Australia initiated the first update to its strategic security white paper of last year. The review will focus on including terrorist activities and could adjust Canberra's procurement plans, although the government said it doesn't expect major divergences. The review is to be completed by year-end. In parallel, the Defense Ministry is assessing how it will deal with industry. For one, it is establishing ``company scorecards'' to see how contractors perform, and will use these findings when awarding new deals.
Ernest M. Snowden has been appointed director of business strategy and development and Tim Farrell director of advanced Hawkeye programs for the Bethpage, N.Y.-based Northrop Grumman Corp. Integrated Systems Sector's Airborne Early Warning and Electronic Warfare Systems. Snowden held a similar position with the AEW&EW Systems office in Arlington, Va., while Farrell was director of the platform systems integration and modifications capture integrated product team for the company's Joint-STARS program, Melbourne, Fla.
Top NASA managers are considering a two-step option for flying humans to orbit that would give International Space Station crews a U.S.-built lifeboat for emergency return to Earth as early as 2009 and two-way transport with the same basic vehicle a few years later. An early version of the crew transfer/return vehicle (CTRV) would be delivered to the ISS by a space shuttle or heavy lift Atlas V or Delta IV expendable rocket and left there for use in emergencies.
Khrunichev and Lockheed Martin have struck an agreement to cooperate on missile defenses, according to Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), chairman of the House Armed Services procurement panel. Ukraine may also be a target for cooperation. The Pentagon just completed a reciprocal visit with Ukraine's military, says USAF Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish, director of the Missile Defense Agency.
An item in the In Orbit column in the June 24 issue (p. 35) incorrectly stated the launch time for the most recent Sea Launch mission. The Zenit-3SL lifted off at 6:39 p.m. EDT on June 15. It was the seventh successful launch for the system, and the fifth consecutive success. The Russian-built Block DM upper stage separated from the Panamsat Galaxy IIIC spacecraft 62 min. after liftoff, and the spacecraft signal was acquired 6 min. after that. The spacecraft continues to function nominally.
How do you measure the financial performance of the world's airlines as they make their way through the worst business environment the industry has ever faced? Very carefully. In any year, trying to identify the Top-Performing Companies among airlines differing in size, business model and competitive environment presents an apples-versus-oranges challenge. To deal with this, Aviation Week & Space Technology uses proprietary calculations by CSFB HOLT, a unit of Credit Suisse First Boston, to measure airlines' productivity, asset utilization and financial health.
European Union transport ministers have ratified a long-delayed plan to form the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). It is scheduled to succeed the Joint Aviation Authorities in coordinating and further unifying the 15 member states' aircraft certification process, environmental and safety regulations.
Welcome in principle, President Bush's proposed homeland defense overhaul is getting a mixed reception for its potentially disruptive effects on wartime management, long-range national strategy and well-run counter-terror units. Although the White House plan to centralize 22 federal agencies and 170,000 employees in a new Homeland Security Dept. is widely considered an indispensable streamlining measure, the management problems arising from such a mammoth undertaking might last for decades, which has lawmakers worried.
Donald S. Garvett has been appointed vice president-planning and Jeff Jones staff vice president-technical support of Alaska Airlines. Garvett was executive vice president-strategy and planning at South African Airways, while Jones was managing director of aircraft engineering for American Airlines at its Tulsa, Okla., Kan- sas City, Mo., and Fort Worth facilities.
Kenneth E. Gazzola Executive Vice President/Publisher
Recently, Business Week, one of our sister magazines at The McGraw-Hill Companies, published a special report entitled ``Restoring Trust in Corporate America.'' This current and serious crisis of confidence, while focused on America, extends well beyond U.S. boundaries due to the increasingly integrated global economy. We must all keep this worldwide ripple effect foremost in our minds. To get beyond this, we have two choices: -- Play it safe by saying ``this too shall pass.'' -- Assume some risk and be a leader.
Bell Helicopter Textron is suing two companies for allegedly counterfeiting company trademarks on parts that have been substantially and materially reconstructed, but one defendant claims the suit is ``frivolous'' and that Bell refuses to engage in dialogue aimed at a resolution. Bob Rohde, an attorney with Bell Helicopter's legal firm of Rohde & Van Kampen, said the company alleges that the defendants in the case, H-S Tool and Parts Inc. of Richmond, British Columbia, H-S Tool U.S.A.
Previewing how the U.S. Air Force will try to sell Congress on leasing 100 Boeing 767s for aerial refueling, the service last week informed lawmakers that it wants to structure a much smaller version of such a deal to lease four 737-700 Boeing Business Jets. Under the terms, USAF would pay up to $395.5 million to lease the four aircraft, known as C-40s in the military version, for a maximum of six years. The aircraft would then be returned to Boeing. The cost of buying the four aircraft outright would be $399.4 million, only a $3.9-million difference.
The Pentagon's 10-year effort to develop an Internet/software tool to schedule special-use airspace--largely warning and restricted areas--has not met its goal, the military's Inspector General says in a new report. After entering service about 18 months ago, the tool, called the Military Airspace Management System, isn't being used properly, has to fulfill too many functions for too many different types of airspace and is too cumbersome, the IG said. Less than 40% of users surveyed found MAMS functional or user-friendly.
The best-performing airlines of 2001 present a study in contrasts, not the least of which is staying power. As in past years, no two airlines that scored highest in their categories--this year they are grouped by size--had the same strengths among the productivity, asset utilization and financial health measurements by which they are evaluated in AW&ST's Index of Competitiveness. Singapore Airlines, the top-ranked large airline, did the same high-margin business in 2001 that put it at the top of the list a year earlier.
Arianespace Chairman Jean-Marie Luton has been named chairman/CEO of Starsem, the Soyuz launch company in which Arianespace and parent company EADS are major partners. He will stay on as chairman of Arianespace, whose CEO is former Starsem boss Jean-Yves Le Gall. Starsem officials said the move would help define future cooperative strategy between Europe and Russia, which are discussing the installation of a Soyuz launch pad at the Arianespace launch facility in Kourou, French Guiana, as well as collaboration in future launch vehicle technologies.
In a bid to make the National Imagery and Mapping Agency more relevant, military and congressional leaders overseeing the organization want to address emerging homeland security requirements and exploit the potential of measurement and signature intelligence (Masint). The overhaul is also aimed at overcoming shortfalls that materialized late last year in support of the U.S. war in Afghanistan and operations in other areas. NIMA went on a war footing to support the military 24 hr. a day.
A key House panel is ready to cut F-22 production to 16 aircraft a year, unless the Pentagon shows that the new fighter's persistent cost overruns and schedule stretch-outs are under control. Worried that the latest $6-billion cost hike might dog the next-generation aircraft far into the future, the House Appropriations Committee and its defense panel have approved a $355-billion military budget for next year that includes $4.1 billion for 23 F-22s--but would hold the annual purchase to 16 unless certain conditions are met.
The U.S. Coast Guard is poised to begin a sorely needed, across-the-board upgrade of ships, aircraft and command-and-control systems funded by an $11-billion, 20-year contract just inked. Equal-partners Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin have been working with the Coast Guard for four years to develop a solution to its Integrated Deepwater System needs. ``Our team's approach provides a single, integrated package of ships, aircraft and helicopters, all linked by advanced common software and systems,'' said Northrop Grumman Chairman/CEO Kent Kresa.
Scientists and legislators agree that protecting aviation and intermodal transport from catastrophic terrorism will require a concentrated effort to foster research and engineering in security technologies. The most critical need is a systematic, methodical approach, and the new Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is best suited to achieve it, the National Research Council told Congress last week.
Israeli and U.S. forward-looking infrared sensor makers are squaring off to meet a U.S. Marine Corps requirement to upgrade the device on the AH-1W Cobra attack helicopters. The Naval Air Systems Command, which manages the AH-1W program, plans to buy two prototype upgrades, one from Merrimack, N.H.-based Kollsman and the other from Israel Aircraft Industries' Tamam division, to assess which system is more suitable. Both are to provide third-generation staring focal plane array technology into the Cobra's night targeting system.
The Chicago Aviation Dept. won approval for the $3.5-billion O'Hare World Gateway Program when the FAA's recently completed review concluded the program would have ``no significant impact'' on the environment. Gateway includes development of two new terminals to be built entirely under new FAA Security Guidelines, as well as U.S. customs facilities, and the modernization of existing terminals. The construction of the new Terminal 6 and an extension to Concourse K, the first projects under the program, will add 23 gates to O'Hare.
Contrary to the U.S. Forest Service's dire predictions, cooler weather, higher humidity and some rain have helped firefighters contain 70% of the Hayman fire in Colorado. The 137,000-acre blaze threatened Lockheed Martin Astronautics' Waterton plant southwest of Denver for several days, but company officials said they discontinued ``hotline'' alerts to employees last week as the potential for evacuation diminished.
Collaborative production management (CPM) systems are booming at 13% per year growth rates, led by aerospace and defense, according to a study by the ARC Advisory Group (www.ARCweb.com). CPM sales were $425 million in 2001 and are expected to be $800 million in 2006. The two top suppliers have a combined 30% market share, with other companies having no more than a few percent.
The FAA certified Honeywell's AS907 turbofan engine last week as ground and flight testing of the powerplant continues. Honeywell will begin building the first production engines in September with deliveries starting in December to Bombardier for the super-midsize Continental business jet. The 7,000-lb.-thrust class engine has a 34.2-in. fan and a bypass ratio of 4.2. The program to develop the engine began 44 months ago. It was intended to power the now-abandoned Avro RJX. So far, 18 engines have completed 18,000 hr.
A slew of commissions and congressional committees have tried to get the military to use more commercial satellite imagery, but so far use of such remote-sensing data has been more occasional than regular. Now, Director of Central Intelligence GeorgeTenet is weighing to change that. He fired off a memo to James R. Clapper, Jr., the head of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, asking him to ``direct that U.S.
