol Hill last week, but they face heavy odds against action in the waning days of the 107th Congress. CEOs Leo Mullin of Delta Air Lines, Donald Carty of American and Richard Anderson of Northwest, representing full-service, hub-and-spoke airlines, presented a seven-point Air Transport Assn. (ATA) program centered on relieving carriers of current security costs. Joseph Leonard, CEO of AirTran Airways, representing low-cost, low-fare, point-to-point carriers, proposed tax relief as well.
A new source of uncertainty--an underfunded pension plan--has emerged that throws into question Raytheon Co.'s cash flows for the next few years, and more uncertainty is the last thing this company needs as it struggles to put its entire house in order. No trivial issue, the shortfall could approach $1 billion, thanks to the poor performance of financial markets. ``Raytheon leads the [aerospace/defense] sector, and almost the entire Standard & Poor's 100, in poor pension asset performance in 2001,'' Deutsche Bank analyst Christopher Mecray said.
Bankrupt regional aircraft manufacturer Fairchild Dornier is not yet giving up. The company's workers' council managed to reach an agreement with Germany's federal government and the Bavarian state as well as the most important creditor banks to jointly fund a ``transfer company.'' The new entity will employ, for six months, at least 1,200 Fairchild Dornier staff who are about to lose their jobs. The company continues to hope for an agreement with Russian aluminum giant Sibal whose interest in the 728/928 regional jet program has been encouraging.
The process-improvement system known as Six Sigma is fast becoming the Swiss Army Knife of aerospace manufacturing: a growing number of contractors see it as the multipurpose tool of choice for reducing costs and improving customer satisfaction. The problem is, many of the Six Sigma projects implemented by companies are flawed in one of several ways. Either they have little direct impact on the customer, do not support a comprehensive approach to continuous process improvement, fail to involve suppliers and customers, or exhibit a combination of these shortcomings.
Bernie Grossman has been named vice president-production control and manufacturing engineering for Middle River Aircraft Systems of Baltimore. He was vice president-thrust reverser programs and has been succeeded by P. K. Bhutiani. Graham Howarth has become director of engineering.
Thales and BAE Systems will team for future operational avionics support awards for British rotary-wing platforms, formalizing cooperation already underway in the U.K.'s Sea King Integrated Operational Support (Skios) initiative, in cooperation with Westland-Agusta and the Defense Aviation Repair Agency (DARA). Skios is an industry-led project to provide cost-effective airframe and mission support for the British Sea King fleet. Thales is already teamed with Westland-Agusta for Britain's Future Lynx program (AW&ST July 29, p. 39).
Spurred by Pentagon interest in putting a directed-energy weapon on the X-45 unmanned combat aircraft, TRW is exploring a concept for a podded laser that could be installed on different aircraft and used for air-to-air and air-to-ground missions. The idea behind a pod is to house a laser with an effective range of about 10 km. or more, and carry it on an unmanned aerial vehicle or manned aircraft to destroy cruise missiles, UAVs or soft targets on the ground.
WHAT IS IT? Six Sigma, in a business context, is a methodology consisting of analytical-based practices and procedures aimed at eliminating defects and variability from any process. The term Six Sigma itself is a statistical measure of extraordinarily high quality. At Six Sigma, only 3.4 defects per 1 million opportunities will occur. The overall quality at most companies--including those in the aerospace industry--is, at best, Three Sigma. That's equal to 66,807 defects for every 1 million opportunities. WHAT IT'S NOT.
France's 2003 defense budget bill, presented last week, calls for a 7.5% increase in spending, to 31 billion euros ($30 billion), and an 11.2% boost in funding for new hardware, in line with a revised five-year spending plan unveiled earlier in September (AW&ST Sept. 16, p. 28).
In their zeal to sell new civil aircraft and secure deliveries, airframe and engine manufacturers have been all too willing--eager, in many cases--to step into the breach and serve as the lender of last resort to struggling airline customers. Only time will tell whether they have gone too far out on a financial limb. Suppliers, driven by Boeing Co., are expected to increase their net exposure to customer financing to the highest level since 1990 by year-end, according to a recent Moody's Investors Service survey of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
Russia sent another Progress cargo vehicle to the International Space Station Sept. 25, carrying a load of fuel and supplies to the orbiting laboratory's crew of three. Liftoff of the Soyuz rocket carrying the Progress came at 12:58 p.m. EDT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, and the vehicle was scheduled to dock with the ISS on Sept. 29.
The U.S. Navy has chosen Lockheed Martin and Raytheon to begin development of the Pentagon's future narrowband satellite communication system, but now the focus shifts to executing the program expeditiously or risk having troops face a gap in UHF satcom coverage. The Navy selection is a particularly hard blow for Boeing, which is the incumbent with the UHF Follow-on (UFO) satellite program.
General Electric and Pratt & Whitney are exploring the possibility of using derivatives of commercial and military air-breathing, gas turbine engines to power a reusable ``flyback'' booster for a next-generation launch system. Under 10-month, $300,000 contracts awarded earlier this summer by NASA, GE is studying modified military F118 and F136 engines and civil CFM56 and CF6 powerplants for the booster concept, while Pratt is focusing on military F119s or F135s and commercial PW2040s or PW4098s.
James A. Munda has become FAA-designated alteration station administrator and Joseph Esmerado director of maintenance, overhaul and repair services for the Keystone Helicopter Corp., West Chester, Pa. Munda was manager of engineering, while Esmeraldo held similar positions at Jet Aviation and Butler Aviation.
Airbus is planning a network of aviation service partnerships that will for the first time give it a prime role in freighter conversions, upgrades and maintenance repair and overhaul services--and perhaps relaunch the debate over the place of original equipment manufacturers in the MRO industry.
Jason Chamberlain has been named vice president-mobility and surveillance systems for Pratt & Whitney, East Hartford, Conn. He was director of airlift and mature engine programs.
Kimberly Phillips (see photos) has been appointed general manager at the Addison, Tex., fixed base operation of Atlanta-based Mercury Air Centers Inc. She was supervisor of quality development for Bombardier Aerospace/FlexJets. Brian Swift and Steve Bowlin have been named managers in the headquarters Customer Programs Dept. Swift was an operations manager for Raytheon's Travel Air Program, while Bowlin was manager of facilities in Birmingham, Ala., and Savannah, Ga., for Signature Flight Support.
This cable jacket improves abrasion resistance, enhances flexibility and can be marked with laser techniques. It is designed for use in applications such as aircraft wiring, motion control equipment, and environments where wires and cables are subject to chafing or vibration. The seamless wrap PTFE tape improves handling and mechanical performance of PTFE-insulated wire and jacketed cable by helping to remove the mechanical ``weak points'' of the seams caused by tape overlap in conventional PTFE tape wrapping.
Amateur astronomer Bill Yeung may have discovered Apollo 12's long-lost S-IVB third stage, which entered a barely stable Earth orbit after its Nov. 14, 1969, launch due to a too-long rocket burn. It was largely forgotten and untracked until Yeung found an unknown 16.5-magnitude object in Earth orbit on Sept. 3. Paul W.
