Noting the strong outlook for aerospace forgings, Cudahy, Wis.-based Ladish Co. Inc. will implement a four-year, $75-million capital expenditure program. The investment will be used to advance core metalworking competencies, as well as improve cost-effectiveness through facility modernization, equipment and process upgrades. The effort will complement other recent improvements, including development of a ``Super Cooler,'' a proprietary high-velocity quenching technology for rotating jet engine parts.
An Su-25 Scorpion aircraft upgraded by Elbit Systems Ltd. of Israel, and TAM, the original Russian manufacturer, made its official maiden flight last week at TAM airfield in Tbilisi, Georgia. Modifications to the close air support aircraft include an advanced avionics system with a new weapon delivery and navigation system, designed to handle both Eastern- and Western-types of weapons and pods. The improved cockpit has two 6 X 8-in. color LCD displays and a head-up display.
TATARSTAN RECENTLY inaugurated a new ATC system, giving it one of the most modern systems in the Russian Federation. Thales ATM provided the equipment, which is located in the capital, Kazan, and includes a Eurocat ATC center with 16 controller workstations and a training simulator. A TRAC 2300 en route solid state primary surveillance radar, two ILS navaids and a TXM 4400 voice communication control system are part of the package.
The U.S. Air Force is beginning to formulate plans for a new ICBM, while efforts to develop a new cruise missile--a higher priority only a few months ago--are stalling. The details regarding the ICBM, likely to be named the Minuteman IV, are still murky, although a development program could start in a couple of years, according to Maj. Gen. Franklin J. Blaisdell, head of the Air Force's nuclear and counterproliferation directorate. Space Command is working on the requirements document, he said, with a 2004-05 possible start date.
Poland has released its Request for Proposal in a $3.5-billion fighter aircraft program. Contenders include the U.S. government with a lease for 16 F-16s to be followed by a purchase of 44 fighters; the French with Mirage 2000-5s and a British/Swedish team with the Saab-BAe Gripen. As one of three new NATO members, Poland must have 60 compatible aircraft by 2006.
John P. Leary has been named vice president-employee relations for the United Technologies Corp., Hartford, Conn. He succeeds Jim Perretta, who is retiring. Leary has been vice president-human resources and organization at Pratt&Whitney. Succeeding Leary is Tom Bowler, who has been vice president-human resources at Carrier.
Rolf D. Hoehn has become U.S. vice president of AeroMexico. He succeeds Harald Bomberg, who has retired. Hoehn was regional manager for the Western U.S.
The U.S. should develop a road map for implementing ``space control'' in order to deter a spectrum of new and varied threats, according to a leading candidate for director of the National Reconnaissance Office. That deterrence also entails a strong defense industrial base.
Michelin's all-new Concorde tires are expected to significantly accelerate efforts to reinstate the supersonic transport's airworthiness certificate. Bench tests, now being complemented by simulated takeoffs performed last week by an Air France aircraft, have shown that the new radial tire would not be destroyed by impacting foreign objects lying on the runway, including metal strips. The Franco-British panel, formed in the aftermath of last year's mishap, nevertheless continues to favor the installation of liner-reinforced fuel tanks.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission is reviewing issues related to the Global Positioning System and potential conflicts with ultra-wideband communications and radar systems. These proceedings are of great interest to many industries. GPS is used in a vast range of activities, not just those requiring precise geographic position information but also many that simply need accurate, uninterrupted timing signals. For example, the financial and e-commerce industries rely heavily on GPS for synchronizing their computer networks.
A proposed cooperation agreement between flag carrier Aeroflot Russian Airlines and Siberia Airlines promises to radically reshape the Russian air travel market, crowning a consolidation trend begun several years ago.
Richard Volpe, former manager of robotic autonomy architecture at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has been named manager of JPL's Mars Regional Mobility and Subsurface Access Technology Office.
Taiwan was scheduled to begin its largest wargames of the year late last week. In anticipation of the event, the Defense Ministry announced that it would inaugurate a new wing of 60 French-made Mirage 2000-5 fighters on May 15. It also announced plans to test an indigenously built anti-ballistic missile system before then. The system is scheduled for a series of firings continuing through this week at its Chiupeng base in southern Taiwan. Earlier versions of the system were used to successfully intercept a Hawk target missile.
Boeing has started operating the vertical lift system on its X-32B Joint Strike Fighter prototype, and says it is demonstrating a graceful transition between wing-borne and jet-borne modes. Boeing's short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) design for the JSF competition is essentially the grandson of the Hawker Siddeley Harrier jump jet, with the lift nozzles hidden in cruise from radar and infrared sensors, a refined configuration, newer technology and lower pilot workload.
Denver-based Frontier Airlines will get its first Airbus A319 next month, initiating a total fleet changeout from Boeing 737s to a mix of A319s and A318s over the next four years. The aircraft will begin scheduled service in June (AW&ST Mar. 20, p. 30). Frontier's decision last year to switch from all-Boeing to all-Airbus aircraft has put local and state politicians in an embarrassing dilemma--trying to show support for their homegrown airline while also courting Boeing to move its corporate headquarters to Denver.
BAE SYSTEMS has received a $59-million contract for low-rate initial production of the radio frequency countermeasures (RFCM) portion of the Integrated Defensive Countermeasures (IDECM) system. For the first phase, the Information&Electronic Warfare Systems business unit of BAE Systems North America will deliver six sets of the onboard equipment, plus spares, and 30 fiber-optic towed decoys. ITT Industries' Avionics Div. developed the RFCM's onboard receiver and processing system, while the fiber-optic towed decoy and deployment canister are from BAE Systems.
NASA AMES has awarded an $8.3-million initial development contract to Raytheon, for a decision support tool to help air traffic controllers and air carriers better manage the movement of aircraft on the ground at airports. The first phase of the Airport Surface Management System is to produce a prototype to predict and manage aircraft departure demand, with a goal of achieving strategic arrival/departure interoperability. The second phase will concentrate on airport surface surveillance and management of aircraft departures.
Aerospan.com, the e-marketplace started by Sita, expects to provide online tracking of maintenance, repair and overhaul orders by the end of June. The company is being helped by Hamburg-based b2b-aero.com, which specializes in online tracking.The addition of an MRO module is part of a series of product enhancements that Aerospan has made recently to move beyond the basic buy/sell and auction functions that www.aerospan.com began with last year.
The ``space'' side of the Pentagon concurs with changes recommended by the so-called Space Commission, which outlined a number of organizational shifts needed to bolster U.S. military space capabilities (AW&ST Jan. 15, p. 433). U.S. Space Command, Air Force Space Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command ``all concur with the findings of the Space Commission,'' according to Eberhart, who heads all three commands. While lauding the commission's findings, review teams on the Defense secretary's staff and at USAF headquarters remained noncommittal.
The aviation community is still in a tizzy about the prospects of the Federal Communications Commission approving unlicensed use of ultra-wideband (UWB) gizmos (see p. 80). Tests of UWB interference with GPS have focused on the danger from ground-based UWB transmitters to aircraft on final approach. Now the airlines are concerned about a new source of interference--passengers' portable electronic devices.
In addition to destroying software and paperwork, the crew of the Navy EP-3E that landed in China actually wrecked some of its most critical hardware, military sources tell us. Of particular sensitivity is encryption equipment built and supplied by the National Security Agency that instantly encodes surveillance data leaving the aircraft on its way to intelligence agencies for analysis. ``We don't want them to know anything about the design of the black boxes or how they are interconnected,'' one defense official said.
Boeing's radical Mach 0.95 transport configuration is a recent effort, emerging late in 1999 and becoming an important program in the fall of 2000, company officials say. They had not originally planned to reveal it last month, but their hand was forced when word leaked out following briefings to airlines. The shape is not an improvement on an older design, but ``a new look at how to go fast,'' said Michael B. Bair, Boeing Commercial Airplanes vice president for business strategy and development.
