Turkey temporarily grounded its fleet of 50 CN-235s for inspections after a rudder jammed on one of the military transports, forcing an emergency landing. A Turkish air force official said a crack in the rudder locking pin mechanism was responsible for the problem. Cracks were found in the mechanisms in several other CN-235s, which were replaced.
Mooney Aircraft Corp. has filed for protection under Chapter 11 bankruptcy rules. The Kerrville, Tex.-based light airplane manufacturer has suffered from lagging sales in the weak economy and has been unable to pay its local tax bills. Only a small number of workers remain employed. The company is seeking additional funding from Congress to resume operations.
Suzanne M. Larsen (see photo) has been appointed vice president-operations for DY 4 Systems, Kanata, Ontario. She held the same position at Sedona Networks.
The FAA has certified a yaw stability augmentation system (Y-SAS) for MD Helicopters' MD 600N (see photo) that improves handling and resolves customer complaints about high pilot workload. The installation reduces the amount of cyclic and anti-torque pedal inputs required at cruise speeds, especially in turbulence, and improves the helicopter's stability during autorotation. The Y-SAS also eliminates a series of aerodynamic devices installed on the aircraft to upgrade handling characteristics during climb and descent.
Italian media group Euphon will invest more than 35 million euros ($30 million) in a new digital satellite platform to broadcast multimedia, video and other services to be offered by Eutelsat through its new Open Sky broadband network. The platform will transmit from an orbital slot at 7 deg. E. Long., one of three positions set aside for Open Sky (AW&ST Jan. 29, p. 40). Initially, the service package will be offered over Eutelsat's W3 spacecraft with a capacity of 34 Mbps., part of which has already been purchased by Euphon.
Boeing has significantly deepened its relationship with the soon-to-be-formed European weapons giant MBDA with a new agreement to cooperate on the U.S. company's Joint Direct Attack Munition.
Hiram Cox has become senior vice president/chief financial officer of the Central Parking Corp., Nashville, Tenn. He was senior vice president/controller of Northwest Airlines.
Aeroflot-Russian Airlines has started to see financial improvements as a result of its new strategic plan, but modernizing its fleet remains a major challenge.
Orbital Sciences Corp. and Lockheed Martin will perform design work on an alternate booster for the Pentagon's ground-based national missile defense system. The two study contracts were awarded by NMD prime contractor Boeing, which builds the current launcher for the kill vehicle. However, Boeing's design is more than a year behind schedule. Orbital's design revolves around a ground-launched, wingless Pegasus with a gimbaled nozzle used on the first stage. Details of the Lockheed Martin concept weren't immediately available.
With the Pentagon's most expensive aircraft contract and potential sales of as many as 6,000 aircraft at stake, Lockheed Martin and Boeing officials are beginning to analyze and make early claims about results from their just-completed flight test programs. Both Boeing and Lockheed Martin stop short of declaring victory in the Joint Strike Fighter competition, but in the narrow technological end of the contest, officials of each team say the data point in their favor.
US Airways, on its own again following the this-time-it's-final end of the merger with United Airlines, is back on familiar ground--doing battle with its pilots' union. The issue is what the company sees as a ``critical'' need for more regional jets.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is laying the groundwork for support of ambitious plans to launch about 25 planetary, astrophysics and Earth science missions over the next 10-15 years. Charles Elachi, director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), said the plans call for increasing the number of projects without significant growth in the laboratory's current annual budget of about $1.3 billion. By comparison, JPL conducted about 15 missions during the past decade, and developed only 4-5 spacecraft during each prior decade.
Hundreds of school students from seven states will be involved in 11 educational experiments being launched on the orbiter Discovery this week. The ``Shirt and Shoes Required'' experiment, sponsored by the Great Bridge Middle School in Chesapeake, Va., will assess the effect of radiation on fabrics. ``Imaging Media and Radiation Shielding,'' prepared by the Regina Catholic Education Center in Iowa City, Iowa, will compare the ability of various consumer-grade image storage techniques to perform after exposure to space radiation.
Delta Air Lines will petition the U.S. Transportation Dept. within two weeks for antitrust immunity with European SkyTeam alliance partners Air France, Alitalia and CSA Czech Airlines. An open skies aviation agreement between the U.S. and France, a precondition for immunity, is expected in September (see p. 48).
Low supplies of precision munitions are forcing the Air Force to use war reserves for training, Gen. John P. Jumper, the service's chief of staff nominee, told senators at his confirmation hearing. Supplies have been low since the 1999 Kosovo air war, and routine strikes against Iraqi air defenses have made them difficult to replenish. ``This is going to be a major point of emphasis for me,'' he assured senators. Congress' desire to have one-third of U.S. deep-strike aircraft assets be unmanned systems within the next decade has found a new disciple in Jumper.
The FAA has selected ITT to produce the ground radios for the next generation of air traffic control communication, which will mark the transition from analog voice to digital radios that transmit both voice and data link.
Completion of a second runway at Tokyo's Narita airport has prompted All Nippon Airways to add two freighters to its fleet, an 11th Boeing 747-400F and a 767-300F. Boeing has received the order for the 747 conversion and will undertake the work in Wichita using an ANA passenger aircraft. The $56-million job is to be completed by next April. ANA has not decided whether to lease or buy the 767, but intends for it to be in service by September 2002, serving southeast Asian and Chinese markets. New, the aircraft would cost about $81 million.
David O'Blenis has been named president of Raytheon Systems Canada Ltd. of Ottawa. He was chairman/president of Honeywell Canada. O'Blenis also is chairman of the Canadian NATO Industrial Advisory Group.
In a legislative triumph for the White House, the Republican-ruled House Armed Services Committee has approved the full $343.3-billion defense budget President Bush seeks for next year, including his more aggressive ballistic missile defense (BMD) program. But the conservative House panel, the Pentagon's closest ally on Capitol Hill, provided only slight increases for Fiscal 2002 weapons procurement and combat aircraft, heightening Democratic scorn for the Administration's campaign slogan, ``Help is on the way.''
Judy Graham-Weaver has been appointed vice president-marketing and development at the Chattanooga (Tenn.) Metropolitan Airport. She was director of marketing and public relations for Savannah (Ga.) International Airport.
Component problems and bad weather delayed nearly $1 billion in NASA and U.S. Air Force space mission hardware and operations last week. But the NASA/Lockheed Martin Genesis solar wind sample return spacecraft (see photo) and an Air Force/TRW Defense Support Program (DSP) missile warning mission were to be aloft by early this week.
James F. Gust (see photos) has been promoted to vice president of the Dallas-based Components Corp. of America from president of subidiary StacoSwitch, Costa Mesa, Calif. Richard Brown has been promoted to succeed Gust, from being vice president-marketing.
The end of the proposed United-US Airways merger means consolidation among U.S. hub-and-spoke airlines will not be an issue ``for at least two to three years,'' Delta Air Lines Chairman and CEO Leo Mullin believes.
