Mike McClain (see photo) has been named director of business development for Pro Star Aviation, Manchester, N.H. He was vice president/general manager of West Star Aviation.
Sikorsky's final S-92 prototype, and the first to completely reflect the aircraft's planned production configuration, made its first flight at the company's Stratford, Conn., headquarters on Oct. 5. During the 1.9-hr. flight, pilots Robert Spaulding and Rick Becker completed a series of maneuvers that ``covered virtually the entire S-92 flight envelope,'' company officials said. Following additional tests to be completed over the next several weeks, the helicopter will fly to Sikorsky's Development Flight Center in West Palm Beach, Fla., for more trials.
Peter Bakker has been appointed CEO of Amsterdam-based TPG. He succeeds Ad Scheepbouwer, who is now head of KPN Telecom. Bakker has been chief financial officer.
Using a new process for continuous manufacturing of silicone-encapsulated ribbon cable, Cicoil says its cables provide improved life, performance and current-carrying capacity. The company's process, called 700X, produces cables with as many wires as necessary and in any length, with widths to 4.5 in. and thickness to 0.5 in. The ribbon cables are used in applications involving temperature and environmental extremes, vibration, shock and repetitive motion.
Marjorie K. DeLong (see photo) has been appointed director of marketing for SimuFlite Training International Inc., Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. She was manager of marketing and sales for the Americas for parent company GE Capital Aviation Training.
Battery technology from iQ Power Technology of Vancouver and Munich, combines a microprocessor, imbedded software and sensors into an integrated, computer-controlled energy management system. It can collect and store historic data and compute the state of charge and state of health. It addresses the major problem that traditional lead-acid batteries pose to equipment designers: unpredictability.
Spring-Fast grommet edging is designed to prevent electrical wire chafing and wear-critical issues that have come to prominence following the Trans World Airlines and Swissair accidents. The hardware is a composite grommet edging installed around the structural openings inside an aircraft, through which run wires linking electrical systems from nose to tail. Manufactured to replace nylon grommets, this product does not become brittle with time, according to the company, and does not require an adhesive for installation.
It's not often that the Defense Dept. is held up as an exemplar. But James O'Bryon, the Pentagon's operational test and evaluation guru for live-fire testing, may have a case here. He thinks FAA equivalents of several Defense Dept. institutions would help the civilian agency develop and field better airport explosives-detection systems. After reviewing FAA programs, O'Bryon told the House aviation subcommittee that the agency has no organization that provides for people in the field to test new equipment they and their cohorts might end up using.
James P. Donlan has been named president/CEO of Dallas Airmotive Inc., a subsidiary of BBA Aviation. He succeeds George Derby, who has resigned. Donlan has been vice president-sales and support for business and general aviation for Honeywell. Terry G. Scott has been appointed president/CEO of another BBA subsidiary, International Turbine Service Inc. He was senior vice president-sales and marketing for Dallas Airmotive.
Strong evidence accumulated last week that an errant missile was responsible for bringing down Siberian Airlines Flight 1812 on Oct. 4, killing 66 passengers and 12 crew on board. The flight was en route from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk, Russia, at about a 36,000-ft. altitude over the Black Sea.
Malaysia Airlines plans to eliminate 12 routes to Europe, South America, Australasia and East Asia beginning Oct. 28. As a result, the carrier will have eight surplus aircraft including three Boeing 747-400s and two 777-200s that have not been delivered. Managing Director Mohd Nor Mohd Yusof said there are signs that passenger bookings are on the rise, but he did not rule out additional changes to the route structure.
The Navy and Air Force are reassessing spending on missile programs. So far, the Air Force is coming out ahead. The Navy had shunned the Air Force-led Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile for several years, but was ordered to spend some money to make sure the F/A-18E/F could use it. The standoffish attitude is gone now. Speaking of Jassm, Rear Adm.
Tenzing Communications has created a strategic alliance with startup satellite operator AirTV that would allow the companies to jointly develop and provide live TV and high-speed Internet, and perhaps e-commerce services for airline passengers.
A new blueprint is emerging of how most aerospace/defense suppliers probably will work together in the future, and it has the potential to dramatically compress the time it takes to field new products and reduce life-cycle costs of everything from aircraft to spacecraft.
Moldite is a new lightweight, high-strength material suitable for a broad range of applications in aerospace and defense. The key to this thermal-set resin composite ``sandwich'' rests in its proprietary core. The material has an exceptionally high stiffness-to-weight ratio and offers an alternative to materials such as ultra high-strength steel and aluminum. With specific gravity for most Moldite structures under 1.0, the product will float on water.
China's Civil Aviation Administration has awarded Thales a $100-million contract to supply an integrated air traffic management system for the Northern, Eastern and Southern Area Control Center upgrade project. The system will include new en route control facilities at Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai, approach and control towers at Beijing, Hongqiao and Pudong, and a remote center in Tainjin. Automatic dependent surveillance and controller-pilot data link also will be included. The system is scheduled to begin operating in 2004.
This square-to-round transition for a cooling process is typical of complex metal-formed components and assemblies being produced by the company for commercial and military applications. The product has a square base of 7 in., a height of 4.5 in. and a thickness of 0.06 in. It is made of 3003-0 aluminum. This component and others like it are manufactured using hydroforming, spinning, turning and milling operations to produce finished products of aerospace quality.
Six Japanese air force C-130Hs carried 36 tons of blankets, tents and other supplies from Komaki air base in Aichi Prefecture near Nagoya to the Chaklala air base in Islamabad, Pakistan, last week. In addition to the supplies, Japan dispatched 150 military personnel to help dispense them. The aid was the first mission by Japan related to the U.S.-led anti-terrorism raids on Afghanistan. Japan acted in response to an appeal by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
A request for proposals for the Next Generation Space Telescope's science package has been issued by the Space Telescope Science Institute for the infrared observatory's ground-based systems, antennas and receivers (see p. 80). Selection of a joint U.S.-European science team will begin early next month to operate the NGST's mid-IR instrument, which is being developed by ESA. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory will build and test the instrument using optics from ESA (AW&ST Mar. 20, 2000, p. 76).
The Mitsubishi LE-7A engine that successfully powered the first prototype of Japan's H-IIA will be modified for the second test flight early next year. It will include a new inducer for the engine's liquid-hydrogen turbopump. Pre-launch engine-test data showed an abnormal fluid phenomena that caused a premature shutdown of the earlier LE-7 in November 1999 on the last mission. The phenomena could arise again on the LE-7A for the H-IIA. The inducer consists of a set of rotating blades that suck up low-pressure liquid.
Tim Ostrosky (see photos) has been named director of sales for Racal Instruments, Irvine, Calif. Terry Smith has become vice president and John Rosenwald business development manager of Racal's San Antonio-based Military-Aerospace Test Group. Ostrosky was national sales manager for integration. Smith was director of automatic test systems for Sunset Resources. Rosenwald was lead technical consultant for automatic test equipment for USAF.
