A soft business jet market will cost about 800 Bombardier Aerospace employees their jobs. The company expects to cut about 550 people at its Tucson Completion Center, which works on various Bombardier business jet models, and about 250 people at its Wichita factory that assembles Lear 31A, Lear 45 and Lear 60 business jets. The workforce reduction will take place over the next 12 months.
British air traffic management provider National Air Traffic Services (NATS) is pushing to be allowed to modify planned reductions in en route charges as a result of the post-Sept. 11 commercial air travel downturn. Under a deal hammered out with the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in mid-2001, NATS en route charges were to be cut by 4% in 2003, followed by further cuts of 5% in 2004 and 2005. As a result of the traffic dropoff, NATS will apply to the CAA later this month to reevaluate the pricing structure, a process expected to take three months.
Malaysia Airlines said it expects to raise 5.6 billion ringgit ($1.5 billion) from the sale of six 747-400s and two 777-200ERs in a lease-back agreement to raise cash to pay down debt.
There are many books available on aircraft to be found in dusty bins and as new editions in book stores. As an aircraft enthusiast, I have looked at many of these over the years. Some are so weighted down with technical detail, they are only used for reference. Other books discuss specific aircraft and their attributes, but often do not give you a sense of history. And as we all know, every aircraft flying has tales of challenges, woes and triumphs following in their slipstream.
FAA Administrator Jane Garvey is just as averse to letting up on efforts to manage aviation demand as she is on backing off from those to expand capacity. Announcing revisions--but no slowdown--of her agency's 10-year plan to improve air traffic control systems and procedures (AW&ST Jan. 7, p. 22), Garvey said it's time to resume deliberations toward market-based demand-management measures at airports--congestion and peak-hour pricing, slot auctions and the like. The agency sought public comment on the issue last Aug. 21 but suspended the Nov.
BOEING PHANTOM WORKS has evaluated a solid state cooling technology that could offer lighter, more efficient, localized cooling in the future, and has taken the right of first refusal for aerospace applications, according to research and development company Borealis Exploration Limited. Borealis' Cool Chips thermal-management approach uses a form of a vacuum diode, that pumps heat from one side of the chip to the other for localized cooling. The thermionic technology delivers up to 80% of the maximum theoretical (Carnot) efficiency for heat pumps, according to Borealis.
The BoltMike III ultrasonically measures tension and clamp load of threaded fasteners. The instrument weighs 2.5 lb. and has an easy-to-read display. It runs up to 40 hr. on standard ``AA'' batteries. Typical applications include control of tightening of critical bolted joints in engines and structures; and verifying tension on bolts clamping wheel assemblies. The product is manufactured in a facility with processes conforming to ISO9001, and it has a two-year warranty on parts and labor, excluding transducer and cables. StressTel, 2790 W. College Ave., State College, Pa.
Avionics software is often certified to the DO-178B standard, and Virtual Prototypes has been working on an embedded graphics development tool to help them produce qualified code (AW&ST May 15, 2000, p. 19). Virtual Prototypes is now shipping its Qualifiable Code Generator to initial customers and says it is the first such tool to be made under DO-178B standards itself, which should speed its customers' qualification processes. These customers include Boeing, EADS, Rockwell Collins, Smiths Industries, Barco, Eurocopter, Datel Defence and Elbit Systems.
For estimation of lift, drag, pitching moment and other parameters of three-dimensional wings, Hanley Innovations has introduced WingAnalysis Plus. The program can export airfoils to CAD programs. Information is at www.hanleyinnovations.com. . . . Los Alamos National Laboratory has selected Oracle Corp. to provide an enterprise resource planning system. The contract is worth $4 million over four years, and the lab plans to hire an external integrator to work with the ERP project team.
The rail-type universal machining center is equipped with a high-speed, five-axis spindle head. Aerospace manufacturers using the machine include GenMech Aerospace and Precision Metalcraft, both of which produce primary aircraft structures. The unit features a traveling gantry for machining of extra-long aircraft components such as spars and stringers. The cast iron crossrail and ram provide 100 in. of Y-axis movement and 39.4 in. of vertical Z-axis movement. Continuous 360-deg. C-axis keeps the spindle in-cut without running out of C-axis or waiting for C-axis to unwind.
Robert H. Gray who was the NASA launch director or deputy director for 178 space missions flown from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., and Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., died at Cape Canaveral Hospital Jan. 8. He was 78. The launch operations he headed included five manned Apollo and Skylab flights. Gray retired from NASA in 1986 as Kennedy's Space Station and Advanced Projects manager after also serving as Kennedy's director of Unmanned Launch Operations and then head of the Shuttle Projects Office during the early years of the shuttle program.
The Multiplex 6100Y--the Y-axis drive is integrated in the turret's movement--brings together two spindles, two turrets and a turn/mill center in order to machine workpieces complete in a single setup. The twin-opposed spindles can work independently or continuously on the same workpiece to complete first and second operations. With the addition of the integral Y-axis, it can cut perpendicular to the spindle giving it machining capabilities such as drilling, milling or tapping on or off the centerline.
Telair International has introduced a bulletproof cockpit door material that weighs under 2 lb. per sq. ft., or roughly half what other bulletproof door panels weigh, according to company officials. The Telair panels contain a bulletproof coated Kevlar fabric about 1/4-in. thick inside the core. The fabric is a product of the company's research on blastproof cargo containers. The panels have glass phenolic face sheets, and thickness can be varied from 1/2-1 in. by altering the amount of Nomex honeycomb core.
Final assembly and painting have been completed on the first of five reproduction Messerschmitt Me262 jet fighters in preparation for installation of two General Electric J85 turbojet engines (without afterburners). The airplanes are being completed by the Me262 Project, based at Paine Field, Wash. The program is led by former Boeing vice president Bob Hammer. The twin-engine jets will be tested and certified in the FAA's Experimental Category by Wolfgang Czaia, a retired American Airlines captain.
The European Commission's competition directorate ratified a 120-million-euro ($108-million) capital injection in LTU guaranteed by North Rhine Westphalia. The troubled German charter operator was an affiliate of the Swissair Group and, in addition to its parent company's bankruptcy, was severely hit by the post-Sept. 11 market downturn. The bailout funding, a loan that must be reimbursed, helps to save 2,500 jobs, EC officials pointed out. Competitors such as Thomas Cook dispute the state-backed loan guarantee.
eReview 3.5 provides Web-based, interactive document review and conferencing capability, and has the ability to view and annotate more than 150 documents, drawings and CAD file formats in real-time over the Internet. Records of discussions and action logs are maintained and distributed via e-mail. Review documents are synchronized so that all attendees can view comments made by other team members. When deemed necessary, parts of a document can be blocked from certain attendees during an online meeting.
The Utah Olympic Public Safety Command (UOPSC) will use a Groen Brothers Aviation Hawk 4 Gyroplane for additional airborne security around the Salt Lake City International Airport during the 2002 Winter Games.
The Bush team's much-heralded Nuclear Posture Review repeats the Clinton Administration's mistakes of making Russia the chief target of U.S. strategic weapons, and failing to shift radically to conventional arms modernization, critics say. Defense insiders assign the blame largely to the military's classic bureaucratic inertia, but add that President Bush made the cardinal mistake of assigning the review to the Pentagon instead of the larger civilian defense establishment, including his own National Security Council. The result: the U.S.
Britain's fifth largest airport, Birmingham International, was closed for 48 hr. starting Jan. 4 following the fatal crash during takeoff of a Bombardier Challenger 604 business jet. The aircraft, serial No. 5414, was being operated by EPPS Aviation and had entered service in the third quarter of 1999. The flight was departing for Bangor, Maine. Some 400 commercial flights from Birmingham did not operate as a result of the crash, which is now under investigation by the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) of the government's Transport Dept.
Contrary to public perception, the number of people who survive airline accidents is frequently higher than those who die, and passengers can improve their chances of survival by becoming more familiar with emergency exit routes in the cabin and adhering to safety briefings. According to a report published by the Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) based on data provided by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, from 1983-2000 more than 95% of passengers survived accidents involving U.S.-based airlines, and 55% survived serious crashes.
Hispasat has selected Astrium to build a new satellite, dubbed Amazonas-1, to serve the Latin American market. Launch is tentatively set for 2003. The unit, which will weigh 4 metric tons (2,200 lb.) and generate 9.5 kw., will feature 51 C- and Ku-band transponders and is projected to cost about $270 million. Hispasat recently completed a C-band lease agreement for Amazonas-1 (AW&ST Dec. 10, 2001, p. 27). Amazonas-1 would be operated through a joint venture featuring Hispasat, Eutelsat and Telemar, a Brazilian telecom provider.
THE U.S. COAST GUARD will equip its HH-60 helicopters with C-Map/Aviation's EKP kneeboard-style moving map displays. GPS positions are integrated with Jeppesen aeronautical navigation information, and displayed on a color display on a 9 X 6 X 1.5-in. kneeboard. AvMap, based in Italy, produces C-MAP based GPS air and land navigation systems.
The Transportation Dept. has hired recruiter Korn/Ferry International to help find security directors for the largest 81 airports in the U.S. The directors, who senior Transportation Dept. officials are calling the ``backbone'' of the Transportation Security Administration, will manage the new workforce of federalized screeners of passengers and cargo at each of the 429 commercial service airports in the U.S.
Aerospace and defense companies seeking to exchange electronic data in a common format--which is essential to seamless supply chain integration--may find a practical solution in GoXML Transform.
A Titan IVB is scheduled to carry the Milstar II Flight 5 U.S. Air Force communications satellite into orbit Jan. 15 from Cape Canaveral Air Station. The Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co.-built satellite is the fifth in a six-satellite constellation (AW&ST Dec. 10, 2001, p. 74).
