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.
Six European nations have agreed to undertake a collaborative effort in advanced technologies that would enable them to jointly develop future combat aircraft systems.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the owner of a twin-engine Cessna that crashed in August, killing singer Aaliyah and eight other people. The agency is seeking logbooks and other documents related to the aircraft and its pilot, Luis Morales.
FAA-mandated inspections of Airbus A300-600 series and A310 aircraft with composite vertical stabilizers were underway last week while American Airlines Flight 587 accident investigators eyed rudder deflection as another contributing factor in the Nov. 12 crash. Wake turbulence and composite structure of the vertical stabilizer were identified as possible accident components by the National Transportation Safety Board in the first few days of its probe (AW&ST Nov. 19, p. 32).
Iraq should be ``the principal next target'' the military goes after, says Richard Perle, who chairs the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board--a group that gives informal advice to the Defense secretary. Perle, who has long advocated action against Saddam Hussein, warns more than airpower will be needed, particularly if the U.S. wants to eliminate Iraq's nuclear weapons program. He says there are hundreds of dispersed nuclear facilities.
The tendency to throw money at a problem is not the answer when it comes to employing new technologies to improve security at aerospace manufacturers and airports. Rather, individual technologies like biometrics have a place in improving security but only as one piece in a cohesive network of technologies and strategies.
With Osama bin Laden, his three wives, children, bodyguards and advisers on the run, Indian intelligence officials were monitoring the Jammu and Kashmir region of the disputed border with Pakistan for signs that the Al Qaeda leadership may be seeking sanctuary there. The thought is that U.S. surveillance flights are not concentrating on the area, so it would be a good hiding spot. Of special interest to Indian forces is the Kashmir valley where militants' morale is said to be low because of the quick routing of Al Qaeda forces in Afghanistan.
China's Remote Sensing Ground Station (RSGS) will be the first customer to receive imaging data from Spot Image's new Spot 5 imaging satellite, to be launched early next year. Spot 5 will provide 10-meter (33-ft.) color and 2.5/5-meter black-and-white resolution over a 60 X 60-km. (37 X 37-mi.) swath. RSGS already receives imaging from Spot Image via a receiving station in Miyun, 60 km. northeast of Beijing, and markets them through a joint venture, Beijing Spot Image.
TWO TEAMS AT BAE SYSTEMS' Information&Electronic Warfare division, who were developing EW system designs for the Joint Strike Fighter contenders, will now join forces to develop prototypes for Lockheed Martin's winning F-35. For nearly five years, the two groups have been working on their competitive EW designs with an ``information firewall'' that prevented public complaints of ``leakage'' by either Boeing or Lockheed Martin.
USAF recently accepted delivery of its 100,000th smoke hood from Essex PB&R. The military smokehoods, which are termed Emergency Passenger Oxygen Systems (EPOS), are for all USAF passenger-carrying aircraft. The EPOS is a self-contained, flame-resistant hood with an independent source of compressed oxygen and self-sealing neck seal. It can also provide supplemental oxygen for decompression protection at altitude. The EPOS is a smaller version of the company's FAA&CAA commercially mandated smoke hood for airlines crewmembers.
Mike Rowland has been named vice president-programs for the Gulfstream 100/200--former Galaxy Aerospace aircraft--for the Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., Savannah, Ga. He was head of the EC-37 special mission program of the Gulfstream V. John Hodskins and Bill McLeod have become Western and Eastern U.S. vice presidents-sales for mid-size accounts. Hodskins was Eastern U.S. vice president-sales for Galaxy, while McLeod was mid-Atlantic sales director. Robert Harless has been named general manager of Gulfstream's Brunswick, Ga., facility.
A.C.E.S. HAS CREATED AERODOME, a new 6 X 6 X 8-ft., low-cost ($60,000), motion-based flight simulator for military aircraft. It can be test flown in the Elumens booth at the I/ITSEC show in Orlando, Fla., this week. A 180-deg. out-the-window view is provided on a 5-ft.-dia. dome by an Elumens Vision Station projector. Display resolution has improved over earlier simulators, and airborne targets are now visible at 10-15 mi. The projector is inside the cockpit and directly under an LCD instrument panel that's in approximately the same location as in the F/A-18 aircraft.
Top airline executives and financial analysts are still trying to determine whether the ongoing industry crisis will be long term or suddenly shift into a slow, gradual recovery. According to the International Air Transport Assn.'s chief economist, Peter Morris, experts are putting undue emphasis on terrorism as a deterrent to air transport, while travel requirements are generating great confidence in a rebound--although travelers will have to accept that flying is becoming more expensive. Corporate travel, for instance, is expected to revive.
Japan's National Space Development Agency has set a Jan. 31, 2002, date for launch of the second H-IIA rocket, with the entire month of February reserved at the Tanegashima Space Center range as a fallback period. The F-2 vehicle will carry the Mission Demonstration Test Satellite (MDS-1), a 990-lb. testbed for commercial satellites, as well as a vehicle evaluation payload and a hypersonic atmospheric reentry demonstrator.
