The Planetary Society's solar sail suborbital test, set for Apr. 26, will be delayed because of an accident during electrical checkout of the spacecraft at Severmosk near the Barents Sea launch site (AW&ST Mar. 5, p. 26). Some of the pyrotechnics were inadvertently fired on Apr. 10 causing the inflatable reentry shield to expand in a confined volume.
FAA's spending targets for Fiscal 2002 emerged relatively unscathed from the Bush Administration's first detailed budget exercise, with all but 0.5% of the agency's $13.35-billion request included in the White House's $2-trillion Fiscal 2002 spending plan. But FAA research programs could suffer next year after taking a 25% cut in the Bush budget. The agency's Research, Engineering and Development (RE&D) sector will receive $61 million less than the $249-million target recommended by the landmark aviation legislation, Air-21.
Patrick Khoury (see photo) has been appointed senior director of U.S. sales for Air Canada. He was general manager of marketing and sales for the Americas for Asiana Airlines.
Northwest Airlines' expansion in China includes new code-sharing services with Air China and the addition of new passenger and cargo services. Northwest added a third weekly Boeing 747-400 frequency between Detroit and Shanghai on Apr. 1 and a third weekly frequency in all-cargo freighter service between the U.S. and Shanghai.
Delta Air Lines' Technical Operations Div. will provide multiyear maintenance services to La Compagnie Nationale Royal Air Maroc, Sun Country Airlines and Miami Air International under letters of intent leading to signed contracts later this year. Delta has begun performing maintenance on Miami Air's Boeing 737-800s and is conducting component inventory for Sun Country's 737-800s, according to Basil Papyoti, director of technical sales and marketing for Delta. Miami Air's contract with Delta would run for seven years.
The Royal Air Force is in the early stages of looking for an air-launched weapon that could attack relocatable targets at 50-150-km. range. The Selectable Precision Effects and Range (Spear) program ``is probably the next major air-launched procurement in the U.K.,'' says Matra BAE Dynamics' Ian Metcalf. Whether it will take one or several weapons to meet the mission hasn't been determined. Spear isn't the only new weapon the Brits are considering.
Russian space chief Yuri Koptev faces a united front when he takes a conference call early this week from the heads of the other space agencies involved in the International Space Station. They will discuss Russia's insistence on flying California millionaire Dennis Tito on a tourist trip to the station. NASA boss Dan Goldin couldn't talk Koptev into making the 60-year-old Tito wait for training in U.S. emergency procedures.
NASA's $14.5-billion budget request for Fiscal 2002 includes ``robust funding'' for a newly focused emphasis on long-term aeronautics research, but at the cost of programs that promise only near-term gain.
U.S. forces in the Pacific require greater airlift, more flying hours, increased precision-guided munitions, advanced information technology and better intelligence, theater commanders say. Their desire for higher numbers of C-17s and C-130s and stronger capabilities in command, control, communications, computers and intelligence (C4I) stems partly from intratheater operational needs and partly from the Asia-Pacific's eddying balance of forces.
Pressure is building on Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld to submit a Fiscal 2001 supplemental defense request as the services run low on money for flying hours. The Air Force, for example, is some $500 million short in its flight hour account, largely because of increased repair costs, according to Gen. John W. Hardy, the service's vice chief of staff. Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, predicted in a recent television interview that a supplemental request would arrive on Capitol Hill by July 4.
Any Boeing-Airbus order war will be postponed until China gains entry to the World Trade Organization, beefs up airline competition and establishes policy reforms. China's ultimate goal is admission to the WTO, Bao Peide told Aviation Week&Space Technology. He is the vice minister for civil aviation for the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).
With the U.S. Navy having shelved plans to extend the service-life of its P-3 maritime patrol aircraft (at least according to the latest version of the Multimission Maritime Aircraft plans), BAE Systems is hoping it can interest the U.S. in the Nimrod it is building for the Royal Air Force. But knowing the odds against a foreign company winning a U.S. major program, BAE Systems doesn't expect to serve as prime contractor. The company is in discussions with some U.S. suppliers as potential teammates.
Michael D. Wascom has been named vice president-communications of the Washington-based Air Transport Assn. He was director of government affairs. Albert C. Pod has been promoted to president/CEO from executive vice president of Executive Jet Management, Woodbridge, N.J.
Crossair, the SAirGroup's regional affiliate, does not foresee being swept away by the tidal wave of red ink flowing from its parent. Moreover, company executives hope to quickly restore profitability after cutting costs and raising load factor.
Colin F. Wheeler has been named assistant vice president air service development for Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. He was director of market planning for Trans World Airlines.
Pat Zerbe has become director of strategic communications at Rockwell Collins, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She was director of public relations and has been succeeded by Kirsti Dunn, who was FAA public affairs officer for the Alaskan, Western-Pacific and Northwest Mountain regions.
Chinese officials gained little intelligence from the U.S. Navy EP-3 impounded on Hainan Island. But they were handed a technological gift that offers a shortcut through the political and financial maze that has kept them from receiving similar intelligence-gathering equipment from Israel and, so far, Russia, say U.S. intelligence experts. The impounded U.S. technology could be reverse-engineered, produced locally and sold at cut-rate prices on the international arms market.
Boeing hopes to resolve key exportability issues concerning the F/A-18E/F before the strike fighter debuts at the Paris air show this June. Briefings to potential customers have been hindered by the fact that the U.S. hasn't determined to what extent Boeing can describe the new Raytheon radar, an active electronically scanned array, that will go on the aircraft to replace the APG-73. And Boeing doesn't want to start a major marketing push overseas without the information release authority.
The space shuttle is set for liftoff this week on its most ambitious robotics mission, carrying its largest international crew, on a flight to install and exercise the new $1-billion Canadian space station remote manipulator system on the ISS. ``This is an extremely complicated mission,'' said Phil Engelauf, the STS-100 lead flight director.
Officials of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum took another step last week toward the planned opening of the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Washington Dulles International Airport on Dec. 17, 2003, the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers' flight. The museum awarded a $125-million contract to the Hansel Phelps Construction Co. of Greeley, Colo.
The X-40A has completed a second drop test from a U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter at Edwards AFB, Calif. The free-flight and landing tests are being conducted from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards as part of the space agency's X-37 program, which plans to carry a vehicle into orbit on the space shuttle for return to Earth with an autonomous landing system.
The concept of the wide area augmentation system (WAAS) for GPS is sound, with no serious technical barriers to commissioning an initial capability within two years, an independent review board recently told FAA Administrator Jane Garvey.
The Pentagon is taking its closest look yet at the financial performance of the U.S. aerospace/defense industry with the help of several outside organizations, including Chicago-based HOLT Value Associates, an Aviation Week&Space Technology partner on the magazine's annual Best-Managed Companies project. The Defense Dept.'s Industrial Affairs office is using HOLT software tools and services to better understand how investors perceive the performance of companies.
The Pentagon is getting ready for another round of efforts to dismantle the former Soviet Union's military capability. A new effort is being examined by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency to work with Ukraine to dismantle several of its bombers and missile systems. Headed for scrap are 45 aircraft--27 Tu-95 Bears, 11 Tu-160 Blackjacks and 7 Tu-22M Backfires. Another two Tu-134 bomber trainers are to be destroyed. Furthermore, 487 Kh-55 Air-Launched Cruise Missiles are to be eliminated.
The U.S. Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Center has completed testing of improvements proposed for the Pratt&Whitney F100-220 engine, which powers the F-15 and F-16. Upgrades were made to compressor blades, oil seals and engine logic control. Pratt plans further tests before the engine undergoes flight testing, according to the Air Force.
