Boeing is planning to consolidate for the first time commercial aircraft product development engineers and technicians in the Puget Sound area into a single site at the company's Everett, Wash., facility--including some personnel who work on Boeing's new Sonic Cruiser design effort. The move involves about 1,000 employees.
Allyson D. Yarbrough (see photo) has been promoted to principal director of the Electronics Engineering Subdivision of the Electronic Systems Div. of The Aerospace Corp. of Los Angeles from director of the division's Electromagnetic Techniques Dept.
NASA and Rocketdyne propulsion engineers have seized the opportunity to test advanced engine-control technology on rocket engines built for the canceled X-33 vehicle before they are removed from a test stand at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.
Joan Sullivan Garrett, founder/president/CEO of MedAire Inc. of Phoenix, has been named Arizona Entrepreneur of the Year, in competition sponsored by Ernst&Young.
Honeywell's net income plummeted 92% in the second quarter despite a generally solid performance in the aerospace segment, where revenues increased 5%.
FedEx Express has signed a three-year maintenance contract with FLS Aerospace for overhaul services on FedEx's Boeing 727, DC-10 and MD-11, and Airbus A300 and A310 fleets. FLS also will perform blended- wing modifications on Aviation Partners' 737-800 aircraft.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's new $240-million Space Systems/Loral Goes-M weather satellite is en route to its initial geosynchronous orbit checkout location over the Galapagos Islands, following lift-off here July 23 on board a NASA/Lockheed Martin Atlas IIA.
Lockheed Martin made a vertical landing after a supersonic dash with its X-35B demonstrator, the first time both extremes of speed had been achieved in one flight in the Joint Strike Fighter program.
The Bush Administration remains committed for now to abiding by the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and the Pentagon is scheduled to disclose this week whether the new missile defense construction and testing plans the Administration has proposed will violate the 1972 U.S./Soviet agreement.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is fighting mad about air rage. Feinstein recently wrote to the CEOs of U.S. carriers Delta, Continental, Northwest, US Airways, United, Southwest and American asking them to voluntarily set limits on the amount of alcohol a passenger consumes on board domestic flights. Based on FAA information, at least one air rage event occurs daily, the letter says, and evidence suggests a majority of the incidents involve alcohol.
Boeing has set in motion a plan that has been part of the company's overall strategy since it began acquiring major aerospace firms five years ago: combining the expertise of various business units in an attempt to boost competitiveness. In this case, Boeing will take the GPS expertise gained through acquisition of Rockwell's aerospace and defense businesses in 1996 and combine it with the satellite development and manufacturing capabilities the former Hughes Space and Communications brought to the company.
The goal that has dominated operational planning since the 1991 Persian Gulf war--finding, identifying and attacking moving targets, primarily very threatening mobile missile systems, within 10 min.--is within reach, say Navy researchers.
U.S. governments, from federal to village, are woefully unprepared to deal with biological warfare, former Sen. Sam Nunn told a House national security panel. He said mass panic and violence would be as great a danger as disease. Citing lessons learned from a simulated smallpox attack called Dark Winter, the former Senate defense maven told lawmakers last week a sophisticated global surveillance network is urgently needed to rapidly detect, diagnose and treat a disease outbreak triggered by terrorists.
Rolls-Royce has signed a $360-million, 10-year maintenance support contract with Continental Airlines for the carrier's RB211-535E4B engines. Continental operates 41 Boeing 757-200s powered by the RB211-535. Rolls-Royce, which earns 38% of its revenues from aftermarket services and support, said such long-term ``Total Care'' support packages are becoming increasingly popular with customers.
The FAA will start using data visualization software to improve its process for developing landing approach procedures. The administration's Aviation System Standards (AVN) program recently selected SimAuthor Inc.'s ``FlightViz'' software as a tool for recognizing potential approach problems and determining needed changes. Various elements that affect an approach can be animated to create ``what-if'' scenarios, allowing FAA personnel to validate procedures before they are checked inflight.
Ed Zwirn has been promoted to area general manager from general manager at Miami International Airport for Signature Flight Support and Rick Cortez to general manager from airline operations manager at St. Petersburg/Clearwater (Fla.) International Airport. Christine Rosensteel has been promoted to general manager from operations manager at Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) International Airport. She succeeds John A. Stafford, who has become general manager at West Palm Beach (Fla.) International Airport.
CAE WILL SELL A MAXVUE visual system to China (Xi'An) Aircraft Industry Group for a simulator for its new MA-60 regional aircraft. Beijing Aviation Simulation Co. is building the turboprop simulator. The MA-60, also known as the Xin Zhou 60, was unveiled in March 2000 for the growing Chinese regional airline market.
General Dynamics Corp. was awarded a $2.4-billion contract by the U.K. Ministry of Defense for the Bowman communications system. GD will be prime contractor for the secure digital voice and data communication system for the U.K. armed forces.
Swissair Group subsidiary SR Technics Ltd. has signed a two-year agreement for JenaNet.Com's Internet-based turbine engine management and diagnostic software.
Space Imaging (www.spaceimaging.com), based in Denver, has extended the camera model for its Ikonos Earth-imaging satellites to make it easier for users of off-the-shelf photogrammetric software to orthorectify Ikonos images. That is the stretching and twisting process needed to correct for viewing angle and Earth curvature so that each pixel is properly located. Space Imaging performs orthorectification as a value-added service, but many of its customers want to do their own processing.
James Clarke has been appointed chief financial officer and Stan Petersen-Gauthier has been promoted to vice president-financial planning from managing director of cost and profit analysis for the Air Wisconsin Airlines Corp. Clarke was CFO of Indigo.
NASA, still looking for new ideas on a second generation of launch vehicles to replace the space shuttle and existing expendable rockets for cost and safety reasons, may pick additional launch architectures this fall to drive its Space Launch Initiative (SLI) technology effort.
Boeing has a pilot program to help Sun Microsystems test its new iForce storage system for high-performance computers. The iForce storage area network lets different computers access a single source of data, which should reduce redundancy and provide a single point of data administration. The system is being connected to several Boeing sites and has demonstrated sustained data rates of over 2.2 gigabytes per second. ``I've never seen a system sustain such bandwidth with so little demand on the system processors,'' said Boeing engineer Mike Mott.
