On the eve of a key national missile defense test, President Clinton faces multiplying verdicts that his limited NMD concept will not work. Based on divergent technical judgments, long-time missile defense experts outside of government--and from both sides of the NMD divide--concur that the Clinton scheme should be scrapped, and a new Administration should start over again in 2001.
Bruce McNeely has been appointed vice president/general manager of Jet Aviation, West Palm Beach, Fla. He was president/CEO of Jet Search International Inc.
Roger Hemminghaus has been appointed to the board of directors of the CTS Corp., Elkhart, Ind. He is chairman emeritus of the Ultramar Diamond Shamrock Corp. and chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Roger Rickey has become vice president/general manager of CTS' frequency products division.
The Royal Danish Air Force will acquire helmet-mounted cueing systems for its F-16 fleet from Vision Systems International, a joint venture between Elbit Systems Ltd. and Kaiser Aerospace and Electronics. The helmet-mounted displays will be delivered in association with Denmark's F-16 Mid-Life Upgrade (MLU) program. Vision Systems expects other F-16 MLU nations, including the Netherlands, Norway, Belgium and Portugal, also will sign up for the system.
The cost of the National Missile Defense program is likely to increase as the Defense Dept. addresses concerns raised by an independent review. But the outside assessment hasn't identified any fundamental flaws in the Pentagon's approach to shooting down intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Congress has cleared, and President Clinton is expected to sign, a bill that gives the same legal recognition to electronic signatures in business transactions as to signatures on paper. So where does the Defense Dept. stand on allowing electronic signoffs on various safety, manufacturing or purchasing agreements? They're working on it. ``We have a few pilot projects underway, but we have a lot of work to do in terms of the security aspects,'' a Defense Dept. official said. One early application is a test involving use of its travel site for temporary duty assignments.
Bobby O. Floyd (see photos) has been promoted to vice president/general manager from deputy general manager of Lockheed Martin Aircraft&Logistics Centers' Greenville (S.C.) facility. He succeeds Richard Y. Lyons, who has become vice president-operations for LMALC.
Finding evidence that there may be current sources of liquid water at or near the surface of Mars is a significant development, but getting a robotic spacecraft to land near such a point-target could prove to be difficult, NASA officials said. ``It's going to be the key challenge in the future,'' according to a Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) official, who added that any precision landing system will have to be tested extensively to demonstrate its accuracy and consistency.
ARINC, Aerothai and the Civil Aviation Authority of Mongolia have signed a three-way agreement for the expansion of air/ground data link coverage there with the installation of three additional ground stations.
The Pentagon has chosen 11 promising defense products or systems developed by non-U.S. companies to be evaluated under its Foreign Comparative Testing (FCT) program. The products range from a high-power klystron tube developed by the U.K.'s Thorn TMD, which could enhance the reliability of the E-3 AWACS radar, to a vehicle intended to deactivate land mines, developed in South Africa.
Boost-phase interception has moved into the spotlight as resistance mounts to the Administration's national missile defense program, but top Pentagon officials caution that BPI is also highly demanding operationally--and fiscally.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) is blocking the confirmation of Phil Boyer, head of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assn., to serve on a new FAA management advisory panel. The rub: McCain wants user fees on corporate aircraft, and Boyer says that would unfairly lump together a lot of AOPA members' piston-powered planes with high-rollers' bizjets. The ex-presidential candidate gave the nod to Senate floor votes on six other nominees, but withheld Boyer's name.
New startup carrier National Jet Italia has joined as the 11th member of British Airways' franchise operations and the first in Italy. The airline is to start a four-times-daily service from Rome to Palermo, Sicily, on July 11 employing two BAe 146 aircraft. A similar service from Rome to Catania, Sicily, is planned soon after. National Jet Italia has been developed out of Australian domestic carrier National Jet System which operates as a franchise partner to Qantas, a partner of BA in the Oneworld alliance.
James Loftin has been promoted to director of operations from director of quality and Geneva Whalen has been appointed director of finance for the Turbo- meca Engine Corp., Grand Prairie, Tex.
Cargo traffic on U.S. carriers represented by the Air Transport Assn. of America jumped 11.2% in March compared to the same month last year. Of the total, international cargo increased by 13.8% and domestic by 8.9%, as measured in revenue ton miles. ATA represents 23 U.S. airlines which transport more than 95% of all passengers and cargo traffic in the U.S.
The long-awaited radar upgrade to the E-8 Joint-STARS aircraft--enabling it to detect stealthy cruise missiles at 200 mi. or more--is officially in trouble. The radar technology insertion program (RTIP) was to cost $2.2 billion to upgrade only five aircraft. Now the Air Force's chief of staff, Gen. Mike Ryan, says he is looking for better, cheaper alternatives, maybe long-dwell drones or a family of RTIP platforms that are less people-intensive. The subject is under discussion with acquisition boss Jacques Gansler and others.
Patrick Phelan has been appointed vice president of the Defense, Aerospace and Technical Services Corporate Banking Group of First Union Securities, Tyson's Corner, Va. He was vice president/relationship manager for Wachovia Securities. Sam Pearlstein has been named a director/senior analyst for the aerospace industry for First Union in New York. He held a similar position at ING Barings.
ONE OF HONEYWELL'S BIG GOALS after acquiring AlliedSignal is to expand so it ``owns'' the information backbone on commercial aircraft. Stretching far beyond classic avionics communication and navigation equipment, the strategy includes management of utilities, hydraulics, fuel, lighting and environmental control systems. The nose-to-tail integration would include maintenance support, auxiliary power unit control and fire protection. Beyond the airplane, Honeywell is expanding its work in aviation and airport information services.
With the Navy shifting its focus to the littorals from open-ocean operations, service officials are eyeing upgrades for the E-2C Hawkeye to improve its air-to-air radar and potentially add an air-to-ground surveillance capability.
Lockheed Martin Fort Worth has developed a ballistics model good enough that it won the 1999 Modeling and Simulation Acquisition Award from the Pentagon's Defense Modeling and Simulation Office. The Advanced Ram Analysis Method (ARAM) calculates how exploding projectiles affect aircraft structure and systems, and does so with sufficient confidence to ``make the appropriate tradeoffs very early in the design stage of new aircraft,'' before live-fire testing would normally be conducted, said Frank J.
