Comair pilots have ended a 90-day strike with their 64% acceptance of a union-endorsed package that fell short of original objectives. The airline sprang into high gear last week in a rush to retrain pilots and prepare for a return to limited small jet feeder service by July 2.
Italy and Spain are set to join an Anglo-French technology demonstrator project under which new technologies for a next-generation, electro-optical targeting system are being investigated for European fighter aircraft.
Raytheon Co. last week revealed that the cost to complete civil construction projects abandoned by Washington Group International Inc. (WGI) may be nearly twice as much as previously estimated. Raytheon made performance guarantees on the projects before selling its engineering and construction business to WGI. The new estimates of Raytheon's total liability are now reaching $480-825 million versus earlier estimates of $350-450 million, and with WGI's liquidity problems Raytheon isn't sure it will obtain the full cash recovery it says it is entitled to.
Nicolas Chabbert has become head of Socata's German subsidiary EADS Socata GmbH. He was senior vice president-sales and marketing of Socata Aircraft Inc., Pembroke Pines, Fla. Chabbert has been succeeded by Michel Adam de Villiers as vice president-sales and marketing. He was Western U.S. director of sales.
The International Lease Finance Corp. has selected Pratt&Whitney PW4168A engines for seven Airbus A330-200 aircraft under a manufacturing order valued at $200 million. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2004.
The B-1B is on-tap to become the next major U.S. Air Force weapons system to have all its future work bundled together and handed to one contractor. The deal, likely to be hotly contested, is expected to net the winner a $4.5-billion contract. Work would include responsibility for upgrades and sustainment of the fleet of bombers. The contract award is slated for Mar. 1, 2002. Among the enhancements considered by USAF are a defensive subsystem enhancement, adding Link 16 and global air traffic management capabilities, and radar and communications improvements.
Diminishing defense budgets are forcing military fighter manufacturers to scramble for fewer sales opportunities. Lockheed Martin was the only manufacturer to announce a new signing at the air show--an Israeli order for 52 more F-16Is under a previous option (AW&ST June 25, p. 22). Greece has a similar option to acquire additional F-16s that also expires by year-end. Oman, meanwhile, is also interested in acquiring 10-12 F-16s, and Lockheed Martin expects a contract to be signed before the end of the year with Chile on an order for 12 aircraft.
U.S. and Canadian robotics engineers believe they have solved problems with the complex software and computer components on the new Canadian manipulator arm that have delayed International Space Station assembly operations. The 58-ft. arm was launched to the ISS in April. All of the problems have been narrowed to rather harmless, yet unexpected, characteristics found during shakedown tests by the ISS crew, rather than actual failures, according to C.A. (Skip) Hatfield, ISS robotics manager at the Johnson Space Center.
Embattled Amtrak CEO George Warrington must not realize how unpopular the airlines are these days among the 535 frequent fliers on Capitol Hill. Testifying before the Senate Appropriations transportation subcommittee, he bragged that his railroad's intercity passenger volume makes it the equivalent of the nation's ninth-largest air carrier. Maybe so, responded Sen. Robert Bennett (R), but not in his home state of Utah. Amtrak's total passenger volume in Salt Lake City could be carried on one aircraft per day with seats to spare.
Italian space officials think a planned initiative by the aerospace research center CIRA could be the joker in the deck in discussions to mold an array of reusable launch vehicle projects into a single European program. The European Space Agency (ESA) is asking for 270 million euros ($232 million) over five years for the Future Launch Technology Program (FLTP), the core of Europe's reusable launch vehicle (RLV) effort (AW&ST June 25, p. 51).
Fay Gillis Wells has been selected to receive this year's Katharine B. Wright Award from the National Aeronautic Assn. One of the four founders of the Ninety-Nines, Wells will be honored for her 70-plus years of promoting flying. The award honors a woman who has contributed to the advancement of science of aviation and spaceflight.
M+P International of Hannover, Germany, (www.mpide.de) has been making equipment to control and measure shaker tables for environmental tests and vibration analysis for a decade, and has recently added a top-of-the-line VibExec software and hardware package to read and process up to 128 channels of high-rate data in real time. The earlier VibRunner system handles up to 48 channels. VibExec can work with Windows NT/2000 as well as Unix operating systems. M+P is also helping M&M Corp. of Belgium (www.mm-corporation.com) with its SmartOffice sound and vibration software.
The White House says NASA has whittled its funding shortfall on the International Space Station to about $500 million, but that's without finding a way to increase the crew from three to six or more. Members of the NASA Advisory Council complain a crew of three doesn't have time to do the ``world-class'' level of research that justified building the station in the first place. ``Somebody stole the Mona Lisa, and the penalty is to burn down the Louvre,'' council member A.
Robert C. Cordes (see photo) has become vice president of the St. Louis hub of Trans World Airlines, to oversee its operations at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport and manage the integration of TWA and American Airlines operations. He has been managing director of the transition. Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge, vice president-airport operations, will continue to oversee airport operations outside of St. Louis.
Rocketdyne has completed acceptance testing on the first flight version of its new RS-68 rocket engine, built to power Boeing's Delta IV Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV). The flight engine will be shipped from its test stand at Stennis Space Center, Miss., to the Delta IV production plant at Decatur, Ala., for integration into the Delta IV common booster core set for launch next spring. Overall, RS-68s have accumulated more than 16,000 sec. of hot-fire testing.
Sincerely, Kenneth E. Gazzola Executive Vice President/Publisher
As is the case with other good ideas, shareholder value has moved in the last 10 years from being ignored, to being rejected, to becoming self-evident. It is invoked in annual reports, briefings with financial analysts and press releases, and it's now embraced as the mantra of corporate board members and top management of most publicly traded airlines and aerospace companies. In fact, many executives will tell you maximizing shareholder value has become their primary responsibility.
An American team, including officials from the U.S. Pacific Command, U.S. Defense Attache's Office in Beijing and Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., is at Lingshui Airfield on Hainan Island, China, to handle the disassembly of a damaged Navy EP-3 surveillance aircraft. The four engine-propeller assemblies were removed June 23. The team expects to have the aircraft taken apart by July 4 so it can be loaded on a Russian-operated An-124 for return to the U.S. The aircraft was damaged Mar. 31 in a midair collision with a Chinese interceptor.
Thomas C. Teebagy, Jr., (see photo) has been named vice president of the Omnirel unit of International Rectifier. He was the Leominster, Mass.-based Omnirel's senior vice president-operations before the company was acquired.
Alan Erickson (see photos) has been promoted to director of corporate sales from director of international sales and Curtis Draper to director of corporate marketing from director of sales and marketing for finished products, both for Howmet Castings, Darien, Conn.
Concepts NREC has supercharged its turbomachinery design tools by partnering with Fluent, a major computational fluid dynamics house. Fluent's general purpose CFD tools are added to Concepts NREC's Agile Engineering Design System to give more in-depth analysis of critical elements and to handle areas that aren't traditional blade row design, such as inlets, volutes, cooling passages, and secondary cavities (see graphic). Engine geometry can be transferred between the Fluent and Concepts NREC software.
The Ukrainian aviation industry brought three transports to the Paris air show while Russian industry brought one, but both countries have a short order list for new aircraft--five for the Ukrainians from their own Ministry of Defense and four for the Russians, split evenly between commercial and Russian government users.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) will let an artificial intelligence program pick which science images to send back to Earth in the shuttle-launched Three Corner Sat satellite mission next year. The onboard Continuous Activity Scheduling, Planning, Execution and Replanning (Casper) algorithms will decide the priority of data and may erase some stored images before they are transmitted (http://casper.jpl.nasa.gov). Casper will also handle satellite housekeeping. Three Corner Sat will have three 30-lb.
The Pentagon aims to drastically expand its missile defense research and development program after the Bush Administration decided to stop limiting its spending to programs that could be compliant with the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty.
