Meanwhile, the Air Force Research Laboratory is paying for the development of scheduling software for automated spaceborne and airborne intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance. The small business innovative research award went to Frontier Technology (www.fti-net.com) to advance its space operations scheduling and management system (Sopsman). The Air Force sends up to 400 commands per day to about 100 satellites monitored by 15 antennas around the world. The manually written schedule can take up to 13 days to devise and is less than ideal.
NASA's inspector general finds the relationship between the agency and Dreamtime, the Silicon Valley startup it hired to wire the International Space Station for high-definition television, has gotten a little too laid-back for government work. While the IG's office finds NASA's management of the $100-million Space Act Agreement to be ``generally effective,'' it worries that agency managers aren't getting enough in writing as the deal unfolds.
Master Sgt. (ret.) John H. Bae is one of 12 new members of the AAAA Hall of Fame at Ft. Rucker. The others inducted earlier this year are: Brig. Gen. (ret.) John N. Dailey, CW4 (ret.) Billy J. Fulbright, the late First Lt. Gerald D. Green, Lt. Col. (ret.) William A. Howell, Maj. Gen. (ret.) Richard D. Kenyon, Col. (ret.) Hal Kushner, Lt. Col. (ret.) George L. O'Grady, Maj. Gen. (ret.) Richard E. Stephenson, CW4 (ret.) Cleveland Valrey and CSM (ret.) Hartwell B. Wilson.
Air New Zealand was assessed a $45,000 civil penalty by the U.S. Transportation Dept. for failing to disclose code-sharing arrangements in its advertising and during calls to reservation agents. The department cited an Oct. 8, 2000, ad that did not reveal that the U.S. leg of a Chicago-Los Angeles-Auckland flight would be operated by United Airlines. In a follow-up telephone survey by U.S. investigators, ANZ reservation agents failed 44% of the time to notify callers of code-share flights, and travel agent personnel failed more than 50% of the time.
It wasn't difficult to decipher what drove General Dynamics Corp. to the top of the 2001 ``large company'' rankings. Fixed-asset turns last year were about 50% higher than the industry average, indicating the aerospace/defense contractor did an exceptional job of leveraging its existing investment in plant and equipment to increase sales. Observed SG Cowen analyst Cai von Rumohr, ``GD is the best-managed defense contractor.'' General Dynamics' ranking came as no surprise.
Under a proposed bill to be introduced by Japan's opposition Democrat Party, airline passengers will be fined for unauthorized use of electronic devices.The revision of the country's aviation law addresses monetary punishment for nuisance behavior. Fines of about $1,600 would be levied on any passenger who violates non-smoking rules, utters obscenities or exhibits drunken behavior. Passengers who defy crew instruction and continue to use electronic devices when not permitted face fines of about $800.
Pennsylvania-based Herley Industries Inc. has been awarded combined contracts totaling $3 million to supply microwave assemblies for the Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter.
Boeing has entered into an exclusive agreement with Borealis Exploration Ltd. to evaluate the London-based company's ``Cool Chip'' micro-cooling technology for potential aerospace applications. The solid-state Cool Chip is a form of vacuum diode which pumps heat from one side of the chip to the other when an electric current is passed through it to provide localized cooling. Boeing's Phantom Works is to appraise the thermionic chip which could be used to cool avionics and sensors.
U.S. President George W. Bush was slated June 1 to notify Congress of his intention to extend normal trade relations (low tariffs) for another year to China. Congress is expected to go along with the measure, which the American aerospace industry strongly supports. The renewal is necessary because of delays in China's accession to the World Trade Organization, which would pave the way for Washington to grant Beijing permanent normal trade relations without a yearly review.
SED Systems has won a $9.2-million contract from Public Works and Government Services Canada to provide operations and maintenance services for the Canadian Space Agency's Satellite Operations Directorate in Saint-Hubert, Quebec, and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
Air Vice Marshal Angus Houston has been named the new chief of the Royal Australian Air Force, replacing Air Marshal Errol McCormack. The chief of the navy, Vice Admiral David Shackleton, has had his tour extended another year.
What sets the aerospace and airline industries' top-performing players apart? If the Index of Competitiveness is any guide, it's knowing how to leverage their strengths to improve operating efficiencies and position themselves for profitable, and, it is hoped, sustainable growth. They also share what seems to be a spirit of entrepreneurship. In the following profiles, Northeast U.S. Bureau Chief/Senior Business Editor Anthony L.
David Bond has joined Aviation Week&Space Technology as senior transport editor, based in Washington. Bond was national affairs editor from 1989-92, when he became the editor of Aviation Daily. He left Aviation Daily in 1999, and has been a contributing editor to Aviation Week since last summer. Prior to joining Aviation Week in 1989, Bond covered military and space issues for Aerospace Daily. Both Aviation Daily and Aerospace Daily are publications of the Aviation Week group. Bond graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Link Simulation and Training has contracted with AAR Aircraft Services of Oklahoma City to lease and maintain Boeing 737s used for inflight training of crews assigned to the U.S. Navy's fleet of E-6 Tacamo airborne command, control and communications aircraft. Crews are trained at Tinker AFB, Okla. Plans call for Link, a subsidiary of L-3 Communications Corp., to provide management, scheduling and quality assurance for the 737s.
Duits-Nederlandse Windtunnel (DNW), the German-Dutch organization that operates eight wind tunnels, has found that a commercial data visualization system is more responsive than its own in-house graphics software. DNW picked a system built on Advanced Visual Systems' Gsharp tool (see drawing). They liked the expertise of the company's personnel and the speed at which they could make Gsharp work, the quality of the graphics and the fact that Gsharp is kept up-to-date with the latest operating systems.
Saying you have a plan for creating profitable, capital-efficient growth is easy. Making good on it isn't. That seems to be the overarching message to come out of the Best-Managed Companies study or Index of Competitiveness for 2001. Some readers may find it difficult to understand how the aerospace/defense industry, with its self-proclaimed customer focus and much heralded dedication to continuous improvement, could have made so little progress in the last five years (see p. 57). But let's be blunt.
The aerospace supply chain is focused on the availability of raw material and component parts to support manufacturing schedules for prime engine and airframe builders, with much of the industry expecting both commercial and military market demand to remain firm or increase in the next few years, according to the fifth annual Ladish Co. Inc. worldwide survey of purchasing managers.
Europe plans to send two different small spacecraft to the Moon in the next few years to demonstrate technology needed for future space science missions. The European Space Agency and Swedish Space Corp. plan to use a lunar mission that could come as early as next year to validate electric propulsion planned for an ambitious mission to Mercury, later in the decade. Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) is raising funds to upgrade its basic minisatellite as a low-cost planetary probe, with the Moon its first target as early as 2003.
Stephen Van Beek has been named senior vice president-policy and strategic development for Washington-based Airports Council International-North America. He was associate deputy Transportation secretary.
SkyWest Airlines is trying to think big--and small--as it grows in its twin roles as regional carrier for United Airlines and Delta Air Lines. Thinking big, SkyWest is expanding its fleet, doubling on-order Canadair Regional Jets with a 64-aircraft buy in January. It is enlarging its maintenance and training hangar at Salt Lake City, where it flies for Delta, and doubling the size of its corporate headquarters at St. George, Utah.
South Africa-based Safair has ordered three 66-seat ATR 72-500 twin turboprops that will be operated by India's Jet Airways. In the last 12 months, ATR has concluded orders covering 40 aircraft.
Rolls-Royce is applying a new anti-friction coating to Trent 800 fan blade roots to eliminate a fan cracking problem that surfaced earlier this year. The new copper-nickel-indium material, called Metco 58, will supplement a graphite-based anti-friction lubricant that was used to coat fan blade roots on more than 200 Trent 800s manufactured prior to July 2000. Trent 800s produced after that date already have a coating of Metco 58 flame-sprayed onto their fan blade roots, bolstered by the graphite-coating, which is applied to the Metco 58 as an aerosol.
T. Allan McArtor, who was president/CEO of now-defunct Legend Airlines, was appointed chairman of Airbus' North American Operations on June 1. He succeeds Jack Schofield, who retired in April.
The complex task of planning an Air Force U-2 reconnaissance mission just got easier with the Mission Planning System-Five (MPS-V) computer and software, acquired by the Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom AFB, Mass. A U-2 mission may have 400-500 data requests, and the camera, radar and electronic intelligence sensors have their own limitations such as range and Sun angle. The software integrates the Aircraft/Weapons/Electronics module that creates the route with the Common Sensor Planner module that controls sensor activation, as well as with other requirements.
