The U.S. has already fired the first shot in cyberspace, employing computer warfare techniques in combat at least twice. The first target was Iraq during the 1991 Persian Gulf war. The U.S. struck again, in the 1998 Kosovo air campaign. The first attack was limited to reading the e-mail of Iraqi commanders. But by the next conflict the tools already were much more sophisticated. False messages and targets were injected into Yugoslavia's complex computer-integrated air defense system.
Israel plans to buy nine Boeing AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopters under an agreement worth $500 million, including ordnance, spares, training and support. Boeing also is building 30 Apaches for the Royal Netherlands Air Force, and 67 WAH-64D Longbows for the U.K. The company is nearing completion of the first multiyear contract to deliver 232 remanufactured AH-64D Longbows to the U.S. Army through 2001.
The nonpartisan Reason Public Policy Institute has a new study out on privatizing air traffic control. For years, the libertarian think tank has been calling for ATC to be turned over to a not-for-profit corporation to speed modernization and increase efficiency. Playing off the record numbers of delays in 1999 and 2000, the latest pitch pushes a Nav Canada-style organization with a stakeholder board representing airlines of all sorts, passengers, business and general aviation (GA). User fees would replace most ticket, waybill and fuel taxes.
SkyZim.com will be the name of a passenger reservation system for executive jets to be launched in June by WorldNet Resource Group. The group says it will take reservations for Gulfstreams, Learjets, Jetstreams, Citations, Hawker 800s and Falcon 50s. . . . Continental Airlines will list all its surplus rotable and expendable inventory, including surplus engines, on the PartsBase.com site. PartsBase reports that FedEx, Airborne Express, United, Frontier and Southwest are among its airline customers. . . .
Even as coalition aircraft were preparing for their latest raid on Iraq, U.S. Air Force officials were touting their plan to form a small unit of aircraft that could deploy rapidly and strike more than 400 targets in a single day.
The FAA has notified bankrupt Legend Airlines that it must surrender its operating certificate or face legal action by the agency. The Dallas-based airline is expected to file Chapter 7 and liquidate its assets, but no date has been set.
David Jividen has been appointed chief information officer and Jerry Torrance vice president/general manager of the Houston facility of Garrett Aviation Services. Jividen was client services manager for GE Engine Services in Cincinnati and Torrance director of aircraft services in Dallas for the Gulfstream Aerospace Corp.
Despite the Bush Administration's persistent rhetoric that the U.S. needs to deploy national missile defenses as soon as possible, its actual position may be less dogmatic. NMD detractor Carl Levin, of Michigan, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, claims that in private conversations there appears to be more flexibility from the new Administration than in public pronouncements. London, too, is less supportive of NMD than it appears, Levin maintains.
Rolls-Royce has formally launched its Trent 900 and Trent 600 engines following a U.K. government decision to invest 250 million pounds ($362.4 million) in their development.
Douglas H. Necessary has been named an associate of RV Davis and Associates of Washington. He was a professional staff member of the House Committee on Armed Services and is a member of the Commission to Assess National Security Space Management and Organization.
John Doman has been named director of worldwide sales for the Caravan Div. of the Cessna Aircraft Co., Wichita, Kan. He was the company's director of sales for single-engine aircraft.
An overwhelming majority of Delta Air Lines pilots have authorized its union, ALPA, to strike if necessary. The strike vote is a ``standard practice'' at this late stage of negotiations and part of strike preparation, said union spokeswoman Karen Miller. In December, both sides agreed to a Feb. 28 deadline to reach a contract. If an accord is not reached by then, they will ask the National Mediation Board for release from mediation, triggering a 30-day cooling-off period.
The Helicopter Assn. International's Heli-Expo 2001 saw the first flight of Bell/Agusta's AB139, the introduction of a new quiet, enlarged member of Eurocopter's Ecureuil family that should appeal to tour operators, and the first installation of enhanced ground proximity warning systems for terrain avoidance. The show ran here from Feb. 10-13.
Canada's CAE Inc. last week outmaneuvered L-3 Communications to win a bidding war for BAE/Reflectone, although the acquisition will add little to CAE's share of the estimated $500-million flight simulator market. Rather, CAE will use the purchase to reenter the U.S. military market for flight training devices. BAE/Reflectone's only meaningful business is in producing training devices for C-130 and other military transports. Its backlog of civil contracts is virtually nonexistent.
Oceaneering Space Systems has received a contract from Phoenix-based Spectrum Astro to participate in the development of the Orbital Express Space Operations Architecture Advanced Technology Demonstration Program.
John Hackwell has been promoted to principal director from director of the Office of Spectral Applications-Laboratory Operations at The Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, Calif. Catherine Steele has been promoted to principal director of communications architecture, communications operations, and acquisition and engineering in the Planning and Communications Div., Chantilly, Va. She was systems director for communications architecture.
Marilyn Rogers has been named Chicago Midway Airport-based vice president-station operations of American Trans Air. She was senior vice president-customer at AirTran Airways.
JetBlue Airways CEO David Neeleman last week reported the one-year-old low-fare carrier's performance figures and announced new and added services. New York JFK International Airport-based JetBlue operated 10,246 flights carrying 1.11 million passengers between its launch on Feb. 11 and Dec. 31. The carrier reported $100 million in passenger flight revenues, an overall load factor of 73.2% and flight completion factor of 99.2%. JetBlue operates 64 flights daily to Northeast U.S. and California destinations with 11 recently built 162-seat Airbus A320s.
Pierre Jeanniot, the director general of the International Air Transport Assn., tossed out an interesting idea at the International Aviation Club here last week. Regarding the future of air navigation, he said, the International Civil Aviation Organization is still relying on the GPS system in its plans for moving toward a satellite-based system for air traffic management. The U.S. military's control of GPS remains a big bugaboo.
United Cargo, a division of United Airlines, last week opened a $15.3-million cargo transfer facility at Newark (N.J.) International Airport. The 50,000-sq.-ft. facility's features include natural lighting that reduces energy costs, and controls integrated on a single panel for the lifts and doors of the receiving and delivery docks. United Cargo provides services on 2,400 flights daily to 130 cities in 26 countries with Boeing 747s, 777s and 767s.
With several key infrastructure projects still unfinished at the new Athens International Airport at Spata, the International Air Transport Assn. (IATA) has clashed with the airport company over the targeted opening date.
The Transportation Dept.'s inspector general has presented a host of recommendations to improve or correct various elements of airline customer service programs. Following is a synopsis of these proposals, as set forth in a new inspector general's report, ``Airline Customer Service Commitment.''
Aerospace sector employment rebounded late last year after a three-year decline, to bring the total workforce to 791,000. The employment revival is expected to continue this year. Record-high product orders are fueling the need for more workers, according to the Aerospace Industries Assn. U.S. Chamber of Commerce officials agreed, but noted that while airline service jobs are ``going gangbusters,'' the aircraft and parts manufacturing industry remains ``soft.'' The chamber reported 35,700 jobs were lost in the aircraft and parts industry last year.
Charles Seliga has been appointed managing director of Stewart International Airport, New Windsor, N.Y., by its operator, the National Express Corp. He was general manager of New York John F. Kennedy International Airport. Seliga succeeds John Edney, who had been acting managing director and will remain as a business development executive.
International Launch Services (ILS) will loft two geostationary direct broadcast satellites for EchoStar Communications Corp. under a recent agreement, which includes options for placing additional spacecraft in orbit. EchoStar VII is scheduled to be launched during the fourth quarter of this year from Cape Canaveral on a Lockheed Martin Atlas III, while EchoStar VIII is set to be orbited during the first quarter of 2002 on a Russian Proton K booster from Baikonur Cosmodrome.
