Hugh McElroy (see photo), vice president/general manager of Dallas Airmotive-Millville, has been elected chairman of the Trenton-based New Jersey Aviation Assn. Other new officers are: vice chairman, Matthew Boyle, senior vice president/general counsel of Dassault Falcon Jet; treasurer, James Holmes, senior vice president of Executive Jet; and secretary, Steve Barlage, regional sales director of Boeing Business Jets.
REALLY QUIET LLC HAS RECEIVED FAA CERTIFICATION for its hushkit designed to bring Gulfstream II-, IIB- and III-series business jets into compliance with Stage 3 noise rules. Plans call for creating a national network of existing service facilities to install the hushkits. The first customer installation is scheduled to begin in April. The design features a translating ejector shroud that reduces exhaust velocity from the two Rolls-Royce Spey 511-8 engines during takeoff. The company claims the hushkits reduce noise 6-7 dB. below Stage 3 levels.
Teledesic LLC, which once planned to gird the Earth with a constellation of 840 broadband satellites in low-Earth orbit (LEO) to deliver ``Internet In The Sky'' service worldwide, has scaled back its ambitions to a 30-satellite medium-Earth orbit (MEO) arrangement initially targeted at the most promising market regions.
When budget season descends on Washington (see p. 24), Congress always complains that the allies are not spending enough on the common defense, even in peacetime. With the U.S. national security budget approaching $400 billion and the war on terrorism in full swing, those complaints will mushroom. The biggest target is NATO's transatlantic spending chasm. The U.K.'s entire defense budget in 2001 came to $34 billion--$14 billion below the simple annual increase of $48 billion President Bush is seeking for Fiscal 2003.
Letters to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative late last year from General Electric and Pratt&Whitney's parent, United Technologies Corp., have again raised the issue of whether the U.S. should classify as unfair the U.K.'s launch aid practices.
Rolls-Royce is offering the Trent 500 for the C-X tactical transport being developed by the Technical Research and Development Institute of Japan's Defense Agency (JDA). Kawasaki is working on the C-X in a common airframe project along with the MPX marine patrol aircraft for the Japanese air force. The C-X is to be a two-engine transport, so it will require higher thrust per engine than the four-engine MPX (also called the P-X). The MPX is to replace Japan's Lockheed/Kawasaki P-3C Orions, while the C-X is to supersede the Kawasaki C-1s. U.S.
It's not clear whether the white, male 40-ish passenger whose loafers set off a security alert at San Francisco International Airport's Terminal 3 on Jan. 30--that rippled across the U.S.--was even aware he was wanted for further examination. He disappeared into the crowd, and it is also not clear where he headed, toward United Airlines gates or back into the terminal.
Japan's transport ministry plans to expand the nation's airport capacity to meet demand during the 2002 World Cup soccer competition May 31-June 30. The ministry will add 10 arrivals and departures for charter flights during the day at Haneda Airport near Tokyo, while weekly international flights from Narita Airport to Seoul, South Korea, will grow to 135 from 84 beginning Apr. 18. Travel between Japan and South Korea, which are cohosting the games, is expected to double from 4,000 passengers to 7,000 each week during the event.
South Korea is heading into a third round on price negotiations with competitors for the F-X fighter. Due to currency fluctuations, Seoul no longer has the budget to pay for the $4-billion program. Industry officials believe the project might be shelved after the talks.
Aviation Week&Space Technology presents its 45th annual Aerospace Laurels selections, honoring individuals and teams who made significant contributions to the global field of aerospace during 2001. Honorees were nominated by the magazine's editors in the categories of Commercial Air Transport, Aeronautics/Propulsion, Government/Military, Electronics, Space, Operations and Lifetime Achievement.
British Army Lt. Gen. Cedric Delves has taken the U.K. seat at the Tampa, Fla.-based U.S. Central Command for the war in Afghanistan. He succeeds Air Marshal Jock Stirrup. Delves was deputy commander-in-chief of U.K. Land Forces.
Space Imaging has upped the ante in high-resolution satellite photos by offering 1-meter stereo imagery to commercial customers. Previously, only government customers were offered the images. The 3D products are created by shooting the same location from two different perspectives during the same orbital pass to ensure tonal consistency. One of the images is taken at a high elevation angle (greater than 72 deg.), which is useful in assuring accuracy in an orthorectified image. 3D images are useful for extracting information about buildings, roads and elevated contours.
US Airways intends to resume flights between its Pittsburgh hub and Paris on Mar. 16 using 203-seat Boeing 767s. The airline ceased service on that route when demand collapsed after Sept. 11. Beginning Apr. 1, American Airlines plans to resume daily service to Gatwick from Raleigh-Durham using Boeing 777s instead of Boeing 767-300s, and next month will add 41 flights from its Dallas/Fort Worth hub to 37 destinations to meet increasing travel demand.
Eugene Hinman, former assistant director for laboratory programs at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), has won the U.S. Navy's Medal for Distinguished Public Service. He was recognized for his role in developing Navy air defense and strike warfighting capabilities. APL was honored for contributions to development and proof-of-concept demonstration of the Area Air Defense Commander, a capability used to help joint forces commanders plan and coordinate air defense operations against enemy air attacks theater-wide.
As part of an ongoing debt restructuring plan, Malaysia Airlines (MAS) is expected to spin off its domestic operations into a subsidiary company to make its public stock more attractive for investors who want to concentrate on its strengths in international passenger and cargo operations.
Christopher Bidwell has been appointed director of passenger and cargo security for the Washington-based Air Transport Assn. He was manager of corporate security for American Airlines.
The future of U.S. bilateral open skies deals with European states was cast under a cloud on Jan. 31, with the European Commission winning a crucial decision that such agreements ran counter to European Union Law. Following four years of deliberations, the European Court's advocate general, Antonio Tizzano, found in favor of the EC, arguing bilateral open skies agreements were ``contrary to community law.'' Though nonbinding, the advocate general's findings more often than not are endorsed by the court.
NASA is pushing on with its Space Launch Initiative, seeking research proposals on propulsion, crew escape, integrated ground testing and flight demonstrations in a second round of bidding that closes Mar. 27. The agency plans to spend about $500 million this time, over and above the $791 million awarded to 22 contractors last year that was later supplemented with $94.6 million more (AW&ST Jan. 7, p. 17; May 28, 2001, p. 30).
AIRSERVICES AUSTRALIA HAS CONTRACTED WITH THALES ATM to upgrade The Australian Advanced Air Traffic System (Taaats) to an automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) capability. The system will then be able to use GPS information sent automatically by data link from ADS-B-equipped aircraft for surveillance. Thales will upgrade the Brisbane Area Control Centre, Melbourne Test and Evaluation platform and the existing simulator. The Australians were the first to implement FANS-1 ADS-C for ATC surveillance.
AChina Airlines Airbus A340 with 237 passengers and 15 crewmembers narrowly averted disaster early Jan. 25 after the Taipei-bound aircraft took off on a taxiway at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. Pilots were able to coax the heavily loaded aircraft over a field and a stand of trees between the taxiway end and the open water of Cook Inlet a half-mile away, before flying 10 hr. to Taiwan. Investigators later found 6-8-in.-deep main gear tire impressions in a 2-ft.-high snow berm 20 ft. from the end of the taxiway.
Britain's aerospace sector faces further serious consequences as a result of the dramatic fall in the commercial aerospace market, the result of the Sept. 11 attacks, warns the Society of British Aerospace Companies. It cautions that some additional 23,000 jobs face the ax, on top of the 17,500 already chopped.
Brazil has concluded a pair of preliminary cooperation deals with Russia and Ukraine as part of an effort to develop aerospace and defense ties between the countries. Brazil is already Russia's biggest trading partner in Latin America, with sales of $1.5 billion in 2001--more than 50% higher than the previous year. The figure is expected to reach $2 billion this year. For the time being, however, trade between the two nations is primarily limited to raw materials, agricultural goods and semifinished products.
The Pentagon's Joint Robotics Program could get a funding boost, due to renewed interest for both military and civil applications stemming from the war in Afghanistan and the September terrorism attacks, according to a report from Forecast International/DMS. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's effort to develop technologies for electronic surveillance for high-hazard environments has been funded at about $12 million a year, down from $13.6 million in 2001 but an increase in the $11.3 million allocated in 2002.
The BEA French accident investigation agency's final report on the Air France Concorde crash addresses the rare phenomena that led to the disaster, and adds insight to a precursor incident 21 years earlier. On July 25, 2000, Flight 4590 crashed shortly after takeoff from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport while engulfed in flames, and it was thought by some to be the first time a Concorde had had an inflight external fire (AW&ST Jan. 28, p. 46).
