Boeing's recently launched derivatives, longer-range versions of the 777 unofficially known as the -200X and -300X, may be the first aircraft where the manufacturer actively offloads systems integration to its supplier base. This fits with Boeing's strategy to drive itself up the value chain and become an aircraft creator and ``integrator.'' Boeing Commercial Airplanes Group is benchmarking the company's Joint Strike Fighter program as part of this process.
The Mar. 31 eruption of the Usu volcano on Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan's islands, could last for six months or more, according to Japanese volcanologists. Air traffic is diverting around Hokkaido and the east coast of northern Japan to avoid volcanic ash, which is reaching altitudes of about 10,000 ft.
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) plans to join three other organizations to develop standards for electronic business transactions. This action will be undertaken with the International Electrotechnical Commission, International Standards Organization and the U.N. Economic Commission for Europe, in conjunction with the U.S. and NATO's Computer-Aided Logistics Systems. Common standards will ensure that e-commerce data exchange systems--whether terrestrial or space-based--are interoperable.
Cosmonauts Russian air force Lt. Col. Sergei Zalyetin and flight engineer Alexander Kalen docked their Soyuz TM spacecraft to the forward docking port of the Mir space station early Apr. 6, following their launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Apr. 4. Russian ground controllers at the TsUP Flight Control Center near Moscow told Zalyetin to shift to manual control of the docking about 6 ft. from the station when data began to indicate the auto approach system was beginning to deviate. He completed the linkup without incident.
Following is an adaptation of testimony last week to the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee from John W. Douglass, president and CEO of the Washington-based Aerospace Industries Assn. (AIA).
The FAA last week issued an airworthiness directive calling for immediate inspection/modification of the 14 Boeing 717-200 aircraft in service to correct possible electrical problems in the integrated standby instrument system (ISIS) altitude display. The AD follows two reports earlier this year of intermittent loss of altitude data on primary flight and ISIS altitude displays.
Airlines around the world must pare capacity and increase yield on their ticket sales if they are to lure private investors away from ``new economy'' enterprises such as Internet companies and software developers, the head of the airline's international trade group warned last week.
Cash-flow pressures have forced Britten-Norman to call in administrative receivers, who have placed the British aircraft manufacturer up for sale. A total of 112 workers have been laid off, leaving only a skeleton staff of 21. Based on the Isle of Wight, the company builds Islander and Defender turboprop aircraft.
Martin Weinstein has been promoted to executive vice president from senior vice president, and named to the board of directors, of the Sequa Corp. of New York. He remains chairman/CEO of its Chromalloy Gas Turbine unit. Howard M. Leitner has been named senior vice president-finance, Robert D. DeVito vice president- corporate development and strategic planning, and John Van Decker assistant controller, succeeding DeVito. Leitner was senior vice president/chief financial officer of the Chock Full o'Nuts Corp. and succeeds Gerald S. Gutterman, who has retired.
Air France has ordered eight Airbus A330-200 twinjets and optioned five additional aircraft to replace Boeing 767-300ERs and A310s. The French flag carrier's A330s will be powered by General Electric CF6-80E1A3 turbofans. First delivery is planned for December 2001.
Each Laureate Award winner from 1988-99 automatically has become a member of the Laureates Hall of Fame. But what about the Laurel winners selected prior to 1988? To ensure the Legends of the past are remembered in Aviation Week's Hall of Fame, each class of inductees now includes the current year's winners and a number of legendary achievers selected by Aviation Week&Space Technology editors. This year, the following legendary Laurels winners from the past have been selected for induction into the Hall of Fame.
The Hubble Space Telescope is arguably the most important astronomical observatory in history, perhaps the single most accomplished scientific instrument ever. But it is also a spacecraft--a complex set of systems and one whose routine operations are complicated.
J. Wayne Littles has become vice president/general manager, Benjamin E. Goldberg director of engineering and research, Donald R. McGonagle director of quality and Marc T. Constantine director of business development and planning, all for Pratt&Whitney Liquid Space Propulsion, West Palm Beach, Fla. Littles was director of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., and Goldberg director of the Structures and Dynamics Laboratory there.
Kaman Aerospace Corp. has been chosen to be the sole supplier of fuselages for the entire single-engine MD Helicopter line. Detail parts and subassemblies will be made at Kaman's Moosup, Conn., facility, while completed fuselages will be assembled at the company's Jacksonville, Fla., plant. Kaman will deliver its first fuselage, an MD 600N assembly, in late June. An additional 14 fuselages should follow before year-end. Annual deliveries should expand to 49 next year and level off at 60 in 2002.
Israeli defense officials believe the security threat to the nation will not appreciably change even if a peace deal can be brokered with Syria. They want to have in place a comprehensive, multi-layered defense system to counter long-range threats, by 2005, from both missiles and aircraft carrying weapons of mass destruction.
Since the end of the Cold War, the U.S. Air Force and Navy with the support of Raytheon and its predecessor E-Systems--despite defense cutbacks and doubts among budgeteers and politicians about the relative value for airborne intelligence gathering--have converted the services small, secretive fleets of special missions aircraft from a force with the single-minded purpose of watching the Soviet Union to a multi-service team that now regularly embraces intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance tasks around the world.
Boeing is strengthening its production controls and the scrutiny of vendor-supplied parts in the wake of a series of production errors that triggered a special FAA inspection, company officials said last week. FAA officials have completed the inspection launched in December and are reviewing the results with Boeing to come up with a plan for addressing the production and quality shortcomings uncovered by it, agency and Boeing officials said. They said a plan for fixing problems identified in the inspection should be completed in June.
Thomas W. von Krannichfeldt has become executive vice president of Praxair Inc., Danbury, Conn. He has been president of subsidiary Praxair Surface Technologies. Frank L. Ridding will succeed von Krannichfeldt and was vice president-global coatings.
China trade boosters are exulting at word that the House will begin floor action on permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) with Beijing the week of May 22. Though a very close vote is expected, the early date will keep the issue out of this fall's political rough-housing in the presidential contest. Republican leaders are worried their Democratic colleagues will defect in droves, derailing PNTR. But House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Tex.) urged a fixed date be set, regardless of whether 100 or so Democrats were lined up beforehand in favor.
In struggling to meet an Apr. 1 deadline for a report to Congress, the U.S. Army has produced an aviation modernization plan that is short on detail and leaves unanswered basic questions of how the service will pay for hardware to create an updated force of helicopters and unmanned air vehicles.
The independent report that blamed NASA's failures at Mars last year on inadequate funding has produced one predictable outcome. Says Administrator Daniel S. Goldin: ``Every single program is now coming back and telling us how much more money they need.'' But Goldin tells a House Appropriations subcommittee, ``We should not throw money at these challenges.'' He lists several relatively inexpensive improvements to communication, training, mentoring and oversight.
Lockheed Martin is testing the radar cross section of its proposed Joint Strike Fighter, the first example of which is being completed in preparation for flight this summer as the company's team completes design of a highly automated control system for the short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing version.
The two suitors wooing Italy's Finmeccanica are offering similar packages to win the hand of its affiliate, Alenia Aerospazio, and to merge it into a new military aircraft venture. Each is offering hefty workload and cooperation packages. The European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. is offering a deal worth $16 billion, while BAE Systems is offering one worth $14.5 billion. Both are apparently now willing to cede up to 5% in Airbus to the Italians (AW&ST Mar. 27, p. 24). However, EADS wants to include Eurofighter in the proposed venture, while BAE does not.
Boeing quickly got back to business after its 40-day engineers' strike ended last month, naming an aircraft launch customer and garnering orders totaling at least 77 aircraft worth $4.7 billion at list prices. All told, the manufacturer has received 124 net new orders for its commercial transports so far this year.
