Airbus last week announced it is expanding its three-month-old engineering facility at Wichita, Kan., and more than doubling its engineering staff there. Construction, already underway, will add 33,000 sq. ft. to the 12,600-sq.-ft. Airbus North American Engineering facility. Airbus has begun recruiting 90 people--86 of whom will be engineers--to add to its current 66-member staff.
The U.S. Navy is on the verge of starting production of the Tactical Tomahawk cruise missile after completing first flight and demonstrating the system's basic performance and features not provided by earlier versions. Tactical Tomahawk, or Block 4, is the latest evolution of the long-range, ship- and submarine-launched Raytheon cruise missile. The main enhancement is the addition of a two-way UHF satellite communication link that allows operators to retarget the missile in flight and to gain imagery of the target before the missile impacts.
The Europeans are evaluating the Continental/Delta/Northwest agreement cautiously. They are leery about such a wide-ranging partnership because it could permanently alter the airline industry's market forces, even though it was established to correct a temporary economic downturn. Europeans seemed stunned by the sudden move on the U.S. scene and, late last week, they were still assessing the rapidly changing situation.
Eclipse Aviation's Eclipse 500 business jet No. 100 achieved first flight Aug. 26 and was scheduled for its second flight late last week. The Williams International EJ22 turbofan-powered twinjet is shown lifting off from Runway 17 at Albuquerque (N.M.) International Sunport at 9:18 a.m. (MDT) under 7,000-ft. density altitude conditions with the aircraft's chief pilot, Bill Bubb, at the controls. The aircraft was operated at 9,000 ft. altitude and 130 kt.
Moscow's main international gateway, Sheremetyevo airport, has won a Category 3A ICAO status, the first granted in Russia and the second, after Kiev's Borispol, within CIS countries. Cat. 3A is expected to help improve dispatch reliability of Sheremetyevo, where low-reliability conditions are commonplace. Rival Domodedovo, Moscow's second biggest airport, is planning to apply for similar status next year.
By PIERRE SPARACO Michael A. Dornheim contributed to this report from Los Angeles. ( PARIS)
The critical importance of sustained flight-crew situational awareness, and the risks of spatial disorientation in total darkness, are being reviewed by safety experts in the aftermath of the Gulf Air Airbus A320 crash in mid-2000. Although ``no single factor was responsible for the accident,'' according to the newly completed final report, investigators stressed the need for optimal crew resource and cockpit workload management. The airline implemented a number of safety initiatives following the accident. On Aug.
Small airlines represented by the Air Carriers Assn. of America are twice as unhappy now that Continental/Delta/Northwest have joined United/US Airways in proposing a mammoth domestic code-share alliance (see p. 24). The ACAA asked the Transportation Dept. to evaluate both plans simultaneously and do what's needed to preserve competition.
The U.S. Navy has picked Northrop Grumman over Raytheon to supply the MH-60S' Rapid Airborne Mine Clearance System. Ramics is to allow the Navy carrier battlegroups and Marine amphibious ready groups to combat floating and near-surface sea mines.
THE MYSTERY OF FLIGHT 427: Inside a Crash Investigation By Bill Adair Smithsonian Institution Press 230 pp. Hardcover, $25.95 Bill Adair, a St. Petersburg Times reporter, puts forth that the crash of USAir Flight 427, on Sept. 8, 1994, changed aviation forever. This is most probably a journalistic overreaction, although the Boeing 737-300 accident prompted a redesign of the twinjet's rudder actuator and led USAir to change its name to US Airways in an attempt to erase bad memories.
Nearly a year after the Sept. 11 attacks, the National Reconnaissance Office and National Security Agency lack two $1-billion secret eavesdropping spacecraft that should have been operational by now to provide critical intelligence to help track terrorist operations and plan for a possible war with Iraq. Although significantly delayed, one of the spacecraft may be undergoing modification to enhance its capabilities to better siphon communications related to Iraqi and Al Qaeda intelligence objectives.
Alcatel is heading an industrial team working on integrating digital radio and navigation functions on space vehicles. The team, backed by funding from the European Union's Fifth Framework research program, also includes WorldSpace, which has launched digital radio services over Africa and Asia, and four automakers. Alcatel and WorldSpace have been studying the joint launch of a mobile digital radio system in Europe, along the lines of XM Radio in the U.S., which carries an Alcatel payload (AW&ST Sept. 10, 2001, p. 28).
Maj. Gen. Craig R. McKinley has assumed command of the First Air Force/ Continental Norad Region, Tyndall AFB, Fla. He succeeds Maj. Gen. Larry K. Arnold, who is retiring.
Garry Smith has become director of the business aviation turboprop segment and John Boomhower director of the turbofan/auxiliary power unit segment for Standard Aero, Winnipeg, Manitoba. Smith was director of marketing and business development for the PT6 business unit. Boomhower was director of sales for the Standard Aero Alliance business unit.
Intelsat 709 will provide two-transponder capacity to Boeing's Connexion inflight Internet service on an interim basis for flights between Europe and North America. Lufthansa and British Airways are Connexion's earliest customers. Connexion also has a long-term agreement with the Brazilian Estrela do Sul 1 satellite for North Atlantic services, but the satellite is not scheduled to be launched until next January.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. tentatively awarded American Airlines six of seven weekly third-country code-share frequencies to Vietnam, allocated last year to Northwest but never used. The seventh frequency went to an incumbent, United, which asked for all seven. Delta, the other incumbent, sought six, and Northwest asked for another chance at seven. American has a marketing agreement with Vietnam Airlines for direct code sharing, but can't implement it until the FAA places Vietnam in Category 1 in the agency's international safety assessment program.
A test nearing completion in Miami could signal the beginning of the end of voice as the primary means of air-to-ground communication in the airline world. The FAA, Arinc, American Airlines and Rockwell Collins on Oct. 1 are expecting to complete certification of a digital data link system that will decrease frequency congestion and increase communications reliability, says James L. Pierce, chairman of Arinc.
Boeing late last week was trying to complete its initial Delta IV Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle countdown demonstration test with the 200-ft. vehicle (right) fully fueled with liquid oxygen and hydrogen on Launch Complex 37. The countdown to a point short of engine ignition was to have been completed on Aug. 26, but had to be terminated prior to T-minus 5 min. when the malfunction of a ground-based computer caused the loss of booster telemetry.
Five alleged Al Qaeda supporters charged by a federal grand jury last week with conspiring to aid terrorists had been probing Detroit Metropolitan Airport for gaps in security, according to the indictment. One of the men had worked at an ice cream shop beyond the security checkpoints, and two others had off-airport dishwashing jobs with caterer Sky Chefs. Federal agents raided the men's apartment last September, reportedly finding details of planned attacks in Turkey and Jordan and a videotape that appeared to case U.S. landmarks.
New terrorist threats have sent India on a shopping spree. Talks with Antonov about the An-70 four-engine transport have already begun. The Ukrainian/Russian-funded aircraft has been promoted internationally since the early 1990s as a ``next-generation'' medium-lift transport. It is powered by four ZMKB Progress D-27 propfan engines with counterrotating propellers.
Grant Hintze has become president of the Goodrich Corp.Deicing and Specialty Systems, Charlotte, N.C. He was vice president/controller of the Goodrich Electronic Systems Group.
Realizing that in most future conflicts the Pentagon will have to work with coalition partners, Defense Dept. researchers are seeking ways to quickly establish a network that allows commanders to interact with allies and is impervious to intrusion by an adversary. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is sponsoring a five-year, $30-million effort entitled Dynamic Coalitions that should allow military representatives in various countries to virtually plan a military campaign without the fear of electronic eavesdropping.
Helisim Eurocopter Training Services expects to train up to 1,000 civil-military helicopter pilots/year. Eurocopter France and Thales Training & Simulation own a 45% stake each in the training center located in Marignane. Defense Conseil International, which promotes and supports France's military export sales, owns the remaining 10%. They are jointly investing 68 million euros ($66.6 million) in Helisim's Phase 1 to provide an annual 10,000 hr. of flight simulator time.
Lockheed Martin won't be getting a renewal on its $1.9-billion Consolidated Space Operations Contract (CSOC) with NASA when it expires at the end of 2003. Instead, the U.S. space agency will open its telemetry, data processing and communications work for planetary exploration and human space flight to a new round of bidding. Hoped-for savings for NASA under the hotly contested 1998 contract fell far short, a problem compounded when the dot.com implosion deprived Lockheed Martin of a commercial market it had targeted for the same services (AW&ST Nov. 26, 2001, p.
NASA exercised a two-year option on the Space Flight Operations Contract with United Space Alliance that will run through Sept. 30, 2004, for an estimated total cost and fee of $2.844 billion. The option will cover ``at least'' 11 shuttle flights, according to the Johnson Space Center.
One after another, the six big U.S. network airlines are abandoning what they have come to see as half-measures that didn't get the job done, and are turning instead to farther-reaching, riskier options in their attempt to ride out the worst downturn they have ever experienced. In an August filled with strategic moves--the latest a Delta-Northwest-Continental alliance with the potential of reshaping international as well as domestic aviation--the carriers in effect gave up on the idea of riding out the post-Sept. 11 slump.
