Japan's first H-IIA launcher is scheduled to lift off as scheduled in February 2001, but without its intended payload, the European Space Agency's Advanced Relay and Technology Mission Satellite (Artemis). The National Space Development Agency of Japan said the first launch will be regarded as a technology verification flight of the 9 billion yen ($9.3-million) launcher, including the guidance and navigation control system, solid rocket booster SRB-A separation capability and LE-5B engine operation.
IBM DISPLAYED A SERIES OF NEW RECEIVERS developed with Leica Geosystems, based on IBM's silicon-germanium (SiGe) chips. One 12-channel receiver with SiGe technology uses high density packaging and has an embedded PowerPC 401 on a 40 X 66-mm. (1.6 X 2.6-in.) board. Using double-sided packaging, IBM is working on a smaller receiver that occupies about half the area, and uses direct chip attachment modules to shrink the area dedicated to connectors.
Congressional zingers hailed down on the FAA last week, scourging a good deal more than the agency's computer security slips (see p. 50). In his valedictory as Transportation Committee chairman, Rep. Bud Shuster (R-Pa.) again urged his colleagues to take the FAA out of the Transportation Dept. He said he had begun to sense the lack of a ``vigorous, positive, energetic approach'' at the agency, and the next Congress may well have to make the FAA an independent organ, like NASA. Although the three-year, $40-billion Aviation Investment and Reform Act that took effect Oct.
The U.S. and Britain may be heading for another end-of-year showdown with Iraq. The oil-for-food program under which Iraq is allowed to sell oil to buy medicine and other critical supplies for its populace is up for review in December. Baghdad may use the occasion to demand changes in the sanctions imposed by the allies after the 1991 Persian Gulf war, Richard Butler, who until 1999 headed the weapons inspections regime against Iraq, tells lawmakers.
While the X-45A unmanned combat aerial vehicle premiering this week at Boeing is focused on demonstrating the technologies and capabilities needed for UCAVs to conduct suppression of enemy air defenses, SEAD is not the only mission envisioned for future production derivatives of the aircraft.
The International Space Station's systems truss with critical exterior subsystems is to be installed by the U.S./Japanese crew of the orbiter Discovery, poised for liftoff this week on the 100th flight of the space shuttle. The two key elements on the flight are:
Michael Welbourne, formerly Airbus Industrie customer support manager in China, has been appointed director of product support for Sirocco Aerospace International of London.
Philip Teel, formerly vice president-program operations for the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Integrated Systems Sector in Dallas, has been named vice president-materiel. He succeeds Judy Northup, who has joined Vought Aircraft Industries, which was formed from the sale of Northrop Grumman's aerostructures business. Martin Dandridge, sector executive vice president, has succeeded Teel on an acting basis. Paul Coco, formerly vice president- aerostructures, is now vice president-airborne early warning systems and electronic warfare. He succeeds Lou Carrier, who has retired.
The U.S. Air Force has begun installing software upgrades to Block 50 F-16s that will allow the aircraft to carry advanced weapons to improve the fighter's combat capabilities including suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD).
International Space Station logistics--and international politics--will shape the final design of a U.S.-built propulsion element for the ISS, intended as a backstop for the Russian Zvezda Service Module and Progress resupply capsules that will serve as the primary means of reboosting the orbiting laboratory and moving it out of harm's way.
The increasing complexity of highly integrated avionics in modern tactical and strategic aircraft is forcing the U.S. flight test community to rely more and more on modeling and simulation.
A study by the U.K.'s Airprox Board shows that the overall rate of air proximity or near-collision incidents involving commercial air transports has fallen by more than one-third over the past 10 years. And the number of risk-bearing incidents since 1990 has fallen by more than 50%, despite increasing total f lying hours within U.K. airspace, according to the independent board of civil and military pilots and controllers who assess air proximity incidents in U.K. airspace.
Messier-Dowty, a Snecma group affiliate, is poised to unveil a far-reaching plan to restructure the company. The landing gear manufacturer will form a holding company, establish a unified, cross-border operational entity, and create business units to streamline links with key customers such as Airbus Industrie and Boeing. According to Chairman/CEO Louis Le Portz, the changes will cut costs and accelerate production rates to accommodate commercial and military customers.
The ALPA-represented pilots of Atlas Air, a Boeing 747 freight operator based in Golden, Colo., have entered talks with the National Mediation Board as a result of stalled contract negotiations. The principal concern of the pilots has been management's decision to outsource jobs to foreign pilots by establishing a so-called ``alter-ego'' subsidiary, Atlas Air Crew Services, and for opening an offshore base in Stansted, England. Since April 1999, ALPA has represented about 850 Atlas crewmembers.
Kerry B. Long has become a partner in the Aviation Finance and Leasing Group of the Washington office of the law firm Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays and Handler LLP. He was a partner in Perkins Coie LLP.
Rick Armstrong (see photos) has been promoted to vice president from general manager of the Transparency Div. of Nordam, Tulsa, Okla. Other recent promotions are: Susan Hughes Johnson to vice president-administrative financial services from financial services administrator; Tray Siegfried to director of operations from production manager for the Interiors and Structures Div.; and Joe Greenwood to general manager of sales, customer administration, marketing and space parts for the Repair Div. from director of sales and administration.
Like their large-capitalization brethren, small- and mid-cap aerospace companies significantly outperformed the broader market in the first nine months of 2000. In some cases, investors who weren't on board missed a heck of a ride. For example, Precision Castparts Corp. advanced 201%; Hexcel Corp., 142%; the U.K.'s Doncasters plc, 114%, and Ladish Co. Inc., 108%.
When the subject of flight delays came up, airline industry and FAA officials gathered here for a safety meeting didn't exactly engage in finger-pointing, but it was clear that they still do not see eye to eye on who is to blame for the growing problem. Such was one message given by Air Transport Assn. President Carol Hallett in her strongly worded keynote address during the ATA's 2000 Operations and Safety Forum held here last week.
BELGIUM'S SEPTENTRIO'S EVALUATION KIT allows users to experiment with new hardware and software for global navigation satellite systems. The company's PolaRx 1 24-channel receiver processes GPS and Glonass signals using two of Septentrio's 12-channel GrecCo receivers. Connected to a user's PC and antenna, PolaRx will also be able to receive EGNOS, WAAS and Japan's MTSAT augmentation signals (www.septentrio.com).
V-22 flight operations were halted for a few days last week after a maintenance inspection found one of two gimbal ring bolts leading to the prop-rotor gearbox on one engine had come loose. The Navy said it would take about 8 hr. to inspect each aircraft and return it to flying status. Engineers are still trying to determine why the bolt came loose.
Over the past couple years, we have written at length about two disturbing trends in the U.S.--trends so alarming that we have labeled them each a crisis. One can be seen by almost anyone who flies. It is the growing numbers of flights that are delayed or canceled as a result of antiquated, insufficient infrastructure.
The U.S. Defense Dept. and Egypt have signed an agreement under which Boeing will upgrade 35 of Egypt's AH-64A Apache helicopters to the AH-64D configuration under a $400-million contract that will be administered by the U.S. Army.
LanChile, as part of its growth strategy, on Oct. 7 expects to start nonstop daily service from New York JFK International Airport to Santiago, Chile, with an ongoing direct flight to Buenos Aires. The carrier will offer three classes of service on Boeing 767-300 aircraft. The service departs JFK at 11 p.m., arriving Santiago mid-morning on the next day with an immediate connection arriving in Buenos Aires at 1:45 p.m.
