A Turkish air force general cast doubt yesterday on speculation that the U.S. will cancel the Joint Strike Fighter, saying the aircraft is too important to the U.S. and its allies to kill it.
Industry and FAA leaders of the Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST) yesterday expressed confidence in meeting the goal of reducing fatal aviation accidents in the U.S. by 80% by 2007 by tackling the leading killers in aviation such as controlled flight into terrain, approach and landing accidents and loss of control of the aircraft.
Bell Helicopter Textron Inc., Fort Worth, Texas, is being awarded a $14,216,000 delivery order amount as part of a $45,385,000 (total for all lots) firm-fixed-price, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract for Lots IV, V, and VI of the Safety Enhancement Program for the modification of 64 aircraft and six Category B Trainers. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas, and is expected to be completed by Feb. 5, 2005. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on July 22, 2000. The U.S.
The Bush Administration should double NASA's aeronautics budget over the next four years to help the U.S. aviation industry fend off a strong challenge from Europe, according to a coalition of aeronautics researchers and citizens. Boosting that budget to $1.4 billion by fiscal year 2005 would reverse recent NASA aeronautics research and development budget cuts, which have trimmed one-third from the program, said Roy Harris Jr., the technical adviser to the NASA Aeronautics Support Team (NAST).
A thin plastic film capable of electrically controlling light transmission could begin replacing traditional windowshades on commercial aircraft, a company says. Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based InspecTech Aero Service, Inc. holds a non-exclusive license from Research Frontiers Incorporated to use their Suspended Particle Device (SPD) light-control technology for aircraft applications.
Orchard Park, N.Y.-based Radiant Energy Corp. (RAC) has developed a new de-icing technology that uses infrared energy to melt ice and snow from aircraft surfaces. Already in place at Newark International, Buffalo-Niagara International, and Rhinelander/Oneida County Airports, RAC's Infratek de-icing facilities offer several advantages over traditional glycol de-icing, according to Bruce R. Nobles, president and CEO of RAC subsidiary Radiant Aviation Services, Inc.
THE EUROPEAN DEFENSE AND SPACE CO. announced that the United Arab Emirates Authorities have selected its C-295 ASW aircraft for the Naval Forces Maritime Patrol Aircraft Program Shaheen 1. The authorities selected four C-295 aircraft equipped with the EADS CASA Fully Integrated Tactical Systems, which is the core a mission system that integrates a suite of modern mission sensors for anti-submarine warfare.
U.S. lawmakers are expected to grill Bush Administration officials about their fighter aircraft modernization plans when they testify in Congress later this year.
EMS TECHNOLOGIES, INC. of Atlanta plans to launch a commercial line of satellite interactive terminals and hub products. The company is showing Return Link Sub-Systems (RLSS) and Satellite Interactive Terminals (SITs) at two conferences, CeBIT in Hanover, Germany and Satellite 2001 in Washington, D.C., both this week. The RLSS and the SIT have been developed to support the new DVB-RCS open-standard architecture for high-speed, bidirectional satellite communications.
PROWLER PUSH: Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), whose congressional district is home to Navy EA-6B Prowlers at Whidbey Naval Air Station, is urging his colleagues to support two "modest initiatives" for the aircraft: aggressive implementation of the Improved Capabilities (ICAP-III) jammer upgrade and an accelerated fielding of the Link 16 communication system.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld gave President Bush his first, "very preliminary" look at a sweeping review of U.S. military strategy March 21, but made "no programmatic recommendations," a Defense Dept. spokesperson said Friday. "The reviews are still ongoing" and are not considered complete until they are approved by Rumsfeld and submitted to the president, said Air Force Lt. Col. Willette Carter. No deadline has been announced, Carter said.
The Enterprise Battle Group has employed extensive training and new technologies to combat the growing threat of terrorism as it prepares to begin its six-month deployment to the Mediterranean and Middle East. As this battle group completes its final certification before it heads out in a month to relieve the USS Harry S. Truman battle group in what is undoubtedly one of the hot spots in the world, its sailors will take with them new tactics, techniques and technology to help them prepare for the unexpected.
FLYING HIGHER: Boeing is developing new aircraft designs to reduce flying time as much as 15 to 20 percent while achieving ranges beyond that of current airplanes, says Alan Mulally, president and CEO of Boeing's Commercial Airplanes division. "These airplanes also will fly higher than current models, offering a more comfortable ride for passengers. And they will be environmentally friendly because they will be quieter at takeoff and landing," Mulally says.
ICO-TELEDESIC Global Ltd., a holding company for chairman Craig McCaw's satellite assets, and CCI International (CCII), a mobile satellite communications company, have reached a collaborative agreement. ICO-Teledesic and CCII will work together on technical, financial, business and regulatory issues to build a spectrum-efficient satellite communications system, the companies said. The agreement could lead to the merger of ICO-Teledesic Global and CCII assets, pending shareholder approval. ICO-Teledesic Global also announced a similar agreement with Ellipso Inc.
SKYBRIDGE LP of Bethesda, Md., has announced plans to start offering broadband Internet services via satellite to service providers by the end of this year. The company will use both Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) satellites and geostationary satellites to provide access and content distribution offerings to Internet Service Providers, according to the company. "Today's announcement broadens the operational scope of the company, extending SkyBridge to include all satellite technologies," said SkyBridge President and CEO Pascale Sourisse.
BREAKING SILENCE: Since Ultra Wideband (UWB) wireless technology (DAILY, Mar. 23) securely utilizes frequencies usually dismissed as noise, it could enable future unmanned aerial vehicles and other warfighters to transmit information without giving away their position, according to Ralph Petroff, president and CEO of Time Domain Corporation.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORP. announced Friday that the European Commission has approved the company's pending acquisition of Litton Industries Inc. The company provided the commission with the necessary filings on Feb. 22. Northrop Grumman also announced it expects the Hart-Scott-Rodino review of the acquisition will conclude within the current review period, which expires March 29.
Engineers from NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., and the Boeing Co. of Huntington Beach, Calif., have delivered a hand-held laser scanner to NASA's Kennedy Space Center to help NASA workers evaluate damage to Space Shuttle thermal tiles. The thermal tiles protect the orbiters and their crews from temperatures ranging from minus 250 degrees Fahrenheit in space to nearly 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit during superheated re-entry. Every one of the more than 24,000 tiles on each Shuttle must be inspected after a flight.
The Russian space station Mir - the biggest man-made object ever to re-enter Earth's atmosphere - broke into flaming chunks and crashed in the South Pacific ocean Friday as planned after it was pushed from orbit by an attached space tug. Pieces of the 140-ton Mir were scattered over a 3,700-mile-long, 125-mile-wide swath of the Pacific between New Zealand and Chile around 1 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, Aerospace Daily affiliate AviationNow.com reported.
Boeing's plan to shift its headquarters from Seattle to Chicago, Dallas or Denver is consistent with a corporate effort to take advantage of what Boeing Chairman and Chef Executive Phil Condit calls "a phenomenal opportunity" - the Information Age promise of dramatically cutting the cost of doing business.
BIGGER BILL: House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee member Norm Dicks (D-Wash.), who introduced a $6.7 billion fiscal 2001 defense supplemental spending bill last month (DAILY, Feb. 15), recently added $100 million for the Coast Guard for aircraft spare parts and other items. Now he wants to increase the bill's total price tag to $9 billion to $12 billion to pay for more defense needs, including spare parts and training. Dicks says that action on a supplemental is needed soon or else the military will have to cancel training.
AIRCRAFT PARTS: The U.S. Navy's aging aircraft fleet is increasing demand for high-cost parts, Vice Adm. Joseph Dyer, commander of Naval Air Systems Command, says in recent testimony to the House Armed Services readiness subcommittee. The Navy estimates that the demand for high-cost parts will grow 8 percent per flight hour for each year that the air fleet ages.
ARINC INC. of Annapolis, Md., and COMSAT Mobile Communications (CMC), a business unit of Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications, have implemented two new commercial aeronautical satellite communications services for the North Atlantic and Pacific Ocean air corridors. The newest offerings, Aero-I and H+, accommodate the growing demand for satellite voice and data communications service by air passengers and crew among a wide range of commercial, cargo, government and business aircraft.
VIEQUES VIEWS: Some residents of the Puerto Rican island of Vieques say they're willing to become a separate territory so the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps can continue live-fire training on Vieques. More than 1,700 of the island's 9,000 residents have signed petitions urging the federal government to consider separating Vieques from Puerto Rico, whose government wants to stop the training. Several Vieques residents presented the petitions to the Senate Armed Services Committee last week. Meanwhile, St.
EW PUSH: The congressional Electronic Warfare Working Group is asking House Armed Services Committee Chairman Bob Stump (R-Ariz.) to schedule hearings aimed at enlightening lawmakers about the state of the U.S. military's EW capabilities. In a recent letter to Stump, 20 members of the group argue that the 1999 air war in Yugoslavia showed that the military's airborne EW assets are overcommitted and underfunded. "This is unacceptable and we must work to change this alarming trend," the letter says.
