U.S. Air Force officials have gone to Austria to help promote the F-16 in that country's fighter competition to replace J350E Drakens. Austria is looking for a huge offset package, totaling about 200% of the value of any deal. The offer for Block 50/52 F-16s is expected to be up against the JAS 39 Gripen, Eurofighter and Mirage 2000.
Edo Corp. has won a $24.8-million contract from Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. to design and manufacture a suite of pneumatic weapon delivery systems for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
Gary W. Ervin has become vice president of the El Segundo, Calif.-based air combat systems (ACS) unit of the Northrop Grumman Corp. Integrated Systems Sector. He succeeds Scott J. Seymour, who is now the sector president. Ervin was vice president-advanced development programs for the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, Palmdale, Calif. Steven R. Briggs has been promoted to vice president/deputy of ACS from vice president and F/A-18 program manager.
Software companies can expect growing competition from China. On Jan. 4, The New York Times reported on Chinese delegations visiting Indian software companies and universities to learn what makes the country the second-largest software supplier after the U.S. The Chinese wondered what factors might play a role in India's success. ``The most important difference is that professors in India teach computers in English and professors in China teach computers in Chinese,'' said Shen Weiping, vice president of Jiaotong University in Shanghai.
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe tempered his call for closer cooperation between the civilian space agency and the U.S. Defense Dept. last week, after U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) cautioned him to maintain the ``firewall'' between military and civil space activities.
Delays in the National Airspace System are steadily declining, according to FAA Air Traffic Operations Network (Opsnet) data--a dramatic shift from the record set in 2000 that sent the passenger ire index and airline complaint tallies soaring.
Air Force Secretary James Roche is turning to industry to help curb the potential of friendly fire incidents. With forward air controllers on the ground often using hand-held GPS receivers to determine the location of a target, Roche is looking for a way to ensure that operators don't mistakenly transmit their own coordinates to a strike aircraft. The Afghan conflict has seen incidents of bombs dropped on friendly forces. Roche says he doesn't know whether wrong coordinates were transmitted, but argues it makes sense to find a technical solution to reduce the risk.
The final report on the Concorde accident continued the existing theory, while adding insight to unusual phenomena uncovered by the investigation, exposing controversy between French and British parties, and showing displeasure with Air France.
Martin McLaughlin was discussing the wonders of high-speed milling machines recently, pointing out perfectly aligned filets and unblemished machined surfaces as he stood next to a wing box jig here at the World War II-era factory where Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. will assemble the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
Apparently inflight Internet access isn't that interesting to airlines in the current doldrums, at least of the type provided by Boeing's Connexion. United, American and Delta had committed in a partnership with Connexion to install the system on 1,500 aircraft for e-mail and Internet access, but now they have suspended their investment plans, according to Aviation Daily. Connexion By Boeing says it will continue developing the system for launch customer Lufthansa and plans to start trials late this year.
Federal officials are bickering over the administration of military export licenses, in the age-old clash of business interests with national security. The General Accounting Office (GAO), a congressional watchdog, is pressing the State Dept. for faster, more efficient license referrals of about 25 working days. But the department insists case processing times have ``improved substantially'' in the past year. The department accuses the GAO of exaggerating industry complaints that attribute lost arms sales to bureaucratic fumbling.
More than 60 American Airlines pilots reportedly signed a letter saying the carrier should ground the Airbus A300 until the cause of the Flight 587 crash is determined, or a definitive, structural integrity test for the carbon composite vertical tail is developed. ``Everybody is concerned because nobody really knows why 587 crashed and if it's a problem with composite materials,'' said a pilot who was one of the original 12 signatories, according to The Miami Herald.
When terrorists attacked the World Trade Center towers in New York last September, the U.S. narrowly avoided a complete shut-down of critical financial transaction systems--the nation's mechanism for electronically transferring funds, according to Internet security experts.
The rollout of the space shuttle Columbia from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Pad 39A for its scheduled Feb. 28 launch from the Kennedy Space Center on a Hubble telescope refurbishment mission was delayed by at least two days last week, when a steering problem developed in the right front track of the massive crawler transporting the vehicle. It is not yet determined whether Columbia's late arrival at the pad will affect the launch schedule.
Lufthansa signed a $40-million, 3.5-year deal to have Sita design and implement a global network using Internet protocol to connect the carrier's 500 sites in 99 countries, as well as partners and suppliers. . . . Airlines seeking a good arrival or departure slot at Frankfurt airport had best learn the logic behind the Orthogon flight schedule management software being developed with the airport authority (AW&ST Sept. 10, 2001, p. 23).
Flight and cabin crews should adopt an ``active'' role in combating hijacking/terrorism. The FAA's change of strategy was included in the agency's updated security guidelines issued Jan. 18 under the Aviation Transportation Security Act, but had been overshadowed by the more controversial revisions in baggage security.
John Marshall (see photo), vice president-corporate safety and compliance of Delta Air Lines, has been appointed chairman of the Air Transport Assn. Safety Council. He was vice chairman.
James Girch, vice president-FAA repair station and sales for Frazier Aviation Inc., and Kenneth Rosene, founder of Nicads West, have received the FAA's Charles Taylor Award via the Southern California Chapter of the Professional Aircraft Maintenance Assn. The award honors those who have been connected with aviation maintenance for more than 50 years and is named after the mechanic who maintained the Wright Brothers' airplane.
Eurocontrol late last week implemented Reduced Vertical Separation Minimums (RVSM) in a long-awaited initiative set to increase the European airspace's capacity by an estimated 20%, smooth operations and reduce flight delays (AW&ST July 30, 2001, p. 41). The minimum vertical separation between commercial transports has been lowered to 1,000 ft., from 2,000 ft., between FL290 and FL410 (29,000-41,000 ft.). The new arrangement will gradually create six additional flight levels after a transition period needed to implement new air traffic control procedures and behavior.
Remember the defense-versus-deficits row in the Reagan years? It's back. President Bush's new budget, due Feb. 4, will add a real (after inflation) $48 billion to Pentagon coffers, provided Congress goes along. That would bring the defense total in Fiscal 2003 to $379 billion, versus the current $331 billion. Hold on, cry congressional Democrats, any spending hike or tax cut will force government to increase borrowing. The impending deficit would be around $80 billion.
Mary M. Glackin (see photo), deputy assistant administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for satellite and information services, has received the 2001 Presidential Rank Award. She was cited for development and deployment of the system that provides National Weather Service forecasters with the capability of issuing improved severe weather warnings and forecasts with a reduced workforce.
A month before President George W. Bush is to visit President Jiang Zemin in Beijing, the Chinese Foreign Ministry is taking a see-no-evil/speak-no-evil approach to allegations that somebody in the U.S. bugged a Boeing 767-300ER outfitted last year as a presidential transport for Jiang. News of the apparent bugging, which was reported Jan. 18 on Aviation Week's AviationNow.com, entered the rumor mill in Beijing after routine tests of the aircraft revealed the devices last October, officials familiar with the situation said.
Boeing has secured a second international win for the 767 as a tanker/transport with Japan's order of four aircraft for $738 million. Delivery of the first aircraft is set for fiscal 2002. Airbus, as it did in the U.S., offered the A310 as an alternative, but the Japanese Defense Agency said the aircraft didn't fulfill its basic performance requirements.
