The onboard, high-speed Internet access service offered by Connexion by Boeing ranks as one of those rare aircraft systems that provides potential benefits in customer service and aircraft operational economics. Connexion puts complete real-time broadband connectivity into an aircraft. In demonstrations scheduled for early next year, this will allow passengers to access e-mail and corporate intranets on their laptops. Airlines will be able to use the system to transform a demonstrator aircraft into a radio and television studio.
Canada's CH-149 Cormorant search and rescue (SAR) variant of the AgustaWestland EH-101 was declared ready for service on July 25, with the helicopter already having flown rescue missions before the end of the month. So far, nine out of the 15 Cormorants on order have been delivered to the National Defense Dept. The first operational CH-149s are with the 442 SAR Sqdn., based in Comox, British Columbia.
Barbara S. Jeremiah has been promoted to executive vice president from vice president-corporate development and Joseph C. Muscari has become executive vice president-Latin America and Asia for Pittsburgh-based Alcoa.
Russia will boost military science and technology spending, Russian President Vladimir Putin promised last week in a speech to top military officials. Additionally, Moscow is ready to pour more money into repairing combat-damaged equipment. Putin said he is committed to the increases despite the country's severe budgetary problems.
NTSB investigators late last week sought to complete interviews with crewmembers for vital clues to the July 26 crash of a FedEx Boeing 727-232AF at Tallahassee (Fla.) Regional Airport. According to NTSB preliminary data, at about 5:40 a.m., FedEx Flight 1478, N497FE, apparently hit trees in a lightly wooded area about 3,100 ft. from the approach end of 8,000-ft. Runway 9. The aircraft skidded 2,000 ft., coming to rest in an open field, and its three-man crew escaped the completely destroyed aircraft, two with serious and one with minor injuries.
U.S. manufacturers are developing an extensive line of unmanned intelligence-gathering and strike aircraft. But selling them to anyone other than the U.S. military is proving to be a problem, as the Defense and State Depts. have yet to work out an export policy. ``State thinks of them as intercontinental ballistic missiles'' and continues to resist their export, says a senior aerospace industry official.
Neil R. Wilson has been appointed vice president/general counsel/corporate secretary of Ottawa-based Nav Canada. He was a partner in the Ottawa office of law firm Gowling Lafleur Henderson.
The Senate has passed by a 95-3 vote its version of the 2003 defense appropriations bill. The Senate will have to reconcile its $355.4-billion version with the House spending measure that provides $700 million less. The Senate largely funded Pentagon modernization projects, although it didn't provide the requested $10 billion in unallocated war reserve funds.
The Experimental Aircraft Assn. (EAA) AirVenture 2002 sport aviation exhibition and air show that concluded last week left no doubt that personal flying is alive and well, at least in the U.S. Nearly 750,000 people and a number of exhibitors, as well as 2,500 show aircraft, descended on Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wis., to celebrate and demonstrate the pageantry of flight in all its forms, from F-15s to powered parachutes. The week-long extravaganza also highlighted the 50th birthday of EAA.
Herley Industries Inc. has received a $2.6-million contract award for integrated microwave assemblies from Northrop Grumman as part of its F-16 fighter aircraft upgrade programs.
The Pentagon backs a new National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Federal Communications Commission's plans to realign the spectrum for advanced wireless services, or 3G services. The government is making available 90 MHz. that will require the military to alter some of its systems. The 3G spectrum consists of 45 MHz. from the 1710-1755 MHz. band used exclusively by federal government agencies, including the Pentagon, and 45 MHz. from the 2110-2170 MHz. band in the hands of nongovernment users.
The initial delivery of a new Adacel tower simulation system is slated for September to the U.S. Air Force. Breaking new ground in capability and size, the system provides 270-deg. field of view using six 1,360 X 1,024-pixel-resolution rear projectors, all fitting inside an 18 X 15 X 8-ft. room. It can be operated by one person, training 1-4 operators for tower, ground or ramp control.
The Fiscal 2002 compromise emergency supplemental appropriations bill includes $7.5 million to rehabilitate ARSR-4 long-range radars the FAA planned to decommission this year. The Defense Dept. has asked the agency to operate the ARSR-4s for several more years because they are the only FAA radars capable of continuously tracking aircraft with disabled transponders.
Honeywell has extended its maintenance service agreement with Southwest Airlines for environmental control system components and 425 auxiliary power units for its Boeing 737 aircraft. The contract is valued at $156 million through 2008.
Rolls-Royce Deutschland has chosen Parker Aerospace's Gas Turbine Fuel Systems Div. to provide atomization nozzles for BR710 and BR715 engines, under a $10-million contract which extends to 2007.
Lockheed Martin and General Electric have agreed to partner in a military engine maintenance, repair and overhaul organization, to begin operations this month. Named the Kelly Aviation Center, the facility will be located at Lockheed Martin's San Antonio, Tex.-based facility, a public/private partnership with the U.S. Air Force. The $300 million that the existing facility turns each year doesn't live up to its potential, the partners said.
The European Commission will approve two transatlantic alliances that have been operating for years with immunity from U.S. antitrust laws. An EC spokesman said the Star Alliance linkup of Lufthansa and United Airlines, and the Europe-U.S. partnership of KLM and Northwest, which dates from 1993, will get the stamp of approval following a regulatory comment period. A decision on the Delta-Air France-Alitalia alliances is pending. Lufthansa/United will have to give up a limited number of slots at Frankfurt Airport if would-be competitors can't get them otherwise.
William Evans, president of Delta Industries, East Granby, Conn., has been elected president of the Connecticut-based Aerospace Components Manufacturers. Steve Prout, president of Alpha Q Inc., Colchester, Conn., was elected vice president/ secretary/treasurer.
France will launch the Helios IIA reconnaissance satellite on board an Ariane 5 rocket in the second half of 2004, under a contract signed by the French space agency (CNES) and Arianespace. The second-generation high-resolution spacecraft, operated by France in collaboration with other European countries, will work in concert with the high-resolution stereoscopic imager on the new Spot 5 commercial remote-sensing platform.
Messier-Bugatti has been named by Airbus to supply brake-by-wire systems for the A380. The aircraft will use a decentralized, stand-alone hydraulic system that supplies local hydraulic power for the alternate circuit on the braking control systems, a step toward an ``all electric'' aircraft.
Some key Boeing and Airbus suppliers believe a sizable number of smaller companies will be unable to survive the current commercial aircraft market downturn, which they expect to erode further before flattening out and eventually recovering. They expect most of the shakeout will be concentrated among companies that produce relatively simple parts or subsystems--``mom-and-pop'' businesses that employ several hundred people.
Controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory report the narrow-angle camera lens on the Cassini Saturn probe is clear again, following a four-week heat treatment to remove haze that clouded the lens last year. Cassini's designers built heaters into the spacecraft cameras as protection against hazing from engine exhaust, and their precaution apparently paid off. Haze on the lens diffused about 70% of the light from a test star before the treatment, which warmed the camera to 39F for four weeks, which ended July 9.
John Prestifilippo has been appointed senior vice president-maintenance for US Airways. He succeeds Christopher Doan, who is retiring. Prestifilippo was vice president-technical services and operations for Continental Airlines.
