TIME: 11:15 p.m. CST. LOCATION: Over the Southwest U.S. A Beech Bonanza pilot, flying a night-VFR route to a small airport, is oblivious to the modified Boeing 707 fitted with a huge rotating radome flying about 100 naut. mi. to the northwest. He also doesn't know about the Air National Guard F-16 fighters ``shadowing'' his aircraft about 10,000 ft. above and behind, radars locked-on, tracking him.
From our first lessons as student pilots, we are repeatedly told we must concentrate on flying the airplane. The current situation, with enormous and justifiable emphasis on upgrading security provisions, should cause us to think about the safety implications and unintended consequences of changes in security measures.
CoBRA (Chemical/Biological Response Aide) provides critical data, procedural guidelines, and integrated incident command system communications and documentation structure for hazardous materials and weapons-of-mass-destruction emergency response. It was developed under the sponsorship of the interagency Technical Support Working Group on Counterterrorism (TSWG), and contains information on responses to large improvised explosive devices, toxic industrial chemicals, chemical warfare agents, and biological agents likely to be employed by terrorist groups.
Ralph E. Alberto (see photo) has been appointed vice president-sales and marketing of Dallas Airmotive Inc. He was director of business aviation customer support and aftermarket planning for Honey- well Aerospace. Alberto succeeds Terry G. Scott, who has been promoted to president/CEO of subsidiary International Turbine Service.
Boeing and Airbus have completed workshops in Europe and the U.S. for hundreds of suppliers and airlines on the subject of universal bar coding of parts for commercial aircraft. The goal is for permanent bar code identifications that, when swiped, will provide history/technical specifications for line-replaceable units and life-limited parts. ``Bar coding will improve airline configuration control by increasing the accuracy of the known `as-delivered' configuration at the airplane,'' said Kenneth Porad, who heads Boeing's bar code program.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. has consolidated the antitrust-immunity alliance applications of American Airlines-British Airways, which had completed a normal cycle of public comment, and United Airlines-British Midland Airways, which is just starting.
Because of canceled Boeing 767 orders, the U.S. Air Force has the opportunity to buy wide-body aircraft at rates about 20% below normal. What seems to be in flux is how many aircraft are to be bought initially and for what roles. ``Everybody wants to get rid of the same airframe [the 707 and C-135],'' an Air Force official said. Some have proposed canceling the 18th and 19th Joint-STARS aircraft in order to start the transition. Others had suggested buying a mix of 767-200ERs and 757-300s because it would allow the Air Force to buy more aircraft.
USN Vice Adm. (ret.) Herbert A. Browne has been appointed president/CEO of the Fairfax, Va.-based Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Assn. He succeeds former USAF Lt. Gen. C. Norman Wood, who has retired. Browne was vice president-intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance applied technologies for GRC International.
White Electronic Designs Corp. has received another production award valued up to $1.5 million to support the Eurofighter aircraft. The contract covers SRAM and EEPROM memory devices used on board the aircraft.
Buzzwords have besieged the previously bland world of U.S. aviation security. Be it stun guns for pilots, biometrics for passenger authentication or trace explosives detectors for checking baggage, fancily titled high-tech devices have entered the mainstream media as potential plugs to a leaky airline security system design. But high-profile security experts are cautioning that technology alone will not eliminate the specter of terrorists taking down a commercial aircraft.
International airlines are looking forward to a deep slide in credit costs, possibly several billions of dollars annually, promised by an international treaty signed by representatives of 68 nations Nov. 16 in Cape Town, South Africa. The treaty creates a registration system that establishes security rights in assets such as aircraft, engines and helicopters. The registration is expected to reduce the risk of lending for financial institutions and result in lower costs for carriers from nations covered by the treaty.
John Parry (see photos) has become chief financial officer and Richard Mills director of safety and compliance for Empire Airlines, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
Airport and aircraft security upgrades signed into law by President Bush on Nov. 19 will no doubt improve the way the nation's air transportation network does business. But industry experts say implementation of some key near-term measures will be difficult if not impossible.
Two Lockheed Martin/International Launch Services Atlas boosters will remain stuck on their Cape Canaveral launch pads into early 2002 because of delays with their satellite payloads. The Boeing TDRS-I tracking and data relay satellite was to have been launched this fall from Launch Complex 36B on an Atlas III. But that mission is being delayed by ongoing bureaucratic haggling between Boeing and NASA over issues that arose with TDRS-H, the first of this new spacecraft series launched more than a year ago.
Sikorsky Support Services in Troy, Ala., has received the first three UH-60 Black Hawks scheduled to be remanufactured and upgraded to the UH-60M configuration. The rebuilt aircraft will have a greater payload capability, a strengthened fuselage, more powerful engines, new avionics and new wide-chord, composite spar blades. The U.S. Army may remanufacture some 1,200 Black Hawks in the next 25 years, primarily to extend the service lives of the helicopters by about 20 years and to cut their maintenance costs.
Bombardier Inc. has reported a net loss of $367.6 million, or 27 cents a share, on a 30% increase in revenues for the three months ended Oct. 31. These results reflect the financial impact of special items. They include pretax charges totaling more than $296 million to cover costs associated with reduced Q400 turboprop production and the cost of aerospace layoffs. In the aerospace segment, revenues were flat for the quarter. In addition, deliveries declined to 69 aircraft from 85 during the same period a year ago.
NEW ITALIAN DEFENSE PROCUREMENT priorities include a satellite surveillance unit--the new Franco-Italian Cosmo Pleiades program--to downlink strategic intelligence gathered by radar and optical sensors. For collecting airborne tactical intelligence, the Defense Ministry listed a C-130 reconnaissance aircraft, and a system of air- and heli-borne ground surveillance sensors that would give Italy and its European allies their own capability through interoperable national systems.
The Sapphire Pro system is an integrated product for access control, security, alarm monitoring, video recording and management, and photo ID badging applications. The auto-configuration feature automatically detects field hardware, readers, alarm points, relays, modems and workstations, and configures them into the database, making it possible to set up the product to be a functional access control system, according to the company. The video badging and imaging features include a full badge design and drawing package with multi-layer design tools.
An industry survey by Computer Sciences Corp. says corporate information systems remain ``dangerously vulnerable to cyber attacks.'' Completed in August, the survey of 1,000 information technology executives worldwide found that 46% of respondents acknowledged not having a formal information security policy in place, 59% said they don't have a formal compliance program that supports their infotech systems (IS) and 68% do not regularly conduct security risk assessments.
The German defense ministry has reiterated its commitment to Europe's A400M airlifter program, despite last-minute efforts to renegotiate the price for the 73 units it intends to purchase. The price squabble stems from efforts by Finance Minister Hans Eichel to hold down Germany's defense spending, already the lowest per capita in Europe. French President Jacques Chirac was set to seek a solution to the impasse at a summit meeting with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder late last week.
Northrop Grumman's new Space Systems Div. hopes to move beyond strategic military space markets into the homeland security, counterterrorism and low-intensity conflict arenas that have gained priority after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The division would use newly acquired sensor and data processing skills to focus space-derived data and deliver it quickly where it can do the most good.
U.S. Navy E-2C crews are wondering whether they shouldn't adapt their training since crews operating the airborne early warning and control system are increasingly being pressed into managing air-to-ground combat rather than simply watching for air-to-air threats.
