The U.S. Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office have set a tentative Cape Canaveral launch date of June 9, 2003, for the Titan IVB/Centaur that will carry a secret NRO signals intelligence satellite that has been delayed since last April (AW&ST Sept. 2, p. 34). The USAF Milstar military communications spacecraft that is a substitute payload on the booster that the grounded NRO satellite was supposed to use, is now set for launch from the Cape next Jan. 21. The two flights together involve $2.6 billion in satellite and booster hardware.
If you want to talk air freight, go to China where China Southern Airlines has been increasing its capacity all year. Last week it took its second 747-400 freighter and will use it on a Los Angeles, Shanghai and Shenzhen triangle route. Shenzhen is an industrial city bordering Hong Kong. The carrier was the first in China to take delivery of a dedicated freighter when the initial -400F arrived in June. It connects Shenzhen and Shanghai with Chicago.
Bill Goodness has been appointed director of marketing and customer relations and Linda Chatelle an account representative for Aviation Learning Inc., Rochester, N.Y.
The European Joint Aviation Authorities has approved pilot support training programs developed for all models of the Sikorsky S-76 helicopter by FlightSafety International at its Sikorsky Learning Center in West Palm Beach, Fla. The approval provides training for JAA-qualified instructors, examiners and courseware, and allows examiners to issue initial tests for JAA licenses and perform recurrent proficiency checks. Earlier this year FlightSafety received JAA training certification for the Bell 430 at its facility adjacent to Bell Helicopter in Fort Worth.
K. Josef Laakso has been appointed chief financial officer of ShAirForce of New York. He was vice president-global sales finance for the Fairchild Dornier Corp.
MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. has received C$9 million (U.S. $5.72 million) in additional funding from the Canadian Space Agency for continued support of the Mobile Servicing System. The additional funding will provide for ongoing work to sustain the MSS while in orbit.
The Transportation Security Administration was ``wrapped around the axle of the in-box'' during the first 7-8 months of its existence, its new chief, James Loy, told senators. In his first seven weeks, Loy has tried to generate public-private partnerships, a technique he used as head of the Coast Guard, and to push strategic planning, as in, ``What should we be doing five years from now, when [today's] headlines are behind us?'' Loy also has had to change his perspective. ``When I walked aboard, I was a sailor. I used to tell aviation jokes.
Despite ``freezing'' funding for its Hope-X mini-shuttle, Japan hasn't given up on unmanned vehicles for spaceflight. The National Aerospace Laboratory (NAL) and National Space Development Agency (NASDA) are to begin a two-phase flight demonstration program in October. It will use vehicles that had been set to serve Hope-X, but have been spun off as a lower cost alternative that could keep Japan on track to developing a spaceplane.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says it will analyze commercial space's business prospects as they relate to global economic, social and environmental policies. The project, similar to an assessment of the international air transport sector conducted by the OECD in 1994-96, is motivated by growing strategic interest in the space sector. Set to begin in April 2003 and to be completed by November 2004, the effort will seek to determine the respective roles of the public and private sectors, and to define the rules that will apply.
Hamilton Sundstrand has won a contract worth a potential $70 million from the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command for advanced flight control computers for Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters.
Arianespace successfully completed its 10th launch of the year, orbiting the Intelsat 906 communications satellite. The launch, barely a week after a twin Ariane 5 mission carrying the MSG-1 weather satellite and Eutelsat's Atlantic Bird 1, continued the company's flawless track record this year.
Aeromet has won a one-year, $4.4-million contract from U.S. Missile Defense Agency to explore the military utility of the Airborne Infrared Surveillance capability. It consists of the Aeromet-developed Heimdall-IR Surveillance System integrated into a high altitude air vehicle.
NASA is looking beyond nuclear power as it studies technologies to improve the efficiency of future deep-space missions, with some $70 million tentatively programmed to push technology that uses either nuclear power directly, or supplements it, to get beyond the limitations of chemical propulsion for space science probes.
The Boeing Starboard 1 (S1) truss, set for launch to the International Space Station by Atlantis on Oct. 2, marks the start of the build-out of the station's 356-ft. solar array span. By early 2004, the truss will support three new 240-ft. arrays, increasing station power by about 75%. Far more than a simple structural girder, the 14.5-ton S1 structure is a complex element carrying computers, a new S-band communications system and 50% of the station's ammonia-based thermal control system.
With two airlines competing for one designation and a third in the wings, the U.S. Transportation Dept. opened a proceeding to select a fifth carrier to provide all-cargo service between the U.S. and North American Free Trade Agreement partner Mexico. FedEx, UPS, DHL and Amerijet are in the market, but Emery Worldwide ended operations a year ago and its designation is available.
L-3 Communications Corp. will purchase Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Electron Devices and Ruggedized Displays business, which produces computers and displays for military and commercial applications. It employs about 900 people and generates less than 4% of Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems sector's annual sales.
Fundamental differences over the nature of market liberalization have sunk the latest effort to craft a revised U.K-U.S. bilateral air transport agreement, leaving it increasingly likely any deal will be finalized by the European Union. British overtures of a mini-bilateral were spurned by the U.S., with reciprocal market access remaining the central issue. Officials from the two countries met on Aug. 15 to try to stitch together an agreement, but without success. ``We don't understand the U.S. position.
China's Shandong Airlines has agreed to purchase two 70-seat CRJ700 regional jets from Bombardier Aero-space. Deliveries are scheduled for the third and fourth quarters of 2003.
Thales Training & Simulation will supply a Boeing 777 full-flight simulator to KLM Royal Dutch Airlines' training center at Amsterdam Schiphol airport. Delivery is slated for next September.
General aviation aircraft operated under FAR Part 91 rules experienced more accidents in 2001 than in 2000, based on data for worldwide accidents involving U.S.-registered aircraft. Accident rates improved, however, for aircraft operated under FAR Part 135 standards and for corporate flight operations, according to Aviation Week affiliate Business & Commercial Aviation magazine. For Part 91 operations, the rate was 6.56 accidents and 1.22 fatalities per 100,000 flight hr., compared with a rate of 5.96 and 1.11 fatalities in 2000.
Michael O. Hulley has been named president of the Transportation Global Industry Solutions Div. of the Electronic Data Systems Corp., Plano, Tex. He succeeds Jim Dullum, who is now enterprise client executive for the Sabre account. Hulley was vice president/general manager for IBM's World Wide Travel and Transportation Unit.
David Reith (see photo) has become controller of the Newport News (Va.) Sector of the Northrop Grumman Corp. He was business manager for the communications unit of the company's Electronic Systems Sector in Baltimore.
British European, formerly known as Jersey European Airways, has signed a 10-year maintenance cost guarantee plan with P&WC CSC Europe, a joint venture of Pratt & Whitney Canada and MTU Aero Engines for maintenance of the PW123 turboprop engines on its Bombardier Dash 8-200/300 aircraft.
The U.S. has been at war with terrorists for 25 years, but its response to challenges prior to Sept. 11, 2001, was limited to talk and an occasional symbolic military strike, according to American Enterprise Institute political analyst Michael A. Ledeen. Until Sept. 11, ``there was not a strong enough [counter-terrorism] policy to drive intelligence and not enough intelligence to drive policy,'' Ledeen told a Washington audience. Citing Iraq, Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia as the ``terror masters'' of transnational terrorism, he commented that the U.S.
