Recent agreements by European firms to form an aerospace and defense contractor, EADS, and a space company, Astrium, are expected to facilitate efforts to combine a trio of proposed European broadband satellite projects into a single network that would ultimately span the globe.
Klaus Walther has become manager of corporate communication for Deutsche Lufthansa in Frankfurt. He held the same position at Ruhrgas, Essen, Germany. Walther succeeds Josef Grendel.
A Pentagon plan to replace traditional progress payments to defense contractors with performance-based ``milestone'' payments will likely move into high gear within the next few months. Performance-based contracts are not exactly new--the Defense Dept. has been using them since 1995, but only on a very limited scale and only on sole-source contracts. Under the department's plan, their use will expand dramatically and become the preferred way of doing business for all types of agreements, including ones that are awarded through competitive bidding.
Japan Airlines said its after-tax net profit was off 34.8% for the first half of fiscal 1999, although it sees consumer confidence returning slowly. Its best news is in international travel, especially on short- and medium-haul routes to South Korea, Guam, Saipan and China, and on flights to the U.S. International passenger levels climbed to 6.3 million, up 10.2% from a year ago, on load factors of 72.9%.
NASA wants to flight test a pulse detonation engine on high-performance SR-71 and F-15 aircraft to determine suitability of the engine technology for use on missiles and tactical aircraft. Flight testing is supposed to help NASA assess the performance of a pulse detonation engine at speeds of Mach 1.5 and greater. The program, being run by NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, will include substantial wind-tunnel testing. It hasn't been decided where the wind-tunnel tests will take place, however.
National Air Services (NAS) of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, has revealed a recapitalization plan intended to quadruple its capital, to SR240 million ($64 million) to meet booming business aviation demand in the Middle East and help fund a fractional ownership program established in cooperation with NetJets/Executive Jet of the U.S.
A team from Speedwing, the British Airways' consultancy subsidiary, has developed a recovery plan for Olympic Airways containing 330 specific actions and a new direction for the Greek flag carrier.
Anders Christenson of Bloomington, Minn., Dale DeRemer of Grand Forks, N.D., and Verne Jobst of McHenry, Ill., have been inducted into the Flight Instructor Hall of Fame, which is administered by the National Assn. of Flight Instructors, Oshkosh, Wis.
With the air war in Yugoslavia underscoring the need for new weapons, Pentagon officials are being forced to choose what ongoing programs to slow or cancel to free up money for those that would address the new requirements. One of the problems faced by senior Pentagon officials is that while the air campaign showed the need for new capabilities, it didn't reveal what programs are no longer required.
To keep the door open for U.S. penetrations of Yugoslavia's military computers, virtually none of the country's system of cellphone, telephone, computer or Internet nodes were bombed during this summer's air campaign, except for links to the field forces in Kosovo. As a result, U.S. military hackers were able to invade the computers that integrated the Yugoslav air defense system, a tactic that was first attempted against Iraq during the 1990-91 Persian Gulf war, senior military officials have publicly acknowledged.
A NEW ENERGY STORAGE DEVICE called an ultracapacitor has high-energy storage capability and will extend battery life for applications that use bursts of power, such as cellular phones, remote military sensors and UAVs. T/J Technologies, a small Ann Arbor, Mich., company, patented the ultracapacitor and is teamed with Orlando, Fla.-based Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control under a $2.1-million USAF-funded Mentor/Protege program to transition the nanotechnology from the laboratory to actual hardware.
If after Kosovo there was still any doubt that the Army requires too much airlift to get anywhere, the Pentagon recently was taught another lesson. To support U.N. troops in East Timor, the Defense Dept. decided to send half of an Army signal company from Ft. Huachuca, Ariz. But getting those 133 soldiers deployed turned into an almost Herculean effort. ``The [amount of] stuff they wound up taking is kind of mind-boggling,'' said Air Force Gen. Joseph Ralston, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Israel has successfully conducted the first fully integrated interception test with its Arrow anti-tactical missile weapon system, paving the way for an initial operating capability next year.
Spacehab's wholly owned subsidiary, Astrotech Space Operations, has been awarded a 10-year contract to provide payload processing services for Boeing. Under the agreement, Spacehab will enlarge the existing Astrotech facilities in Titusville, Fla., with the addition of a new satellite preparation facility sized to support the Delta IV booster, which will launch both government and commercial payloads.
Frontier Airlines has signed a letter of intent to lease 15 new Airbus A319s from GE Capital Aviation Services, with first deliveries slated for late 2001. The leasing deal comes on the heels of a plan announced last month to purchase 11 A319s and 318s, plus an option for another nine (AW&ST Oct. 25, p. 21). About two-thirds of the Airbus fleet will be A319s. The new transports will be phased into service in the next 6-7 years, replacing Frontier's current fleet of Boeing 737s.
NASA's Mars Polar Lander (MPL) successfully made a trajectory correction maneuver on Oct. 30 to fine-tune its course for a planned rendezvous with the planet on Dec. 3. Program officials said the spacecraft--intended to land in the vicinity of the Martian south pole--performed as planned during the maneuver and achieved the desired change. The spacecraft's thrusters were fired during the maneuver for 12 sec. The next thruster firing is scheduled for just three days prior to landing. The spacecraft has traveled along a curving flight path more than 429 million mi.
Leo F. Mullin, president/CEO of Delta Air Lines, will also be chairman. He will succeed Gerald Grinstein, who has been non-executive chairman. Grinstein will remain on the board as chairman of the executive committee.
John Sandford has been appointed executive chairman of Avcorp Industries in Vancouver following the resignation of Peter Jeffrey. Sandford had been chairman of the executive committee, and was retired as chairman/CEO of Rolls-Royce North America Inc. Michael Scholz has resigned as chairman of the board, but will continue as a director.
Superior Air Parts of Dallas is introducing a Millennium piston engine rebuild program in association with independent overhaul companies. The rebuilds, to be available for most popular Lycoming and Continental piston engine models, are performed to more exacting standards than factory overhauled engines and come with a five-year parts and labor warranty, according to Tim Archer, vice president of sales and marketing. The engines include Superior's investment-cast Millennium cylinders.
A new congressional report on the threat posed by North Korea highlights that the country's nuclear weapons development and missile proliferation are continuing despite U.S. financial assistance.
Doug Patterson (see photo) has been appointed director of marketing for Ixthos Inc., Leesburg, Va. He was marketing manager for SBS Embedded Computers.
It turns out that the so-called tough guys were bullied. Japan's Ministry of Transport has dropped an experiment in which falcons were intended to drive away other birds causing bird strikes against aircraft on Shikoku island. The bird strikes were predominately caused by kites--like falcons, a bird of prey. These kites were bigger than the falcons so they were not driven off by the falcons and, sometimes, attacked them. Another drawback was a lack of a skilled falconer. Japan averages about 600 bird strikes a year, but the incidents may be increasing.
BMW Rolls-Royce will establish the BR710 CorporateCare program to maintain and overhaul the turbofans installed on Gulfstream V and Global Express business jets. The program will be handled by Rolls-Royce Canada's Montreal facilities.
