Airline delays across the U.S. during September soared an aggregate of more than 40% compared with the same month in 1999, according to the FAA. Delays were caused primarily by weather. Although weather was a major factor, the strain on airport capacity increased delays due to volume 72.4% from the previous September and 47.7% from August of this year. The number of flights at New York LaGuardia Airport, for example, increased 14.9% from last September, but delays increased more than 14 times because of capacity restrictions (AW&ST Oct. 9, p. 54).
The ISS Expedition 1 crew is the vanguard of dozens of multinational crewmembers who will visit the new station over the next 15-20 years. But Expedition 1 will be much different from most of the following flights. ``We have some very serious flight test work to do,'' said U.S. Navy Capt. Bill Shepherd, Expedition 1 commander.
Maj. Gen. Walter Jertz has succeeded Lt. Gen. Gerhard Back as commander of the German air force's Tactical Command North, as well as director of NATO's Reaction Forces Air Staff and commander of the Combined Air Operations Center 2 for Allied Air Forces North. Back relinquished the posts and is now deputy chief of staff of the German air force. Jertz was commander of the 1st German Air Div.
The first U.S./Russian long-duration crew to the International Space Station has embarked on the equivalent of a complex 17-week aircraft flight test program at 235-mi. altitude, following the successful docking of their Soyuz spacecraft with the 80-ton outpost on Nov. 2. The flawless Russian launch and docking of Expedition 1 initiates what is planned to be a permanent human presence on the ISS for at least the next 15-20 years. Managers hope this will lay the groundwork for manned flights to Mars or a return to the Moon.
Investors may be rediscovering U.S. airline stocks, although some industry observers believe caution should remain the order of the day because domestic unit revenues are likely to be under pressure in coming months due to a weaker economy.
The Russian Satellite Communications Co. has awarded Alcatel Space a contract for three new telecom payloads and concluded an agreement with Eutelsat to help finance a fourth, as it continues a fleet-wide replacement program. The accords were signed during a visit here last week by Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Russian-European Union summit. The summit, like a previous meeting in Moscow in May, was marked by warming relations aided by the winding down of the Chechen conflict and the sudden revival of the Russian economy.
Stephen J. Lewis has been appointed director of corporate business development for the Air Methods Corp. of Denver. He was a consultant to emergency health care service organizations and an area managing director for MedTrans.
An 11-week FAA special audit of Boeing Commercial Airplane Group found systemic problems in the company's manufacturing and engineering operations that led it last year to deliver aircraft that did not comply with airworthiness regulations and to accept parts that did not meet specifications. The company said it has increased inspection personnel and will tighten internal controls on its operations. Both Boeing and the FAA emphasized that none of the problems revealed in the audit raised ``immediate'' safety issues.
The FAA is investigating US Airways for possible safety and sanitation violations in allowing a rather boorish passenger to board an Oct. 17 Philadelphia-Seattle flight.
Ball Aerospace&Technologies Corp. has shipped EarthWatch Inc.'s first QuickBird commercial remote-sensing satellite to Russia for launch on Nov. 19 on a Cosmos rocket from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome (see photo). QuickBird 1 will be placed in a 66-deg. Sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 600 km. (372 mi.), and collect 1-meter panchromatic and 4-meter multispectral (color) images. It and a second QuickBird spacecraft--scheduled for launch nine months later--will each image a 22-km. swath of the Earth's surface.
The General Accounting Office is recommending that the U.S. Border Patrol ``reassess'' future purchase of additional MD600N helicopters until ``safety, handling and availability issues raised by pilots and mechanics'' are addressed, according to a GAO report. The agency has purchased 11 MD600Ns and had planned to buy another 34 for about $1.3 million each. The report states that pilots find the aircraft ``generally difficult to operate and fatiguing to fly''--a complaint shared by two of three local law enforcement agencies that operate the MD600N, according to the GAO.
TRW Aeronautical Systems has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Navy to retrofit its entire F/A-18C/D fleet with a power transmission shaft. The two-year contract is valued at $7 million.
The future of Flight Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA) programs used by major U.S. airlines may be threatened if the FAA enacts a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would remove immunity except in cases where criminal action was involved. The proposed rule would allow the agency to use data in enforcement actions--a provision airlines and pilot unions understood would not be the case, except for criminal actions. FAA Administrator Jane Garvey supports FOQA, but strong opposition from the Justice Dept. regarding immunity provisions is blocking further progress.
Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Electronic Sensors and Systems Sector has won a $122.8-million contract from the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command for 12 Tactical Exploitation Systems to be used by warfighting organizations.
The U.S. Air Force recently activated a ``space aggressor'' squadron to emulate enemy tactics that could disrupt U.S. and allied combat operations by leveraging commercial space and information resources. The 527th Space Aggressor Squadron, which is part of the Space Warfare Center at Schriever AFB, Colo., will participate in military exercises, playing the role of an enemy using open-source space and information assets against ``blue'' or friendly forces. It is divided into four functional flights--Imagery Exploitation, Electronic Warfare, Red Attack and Space Control.
Two microsatellites developed by the U.K.'s Defense Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) are to act as testbeds for more than two dozen emerging technologies and components while operating in the harsh environment posed by geosynchronous transfer orbit.
The aerospace and air transport industries in recent years have played a major role in transforming the economic climate in France, chiefly because the country has embraced globalization and tapped market forces within the private sector, according to Felix G. Rohaytn, departing U.S. ambassador to France. He cited Air France, the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co., and Airbus Industrie as thriving enterprises. ``It is healthy for Europe to have a strong defense industry as long as it is open to cooperation as well as competition with U.S.
THE NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND AUTHORIZED low-rate initial production of the integrated mechanical diagnostics health and usage monitoring system (IMD HUMS) for the Marine Corps' CH-53E and MH-53E helicopters. The system monitors rotor track and balance, engine performance, gearbox and drive train health and is a product of BFGoodrich Aerospace, Integrated Avionics Systems.
Philippe de Pooter has been appointed director of sales and marketing at Brussels-based Virgin Express. He succeeds Paul Sies, who has been promoted to director of planning and strategy.
Senior Air Force officials are worrying about surprises they may experience in coming years as the current fleet of aircraft ages with few replacements in sight. ``We have never worked with a geriatric fleet,'' says Chief of Staff Gen. Michael E. Ryan. He claims that even if all modernization programs now planned are executed, the average age of the service's aircraft will reach 30 years about 2019. That trend, in part, is driving the Air Force's research spending, which is increasingly focused on how to keep old aircraft flying and operationally relevant.
NASA's X-38 Vehicle 131R did a slow, 360-deg. roll after release from its B-52 carrier aircraft on Nov. 2. It was the first free flight of the vehicle, which automatically stabilized under the preprogrammed deployment of a drogue chute and made a successful landing under parafoil on a dry lakebed runway, as scheduled, at Edwards AFB, Calif. The vehicle sustained no damage in the test. Project officials said they would have to do some trouble-shooting to figure out why the Crew Return Vehicle (CRV) prototype rolled at an estimated average rate of about 20 deg. per sec.
Spanish flag carrier Iberia and domestic rival Air Europa are discussing a potential merger. Majorca-based Air Europa, with a fleet of 50 aircraft, is owned by the Gobalia travel group. The negotiations may delay plans by Spanish state holding company SEPI for a stock market flotation of 54% of Iberia planned by the end of the year. SEPI previously sold off 40% of Iberia to a group of investors including British Airways, which took 9%.
Robert M. Reeder has been named senior vice president-information and communications services and Gregg A. Saretsky has been promoted to senior vice president from vice president-marketing and planning of Alaska Airlines. Reeder has been director of development for specialized internal data processing systems.
