Shimadzu, Japan's major precision machinery company, is gaining ground on its drive to build its civil aerospace customer base 50%, with its order to manufacture oil pressure sequence valves for Boeing 737s, 747s, 757s and 767s, beginning in January 2003. It holds contracts to make actuators for the 777 and gear boxes for the 767, which account for 10% of its aviation instrument-related revenue; Japan's Self-Defense Ministry makes up the difference. The company's goal is to achieve a 50-50 split between civil and military work.
The successful launch of a fourth Milstar defense communications satellite last week means military forces fighting terrorism will have a more robust network for rapidly moving critical information around the globe.
US Airways last week posted a net loss of $1.17 billion, or $17.35 per diluted share, excluding unusual items, for all of 2001. For the three months ended Dec. 31, the carrier's net loss was $552 million, or $8.16 per diluted share, excluding unusual items. This compares with a loss of $89 million, or $1.33 a diluted share--excluding unusual items--in the fourth quarter of 2000. For the full year in 2000, the carrier's loss was $154 million, or $2.30 per share.
Japan's National Space Development Agency (NASDA) has given up on an attempt to retrieve the first stage LE-7A engine from the H-IIA booster it launched last August from the Tanegashima launch center off Kyushu Island. Sailors from the Japan Marine Science and Technology Center have been trying to nail down the exact location of the engine--which fell into 6,000-meter (20,000-ft.)-deep waters off Marcus Island--by homing in on the ping of its recovery beacon.
Robert Gustafson has become principal for systems operations of the Atlanta-based Axiom Corp. He was senior analyst for the Energy Application Service of AMR Research.
Responding to complaints from All Nippon Airways, the Japanese Transport Ministry plans to transfer the coordination of takeoff and landing slots at Tokyo's Narita and Osaka's Kansai international airports from ANA's rival, Japan Airlines, to a third-party organization. ANA calls the current system unreasonable since it requires ANA to give an operational plan to its competitor. Slot coordination is handled by Japan's International Air Transport Assn. office, which has been staffed by JAL employees since 1986, at a time when JAL was Japan's only international carrier.
Millennium Jet Inc., the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based manufacturer that is trying to develop an exoskeleton vertical take-off and landing aircraft, SoloTrek XFV, began manned tests shortly before year-end. The company began with 36 hr. of static tests and another 30 hr. on a rigid safety tether. Chief Engineer Rob Bulaga claimed the tests are at the point where SoloTrek is flying free, although the vehicle is suspended from a crane to prevent an unplanned departure during the hover (see photo).
It is a common mistake in going to war to begin at the wrong end, to act first, and wait for disaster to discuss the matter.--Thucydides Most [nations] see their ruin before their eyes, but they go on into it.--Leopold von Ranke The potential for nuclear conflict on the Asian subcontinent resembles a stencil more than a photograph. The image has a ``now-you-see-it, now-you-don't'' quality.
ESA's new director of strategy, Jean-Pol Poncelet, says Sept. 11 developments are bound to increase the debate within ESA and the European Union on the utlization of dual-use assets for security applications. A joint ESA-EU working group is looking into the issue, and its possible impact on the Union Treaty, under a new joint framework agreement to be drawn up by year-end.
Jeanne M. Liedtka has been named vice president/chief learning officer of the United Technologies Corp. (UTC), Hartford, Conn. She succeeds Robert S. Harris, who is now dean of the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia. Liedtka was associate dean for MBA education at Darden and will remain as an associate professor.
Amy Anderson Day has been named director of government relations for Boeing headquarters in Chicago. She was director of government affairs for the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.
Amid concern that some Al Qaeda-linked terrorist cells may have eluded capture, Singapore has stepped up security measures throughout the island-nation. Late last week, Asian Aerospace 2002 officials began asking for photographs to accompany requests for trade/exhibition/press passes, an additional layer in credentialing. Show officials did not respond to questions about what other security measures attendees might experience at the Feb. 26-Mar. 3 show, however (see p. 63).
Researchers have been able to detect some potential tropical cyclones more than 40 hr. earlier in the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific hurricane basins using satellite data. Researchers from Florida State University's Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies used data from the Quick Scatterometer satellite and the seawinds instrument (see image). Eight of 17 tropical cyclones which developed in the Atlantic in 2001 were detected an average of 43 hr. before they were classified by the National Hurricane Center.
One of the biggest challenges in the next century of flight will be improving on the already very low accident rates of major air carriers. A promising step being taken at large airlines around the world is the Line Operations Safety Audit (LOSA). Instead of studying incidents and accidents (failed human performance), LOSA provides a process for analyzing the safety of normal line operations. Rather than focusing on events and finding fault, it offers a systemic and non-punitive assessment by trained observers of everyday operational flights.
Leon Kranz, Scott Roeper and Margaret Hampton have become members of the board of directors of the Ladish Co., Cudahy, Wis. Kranz is president/CEO of Weber Metals. Roeper is managing director of the Facilitator Capital Fund, and Hampton is a manager at Grace Brothers.
Nick Leontidis (see photos) has been appointed executive vice president-simulation products and Bob van Balen executive vice president-aviation training for the Toronto-based Commercial Simulation and Training Div. of CAE. Leontidis succeeds Steve Wilson and was vice president-sales and marketing. Van Balen was CEO of Schreiner Aviation Training.
If events in Afghanistan have convinced France to beef up helicopter and reconnaissance assets, they apparently have had little impact in other areas, such as long-range strike and aerial refueling. Defense Minister Alain Richard said there were no plans to add refueling capacity, other than a tanker variant of the A400M, or to acquire a long-range bomber capability despite renewed evidence in the Afghan theater of the value of such assets.
Cosmonaut Yuri Onufriyenko and Astronaut Carl Walz installed a second Russian transfer crane and a ham radio antenna on the International Space Station during a 6-hr. extravehicular activity on Jan. 14, the first for the Expedition 4 crew and the seventh from ISS without a space shuttle present. Another EVA is set for Jan. 25, when Onufriyenko and Astronaut Dan Bursch are scheduled to install three more ham antennas and thruster deflector shields on the Zvezda module. Astronauts and cosmonauts often communicate with ham radio operators.
After numerous postponements that delayed the project more than two years, Europe's multibillion-dollar Envisat Earth-monitoring satellite is finally set to be deployed.
The U.S. military services, along with the National Reconnaissance Office, NASA and industry, are embarking on a major transformation of the U.S. military communications satellite network. The objective is to make the system--with its numerous programs, dozens of spacecraft and thousands of terminals--far more responsive to the highly mobile combined-force coalition warfare--undertaken in Afghanistan and planned for other locations--in response to the Sept. 11 attacks. Military lessons from Kosovo are another key impetus.
ARINC PLANS TO DEMONSTRATE A NEW INFLIGHT BROADBAND communication capability this year that will bring television, e-mail and two-way Internet access--using Ku-band satellite services--to passengers in equipped aircraft. The aircraft will be able to receive at 10 megabits (Mbps.) per sec., but what distinguishes the company's system is the broadband return link that will allow the aircraft to transmit 2 Mbps. via Ku-band transponders on the AMC-6 geostationary satellite.
Switzerland's new national carrier Crossair needs more time to reach agreement on joining a global alliance. CEO Andre Dose had planned to announce his decision in January, but now said it would take at least until March. Executives of the three alliances are known to have voiced concerns about the planned size of Crossair's hub in Zurich, which would compete with their own networks. The airline has made a decision in principle on its new name, but has so far not made it public.
L-3 Communications Corp., which has lost out time and again to deep-pocketed rivals in its bid to acquire a premier defense electronics business, finally has prevailed and is now poised to become a major player in the secretive world of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR). The New York-based company--created four years ago from a collection of disparate operations spun off after the merger of Lockheed and Martin Marietta--plans to purchase most of Raytheon Co.'s Aircraft Integration Systems (AIS).
European banking, credit card, software and infotech leaders are joining together to issue smart-chip cards for business travelers so they can take advantage of secure Internet systems to make flight and hotel arrangements. The partners are SITA, the global airline/travel infotech provider; Groupement des Cartes Bancaires, which operates the CB interbank system in France; SSB (Societa per i Servizi Bancari), an Italian interbank company, with expertise in electronic payment services; Gemplus, a smart-card hardware and software specialist, and Sagem, a mobile phone maker.
