Everyone has been expecting selection of a Joint Strike Fighter competitor to slip. Now Gansler confirms that a contractor won't be selected until next fall. Gansler, who will leave the Pentagon in January to teach at the University of Maryland, says more time is needed for aircraft testing and for the Defense Dept. to critically evaluate Boeing and Lockheed Martin management. The Pentagon is also preparing for an F-22 delay.
Karl R. Rupprecht has been named managing director of Lufthansa Technik Logistik, Hamburg, Germany. He was vice president-marketing and sales. Rupprecht has been succeeded by Andreas Meisel, who was executive director for support and marketing at Ameco in Beijing, a joint venture of Lufthansa and Air China.
Sir Robert Hayman-Joyce has succeeded Sir Kenneth MacDonald, who is retiring, as chairman of Raytheon Systems Ltd. of the U.K. Hayman-Joyce was deputy chief of defense procurement (operations) at the U.K. Ministry of Defense.
A Bombardier Challenger 604 test aircraft crashed on takeoff from Mid-Continent Airport in Wichita, Kan., on Oct. 11, killing two crewmembers and injuring a third.
Colin Chisholm has succeeded William Semple as chief executive of the U.K.'s National Air Traffic Services. Chisholm was deputy chief executive. Semple, who is due to retire in two years, is now non-executive deputy chairman.
The U.S. Army is struggling to implement its aviation modernization plan designed to restore structure to the service's troubled helicopter community. Earlier this year, the Army unveiled its new aviation strategy in response to repeated demands from Congress that the service pay more attention to that part of its force. But little more than half a year later, the Army has had to recognize the road to improvement will be difficult and the hurdles being encountered now are only the first of several major obstacles.
SITA, the air transport telecommunications and information technology group, has taken control of Aerospan.com, a move designed to give the electronic procurement Internet site greater independence from its founding partner, AAR Corp., which markets inventory management and logistics support to airlines. ``We reviewed how to make it a success as a business,'' SITA Chief Financial Officer Mike Whiddett said. ``We felt that we could potentially grow something that could be more comprehensive if we reinforced the neutrality point of view.''
U.S. and international space business managers believe that high costs and the risk of financial failure loom ominously over the commercial space market. ``The bloom is off the commercial space rose,'' said retired USAF Gen. Thomas S. Moorman, Jr., now vice president of Booz-Allen&Hamilton Inc. While commercial space operations and services will continue to grow, this growth will be slower than expected earlier, Moorman told space managers meeting here.
The U.S. Army is preparing several operational and technical improvements to its AH-64 Apache attack helicopter that should address some of the problems the service had last year in supporting the war against Yugoslavia.
Air Canada has signed with Airbus Industrie to acquire 12 A321s and two A319s, with a total list price of $810 million, as part of the carrier's fleet renewal strategy. A321 deliveries are to begin in October 2001, and the first A319 is to arrive in July 2002. The carrier also signed a 10-year lease agreement with International Lease Finance Corp. for six additional Airbus A319s and three A320s to be deployed principally in the Canadian market to meet anticipated growth. Deliveries are to start next August.
Saburo Sakai, Japan's highest scoring ace to survive World War II, died after suffering a heart attack at NAS Atsugi near Tokyo while dining with American military officers. He was 84. Sakai shot down 64 allied aircraft in his combat career, which was interrupted after he was shot in the head and blinded in the right eye in 1942 while attacking U.S. aircraft. After being hit, he flew 560 mi. to his base at Lae, New Guinea, and landed.
Adm. Sir Michael Boyce, currently chief of the U.K. naval staff, has been named to succeed Gen. Sir Charles Guthrie as chief of the defense staff as of February.
European aerospace executives, meeting with European Commission (EC) officials last week in Brussels, agreed to create a working group to map out a long-term strategy for coordinating research and technology activities. This would be combined with an EC effort to coordinate national research centers and activities. The working group is to report back to European Union commissioner for research Philippe Busquin by the end of the year.
Patrick Brady has been named vice president-maintenance for Dulles, Va.-based Atlantic Coast Jet. He held the same position at PSA/USAirways Express, Dayton, Ohio.
U.S. Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) has extended its terrestrial influence by taking over ``host command'' responsibility for Buckley AFB, near Denver. An Air National Guard facility for about 40 years, Buckley became the service's most recent active duty base this month when AFSPC's 821st Space Group became the host unit. The group's chief duty is to funnel Defense Support Program satellite information to the 21st Space Wing and the Missile Warning Center at Cheyenne Mountain.
Michael Chanatry (see photo) has been named executive vice president/general manager of Middle River Aircraft Systems of Baltimore. He succeeds Ray Roquemore, who has retired. Chanatry was vice president-production operations.
Last week's apparent terrorist attack on the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Cole near Aden, Yemen, represents the type of attack U.S. planners are increasingly worried about. ``This is precisely the kind of threat that we face, where countries are unwilling to take us on head-to-head, but will resort to acts of terrorism in order to achieve their goal,'' says Defense Secretary William Cohen. The explosive was transported on a small boat that was involved in mooring the Aegis destroyer for its planned refueling. It tore a 20 X 40-ft. hole in the ship near its waterline. U.S.
Sweden's Telelogic is jumping into the e-commerce and financial services software arena. The company is best known for software development environments for real-time technical applications, especially telecommunications, but it recently bought Quality Systems&Software (QSS), which makes the Doors program requirements management system. Telelogic plans to use Doors as a basis upon which to integrate other business software. About 60% of QSS' sales are in the U.S., and Telelogic expects this customer base will help it crack the American market.
With the initial elements of the Comanche's mission equipment package poised for first flight late next year, RAH-66 program managers believe 2001-02 may prove to be the most critical years yet in the scout/attack helicopter's long development cycle.
Diego A. Ruiz Palmer has been appointed international vice president-Central and Southern Europe for the Dallas-based Northrop Grumman Corp. Inte- grated Systems Sector. He was head of planning and policy in the NATO Defense Support Div.
The U.S. Marine Corps' MV-22 tiltrotor overcame a major hurdle to entering production last week, with a declaration by Pentagon operational test personnel that the system is ``operationally effective and suitable'' --the required passing grade for any acquisition program.
After a pair of minor hardware changes, Boeing's Joint Strike Fighter demonstrator finally retracted its landing gear during the aircraft's 10th flight. After cycling the landing gear twice at ``representative speeds'' during the Oct. 12 flight, the X-32A aircraft-carrier version continued flight testing that was to last throughout the day. The Boeing team is preparing for validation of the aircraft's handling characteristics during low-speed carrier approaches and ``field carrier landing practice'' tests that could begin as early as this week.
USB should become an even more popular external interface for PCs and will be greatly speeded up over the next year, according to the Cahners In-Stat research group. The new USB 2.0 standard has 480 Mbps. data rate, which is up to 40 times faster than the current USB 1.1 standard. USB 2.0 is just becoming available in peripherals, but Intel won't make it part of their core chipset until the third quarter of 2001, though it should be available in adapter cards, Cahners says.
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. is finalizing plans for a microsatellite-based global disaster warning network, including a spacecraft from China, that promises to accelerate the trend toward smaller and less expensive high-resolution imaging systems.
The German-Swedish Taurus Systems conducted a successful free-flight test of the Taurus autonomous stand-off missile late last month at the Vidsel test range in Sweden. The weapon, launched from a German air force Tornado, was equipped with the new navigation components and the latest software package. Taurus Systems, a joint venture between the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co.'s LFK subsidiary and Saab-Bofors Dynamics, anticipates a production contract for the missile from the German air force for deployment on Tornado and Eurofighter aircraft.
