Radiation-detection equipment has been installed at three checkpoints in Slovakia along its border with Ukraine. The equipment can detect a broader array of gamma-ray and neutron sources, including highly enriched uranium and plutonium. The U.S. Energy Dept.’s National Nuclear Security Administration is working with Slovak officials to stop illicit trafficking of nuclear materials.
NASA will break ground this week for a new launch pad at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., for tests of the Orion crew exploration vehicle launch abort system. First firing of the solid-fuel rocket that would pull the Orion crew compartment off a failing Ares I launch vehicle is targeted for Sept. 23, 2008. Meanwhile, the agency cut the ribbon on three new 18-meter (59-ft.) Ka-band antennas built at the U.S. Army facility to handle the growing volume of data from scientific satellites. Over 30 days, the three-antenna network can handle up to 45 terabytes of data.
The International Air Transport Assn. (IATA) on Nov. 5 launched six paperless e-freight pilot programs for cargo moving on routes connecting Canada, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Singapore, Sweden and the U.K. Six airlines are working with eight freight forwarders and ground-handling agencies to test standards, processes and procedures. During the initial phase, selected shipments will travel without documents that contribute to much of the paperwork. This system could save the cargo industry $1.2 billion a year, IATA says.
Boeing has rolled out the first 737 airborne early warning, command and control aircraft in Turkish air force colors, at the company’s Seattle facility. The Peace Eagle aircraft will make its first international flight this week, to the Dubai air show in the United Arab Emirates. This is the first of four AEW&C aircraft. The other three will be built by Turkish Aerospace Industries in Ankara using in-country suppliers. Flight testing of the complete aircraft will begin next year.
Forecast International projects 11,000 radar units worth $50 billion will be produced through 2016, based on a review of 107 radar production operations, maintenance and research programs underway worldwide. Interest in new technology such as active electronically scanned arrays is driving the market, along with a need to fill airborne early warning and control requirements and to conduct asymmetric and urban warfare operations such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Even by British standards the procurement path has been obstacle strewn, but with the Merlin’s full operational capability finally declared, the Royal Navy now has arguably the world’s premiere anti-submarine warfare platform. Unfortunately for the Merlin, Russian submarine activity during the 1990s disappeared down a deep ocean trench. Moscow’s northern fleet submarines, which the AgustaWestland helicopter had been designed to so capably counter, were spending practically all their time at moorings in Russia’s Kola Peninsula.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes’ chief of sales, Vice President Larry Dickenson, plans to retire Dec. 31. Best known for leading Boeing’s Asia-Pacific sales effort, Dickenson became head of sales last October when Scott Carson was named BCA chief executive. Raymond Conner has been named to succeed Dickenson. CAE’s Profits Soar CAE is enjoying a sharp rise in the Canadian dollar. The Montreal builder of aircraft simulators reported a 25% increase in quarterly net earnings, to C$40 million ($42.8 million). Revenue rose 26%, to C$354 million.
Bill Bruner has become assistant NASA administrator for legislative and intergovernmental affairs. He was acting assistant administrator and had been on staffs of the Air Force and Defense secretaries.
Norway has added to Lockheed Martin’s sales book with a $304-million contract for the first foreign military sales of four stretch versions of the C-130J Super Hercules airlifter. Another contract is expected to be signed next year. One aircraft is to be delivered in 2008, followed by one in 2009 and two in 2010. They are to replace 40-year-old C-130Hs.
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Northrop Grumman has installed provisional landing gear on the first X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System demonstrator for the U.S. Navy. The provisional landing gear, produced by General Electric, will be used for vehicle fit checks, airframe proof testing and vehicle movement during manufacturing. A more robust baseline landing gear, which would meet carrier landing requirements, has been designed.
Charles Nardello has been named senior vice president-operations for Hawaiian Airlines . He was vice president-maintenance and engineering and succceeds Norm Davies, who has retired.
Paul Drayson, the British minister for defense equipment and support, resigned last week. The move came shortly before the second version of the goverment’s Defense Industrial Strategy (DIS) was issued. Drayson was the driving force behind the DIS, and the associated procurement reform. He had been in post for 30 months, and recently there were signs of tension over policy. There are also widespread concerns that the government faces difficult funding choices amid suggestions there is not enough cash to implement all that Drayson wanted within DIS 2.
Paul Nash insults me and every other airline pilot by assuming all of us are somehow unsafe and always seem to be inebriated. It seems like pilot-bashing may be fun and excusable, but I would say that since 9/11, our air traffic control system (thanks, National Air Traffic Controllers Assn.) and airline pilots are still the best in the world.
Denmark’s Terma AS and the National Aerospace Laboratory of the Netherlands signed an agreement Nov. 8 to establish a center of expertise on electronic warfare based in the Netherlands.
Singapore’s Tiger Airways will establish a franchisee airline with the South Korean city of Incheon, racing against rivals to set up in untapped markets and exploit the huge potential of no-frills aviation in Asia. The latest expansion move by the budget carrier, 49% owned by Singapore Airlines, will create perhaps the most widely spread narrow-body operation in the world.
American Airlines Capt. Steve Roach (El Dorado Hills, Calif.)
As a captain of a wide-body for the world’s largest airline, I read with dismay the letter you published from Paul N. Nash in which he displays his callousness as he bashes pilots (AW&ST Oct. 29, p. 10).
Steve Wallach, a San Francisco-based Boeing 747 captain, has been elected chairman of the Master Executive Council of the Air Line Pilots Assn. at United Airlines , succeeding Mark Bathurst. Jeff Barath was elected vice chairman.
John M. Doyle (Washington), David Collogan (Washington)
A Homeland Security Dept. plan to secure general aviation aircraft entering the U.S. could have the unintended consequence of making international travel more difficult for GA operators and their passengers.
Indonesia’s Lion Air will be the first to use carbon brakes on Boeing 737-900ERs, replacing conventional steel brakes common on single-aisle jets. Although the carrier chose Goodrich carbon brakes over a design by Messier-Bugatti, certification tests will be conducted next month on both sets, which are projected to perform similarly. Lion Air has ordered 100 737-900ERs equipped with steel brakes and five have been delivered. The airline will retrofit the planes with carbon brakes.
U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz has been named director of the Joint IED (improvised explosive devices) Defeat Organization , which is headquartered in Arlington, Va. Metz has been deputy commanding general/chief of staff of U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command.
Boeing is in the final stages of flight testing an auxiliary fuel tank system that will increase the range of the 777-200LR to its maximum design limit of up to 9,450 naut. mi., fulfilling development ambitions for the twinjet that were originally put on hold amid market doldrums in mid-2004.
Amy Butler (Washington), David A. Fulghum (Washington)
The U.S. Air Force’s Boeing F-15 grounding is being felt around the globe, with other nations such as Japan and Israel halting flights of their Eagles, and with the Navy shifting its carrier-based air power to Southwest Asia. F-15 operations were suspended pending review of a Nov. 2 crash. “A possible structural failure” was involved in the Missouri Air National Guard F-15C crash, which could have larger implications about the integrity of the entire F-15 fleet, say USAF officials.
After eyeing the Bush administration’s Fiscal 2008 budget request since February—and not doing anything about it for more than a month into the new fiscal year—Congress got busy last week moving defense appropriations. Appropriators hammered out an agreement for baseline funds, and both the House and Senate quickly scheduled action to ratify it. The bill totals $459.3 billion, reflecting 9.5% annual growth and a cut of only about $3.5 billion from Bush’s request.
The Norwegian armed forces are bracing for a major round of cutbacks and reorganizations, if recommendations by the nation’s defense chief are accepted by the government and approved by parliament. The changes—presented by Gen. Sverre Diesen and published Nov. 5—are designed to enable the forces to maintain operational credibility at a time of shrinking budgets and high procurement costs.
