GKN Westland Helicopters has rolled out the first of seven new Mk88A Super Sea Lynx rotorcraft for the German navy. The latest version of the Lynx is equipped with the Marconi Sea Spray 3000 radar and powered by Rolls-Royce GEM-42 engines. Armed with BAe Matra Dynamics Sea Skua air-to-surface missiles, the Mk88A will be used on German navy Type 122 and 123 frigates.
The Pentagon is reconsidering its decision not to buy Lockheed Martin C-130J transport airplanes in the next two years, and that could help Lockheed Martin improve an earnings picture that has become bleak and resulted in a second quarter loss of $41 million.
Spikestm Needle Strips have been used effectively to deter birds, and consequently bird excrement, from airport runway and ancillary lights and signage. The 12-in. sections are easy to install--they can be glued, nailed or screwed onto surfaces as needed without interfering with electrical wiring or connections. The plastic spikes do not harm birds. The product is a simpler, less-expensive solution than ultra-sonic devices and also has saved some airports 200 man-hours a year in cleanup costs. Bird-X, 300 North Elizabeth, Chicago, Ill. 60607.
ACC Bomber Triad--The B-52s, B-1s, and B-2s of Air Combat Command. Don Logan, author of several aircraft-related books, presents the roll call of ACC's bombers with a history of all 208 bombers since June 1992, along with special weapons such as AGM-84 Harpoon, ALCM/CALCM AGM-129 ACM, and AGM-142 Have Nap. With more than 700 color photographs, this book is a valuable addition to an aviation-related library. Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 4880 Lower Valley Road, Atglen, Pa. 19310.
Travelocity, the online airline and travel booking site, recorded $301 million in gross sales for the first six months of 1999. The figure exceeds the site's entire 1998 sales of $285 million. Travelocity is owned and operated by Sabre. To date Sabre has sold more than 3 million airline tickets online. Travelocity logs more than 65 million ``page views'' per month.
Recent activities at the Surrey Space Centre have concentrated on the UoSAT-12 minisatellite. The communications transponder payload, MERLION has an L-band uplink and an S-band downlink. The transponder supports analog, digital-DSP and digital-regenerative communications modes, as well as acting as a high-speed data downlink channel. Note a New Orleans landmark--the Superdome (the perfectly circular, white object in the town center, easily confused with nearby clouds). Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd., University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 5XH, U.K.
Mary Groves has been appointed chief financial officer/treasurer and Cecil Sloan manager of sales and marketing of West Star Aviation, Grand Junction, Colo. Greg Laabs has been promoted to vice president-operations from director of maintenance. He has been succeeded by Don Clark, who has been promoted from assistant director of maintenance.
Pratt&Whitney plans to start testing the first PW6000 engine this month, after completing the ``last bolt'' ceremony on July 21. The 16,000-24,000-lbf.-thrust turbofan is designed for new 100-passenger transports and will be the first engine certified on the Airbus Industrie A318, with TWA as the launch airline. First flight on board the A318 is set for autumn 2001 with entry into service a year later. Pratt&Whitney expects to start flight testing the PW6000 on its Boeing 720 testbed in April 2000.
The enhanced microgage machinery alignment kit is an innovative measuring and alignment system for industrial uses. Precision of 0.00002 in. and alignments over a range of 50 ft. are possible. The kit includes a battery powered laser transmitter that projects a thin line of laser light forming a centerline reference. A digital receiver, moved along the laser beam, provides a precise measure of receiver orientation on a digital display.
Terry Kriebel has become director of human resources for the Cessna Aircraft Co., Wichita, Kan. She held the same position for the General Motors Truck Group.
Alliance Coatings Inc. can provide exact aircraft paint matching for Jet Glo and Acry Glo urethane coatings. ACI's new color spectrophotometer can match an aircraft's original color and ship the fully compliant polyester urethane rapidly. The company also installs mixing systems for aircraft painting facilities. Alliance Coatings Inc., 1662 N. Magnolia Ave., Suite 2, El Cajon, Calif. 92020.
Lockheed Martin's Aeronautics Sector went ``live'' with SAP software at the company's Aircraft&Logistics Center in Greenville, S.C., on June 21 after nearly a year of installation effort. The sector is engaged in a $300-400-million reengineering effort that includes installation of SAP enterprise resource planning software (ERP) first at Greenville, then at the Skunk Works in Palmdale, Calif., in March 2000, the Aeronautical Systems unit in Marietta, Ga., and finally at the Tactical Aircraft Systems unit in Fort Worth in January 2001 (AW&ST Jan. 25, p. 70).
Reflecting a worldwide effort to reduce airline accidents, the airline industry-led safety coalition known as the Global Analysis Information Network has changed its name to Global Aviation Information Network. But the chief purpose remains unchanged: collect and analyze flight information to share with airlines and use it proactively to improve safety. Although six U.S. carriers already are participating, GAIN officials expect several more airlines to join the program by year-end, chiefly because of key changes made recently by the FAA.
For the second time this year, there is renewed talk of an aviation trade war between the U.S. and Europe, this one over the phase-out of subsidies that the continent's governments provide to their manufacturing consortium, Airbus Industrie.
Rockwell Collins plans to acquire Intertrade Ltd., a Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based avionics spare parts supplier, to expand the company's service business. Intertrade specializes in the purchase, lease, exchange and sale of used electronics and avionics equipment. The acquisition is scheduled to be completed in September.
Sam Symonds has been named senior vice president/manager of the Aerospace Div. and David Wright senior manager of aerospace field applications for Co-Operative Industries of Fort Worth.
NASA's long-awaited Chandra X-ray Observatory was a year late to the launch pad due to a variety of technical problems. Last week, the project's scientists had to wait some more as two launches of Space Shuttle Columbia were scrubbed, one in dramatic fashion less than a half-second before the main engines were to ignite.
Q. Todd Dickinson has been nominated for promotion to assistant U.S. Commerce secretary and commissioner of patents and trademarks from deputy assistant secretary/deputy commissioner.
The State of California has wasted $250 million on failed software projects, providing examples of how not to manage them. One child support program consumed $111 million before being canceled. A report in the July 12 Los Angeles Times listed the problems. The state contracting process is lengthy, resulting in obsolete technology. The government lacks computer expertise and is slow to adopt new technology. Though Silicon Valley is one of California's strengths, its high salaries siphon talent from government.
Lou Cambardella has been appointed deputy of the Information Processing Div. of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He succeeds Carl Staton, who is now director of central operations for the National Weather Service.
Getting a jump on the official Pentagon analysis of the Kosovo air campaign, which won't be completed for at least two months, senior military and aerospace industry officials say they have identified several critical problem areas that emerged from the bombing of Yugoslavia.
Air India says it needs high-capacity aircraft for both short- and medium-range flights. Its plan to spend $1 billion on new aircraft is likely to emphasize short-range twinjets, pitting the Boeing 767 against the Airbus A330-200, rather than the longer-range 777 and A340. Airline officials said this reflects a change in India's civil aviation policy, which is placing a greater emphasis on developing international gateways from secondary cities rather than continue the heavy reliance on New Delhi and Mumbai.
John C. Hall has been named executive director of the Seattle-based Washington Aerospace Alliance. He succeeds Dick Skogerson, who is now a senior marketing executive for Devtek Aerospace. Hall was vice president-marketing and sales for DuganAir.
The growing sophistication of commercial-off-the-shelf software tools is enabling aerospace engineers and designers to quickly develop simulations for conducting realistic evaluations of notional aircraft and cockpit layouts.
A proposed alliance between Airborne Express and the U.S. Postal Service could significantly increase Airborne's share of the business-to-residential express package market as consumers shift to shopping online. Seattle-based Airborne, which has long eschewed low-margin residential deliveries, has begun tests on a new, economical deferred delivery service in conjunction with the Post Office and about eight of its major corporate clients.
