Canadian Forces and the Royal Australian Air Force have selected Boeing to develop and delivery integrated maintenance training system for their F/A-18 aircraft, under a three-year, $32-million contract. Boeing will work with Atlantis Systems International.
Startup Phuket Air became the sixth airline in Thailand and the fourth with rights to operate international flights. Vikrom Aisiri, who owns the airline, said it is beginning operations with one Boeing 737-300, but a second 737 is scheduled to enter service this month with three more operating by midyear. Initial flights are centered on South Thailand, but permission has been granted for Phuket Air to serve Malaysia, and Aisiri is seeking rights to serve Myanmar, Singapore and China.
SEEKING MATERIALS TO HARDEN aircraft against explosions and projectiles, the Oak Ridge (Tenn.) National Laboratory has evaluated two protective composite materials, Spectra and PBO polymeric fiber. The tests first examined their ability to withstand a fire in the cabin, and then ballistic resistance. Spectra has been used for some time for bullet-proof vests, but needed a flame barrier on the outside to pass the flame test. PBO, used in Army helmets, was denser and stronger and did not burn.
Ken Marshall has been named vice president-vendor operations for Delta AirElite Business Jets. He was vice president-inflight services and corporate safety for Comair.
Anthony Graham has been promoted to manager from director of training of FlightSafety International's LaGuardia Learning Center. George Ferito has been promoted to assistant manager from director of training of the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport Learning Center.
Pressing U.S. airport security requirements are igniting a surge in explosives-detection systems demand, which may swell the number of players competing in this long-dormant market.
Zacarias Moussaoui, 33, a French citizen and the first person indicted as an accomplice to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, told a federal judge in Virginia on Jan. 2, ``In the name of Allah, I do not have anything to plead,'' a response his lawyer said meant ``not guilty.'' Moussaoui, who Attorney General John Ashcroft has called an active participant with the 19 hijackers, will face six counts of conspiracy, four of which carry the death penalty. Jury selection is scheduled to begin in September with the trial slated for Oct. 14.
Washington Reagan National Airport, beginning the third phase of restoring flight operations curtailed for security improvements, will regain all of its pre-Sept. 11 nonstop destinations and more than three-quarters of its flight operations by spring. But US Airways, National's biggest airline and the main beneficiary of the latest restorations, is drawing opposition to its attempt to launch service to Bermuda.
Novatel Inc. and Raytheon have signed a long-term, multi-phase follow-on contract for development of GPS receivers to be used in Raytheon's next-generation satellite-based landing system.
Jupiter's moon Io does not have its own magnetic field despite the presence of a molten iron core, according to the latest measurements by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Galileo spacecraft.
As pressure mounts on federal regulators to begin the Herculean task of outfitting more than 400 airports with thousands of checked baggage explosive detection systems (EDS), equipment manufacturers and some members of Congress are asking whether easing the federal guidelines might help.
Xenon-fueled solar-electric thrusters will give a newly selected NASA spacecraft enough maneuverability to explore two large protoplanets in the Asteroid Belt. The probe could answer questions about the processes that formed Earth and the other inner planets and perhaps supply data that can be used in the search for planets around other stars.
A Global Hawk unmanned aircraft, one of two being used by the U.S. Air Force in operations over Afghanistan, was destroyed while attempting to land in the United Arab Emirates near the end of a combat reconnaissance mission. The Dec. 30 crash was not a result of combat damage, say military officials.
Russia closed the year with a record volume of revenues from foreign arms sales, and expects to do even better in 2002. Alexander Denisov, first deputy head of the Commission on Military and Technical Cooperation with Foreign Countries, said last month that arms sales would exceed $4 billion, noting that late payments on previous deliveries could add $1 billion to this figure.
Northrop Grumman has reached a $440-million settlement with Honeywell in a long-standing legal issue between Honeywell and Litton Industries. Northrop Grumman acquired Litton last April. The dispute involved lawsuits filed in 1990 against Honeywell by Litton which accused Honeywell of patent infringement and illegal monopolization of the inertial reference system market for commercial transports and regional and corporate aircraft. Northrop Grumman officials said the agreement resolved the matter.
The new national agency charged with securing U.S. commercial aviation could find its federal marching orders modified based on would-be shoe bomber Richard Colvin Reid's defeat of European security screening.
MICRO ELECTROMECHANICAL SYSTEMS (Mems) devices could be in use to detect explosives and chemical/biological agents for protection of buildings and ships in 2-3 years, according to officials at the FAA and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Mems technology offers the prospect of low-cost devices, with increasing sensitivity. Micro-resonators, which are not commercially available yet, appear particularly promising for vapor detection, they say.
Alcatel Space is preparing to pare its workforce and investment outlays as a result of an unexpected slowdown in demand, despite a recent order upturn and plans announced barely a year ago to sharply expand satellite production capacity. The manufacturer landed a 150-million-euro ($135-million), five-year award from French national space agency CNES to provide support services at Europe's launch complex in French Guiana. It also won a $118-million telecom satellite contract from APT of Hong Kong.
A light, single-engine 1946 Aeronca 7AC aircraft took off without a pilot Dec. 27 in Sonoma County, Calif., and crashed about 2 hr. later on a ridgeline near Petaluma. Owner and pilot Paul Clary of San Rafael told FAA officials he was working on the engine with the throttle in full open position. When the engine started the airplane accelerated and took off. The airplane's emergency locator transmitter led search parties to the crash site.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will impose a fee of $2.50 per domestic or international passenger enplanement at a U.S. airport, limited to $5 per one-way trip and $10 per roundtrip, to pay for security measures mandated last November by Congress. Airlines will collect fees for tickets sold on or after Feb. 1 and remit them monthly to the TSA. The fee was set at the maximum permitted by law because security services will cost more than the fee will bring in, according to the agency. By conservative estimate, costs will exceed $1 billion through Sept.
America West Airlines has had to dig much deeper than its officials originally thought to qualify for a $380-million U.S. loan guarantee that may stave off bankruptcy for the Phoenix-based carrier or even liquidation. By a 2-1 vote, the Air Transportation Stabilization Board conditionally approved the federal loan guarantee to cover 85% of a $445-million financing package that could grow to $600 million after concessions, financing and financial assistance are counted.
Complying with a congressional mandate and an inspector general's recommendation, the Transportation Dept. intends to increase reporting requirements so airlines cannot simply state how many flights were late or canceled but must provide reasons as well. The department has set a Feb. 25 deadline for comments on a proposed rule that would apply initially to the 12 U.S. airlines that report delays, but may eventually include other large carriers and their code-share partners.
Boeing has taken another step in its expansion into nonmanufacturing operations by offering to act as a digital library for the thousands of pages of technical and engineering reference documents that airlines use to run their maintenance, repair and overhaul operations. Last week it said it will host ``customer content'' as a feature on the company's MyBoeingFleet.com Web site, an online retrieval library for maintenance, engineering and flight operations catalogs, drawings and data.
