A U.S. Air Force Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) spacecraft will be launched on a Boeing Delta IV Medium booster from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., in 2003. The DMSP-17 satellite is one of 22 U.S. government payloads currently manifested for launch on Delta IV boosters, scheduled to enter operational service next year. The DMSP spacecraft, which will be placed in a near-polar orbit, will provide real-time meteorological data to U.S. Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps tactical ground stations and Navy ships from an orbital altitude of 450 naut. mi.
Walter A. Brill has been appointed vice president/associate general counsel and Leslie P. Klemperer vice president/associate general counsel/assistant secretary of Delta Air Lines.
Steven C. Grundman has become director of aerospace and defense consulting for Charles River Associates Inc. of Boston. He was deputy under secretary of Defense for industrial affairs and installations.
The FAA's routine operational use of Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast to provide IFR aircraft separation in nonradar areas of southwest Alaska is a signal step toward the modernization of the air traffic control system. The ramifications for safety are immense. Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) will be able to fill in the gaps between highly developed and underdeveloped countries, giving controllers a way to track and provide separation of aircraft at low altitudes and in regions that lack radar coverage.
On Jan. 20, George Walker Bush was inaugurated the 43rd President of the U.S., bringing with him some new--and some familiar--players to the Washington sphere of power and influence. In the next seven pages, Aviation Week&Space Technology editors in Washington preview Bush policy on defense and aviation--along with the likely reaction to the new Administration's initiatives. Also, in an editorial on p. 66, Editor-In-Chief David M.
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. and Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) have begun final assembly of the first T-50 advanced trainer/light attack aircraft. Fuselage sections and the empennage were mated last week at KAI's facilities in Sachon, South Korea. First flight is tentatively scheduled for mid-2002. Company officials said there is a market for up to 800 of the supersonic aircraft, which could replace aging Northrop T-38 and F-5 trainers. Both companies formed the T-50 International organization in November 2000 to sell the aircraft.
British Airways, Air France and Concorde's manufacturers have embarked on a program that could could see the supersonic transport return to service by late spring.
The U.K. has committed 1.9 billion pounds ($2.8 billion) toward development of the Joint Strike Fighter, agreeing to become a full collaborative partner with the U.S. on the next phase of the program. The agreement gives the U.K. full access to the JSF program, including stealth technology, and a significant voice in the development of the aircraft. It also secures recognition of a substantial role for British industry in the program, as well as for potential export sales. Total sales are projected to be as high as 5,000 aircraft worth $400 billion.
Space Systems/Loral has received a contract for Apstar-V from APT Satellite Company Ltd. in Hong Kong. The high-powered C/Ku-band spacecraft is scheduled for launch in early 2003 and is expected to enter operational service the following spring. APT has indicated the satellite will be launched on a Long March booster, according to the satellite manufacturer. It is the first satellite sale to a Chinese customer by Space Systems/Loral since export controls were moved from the U.S. Commerce Dept. to the State Dept. Apstar-V is intended to replace Apstar-I at 138 deg. E.
Defaulting on its debt last week represented only the first step down in what is seen as Globalstar's nearly inevitable road into bankruptcy. With about $195 million in cash on hand, the mobile satellite communications provider stopped paying its creditors, to finance operations into next year. The move also will save about $400 million this year. The company, aided by its financial adviser, the Blackstone Group, within six weeks expects to develop a new business plan that will call for boosting the number of users from the current 31,200.
SkyWest Airlines has placed an order for 64 Bombardier Aerospace CRJ-200s, 35 firm and 29 conditional. The aircraft will be used to bolster the carrier's expanding United Express operations in California. The value of these orders is about $1.43 billion and could go higher if SkyWest, a Delta Connection feeder at Salt Lake City, exercises options on 64 additional -200s. Including this order, SkyWest has total commitments for 248 -200s comprising 100 firm and 29 conditional orders plus 119 options. Fifteen -200s are now in revenue service.
Legal challenges to the U.S. Postal Service's $6.3-billion sole-source contract with FedEx appear likely to increase beyond the initial complaint of Emery Worldwide Airlines, which will have to forfeit a similar contract if FedEx becomes the chosen parcel carrier.
British low-cost carrier Buzz is expanding its route network with the addition of five new destinations, one year after its launch. The KLM subsidiary will begin four-times-weekly service from its London Stansted hub to LaRochelle and Poiters, France, beginning Mar. 25. On the same day, Buzz will begin services to Cologne, Germany, with 12 flights per week. Two days later, flights to Murcia and Gerona, Spain, will be added to the carrier's route network, bringing to 20 the total number of destinations served by Buzz.
Traffic for 10 U.S. major airlines grew last year at a fairly healthy rate of 5.39%, compared with 1999, on a restrained 3.25% growth in capacity. Southwest Airlines set the traffic pace at 15.37% for the year. December traffic started off slowly, but came in at 5.2% higher for the major carriers than December a year ago.
Few U.S. Cabinet members assume their jobs with a pedigree and paper trail quite like Norman Mineta's. It is not unusual for a secretary-designate to come from a substantial career in public service related to his or her cabinet portfolio, or to have put forward well-established positions on subjects related to it. Mineta, President George W. Bush's choice to be secretary of Transportation, has done both. What sets Mineta apart is the degree to which his experience and views focus on today's aviation environment.
Jerry Witowski has become president of the Aircraft Sensors Div. of the BFGoodrich Co., Charlotte, N.C. He was vice president/general manager of the division's commercial sensors/test systems unit. Witowski succeeds Ronald Hodges, who is now president of the company's Space and Electro-Optical Systems business.
Incoming Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld will push to broaden Cold War deterrence theory to non-nuclear scenarios and the panoply of 21st century hybrid threats, like mass destruction terrorism. The key to deterring regional warfare and global terrorism in the post-Soviet world ``of no bear, but many snakes'' is to make greater use of intelligence collection and command-and-control space operations, Rumsfeld claims. His objective is to strengthen the strategic psychology that underlies the ancient precepts of deterrence.
The Czech Republic has issued a long-awaited request for proposals to industry for up to 36 new fighters. Bids are due by the end of May. The Czech government is seeking industrial offsets of 150% of the value of the program, which is estimated at $2.5 billion. A decision by the Czech cabinet is expected before the end of this year.
Thomas E. Cummings (see photos), who has been director of manufacturing, is now also vice president of Eastman Kodak Commercial&Government Systems, Rochester, N.Y. Frank J. Koester has been named vice president/director of technical operations. He was senior director of engineering of the Space Systems Group of the Orbital Sciences Corp.
Herbert Mai has been named executive director of labor relations, effective Mar. 31, of Flughafen Frankfurt-Main AG. He will succeed Hans Georg Michel, who will retire.
The Lot-et-Garonne department in southwest France is protesting Airbus Industrie's decision to convey subassemblies for the A380 transport using surface transportation. The subassemblies will be built in the U.K. and Germany. Outsize trucks would carry the wings, fuselage sections and empennage from a harbor in western France to final assembly facilities in Toulouse. Members of parliament, however, claim the 300-ft.-long night convoys would raise serious environmental concerns (about 1,000 trees would be cut down) and significantly disrupt the sleep of local residents.
European industrialists are saying that a 10% industry commitment to the Ariane 5 Plus development program required by the European Space Agency's ministerial council cannot fully be met. Arianespace Chairman/CEO Jean-Marie Luton said earlier this month that ways would have to be found to compensate for his company's commitment, which helped plunge the firm into the red last year (AW&ST Jan. 15, p. 438).
The Commerce Dept.'s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has been testing ultra-wide-band (UWB) technology--devices that spread their transmissions across broad bands at very low power levels and offer great promise for wireless networks and wall-penetrating radars. The first tests showed these devices could operate in some bands in the 3-6-GHz. range without interference--with some important exceptions.
Recent magnetometer measurements from the Galileo spacecraft suggest that Jupiter's moon Ganymede has a liquid underground ocean today, buttressing other data that there was a salty interior ocean in the past. That adds Ganymede to the list of Europa and Callisto as likely ocean-bearing Jovian moons. The data also factor in the theory that Laplace orbital resonances played a powerful role in the evolution of Jupiter's moons, heating some but not others.
