Remember how much political trouble Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta got into last November for admitting the obvious--that airlines wouldn't be able to screen all checked baggage by Congress' Jan. 18 deadline? In the end, everyone backed off, allowing carriers to match bags at the start of a trip without having to match them again as they come out of hubs. Now, the Transportation Security Administration is acknowledging tacitly, and without political eruptions, that it might not meet the Dec.
James M. Smith, who has been CEO of the Edo Corp. of New York, also will be chairman, effective May 7. He will succeed Neil A. Armstrong, who is scheduled to retire.
Top Pentagon officials say they won't ``deliberately disseminate false information to the American or foreign media or publics,'' but they won't say what they have in mind for the new Office of Strategic Influence. Douglas J. Feith, the Defense undersecretary for policy, finds it tough sledding to explain the purpose of OSI. He admits he can describe nothing innovative the office would do nor name an information failure it needs to fix.
LaBarge Inc. will manufacture the electronic and box-level assemblies for the PerkinElmer Vivid VIS108 airport checked-baggage electronic inspection system, under a work order valued at more than $3.5 million.
CONTINUING ITS PROGRESS TOWARD ESTABLISHING an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) capability, Airservices Australia has selected Honeywell to provide the avionics and ground equipment to demonstrate the capability in a region near Bundaberg, Queensland. ADS-B-equipped aircraft transmit their GPS positions over a data link to air traffic controllers, who can then track and control aircraft in regions lacking surveillance radars.
Some stealth aircraft layouts, particularly drones, end up with short inlets for their turbofan engines. A serpentine duct is used to hide the engine face from radar, but the airflow tends to separate while negotiating the sharp turns, causing inlet distortion and poor pressure recovery. This is being addressed by Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, Calif., with a project called Structurally Integrated Inlet Control Technology (Strict). The scheme involves using small jets of air to keep the flow attached to the walls.
The U.S. airline industry is too quick to pin its high cost of doing business on the wages paid to workers. That was one of the messages American Airlines Chairman, President and CEO Don Carty delivered to aviation professionals who gathered at the Wings Club in New York last week. ``Our challenge as an industry is not to blame labor for our high costs, but instead to find ways to make labor more productive.''
The company has built an advanced plant to reduce oxides of nitrogen emissions from its carbon brake manufacturing facility, which supplies BAE, Boeing and others. Known as recuperative thermal oxidizer, the plant replaces 20-year-old equipment, improving performance by a factor of 150. This is better than the most demanding target for any process producing NOx set by the U.K.'s Environmental Agency, according to Dunlop. The new plant lets the company increase production, since more material can be processed, while meeting environmental rules.
William Oberlin has become president, Joe Song vice president-space, communications and military aircraft, and Hyeong-Soon (Arthur) Park director of public relations, all of Boeing Korea.
Delta Air Transport, formerly Sabena Belgian World Airlines' regional subsidiary, plans to become a full-fledged European carrier operating under a new name, SN Brussels Airlines. SNBA's reshuffled management will continue to evaluate the merits of a proposed merger with Virgin Express, a Brussels-based affiliate of the British Richard Branson group.
Asian airlines are restructuring, resuming services and evaluating fleet plans to reestablish the growth they've seen ebb away over the past year as terrorist threats and recession have gripped the area.
Mid-February's traffic numbers are restoring confidence among the Assn. of European Airlines' (AEA) member carriers. Their international passenger traffic increased 0.3%, a minuscule growth but nevertheless a promising milestone, the very first positive numbers since Sept. 11. AEA members' traffic decreased up to 20.9% in mid-October. Today, on the European route system, it is increasing a healthy 4.5%, in sharp contrast to a 6.5% fall during the first half of February. The slow recovery is also materializing between Europe and the Pacific Rim.
Following years of continuous growth, the German aerospace industry may soon initiate its first layoffs as it grapples with a sharp downturn in the airline sector. Members of BDLI, the German aerospace industries association, posted 15.3 billion euros ($13.5 billion) in revenues last year, up from $13 billion in 2000. Employment increased to 71,000 from 69,000, its highest level since the early 1990s.
Airwolf Filter has purchased manufacturing and distribution rights to Walker air-oil separators for the genav piston engine market. The venerable Walker Air-Sep is certificated for Continental and Lycoming engines. The product, renamed Airwolf Air/Oil Sep by Walker Engineering, acts as a condenser for oil vapor created inside the crankcase. The system puts back recovered oil that would otherwise be piped overboard through the crankcase breather tube. The 4-in.-dia. separator weighs 15 oz., is 6 in. tall and mounts on the aircraft firewall.
In ways subtle and not so subtle, Airbus and Boeing are playing out their rivalry in Asia with an extra degree of patience this year as the region searches for a way to pull itself out of prolonged recession. For the world's two major aircraft manufacturers, Asian Aerospace 2002 will be the third straight exhibition in Singapore at which their once fastest-growing market is in the doldrums.
Pinpointing the cause of the Dash failure was a relief for the H-IIA program and helped gain it a customer. Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and its Meteorological Agency appear likely to designate the H-IIA as the launcher for their replacement MT-SAT weather and air traffic control satellite in the summer of 2003. Naturally, the Transport Ministry wanted the Loral-built spacecraft to be launched by a Japanese rocket, but held an Ariane in reserve while the H-IIA proved itself.
Even though the Arthur Andersen/Enron debacle has exposed the pitfalls of conflicts of interest, the Pentagon doesn't seem to think it's such a bad idea. After all, the Missile Defense Agency last week awarded Boeing and Lockheed Martin contracts for heading the Missile Defense National Team that will help guide the future direction of missile defense efforts. Both companies have deep financial interests in the field, but Pentagon officials contend the contractors will oversee architecture issues and have no say in who eventually develops the anti-missile shield.
The vertical stabilizer fell from an Airbus A300-600R on the morning of Nov. 12, 2001. Why the tail sheared off in flight shortly after American Airlines Flight 587 departed New York JFK International Airport remains the focus of intense investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. The FAA last week released transcripts of ground, local and New York departure controllers' exchanges with flight crews operating out of JFK International at the time of the accident. No new accident data was revealed.
Immediately after the terrorist attacks on Washington and New York, airlines and airport operators throughout the world stepped up security. Asia was no different. Although authorities across the region assert that their security met the industry's highest standards before the attacks, many have made more of a public show of reminding passengers of the need for strict security since the attacks. A greater presence of armed guards has been evident, although armed guards were more prevalent in many Asian countries before the attacks than they were in the U.S.
A Sukhoi Su-24 Fencer was reported missing Feb.19 by the Russian air force when the aircraft failed to return from a training flight. The Fencer was being flown over the Pskov region near the border with Estonia over thinly populated forest region.
In a surprise move, Air China is looking for a foreign strategic partner as it prepares for a listing on the Hong Kong and New York stock exchanges next year. Airline officials did not say how much foreign investment they are seeking, but the goal is to make the stake a part of the carrier's privatization plan. The intent is to make the listing more attractive to investors.
Vistagy Inc.'s FiberSIM software, which is widely used to design and produce composite parts, has found its first application in a maintenance, repair and overhaul operation. The Delta Technical Operations Center of the Atlanta-based carrier will use it for evaluating and repairing composite parts for its fleet of 588 aircraft. The software will be applied to such activities as overhauling and testing the part and producing repair details--processes that are now heavily dependent on manual work. Delta is interested in offering its composite repair capability to others.
France has launched a program to add a long-range naval cruise missile capability to its family of air-launched standoff weapons in a move designed to enhance Europe's deep-strike capability. The goal is to develop naval variants of existing air-launched weapons for France's future multimission frigates and its new Barracuda-class nuclear submarine fleet.
Emcore Corp. has picked up the solar cell business of Tecstar Inc. in a $21-million bankruptcy sale, enabling it to add solar panels and cover interconnect cells (ICI) to its product line. The Somerset, N.J.-based semiconductor manufacturer already builds a radiation hard solar cell with a beginning efficiency of 27.5%. The sale is subject to approval of the Delaware Bankruptcy Court judge overseeing the Chapter 11 reorganization of Tecstar, which has provided spacecraft solar panels for the past 40 years.
