Herley Industries has received a $1-million contract to supply high-power radio-frequency control products for the U.S. Navy's E-2C Hawkeye aircraft, in conjunction with a $1.3-billion multi-year contract between the Navy and Northrop Grumman to purchase 21 Hawkeyes.
All Nippon Airways has filed a complaint with Japan's Fair Trade Commission stating that the consolidation of Japan Airlines and Japan Air System would be anticompetitive (AW&ST Nov. 19, 2001, p. 44). ANA officials said the merger is contrary to the government's policy of promoting airline deregulation and competition. The complaint maintains that the combined airlines would control 60% of routes from Tokyo's Haneda Airport and 80% of Japanese carriers' international routes.
Tentative approval of antitrust immunity for the Delta Air Lines-Air France-Alitalia-Czech Airlines alliance, granted Dec. 21 by the U.S. Transportation Dept., shows by its simplicity how complicated the department's upcoming decision on the American Airlines-British Airways immunity proposal will be.
SITA has signed a contract with the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers to establish and manage ``aero'' as an Internet top level domain dedicated to the aviation community. Registration of names is to begin in March. Details are available at www.aero.sita.int or www.information.aero. Domain names are to be reserved for companies, organizations, associations, government agencies and persons involved in passenger and cargo transport. SITA said it will manage the site on a nonprofit basis.
Raytheon Aircraft Co. has received an order for more than 230 T-6A Texan II training aircraft in a multiyear contract that could be worth up to $1.2 billion during the next five years. A company official said the initial agreement calls for 40 airplanes with deliveries set to begin in 2004. The contract includes four one-year options and funding for ground-based training equipment and tech support.
James Howell, corporate chief engineer of EMS Technologies Inc. of Atlanta, has been selected as a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He was selected for his ``contributions to the design and analysis of radar systems.''
Carolyn Williamson has become executive director of the University Aviation Assn., Auburn, Ala. She succeeds Gary W. Kiteley. Williamson was vice president of Women in Aviation International and managing editor of its magazine Aviation for Women.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is assessing safety benefits of independent standby systems on MD-11s that would serve as a ``get-home package'' in the event of aircraft electrical failure. The move comes out of the safety board's ongoing probe of Swissair Flight 111, an MD-11 that crashed Sept. 2, 1998, near Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia. The aircraft experienced an inflight fire while en route from New York JFK to Geneva.
Satellite images of a facility near Baghdad show an airliner that Iraqi defectors say is used to train terrorists in the art of hijacking. Space Imaging, which operates the Ikonos civilian surveillance satellite, was prompted to look for the aircraft in existing photos after a ``Frontline'' television show interviewed two Iraqi defectors who described the hijacker training and the aircraft used for the mock attacks.
New NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe wins kudos across the board for picking a respected veteran astronaut as his deputy. Insiders say Marine Maj. Gen. Charles F. Bolden, Jr.'s, deep experience at the space agency, including four shuttle flights and a headquarters stint, will complement O'Keefe's White House credentials as they struggle to keep the agency's nose up in a tough fiscal environment. Soon after moving into his new offices on Jan. 2, O'Keefe promised NASA employees ``a lot of hard work and some difficult decisions'' in the months ahead.
Freedom Airlines, an Irving, Tex.-based subsidiary of Mesa Air Group, has applied to the Transportation Dept. for a certificate to operate 64-seat Bombardier CRJ700 and 80-seat CRJ900 transports in scheduled service for America West Airlines beginning in May. Mesa Air Group already is the parent company of Mesa Airlines, Air Midwest and CCAir, but Freedom would be the only unit to fly the larger regional jets. Operating as America West Express, routes and schedules would be determined by the mainline carrier and exist chiefly in the western U.S.
Lockheed Martin's Palmdale, Calif., facility stands to get work overflowing from other company sites and from potential contracts for its Advanced Development Programs unit. There is a possibility of specialized parts production work coming in from the Joint Strike Fighter program and from ongoing production for the F-16 in Fort Worth. The Palmdale site is anticipating 200-300 jobs, depending on contract wins for the ADP unit. Many of those programs are classified, but developing unmanned aircraft is expected to be among them.
Joseph Adams, Jr., has been appointed executive director of the U.S. Air Transportation Stabilization Board. He has been a partner of Brera Capital Partners of New York.
More aircraft flying from Europe to the Caribbean will be able to save time and fuel by using the optimum altitudes for the prevailing winds, now that the FAA has decreased the altitude separation for properly equipped aircraft.
Scott Douglas has become Singapore-based regional vice president for Southeast Asia for the Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems Sector. He succeeds Phil Murphy, who has retired. Douglas was senior regional analyst for Southeast Asia for Cubic Applications.
Sept. 11 has changed the way people think about airport and aviation security, and the threat is expanding interest in systems to detect explosives. This report covers the most promising technologies discussed at a recent FAA symposium, as well as the changing approach to security in the U.S., Canada and Europe. With billions of dollars of spending expected, more companies are entering the field.
Capt. Emmett Titshaw, an MD-88 pilot for Delta Air Lines and a brigadier general in the Air National Guard, has been appointed commander of the Florida ANG.
Boeing has received an FCC license allowing passengers to transmit and receive broadband data in the air, above the U.S. and territorial waters, using its Connexion inflight Internet, e-mail and TV service. The company is demonstrating the service to private and government aircraft operators in the U.S. and expects to roll out the first airliners equipped for inflight broadband transmissions by early 2003. Lufthansa is the launch customer.
The U.S. Air Force 45th Space Wing will issue a request for proposals this month for commercial airborne security patrols to help protect the U.S. unmanned launch operations at Cape Canaveral and NASA shuttle operations at the Kennedy Space Center. AirScan Inc. of Rockledge, Fla., has already worked under contract flying Cessna Skymasters on Cape surveillance missions coordinated with USAF HH-60 helicopters, primarily on detection of wayward boats that could delay launches.
U.S. Air Force/Lockheed C-141B Starlifter transports have been cleared to return to service after the left wing on one airplane collapsed during refueling last Dec. 21 at Memphis (Tenn.) International Airport. The incident sparked the grounding of all 99 C-141Bs in U.S. Air Force inventory, but the limitation was removed Dec. 23 when an initial inspection by an engineering team from Warner Robbins Air Logistics Center in Georgia determined the failure was limited to that specific airplane. According to Col.
Despite a test failure following a B-2 launch last month, the stealthy joint air-to-surface standoff missile (Jassm) has been approved for low-rate production by the Pentagon, and is expected to be available for operational use in 2003. By combining the missile's 200-mi. range with launch from a stealthy aircraft, Lockheed Martin and Air Force officials contend that Jassm will be able to defeat a new generation of Russian-made air defense missiles that boast a 250-mi. kill range.
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