LOCATIONS

01 May 07. Forty years ago today, The Boeing Company opened the major assembly buildings of its Everett factory to build the first-ever jumbo jet — the 747. Four decades later, that factory has grown into the largest building in the world by volume and is home to every Boeing twin-aisle airplane program — 747, 767, 777 and 787 Programs. To date, Boeing employees at the Everett site have built and delivered more than 2,950 airplanes. To mark the milestone, Boeing hosted a ceremony with employees and local politicians in the Everett factory, located 30 miles north of Seattle. Boeing also launched a new Web site (http://www.boeing.com/everett40) featuring Boeing’s presence in Everett.

02 May 07. VT Shipbuilding has successfully delivered the third bow section of the Royal Navy’s new Type 45 Class of Anti Air Warfare Destroyer to BAE Systems Surface Fleet Solutions’ Govan shipyard in Glasgow. The 50m. forward section of HMS Diamond arrived in Scotland after a four-day transit from Portsmouth Naval Base where the 1,000 tons section was assembled at VT Shipbuilding’s state-of-the-art facilities. The funnel and mast sections will follow later this year.

Apr 07. 11 Squadron RAF: Re-formation. 11 Squadron re-formed at RAF Coningsby on 29 Mar 07, as the second Eurofighter Typhoon operational Squadron. 11 Squadron is tasked to lead development of the Typhoon’s air-to-ground capability.
Comment: 3 Squadron became the first Eurofighter Typhoon operational Squadron on 31 Mar 06, tasked with refining the aircraft’s air defence capability. 11 Squadron’s Commanding Officer is on record as saying that he “will be prepared and ready to deploy to Afghanistan next year”.(Source: DNA DEFENCE NEWS ANALYSIS, Issue 0717, 30 Apr 07)

25 Apr 07. Jaguar Aircraft: Leaving Service Early. The MoD announced (25 Apr 07) that the 10 Jaguar aircraft remaining in RAF service were to be withdrawn on 30 Apr 07. A disbandment parade and flypast at 6 Squadron, the last Jaguar Squadron, is planned for 25 May 07 at RAF Coningsby.
Comment: 6 Squadron had been due to disband on 31 Oct 07, when the Jaguar was to have met a revised out-of-service date. Media speculation that the last Jaguar have been withdrawn early “due to budget cuts” has been denied by the MoD, which added that there had been no plans to use the aircraft on Operations.(Source: DNA DEFENCE NEWS ANALYSIS, Issue 0717, 30 Apr 07)

26 Apr 07. IBM opens SOA Institute for agencies. IBM launched a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) center devoted to helping U.S. federal agencies adopt and benefit from SOA information technology initiatives. The announcement was made during IBM’s Federal SOA Executive Summit at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C. The IBM Federal SOA Institute is focused on three important mandates — innovation, solution development and testing, and education, company officials said. SOA allows organizations’ to more closely align IT technology with business goals. They can loosely link various software-based services using middleware technology to provide business applications. By doing so, organizations gain greater efficiencies, cost savings and enhanced flexibility to meet changing business needs. The IBM Federal SOA Institute includes dedicated technology and consulting resources to support federal organizations, and those serving this specialized community. A key goal of the institute will be to spur innovation by cultivating collaboration among IBM researchers, universities and federal agencies, IBM officials said. (Source: GCN)

30 Apr 07. The first squadron of F-35 Lightning IIs will go operational in 2012, but the system that will serve as the information backbone of the F-35 maintenance and support network is now up and running. The F-35 Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS) was formally switched on today during a ceremony at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics headquarters in Fort Worth. The ALIS environment, developed in conjunction with Lockheed