Boeing has demonstrated a new technology to develop composite structure frames and body sections for spacecraft. Boeing builds large, secret signal intelligence spacecraft for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office, but the company also is offering the new composite process to other companies for use in small communications and Earth-monitoring spacecraft. The new technique uses a composite honeycomb sandwich structure involving a new graphite-fiber material and a polycyanate ester plastic.
A Bethesda, Md., consulting firm alleges that Lockheed Martin has a conflict of interest as the prime contractor for the FAA's National Airspace System Implementation Support Contract (NISC 2), a follow-on contract valued at $1.044 billion over 10 years. Washington Consulting Group of Bethesda has filed a protest with the FAA's Office of Dispute Resolution, alleging that conflict of interest arises over Lockheed Martin's role under NISC 2 ``to evaluate and provide advisory services concerning its own performance'' as an FAA contractor.
A NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE OFFICE/Hughes intelligence data relay satellite was placed into a highly elliptical orbit inclined 56 deg. following launch Jan. 29 from Cape Canaveral on board a Lockheed Martin/International Launch Services Atlas 2A booster.
COL.-GEN. ANATOLY KORNUKOV, who as an air defense commander in 1983 ordered the shooting down of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, has been appointed Chief Commander of Russia's air force. He succeeds Gen. Pyotr Dainekin.
U.S. AND JAPANESE NEGOTIATORS late last week were going through a new agreed-to bilateral aviation pact to make sure all parties were in agreement on the language. The new pact will provide for a substantial liberalization of air services between the two countries and also beyond Japan through code-sharing and other route rights.
A typo may have misled readers in the Jan. 19 Aerobyte. We should have said Systems Dynamics International's algorithms use both velocity and attitude data to estimate IMU alignments for weapons systems, not velocity and altitude data.
Michael Dugan has been promoted to president of the Houston Tracker Systems subsidiary of the EchoStar Communications Co., Englewood, Colo. He was senior vice president-communications products of EchoStar. Also promoted was Mark Jackson to senior vice president-satellite services from vice president-engineering. Rick Westerman has been named director of finance. He was vice president-equity research of UBS Securities.
David Halpern and William L. Sjogren, both senior research scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., have been elected fellows of the American Geophysical Union. Halpern is manager of the JPL Climate Variability Program, and Sjogren works in the navigation and flight mechanics section.
Becky Sue Hansen, Cathie McDonald and Pam Kirkpatrick have been elected regional directors of the Alexandria, Va.-based Assn. of Air Medical Services. Hansen is director of emergency medical services of Wyoming Life Flight in Casper, and McDonald is director of MedCenter Air, Charlotte, N.C. Kirkpatrick is program director of AirMedTeam, Redding, Calif.
Air Force leaders won't be able to escape Pentagon micromanagement anywhere in the world if an initiative succeeds to put Boeing's commercial, phased-array antenna on aircraft used by military commanders. The system would enable a theater commander to view and direct an air battle even while en route to a war zone. Boeing would use the prototype antenna to offer live television and Internet connections to airline passengers.
Boeing is conducting an intensive reappraisal of its commercial transport creation process as costs and time-to-market increase and market share grows. The planning includes heavy reliance on preferred and sole-source suppliers for major equipment on airplane lines as well as the continuous development of products, technologies and ``generic'' aircraft.
Frontier Airlines and Mountain Air Express (MAX) have signed a code-sharing agreement that enables booking passenger through-fares at Denver International Airport. The agreement is a new chapter in the convoluted ties between Frontier and Western Pacific Airlines, which founded MAX to feed WestPac's route structure. At one point last summer, Western Pacific and Frontier were planning to merge, but Frontier backed out when WestPac's financial health failed. Both WestPac and MAX slipped into bankruptcy last year.
Thomas E. Eastland (see photo) has been named Kuala Lumpur-based director of business development-Asia/Pacific for the International Air Transport Assn. Global Charge Programme.
Boeing's Rocketdyne Propulsion and Power Business Div. reviewed proposals from 14 vendors before choosing Litton Enterprise Solutions (LES) to tackle its Year 2000 compliance needs. One of project manager Earl Todd's biggest tasks were to figure out how much of Rocketdyne's 8 million lines of code and 2,700 programs--most in Cobol--needed to be revised to assure compliance with the looming ``00'' date change. His team boiled the list down to 455 programs involving 2 million lines of code.
In an initiative to boost capacity in the next decade and acquire a stronger market share on long-haul routes, Egyptair last week finalized an order for two A340-600s powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 500 engines. The carrier plans to take delivery of the 380-seat aircraft in 2003 and is holding options for two more -600s.
The new $5-billion Kuala Lumpur International Airport will commence limited testing of its Total Airport Management System data processing system this month, with more comprehensive testing of TAMS and the airport's baggage handling system to come in March. The airport is due to open late in April. Because payment is nearly complete, the project is not affected by the devaluation of the Malaysian ringgit, according to government officials.
Christmas may seem long gone, but not if you believe the Internet Web site set up by North American Aerospace Defense Command and Analytical Graphics Inc. (AGI) that ``tracked'' Santa Claus' southward flight on Christmas Eve. NORAD has a 43-year-old tradition of tracking Santa, but this year it extended the operation into cyberspace, thanks to AGI's satellite visualization software. Its Web site (www.stk.com/santa) recorded more than 780,000 ``hits'' on Dec. 24 and more than 200,000 additional hits in the days just after Christmas.
Plans for a new institutional strategy to facilitate establishment of a single European air traffic management system are soon to begin implementation. The way for the new network, known as the European Air Traffic Management System (EATMS), was cleared last June when the transport ministers from the 27 member states of Eurocontrol, the body created to harmonize and centralize European ATM functions, approved a revised convention governing its activities.
Keith C. Culbreth has become president of the Flexaust Co., Warsaw, Ind. He was vice president/division manager of Flexible Technologies Inc. Culbreth succeeds Fred R. Radcliffe, Jr., who has retired.
When Northwest and Continental airlines announced their proposed alliance last week (see p. 32), some industry observers quickly assumed the partnership--if approved--will trigger further U.S. carrier consolidation.
Despite Boeing's dominant position in the commercial aircraft market and its leading position in defense and space, a host of uncertainties surrounding the company's near-term business prospects prompted Standard&Poor's to revise its outlook for the troubled aerospace giant to ``negative'' last week.
Peter Collins has become Eastern Div. president, David Naleway vice president-Western Div. sales, Robert A. Milne vice president-California operations and David Padlo district manager for Georgia, all for International Total Services of Cleveland.
Neil Harrison will become British Airways' general manager for passenger and cargo business on Apr. 14. Harrison will succeed Terry Daly, who will be area manager for the Middle East, based in Dubai. Daly will succeed Alan Burnett, who has been appointed general manager for the U.K., Africa and Middle East. Andrew Crawley will become area manager for the Southwest Pacific, based in Sydney, on Apr. 1. Jenny Lourey will become Rome-based area manager for the Mediterranean on Mar. 1.
