Marconi plans to introduce at next week's Paris air show a new Autonomous Landing Guidance system that overlays millimeter-wave radar imagery on a cockpit head-up display.
A decision on Israel's $2.5-billion fighter competition, which pits Lockheed Martin's F-16 against Boeing's F-15, will be postponed by up to a month. Prime Minister-elect Ehud Barak wants the decision to be made by the new government he is now forming, which should be in place by July. Defense Secretary Moshe Arens was ready to announce a winner last week, reportedly the F-16, but deferred to Barak. The delay will mean Boeing will have to continue spending its own resources to sustain the F-15 production line, which would have to shut down without an Israeli order.
Indian officials are seeking an international partner to finance the bulk of a joint venture to build an international airport at Devanhalli, near Bangalore. Airports Authority of India has signed a memorandum of understanding with Karnataka State Industrial Investment and Development Corp. to set up the joint venture for the $370-million project. The authority envisions it and KSIIDC each providing 13% of the equity, and the international partner the rest. Authority officials said construction should start in mid-July and be completed within 36 months.
A Pentagon effort to develop miniature weapons has prompted researchers to launch a program aimed at cutting the size of propulsion systems. ``A limiting factor to reducing the size of aerospace vehicles is that the currently available military-rated propulsion systems are large,'' defense officials told industry recently. To address that situation, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has kicked off the Small Scale Propulsion Systems program to ``enable the development of a new class of small-scale weapons and aerospace vehicles.''
A review of 120 airport systems for potential glitches related to Year 2000 computer date rollover has revealed ``surprisingly few'' problems to date, according to representatives from the U.S. Air Transport Assn. and International Air Transport Assn. (AW&ST Apr. 19, p. 52). Many of those problems are cosmetic, such as improper date print-out on reports. Specifically, some airport badge access security systems failed to operate in tests. Most of these were installed in the mid-1980s and ``failed-safe,'' or refused to open, according to Thomas J.
Gen. Chief Inspector Carmine Cianci is the new general manager of the NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency (NETMA). He was chief of the Italian Aeronautical Engineering Corps and succeeds Jack Gordon of the British Ministry of Defense, who has retired. John Antony Hartford, director of contracts (air) at the ministry, has become NETMA commercial director. Brig. Gen. Yago Fernandez de Bobadilla y Bufala of the Spanish air force has been named director of operations and engineering.
FAA has authorized Portland International Airport to use part of its $3 Passenger Facility Charge to help finance a connection to the city's light rail system. Portland has collected a PFC since 1992. The Port of Portland, which operates the airport, plans to sell PFC-backed bonds to pay for its share of the rail link. The rail extension from Portland's Gateway Transit Center to the airport is estimated to cost $125 million, an expense which will be divided among the port, the City of Portland, the regional transit agency and the Cascades Stations Development Co.
Airbus Industrie partners remain at odds in their views on the consortium's long-overdue single corporate entity. In addition, behind-the-scenes disagreements cloud the newly launched A318 twinjet and the proposed A3XX very-large-transport airplane's schedule and final assembly responsibility.
Pratt&Whitney has begun assembly of its first PW6000, a 16,000-24,000-lb.-thrust, low-operating-cost, high-reliability turbofan aimed at reasserting the engine-maker's one-time dominance of the 100-seat-transport propulsion market.
``We must deplore the totally preventable ATC crisis'' in Europe,'' IATA Director General Pierre Jeanniot told the association's annual general meeting in Rio de Janeiro last week. Jeanniot previously said air travelers in Europe are suffering from ``unacceptably high delays this year'' that at times have run more than 250% higher than during the same period in 1998. He blamed delays in part on the European Union and individual nations' ``rationing'' of airspace. Jeanniot said the delays will worsen this summer unless urgent improvements are made.
Ram C. Menen, senior general manager of cargo for Emirates and president of The International Air Cargo Assn. in 1995-96, has been elected chairman of its Presidents Council. Other past TIACA presidents serving on the council are: Robert S. Arendal, James H. Jackson, Richard Jackson, Walter H. Johnson, Jr., Bill F. Spohrer and W.R. Christopher Foyle.
Geoffrey Thomas; (Michael A. Taverna contributed to this story from Paris.)
The signing of a memorandum of understanding with a government-backed Malaysian company signals a major push by Italy's Alenia Aerospazio to expand its presence in aircraft activities for Asian markets, especially for its C-27J Spartan light tactical transport. The May 28 MOU paves the way for Aerospace Industries Malaysia (AIM) to engage in subcontracting, manufacturing or both, and could lead to the company's becoming a major Alenia supplier, Alenia President Giorgio Zappa said here.
GenCorp Aerojet has won a $9-million, four-year contract from PRC Inc., a Litton Industries subsidiary, to provide Mark VI attitude control systems for NASA sounding rockets.
More than 25% of engineering work unique to the new 737-900 transport has been completed and the program is on schedule, according to Boeing. First flight of the stretched version of the 737-800 is planned for August 2000, with initial deliveries to Alaska Airlines scheduled for April 2001. A total of 40 737-900s have been ordered by Alaska, Continental, KLM and Korean Air. The 737-900 fuselage is 138 ft. long, about 9 ft. longer than the 737-800.
Low-cost carrier Ryanair posted increased pretax profits for the ninth year in a row, up 17% to $79.3 million in the year ended Mar. 31. The Irish carrier's profits have nearly doubled since it began expanding operations into Europe from its hub at London Stansted Airport two years ago. Ryanair expects to reach the 6-million-passenger mark this year with 40% traveling on its U.K.-European routes.
Dutch scheduled and charter carrier Transavia Airlines has ordered four Boeing next-generation 737-800s and placed options for 12 more. The transports will join eight previously ordered 737-800s. By midyear, the carrier will operate an all-Boeing fleet of seven 737-800s, 13 -300s and four 757-200s.
NASA's Lunar Prospector will end its 18-month mission on July 31 when ground controllers attempt a direct hit of a permanently shadowed crater near the Moon's south pole. The idea is to splash up to 40 lb. of water vapor into the lunar atmosphere. This vapor may be detectable from ground and space-based observatories. Prospector has found some evidence of water ice on the Moon but an identification of water vapor or its by-product, OH, would provide definite proof.
DGA French armaments agency has awarded a $74-million contract to Thomson-CSF to develop and produce the Multifunctional Information Distribution System. It will enable information exchange and coordination between the French forces' air defense system, army helicopters and battlefield surveillance units.
Airports Authority of India officials are preparing a feasibility study of building an international airport at Darkata, in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh. A plateau about 1.25 mi. long is being eyed as a possible site. There are three airports in the state; Simla and Kulu airports are served by Indian Airlines, but Gaggal has no scheduled airline service.
The first Boeing 717-200 production aircraft has successfully completed a 10-day simulated airline program. The Pre-Aircraft Certification Airline Simulated Operation was intended to demonstrate the twinjet's operational performance as well as the ground support capabilities of AirTran Airways, the launch customer for the 717 program (see p. 50).
AeroPeru's creditors, agreeing to restructure the bankrupt air carrier, have accepted a Continental Airlines' proposal to establish a strategic partnership. The two airlines are proposing a partnership involving an investment by Continental and a joining of frequent flier programs. In addition, an AeroPeru-Continental hub at Peru's capital, Lima, may be a possible outcome. The two airlines also would share computer reservations systems codes, which would allow each airline to sell tickets for flights, connecting the two networks.
Loss-ridden Trans World Airlines has survived through the 1990s due mainly to a level of cooperation between labor and management that has been a model for the rest of the industry. Now the two sides are on a collision course that could lead to the demise of the U.S.' eighth largest carrier. Later this month, nearly 16,000 TWA employees represented by the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) will vote on a proposed contract that Chairman and CEO William Compton pledges is the company's ``best and final'' offer.
The Air Force has neglected electronic warfare, according to a panel headed by Rand's Natalie Crawford. The Electronic Warfare Panel's study won't be completed until August, but the group is expected to urge that EW management be returned to the Air Warfare Center. EW became part of ``information operations'' after the retirement of F-4G Wild Weasel and EF-111 Raven aircraft. ``Management of EW was lowered in priority and atrophied,'' one senior defense official explained. ``It was buried in with information warfare, psychological operations and information attack.
A sluggish economy in Japan and throughout Asia weighed down fiscal 1998 results for Japan Airlines, but the airline has agreed to pay a slight dividend for the year--its first in seven years. The dividend was a mere 3 yen per share (2 cents) on operating revenues of 1.15 trillion yen ($9.58 billion), down 5.1% from fiscal 1997. But JAL's net income of 26.3 billion yen marked a turnaround from the previous year, when it lost 94.1 billion yen.
John Whalley has become chief executive of the Northwest Aerospace Alliance, formerly known as the Consortium of Lancashire Aerospace. He was a senior director at British Aerospace.
