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UPDATE 
Week ending February 20, 2000
+++ EADS management takes shape +++ Shuttle radar mapping mission under way +++ Baden-Wuerttemberg orders two EC 155Bs +++ Lufthansa delivers first Airbus A319 Corporate Jetliner +++ News in brief +++

EADS management takes shape
Führungskräfte der EADS bekanntgegeben

The top executive management of the future European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) is now complete. On February 14, the two designated chairmen of the new company, Dr. Manfred Bischoff and Jean-Luc Lagardère, announced the planned appointments to the Executive Committee. They will still have to be confirmed by the EADS board once the company has been officially set up after approval by regulatory and supervisory authourities.
In addition to Camus (51) and Hertrich (50), the following will be nominated to the Executive Committee, the central management board for business operations: Noel Forgeard (53) as CEO and Gustav Humbert (50) as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Airbus Divison; Dietrich Russell (58) as head of the Aeronautic Division; Alberto Fernandez (50) as head of the Military Transport Aircraft Division and chairman of the board of CASA; François Auque (43) as head of the Space Systems Division; and Thomas Enders (41) as Head of the Defence and Civil Systems Division. The Executive Committee also includes Chief Financial Officer Dr. Axel Arendt (50); Jean-Luis Gergorin (53), who is responsible for Strategic Coordination, and Jean-Paul Gut (38), who will head Marketing. The members of the board of directors will be named at a later time.
There will be a significant staff change at Eurocopter. Patrick Gavin will leave the dual top management of the helicopter manufacturer to return to Aerospatiale Matra, where he will be given other responsibilities. He will be replaced by Jean-François Bigay, who served as co-president of the company from 1992 to 1998.

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Shuttle radar mapping mission under way
Radamission erfolgreich trotz kleiner Probleme

Despite some problems with a nitrogen stabilisation thruster on top of the antenna mast, the radar mapping mission of Space Shuttle Endeavour went smoothly in the first few days. Engineers are working on a number of small fuel saving measures to avoid shortening the mission by about a day. As of Wednesday, NASA was optimistic that a solution can be worked out, as the mast is more stable and Endeavour needs less effort to keep it steady
The mission had begun with the successful liftoff from Cape Canaveral on Friday, February 11, at 6:43 pm (CET). Main payload is: the German radar instrument X-SAR, developed and built under the industrial leadership of Dornier Satellitensysteme GmbH, a company of DaimlerChrysler Aerospace AG (Dasa/Munich). Designated "Shuttle Radar Topography Mission" (SRTM), X-SAR and its U.S. counterpart, SIR-C, are performing high-precision three-dimensional mapping of the Earth's landmasses. For such missions, radar sensors have many advantages to offer: they work by day and by night, and they also penetrate clouds. The method planned for SRTM, the so-called radar interferometry, is the technologically most advanced and effective method for capturing topographic information. Two antenna sets, one in the orbiter's cargo bay, the other mounted on the end of a long boom, will view the Earth like a pair of eyes and generate a "stereo picture" from which height information can be determined. Up to now, the best global database has provided only every 1,000 meters a point with an accuracy of 100 meters in height. The SRTM sensors will provide every 30 meters a point surveyed with an accuracy of 6 meters in height. This worldwide unique database will offer manifold possibilities of exploitation, for instance, in the fields of mobile radio communication (radio-wave propagation), navigation, water resources, disaster management (prevention, operation, evaluation), traffic infrastructure planning and weather forecasting/climate modeling. Organizations from 25 states have already ordered these data.

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Baden-Wuerttemberg orders two EC 155Bs
Eurocopter EC 155 für Polizei in Baden-Württemberg

The Ministry of the Interior of Baden-Wuerttemberg has ordered two EC 155Bs for their Police Helicopter Squadron in the light transport helicopter (LTH) version. It thus complements MD Helicopters Exporers ordered recently. In a space of about only two years since its official launch onto the market, 31 Eurocopter EC 155s have already been sold. Up to now the main customers have been the German Federal Border Guard with 13 aircraft ordered and the Hong Kong "Governmental Flight Service" with 5 aircraft. The equipment of the two police helicopters ordered by Baden-Wuerttemberg includes a homing device, searchlight, weather radar, single pilot IFR, the NVG compatible "Avionique Nouvelle" glass cockpit system and an autopilot. Delivery is due for March 2001. The missions of the EC 155 B will range from police hunts, the coordination of ground troops from the air and surveillance tasks to the transportation of police units. The procurement of these two helicopters is to be seen in the context of the modernisation of the police mission equipment of Baden-Wuerttemberg. For this, the Government of Baden-Wuerttemberg has decided on a "Future Technology Programme" for DM 680 mill. which, among many other projects, also envisages the renewal of the existing transport helicopters.

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Lufthansa delivers first Airbus A319 Corporate Jetliner
A319CJ von Lufthansa Technik geliefert

On February 16, at the VIP Center of Lufthansa Technik AG (LHT) in Hamburg a ceremony was held at which the first A319 Corporate Jetliner (ACJ) was formally delivered to the customer, a European government. During the past six months the aircraft has been undergoing customization in accordance with the customer's wishes. After the official delivery ceremony it will be flying in the service of the Italian Government. Built into the ACJ's cabin interior are conference areas with a complete set of seats for long-distance flights.

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NEWS IN BRIEF / KURZMELDUNGEN

The innovative aerospike engine that will power the X-33 Advanced Technology Demonstrator reached a significant milestone at NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center in south Mississippi on Feb. 3 with its longest test to date and the first demonstration of the engine's full thrust vector control. A NASA / Boeing Rocketdyne team tested the XRS-2200 Linear Aerospike Engine for 125 seconds. This test was the longest test run to date at 100 percent power, exceeding the previous test by 30 seconds. The successful test also marked the first demonstration of plus or minus 15 percent thrust vector control. The test also demonstrated engine operation at varied power levels and tested different mixture ratios. Initial test data indicates satisfactory engine performance throughout the test. The XRS-2200 engine was developed and assembled by Boeing Rocketdyne Propulsion & Power, Canoga Park, Calif. The engine will power the X-33, a half-scale, sub-orbital technology demonstrator of Lockheed Martin's proposed, commercial reusable launch vehicle called VentureStarTM.
+++
In just four years of operation, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft has found 102 comets, making it by far the most successful comet-hunter in history. Calculations have shown that the latest comets discovered with SOHO are previously unknown (undiscovered) comets, with the 102nd comet observed by Dr. Douglas Biesecker, of SM&A, Vienna, VA, and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, a member of the SOHO team personally responsible for 45 of the discoveries. A cooperative project between the European Space Agency and NASA, SOHO has revolutionized solar science. It also revealed an amazing number of suicidal comets plunging into the solar atmosphere. Ten comets discovered by SOHO, including SOHO # 100, 101 and 102, passed the Sun at a safe distance. However, the rest of the SOHO comets vaporized in the solar atmosphere. Near misses are well known, and 100 years ago Heinrich Kreutz in Kiel, Germany, realized that several comets seen buzzing the Sun seemed to have a common origin, because they came from the same direction among the stars. These comets are now called the Kreutz sungrazers, and the 92 vanishing SOHO comets belong to that class.
+++
The first of 20 C-130Js on order for the Aeronautica Militare Italiana (AMI) made its first flight on February 11. The aircraft, company number 5495, took to the skies shortly after 0900. The aircraft will now enter its flight test program prior to being delivered to Italy later this year. The Italian configuration is among the most sophisticated yet developed for the aircraft. It has a highly advanced suite of communications and defensive systems equipment. This includes U/VHF combined multi-band radios and a laser warning receiver system. In addition, it will be the first C-130J "receiver-tanker" built. First delivery of aircraft to AMI is scheduled for mid-2000. They will be based at Pisa in Italy as part of the 46th Air Brigade
+++
NASA's X-43A hypersonic air-breathing vehicle recently underwent controlled radio frequency testing at Edwards Air Force Base, Edwards, Calif., in the Benefield Anechoic Facility (BAF). Housed in the BAF is the anechoic chamber, a building within a building. Measuring 264 x 250 x 70 feet, the BAF's anechoic chamber is the largest in the world, capable of testing planes as big as the B-52 and C-17. Hanging by one of two 40-ton hoists, the 12-foot-long X-43A was the smallest vehicle ever tested in the BAF. The X-43A tests measured the S-band telemetry transmitter and C-band transponder antennas to determine if the antennas send and receive signals and information properly. The X-43A project is limited to three actual flights with vehicles that cannot be reused. This makes advance ground testing of the X-43A imperative. The BAF can accommodate these tests in a controlled environment, free from stray electronic signals.
+++
The Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet garnered the highest possible rating coming out of operational evaluation when it was declared operationally effective and operationally suitable. That was the official finding of the U.S. Navy's Operational Test and Evaluation Force announced by the Navy. Naval aviators from Air Test and Evaluation Squadron Nine (VX-9) at Naval Air Warfare Center-Weapons Division China Lake, Calif., conducted OPEVAL of the Super Hornet. After flying more than 850 sorties and putting the aircraft through a complex variety of tactical missions representing the operational arena, VX-9 pilots drafted their official report for Navy leadership. As is the case with all such reports, details other than the overall conclusion are classified. OPEVAL began in May 1999 and concluded two weeks ahead of schedule on
Nov. 16. The National Aeronautic Association recently announced that it had selected the Super Hornet to receive the Collier Trophy recognizing the top aeronautical achievement in the United States for 1999.
+++
Northrop Grumman has been awarded a $93.7 million contract for engineering, manufacturing and development of the U.S. Navy's Vertical Takeoff and Landing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (VTUAV) system. The competitively awarded, cost-plus incentive fee/award fee contract includes options for three low-rate initial production systems. The company's VTUAV system was developed at the Ryan Aeronautical Center in San Diego, part of ISA's Air Combat Systems business unit based in El Segundo, Calif. Northrop Grumman's Model 379 VTUAV air vehicle is based on an upgraded version of the Schweizer Model 330SP manned helicopter.
+++
Star Alliance continued its efforts to provide its customers with seamless travel at Rio de Janeiro International Airport Galeão - Antonio Carlos Jobim when VARIG Brazilian Airlines and United Airlines moved out of their separate quarters in terminal 1 into joint facilities at terminal 2, with Star Alliance partner Lufthansa German Airlines to follow shortly. The three carriers will be co-located in the check-in area and share new lounge facilities in the terminal. Their aircraft will be parked close together making transfers easy for passengers, including those of Star Alliance partners codesharing with VARIG, United and Lufthansa to and from Rio.
+++
US Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen has announced the 25th round of overseas base closures. They include the fact that Headquarters U.S. Air Forces in Europe will cease operations at the Soesterberg Collocated Operating Base in the Netherlands.
+++
NASAs NEAR spacecraft made a successful approach to the Eros comet on February 14. "So far, what we've seen is better than what we expected," said Dr. Andrew Cheng, NEAR project scientist. "Eros has a fascinating story." The details of that story will take months to uncover, but the early science returns from NEAR's final approach and Feb. 14 meeting with Eros offer glimpses of complex surface features, colors representing various minerals, layers and grooves within craters, and small boulders scattered across the space rock. For example, the first image taken after NEAR went into orbit shows a crater 6 kilometers wide in the center of the asteroid - and a boulder that appears to have rolled into it. "Gravity on Eros is small - about one thousandth of what is here on Earth - so that's a crater that you could easily jump out of if you were on Eros," said Dr. Joseph Veverka, who leads the NEAR imaging team. +++
+++
On February 11, a Russian Proton-K booster rocket launched an Indonesian communications satellite from the Baikonur cosmodrome of Kazakhstan. The 4.5-ton Garuda-1 satellite, manufactured by the U.S. Lockheed Martin corporation and commissioned by Indonesia's Asia Cellular Satellite company, will serve a mobile communications system for the Asia Pacific region, the Itar-Tass news agency reported. The launch was the first by a Proton rocket since Kazakhstan lifted a ban in early February on the use of Proton rockets from Baikonur.
+++
Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems-Akron, with its partners -- Stratcom International and others -- have developed an unmanned lighter-than-air vehicle that would operate above the jet stream and above severe weather in a geostationary position to serve as a telecommunications relay, a weather observer, or a peacekeeper from its over-the-horizon perch. This updated concept of a tried and proven technology takes lighter-than- air vehicles beyond the surface exclamations of: "Look, there's the Goodyear blimp." As a matter of fact, the Akron, Ohio, Lockheed Martin business unit supports the tire company's blimp fleet as the FAA certificated manufacturer and maintenance provider.
+++
The Association of European airlines has published its first survey of delay data, detailing the performance of the major European airlines at 27 key airports. According to AEA, every single month in 1999 saw a new all-time high delay rate. Overall, 30,3 per cent of all flights last year were delayed more tahn 15 minutes, a super worse performance against 22,8 per cent in 1998 and 15 per cent in 1993/94. A monthly figure of below 20 per cent has not been recorded since March 1998. The most notorious airport for delays in 1999 wad Milan Malpensa, with 54 per cent of flights not on time, followed by Madrid (48 per cent) and Barcelona (47,9 per cent). Munich was fith with 36,7 per cent, Frankfurt recorded 33,5 per cent and Duseldorf 23,6 per cent.
+++
MTU, SNECMA, Fiat Avio and ITP have formalised their agreement to develop the M138 engine for the A400M - should that military transport be built and should they be selected over a rival bid from Rolls-Royce. The have formed the Turboprop International GmbH, located at Munich, with one third each for MTU and SNECMA, 22 per cent for Fiat-Avio and 12 per cent for ITP. With this action, the have countered alleged pressure that the two projects should be merged. President of the new company is Nicola Marmo from Fiat-Avio.
+++

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Previous updates are still available:
Die News der letzten Wochen sind weiter abrufbar:

*February 13, 2000 *February 6, 2000

*January 30, 2000 *January 23, 2000 *January 16, 2000 *January 9, 2000

*December 19, 1999 *December 12, 1999 *December 5, 1999

*November 28, 1999 *November 21, 1999 *November 14, 1999 *November 7, 1999

*October 31, 1999 *October 24, 1999 *October 17, 1999 *October 10, 1999 *October 3, 1999

*January to September 1999 *January to December 1998 *January to December 1997 *September to December 1996

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