When air traffic controllers notice something suspicious about an aircraft, such as a light plane nearing restricted airspace, they get on the horn. Dave Canoles, FAA director of emergency operations and communications, says ``anything that is suspect'' in the air traffic system gets talked up on a party-line phone connection that's been operating since Sept. 11. It plays through speaker phones at 30 FAA enroute and terminal air traffic control centers, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, and dozens of military and law enforcement agencies.
THE 55TH NATIONAL BUSINESS Aviation Assn. convention scheduled for Sept. 10-12 in Orlando, Fla., has signed up 945 exhibitors, including 120 new vendors, according to NBAA officials. The show is projected to draw 25,000-30,000 people. A hot topic will be the ongoing closure of Ronald Reagan National Airport to business aircraft. NBAA officials have been told that although Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta advocates a gradual phase-in of general aviation flights at the airport, it is not likely to occur in the near future.
Both Standard & Poor's and Moody's Investors Service downgraded the debt ratings of UAL Corp., parent company of United Airlines. The ratings actions reflect the increased probability that United could default on large debt payments later this year.
In the wake of considerable restructuring, the Eurofighter industry team now wants to see the four participating governments mirror its overhaul in trying to guarantee a cohesive future development path and thus control costs. Eurofighter GmbH. has effectively reinvented itself as the prime contractor for the Typhoon program, rather than simply serving as the vehicle for the partner industries. The next few months will be spent hammering out the detailed structure of the revamped company.
Thales' first half revenues increased 15% to 4.98 billion euros ($4.88 billion), including 11% in North America. The French group's aerospace sales remained flat, a trend resulting from the airline industry's crisis, but defense sales soared 29% to nearly $3 billion. Airborne, air defense and naval systems were the fastest growing businesses.
Boeing and German airship builder Cargolifter hope to become significant players in the potential market for stratospheric airships. The two companies recently signed an agreement to jointly launch a study of lighter-than-air stratospheric platforms to serve in the communications and surveillance markets. They intend to submit joint bids once governments see a concrete requirement for the technology. However, Cargolifter's survival is more than uncertain. The company entered permanent insolvency (protection from creditors) at the beginning of August.
Worried about its federal loan guarantee application and the potential for a fourth-quarter cash crisis, United Airlines has embarked on a 30-day attempt to win what it termed ``broader, deeper and longer term cost savings'' from employees and other stakeholders. If it fails, it is likely to file this fall for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Electric, fuel and hydraulic lines were sheared in cockpits of six F-4EJ fighters and an RF-4EJ reconnaissance aircraft undergoing maintenance for Japan's air force at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' Komaki plant at Nagoya over a four-month period that began in April. MHI officials said the shearings look intentional and note that the plant is guarded. They say access from the outside is impossible. The air force's F-15Js are overhauled in another shop at the same plant and were not damaged.
All bets would seem to be off for commercial aerospace suppliers now that the U.S. airline industry has entered a period of even greater uncertainty than existed until just recently. In that short, intervening period, US Airways Group has filed for bankruptcy, United Airlines has announced it may be forced to follow suit and American Airlines has committed to a major restructuring (see p. 22). In addition, the Air Transportation Stabilization Board, the federal panel created to help airlines weather the financial repercussions from the Sept.
R.G. Heydt has become senior vice president-sales, David Koch vice president-domestic sales, Rudi Kohnke vice president-national accounts and Leo Ramos director of Caribbean sales and operations, all for Air Plus Ltd. of Minneapolis. Heydt was vice president of AIT Worldwide Logistics, and Koch was vice president-sales. Kohnke was vice president-sales and marketing for Cargo Inc.
As Southwest continues to take delivery of new, longer range Boeing 737s, the nature of its operations continues to evolve. Even though the carrier reported 0.4% more traffic in July 2002 than in July 2001--measured in revenue passenger miles--it carried 8.5% fewer passengers on 1.8% fewer trips. The difference was in the length of a trip, which grew 9.8%, from 696 mi. to 764.
The pace of Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle preparations at Cape Canaveral are quickening as both the Boeing and Lockheed Martin vehicles complete final key tests toward their first launches. The French Alcatel Eutelsat Hot Bird 6 payload was mated to the Lockheed Martin Atlas V EELV last week and completed booster/payload electrical interface tests. The Atlas V is to be rolled from its 300-ft.-tall Vertical Integration Facility to Pad 41 on Aug. 20 to begin a two-day countdown planned to end with liftoff of the vehicle at 6:05 p.m. EDT on Aug. 21, weather permitting.
The FAA extended for yet another 60 days, through Oct. 16, its war-risk insurance support for U.S. airlines. The agency retained the cost formula it adopted in June, basing prices to an airline on how much coverage the carrier wants (AW&ST June 24, p. 36). The new extension will take FAA war-risk insurance support past one year--Congress authorized it last September after private insurers reduced coverage and increased prices following the terrorist attacks. The FAA and airlines are working on ways to move insurance back into the private sector.
Dale Kline has been named global business director for specialty fluids for Solutia Inc. of St. Louis. He was business manager for heat transfer and aviation fluids.
Air New Zealand is restructuring its domestic and international routes as it rebuilds after the collapse of its Ansett subsidiary last September nearly drove it out of business. The domestic reorganization will be built around the purchase last month of 15 Airbus A320s, with an option for 20 more to replace its Boeing 737-300 fleet. The sale is Airbus' first in New Zealand; delivery is to start in October and last through 2005.
The Air Force is taking another stab at a smart, small, air-launched decoy to spoof enemy air defenses. An earlier effort, Northrop Grumman's Miniature Air-Launched Decoy, was effectively canceled when USAF couldn't decide how to make the system that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency developed into an operationally useful piece of equipment. The service has now awarded five $300,000 study contracts, to Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and Accurate Automation Corp.--a Chattanooga, Tenn., NASA contractor--to prepare designs for the new decoy.
Having frozen the mold lines for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, Lockheed Martin designers are trying to optimize the cockpit layout to give pilots useful access to the vast amounts of information the aircraft can provide. The company has defined a basic layout that engineers believe facilitates man-machine interface to decrease pilot workload, improve situational awareness and avoid information overload.
USAF Lt. Gen. (ret.) Roger G. DeKok (see photo) has been appointed Colorado Springs-based vice president/deputy general manager of the Command, Con- trol and Intelligence Div. of TRW Inc. He was vice commander of the Air Force Space Command, Peterson AFB, Colo.
Time for a reality check: The U.S. Transportation Security Administration cannot meet the congressionally mandated Dec. 31 deadline to screen all checked luggage with bomb-detection systems without wreaking havoc on the aviation system and damaging security. Since this spring, 39 top airport executives have been trying to convince both TSA and Congress that the deadline, included in the legislation that created the agency, will do more harm than good. The House has passed Rep.
Advances in training technology planned for the Joint Strike Fighter could drastically change how the Pentagon educates pilots and maintainers. Training systems are frequently one of the most ignored aspects of any major weapons program, but for JSF it is a $750-million initiative during the development and demonstration phase alone. And just like more glamorous elements of the JSF project, the training system is being approached with an unusual focus on commonality among the services.
Russia is proposing to increase defense expenditures in 2003, but even these funding levels will fall far short of what is needed to launch and sustain its most ambitious program, the development of its fifth-generation fighter. Irrespective of the government's political commitment to a next-generation combat aircraft, known as the PAK FA, securing adequate financing to support this effort remains the critical challenge. Some sources said in the budget draft for 2003 that military expenditures account for 2.7% of the gross domestic product (GDP).
In ``Hyflying Missile Tests'' in the Aug. 5 Industry Outlook, Mike White was incorrectly identified. He is program manager for advanced vehicle technologies for the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory.
The commissioning of Air New Zealand's Airbus A320 fleet beginning this October means more than the introduction of a new type into the long-time Boeing customer's fleet. It signals the chance for ANZ Engineering Services to expand its capacity as a third-party maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) operator. ANZ hasn't decided whether to take the aircraft with International Aero Engines V2500 or CFM International CFM56 engines, but a choice of IAE would also introduce a new manufacturing base to its MRO lineup.
The Air Force and Lockheed Martin have decided to extend F-22 software development to overcome avionics problems and to add people and equipment to the flight test program to finally step up its pace. The maneuvers are part of a final push to get the stealth fighter ready for its graduation exercise, initial operational test and evaluation, next summer. USAF officials believe they are seeing results already, although the new measures have only been instituted recently.
