Susan M. Coughlin, a former vice chair of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, has been appointed president/CEO of the Washington-based Aviation Safety Alliance, effective June 10. She has been president/chief operating officer of the American Transportation Research Institute.
Walter Kamb, who has been general manager for TAC Air at Shreveport, La., now holds that position at Lexington, Ky. He has been succeeded by Joe Mora, who was general manager at Greenville, S.C. In turn, Mora has been succeeded by Westley Williams.
Boeing has developed a recovery plan it believes can save the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-I mission and ultimately meet NASA's contractual requirements for the spacecraft, according to company officials. The plan involves using an alternate pathway within the satellite's propulsion system to pressurize with helium gas a 35-in.-dia. spherical tank in which half of the spacecraft's original load of hydrazine fuel is now trapped (AW&ST Apr. 1, p. 26).
Mongolian Airlines is to replace its Boeing 727-200s with 737-800s, beginning with a lease from GATX Financial Corp. for initial aircraft. They are expected to be delivered to the Ulan Bator-based carrier in July.
Aviation Week's Aerospace 25 stock index has climbed past the point where it was trading this time last year. As of May 1, it had gained more than 23% since the start of 2002, versus a 5.4% decline for the Standard & Poor's 500 (see opposite page). The primary driver, of course, has been military-oriented companies. Furthermore, securities analysts continue to believe the macroenvironment remains very favorable for defense stocks. The gains were especially broad-based last week, propelled partly by solid earnings reports (Moog Inc.
CMC Electronics will supply its GPS-based CMA-900 flight management system and CMA-2102 high-gain satcom antenna to Japan Airlines for its Boeing 747 flight deck avionics upgrade program. CMC has firm orders for 18 sets of equipment, and options for 16 more, which it says will make this the largest single upgrade of classic Boeing 747 (-200, -200F and -300) avionics. Initial deliveries are due next year.
Not to be outdone by the House, a group of senators plan to submit their own version of legislation to arm pilots against hijackers. Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) and Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) offered a bill last week to force the Transportation Dept. to get off the dime on guns in the cockpit (see p. 38). Senate insiders say Bob Smith (R-N.H.) wants to put together ``something better'' than what Young and Mica proposed, with stronger liability protection for pilots and airlines and more emphasis on cargo carriers.
EIICHIRO SEKIGAWAMICHAEL MECHAM ( TOKYO SAN FRANCISCO)
Japan's Fair Trade Commission, which had said the takeover of domestic carrier Japan Air System by Japan Airlines would create an oligopoly, has reversed itself and approved the deal. The FTC acted three days after JAL and JAS submitted a revised acquisition plan on Apr. 23 that conceded key takeoff and landing slots at Tokyo's all-important Haneda airport, promised lower domestic fares and transferred counters, gates and boarding bridges at Haneda to startups.
Frustrated over what it sees as prolonged government inaction, the Air Line Pilots Assn. has persuaded key House members to put forward a bill that within 90 days of passing would force the Transportation Dept. to allow pilots to carry guns and use deadly force to defend the cockpit. ``If the Administration won't do this, Congress has a right as the spokesman of the people to do it,'' said Rep.
Rocket System Corp. President Yoshihisa Tsuda has advised Japan's Space Activities Commission that the H-IIA's high launch cost is likely to cause RSC to lose Space Systems Loral (SSL) as a customer. When Rocket System Corp. initially began marketing the H-II on a premise of price competitiveness, SSL signed for 10 launch reservations. It subsequently lowered that list to eight, and Tsuda said it may drop those as well, leaving the H-IIA with a single launch contract--the Japanese Ministry of Transport's MTSAT-1 replacement satellite--in 2003.
Most engineering organizations have a variety of computer tools that are used to define a vehicle, but the programs don't play well together. For example, the overall shape may be defined by Catia, the old-but-proven performance program may be in Fortran, costs are calculated on an Excel spreadsheet, and the aerodynamic and structural grid definitions of the airplane are in completely different systems. The incompatibilities require a lot of hand effort to transfer data between the programs, and running optimization studies can be very tedious.
Katherine A. Gray has been appointed vice president-procurement and material management of the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Electronic Systems Sector in Baltimore. She was director of sector business operations and succeeds Russell T. Bahner, who is now chairman of the company's e-Procurement and Materials Integrated Product Team.
Michael Fortson was named Distinguished Engineer of the Year at the 2002 National Society of Black Engineers Golden Torch Awards. Fortson is director of Joint Strike Fighter affordability and continuous improvement for the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth and a design engineer with responsibilities related to development of the next-generation strike aircraft.
A bipartisan group of House members wants to double budgets for NASA aeronautics and FAA R&D over five years. Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) introduces a bill to do so but acknowledges that the best chance for success is to add the funds to the NASA authorization. The House Science Committee, of which Larson is a member, will mark up a NASA authorization late this month. A stand-alone bill would have about five months to make it through committee and floor actions in both houses, no mean feat even if 2002 weren't a congressional election year.
MICHAEL A. TAVERNA ESA managers are still striving to determine the exact number of ATVs to be bui ( NOORDWIJK, NETHERLANDS)
As the European Space Agency prepares to start testing its ATV space tug, program managers are struggling to nail down final production numbers for the vehicle, a key logistics element of the International Space Station. Designed to resupply the ISS, periodically reboost it and carry out waste material, the Automated Transfer Vehicle is one of Europe's main contributions to the multinational effort. The 20.7-metric-ton (45,540-lb.) vehicle will be able to upload 5.5 metric tons of dry cargo, 840 kg. (1,850 lb.) of water, 100 kg. of oxygen or nitrogen and 860 kg.
Researchers at Ohio University's Avionics Engineering Center have modified a fully acrobatic jet trainer from the Czech Republic for testing integrated GPS/inertial navigation system performance. Such tests in the acrobatic environment have thus far been done only with military systems; and in the civil community, with low-dynamic aircraft. Ohio University purchased an old two-seat jet trainer--an AERO Vodochody L-29 Delfin, designed in the late 1950s--as a low-cost entry into integrated GPS/INS tests in a high-dynamic environment.
Although secure cockpit doors remain the primary response to terrorist threats on commercial transports, studies show that cabin video systems, crew-awareness training and enhanced transponders could contribute to tighter security. Initiatives underway also include terrorist neutralization systems and security training programs. Aviation authorities, airlines and aircraft manufacturers, which jointly reviewed post-Sept. 11 needs, have just completed the first phase of the international effort covering measures designed to secure flight decks.
The shuttle Endeavour was rolled to Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center for its scheduled May 30 launch to the ISS to exchange the Expedition 4 and 5 crews and install the Canadian manipulator mobile base system on the rail transporter delivered by the last shuttle mission in April.
The future of the A400M military airlifter remained as murky as ever late last week. While all but two nations, Spain and Portugal, have now signed a side letter covering a compromise over German funding issues, the program remains politically vulnerable. Airbus' moves to revise the proposed industry structure, and shifting the headquarters from Spain back to France, saw the resulting resignation of Alberto Fernandez, the CEO of Airbus Military.
Shipments of U.S. general aviation airplanes fell across the board in the first quarter. According to the General Aviation Manufacturers Assn. (GAMA), 521 aircraft (totaling $2.81 billion) were delivered--compared with 642 units valued at $3.53 billion in the first three months of 2001. Business jet deliveries fell to 173 compared with 916 a year ago, and turboprop units plummeted to 46 from 90. Shipments of piston-powered airplanes decreased 15.2% to 302 from 356 in last year's first quarter.
The French army air corps has taken delivery of the first of 32 EC 145 light-medium twin helicopters for search and rescue, emergency medical evacuation and other civil defense applications. The 4-metric-ton-class EC 145 is a longer, wider 10-passenger version of the BK 117 C-1 developed by Eurocopter with Kawasaki of Japan. The new model, known as the BK 117 C-2 in Japan, sports a Thales Avionics Meghas glass cockpit virtually identical to that on the smaller EC 135 and larger EC 155 twins.
JetBlue Airways now has 76 Airbus A320s on firm order, having recently converted two options for the aircraft. The two new aircraft, to be powered by International Aero Engines' V2500s, are expected to be delivered to the New York JFK-based carrier in December of this year and in May 2003.
The crash of a Mil Mi-8 helicopter in the Krasnoyarsk region of Russia took the life of former Soviet Gen. Alexander Lebed on Apr. 28. The helicopter hit a frost-covered power line and plunged into a snowy hillside in a mountainous area, killing eight of 20 people on board. The former army general was a popular politician in Russia in the 1990s and helped defeat a 1991 hard-line Soviet coup that challenged Boris Yeltsin. He later ran for president in 1996 and headed the State Security Council. He also was credited with brokering an end to the 1994-96 war in Chechnya.
The separate findings of two teams involved in the probe of Singapore Airlines Flight 006 are contradictory in focus but complementary at the core. One highlights loss of pilot situational awareness and the other airport infrastructure deficiencies, but both describe the Oct. 31, 2000, crash at Taipei's Chiang Kai-Shek (CKS) airport as a ``failure of the aviation system.'' The lead investigator, Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council (ASC), released its final report on SQ006 on Apr. 26.
