Lockheed Martin will ship its first Atlas V booster to Cape Canaveral this month to prepare for an inaugural launch next year from Space Launch Complex 41 (LC-41). The company's version of the U.S. Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle will be flown on a Russian Antonov An-124 from Denver around May 20. The first Centaur upper stage for that Atlas V was scheduled to leave for the Cape on May 3.
Delta Air Lines launched daily Boeing 767-400ER service last week between New York LaGuardia Airport and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Atlanta. Instead of increasing frequency in the congested New York area, Delta opted to place a larger airplane on the route. The -400ER is 21 ft. longer than a 767-300ER and features a two-tier cabin configuration--36 first-class and 251 coach-class seats.
Pratt&Whitney and Air New Zealand have formed a joint venture to provide engine overhaul and repair for the JT8D and International Aero Engines V2500 turbofans, and Rolls-Royce Dart turboprop powerplants. Air New Zealand's facility at Christchurch already performs 180 overhauls of JT8Ds and Darts annually, and the addition of the V2500 is projected to increase that number to 300 each year, according to officials of Air New Zealand Engineering Services (ANNZES).
The ISS Mission Control Center in Houston hopes to resume testing of the station's large new Canadian robotic arm May 10, following full reestablishment of primary and redundant station command and control C&C computer capability. But it may take into this week for complete confidence to be restored in the C&C system that will allow arm testing to proceed, said John Curry, ISS lead flight director.
Gary L. Hourselt has become president of Huck Fasteners of Salt Lake City. He succeeds Bruce Zorich, who is resigning. Hourselt was president of the company's Industrial Fastener Div.
Deeply confusing the Air Force is the Bush Administration's plan for national missile defense (see p. 66). Some senior officials had advocated giving up further investment in the ground-based interceptor plan--because it would protect so little--and adopting an incremental approach leading toward a space-based system. First would come a shipboard boost-phase intercept system, then airborne laser and, finally, that laser repackaged for space. ``They were excited about this plan because it could protect the Europeans and even Russia and China,'' an Air Force official said.
Cathal Flynn (see photo), former associate FAA administrator for civil aviation security, has been named to the board of directors of Certified Airline Passenger Services of Las Vegas and a consultant to Laser Data Command Inc. of Minneapolis for its PassPro product.
Joseph Ornelas (see photos) has been named vice president-engineering and technology and Tatsuo (Tutch) Shirane vice president-human resources of Hamilton Sundstrand, Windsor Locks, Conn. Ornelas was chief project engineer for the Boeing 777 program. Shirane was vice president-human resources for Pratt&Whitney Module Centers and Operations. He succeeds John Boyd, who is now vice president-operations.
President George W. Bush's first public move toward deploying a missile defense system since taking office has generated heated debate at home and abroad even though he provided little detail on what type of a system his Administration would pursue.
Mack S. Barber has become director of the Northrop Grumman Corp. Electronic Sensors and Systems Sector's Land Combat Systems (LCS), Knoxville, Tenn. He also will be president of two subsidiaries of Northrop Grumman: Perceptics Corp. of Knoxville and Remotec Inc., Oak Ridge, Tenn. Barber was LCS' marketing manager, based in Baltimore.
Thomas R. Madigan of County Rescue Services Inc., Green Bay, Wis., has won the National Flight Paramedics Assn.'s Tim Hynes Award, which is sponsored by Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. of Fort Worth.
Each Laureate Award winner from 1988-2000 automatically has become a member of the Laureates Hall of Fame. But what about the Laurel winners selected prior to 1988? To ensure the Legends of the past are remembered in Aviation Week's Hall of Fame, each class of inductees now includes the current year's winners and a number of legendary achievers selected by Aviation Week&Space Technology editors. This year, the following legendary Laurels winners from the past have been selected for induction into the Hall of Fame.
John P. Mills has been named manager of investor relations, and Gene M. Betts, Donald H. Eller and Thomas A. McDonnell have been appointed to the board of directors, of Cayman Islands-based Garmin Ltd. Mills was assistant vice president in the strategies group of Bank of America in Kansas City. Betts is senior vice president/treasurer of the Sprint Corp. Eller is a private investor, and McDonnell is president/CEO of DST Systems Inc.
Sikorsky Aircraft and the U.S. Army have inked a $219.7-million contract that launches the UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter upgrade program. Over the next 25 years, as many as 1,200 existing Black Hawks could be upgraded to the new ``M'' configuration, which will increase the aircraft's payload and range capabilities while cutting its operational costs (AW&ST Oct. 16, 2000, p. 48). Plans call for the UH-60M to be fielded around 2006.
Israeli defense officials have approached the Bush Administration about cooperating on a Boost Phase Launch Intercept (BPLI) program to counter mobile ballistic missile launchers.
After sending a signal to Pioneer 10, NASA's radio telescope antenna in Madrid heard from it on Apr. 28. Launched 29 years ago, the spacecraft had not been heard from since last August. NASA had been using a one-way downlink noncoherent transmission to listen for a signal. Sending a signal for Pioneer 10 to respond to seems to have done the trick. It is orbiting 7 billion mi. from Earth, well outside the Solar System.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, no one ever dreamed that Russian rocket engines would be powering two of the U.S.' largest expendable launch vehicles--the Atlas III and V. But that's exactly what is happening under the Russian RD-180/Atlas program headed by Lockheed Martin, Energomash and Pratt&Whitney. The vehicles are marketed by International Launch Services.
Dennis M. Dellinger has been appointed president/chief operating officer of the Stewart&Stevenson Services Tactical Vehicle Systems Div. of Houston. He was director of facilities and site services for Rolls-Royce Allison in Indianapolis.
BOEING SATELLITE SYSTEMS IS LEADING A TEAM in the bid for a new weather instrument, the Conical Microwave Imager Sounder (CMIS). It will be a part of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environment Satellite System (NPOESS), slated for first launch in 2008. The objective is more timely, accurate and cost-effective weather data for civil, military and scientific users, according to Boeing. The CMIS would be an all-weather sensor, with more capability and better resolution than previous sensors, according to a report in Aerospace Daily.
The U.S. Navy's chief technology officer is significantly compressing the Pentagon's normal 12-15-year cycle for delivering advanced combat capabilities by locating and maturing technology for insertion during weapon system acquisitions. Fleet aircraft, ships and weapons now benefit from cutting-edge technology that, heretofore, was accessible only to the commercial sector or locked in a laboratory.
David Rescino has become vice president-finance/chief financial officer of Vanguard Airlines. A former consultant on aviation finance and planning, he also was regional vice president/general manager for Continental Express and senior director of finance/controller of the Commuter Div. of Continental Airlines.
Intelligence analysts are still puzzling over how much data was lost to the Chinese after a Navy EP-3 landed on Hainan Island in the South China Sea. The chaos on board the aircraft after its mid-air collision with a Chinese fighter, subsequent aerial gyrations and relatively short flight time to the Chinese air base caused deviations by the crew from the normally thorough process of destroying intelligence carried on board. ``The process [of destroying classified material] was not orderly,'' a Pentagon official said.
Jean-Luc Lagardere, chairman/CEO of the Lagardere group and cochairman of EADS, is widely praised for his role in the European aerospace/defense industry's restructuring. He was instrumental in negotiating the Aerospatiale/Matra Hautes Technologies merger that established France as an industrial leader, and he made major contributions in uniting the highly divergent Aerospatiale Matra, DaimlerChrysler Aerospace and Construcciones Aeronauticas into one mighty unit.
