Enigma Inc. has received a $4.8-million contract to electronically publish all of GE Aircraft Engines' technical and maintenance documentation using Insight.
The Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (Mola) on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft--providing scientists with a detailed, three-dimensional map of the surface of the planet--has shown that the full-range of topography on Mars is about 19 mi., or 1.5 times the range of elevations found on Earth. The high-resolution map, representing 27 million elevation measurements, indicates that the difference between the planet's low, smooth Northern Hemisphere and the higher, heavily cratered Southern Hemisphere, on average, is about 3 mi.
Harry Arnold has been appointed vice president-systems integration for BFGoodrich Aerospace, Everett, Wash. He was executive vice president-commercial airplane engineering for the Boeing Co.
Kenneth Dufour has become alumni-at-large representative on the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University board of trustees. He is president/CEO of Aviation Management Consulting, Rockford, Ill.
Wallace C. Magathan is an attorney in Miami whose practice specializes in aviation matters. He served as a C-5 aircraft commander in the U.S. Air Force Reserve and worked as a pilot at Eastern Airlines.
Congressional investigators and industry specialists offer mixed assessments of how much value China has been able to garner from espionage and international business dealings concerning how to build and detect stealth aircraft and missiles.
Aviation Week&Space Technology will host its third annual Global Competitiveness Summit at the Paris air show on June 16, from 9:30 to 11 a.m. in the auditorium at Le Bourget Airport. The centerpiece will be a panel discussion featuring chief executives of the six top-ranked aerospace companies and airlines in Aviation Week's 1999 Index of Competitiveness (AW&ST May 31, p. 44). ``Best Managed Company'' awards also will be presented during the event.
THE BIOMEDICS AND ACCELERATION BRANCH of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is teaming with the Trice Group in Indianapolis to monitor human tolerance of jet pilots and race car drivers. The initial efforts will measure the effects of vibration and acceleration on the head and neck of race car drivers during practice runs, and will use helmet-mounted sensors.
Northwest Airlines jeopardized the well-being of thousands of passengers who were stranded on its aircraft at its Detroit Metropolitan Airport hub during a January snowstorm, but violated no federal regulations, the Transportation Dept. has determined. Rep.
R. Lamar Durrett has become vice chairman/CEO and Robert A. Milton president/chief operating officer of Air Canada. Durrett was president/CEO and Milton executive vice president/COO.
Certification testing of the Orbital Sciences Corp. L-1011 carrier aircraft for operations with the X-34 technology testbed demonstrator is scheduled to begin next week. The test program, expected to continue through July, will include a baseline plan for eight flights with two possible contingency missions. Captive-carry flights with the X-34 aerodynamic test aircraft (see photo) will begin on the second L-1011 flight, and will be followed by unpowered X-34 flight vehicle drop tests.
Larry D. Knauer has been appointed president of space propulsion for East Hartford, Conn.-based Pratt&Whitney. He was vice president/deputy manager for the X-33 RLV program for the Lockheed Martin Corp. Knauer succeeds Douglas North, who is retiring.
Major airlines in Europe, North America and Asia have announced plans to introduce airport-to-airport time-definite freight services, reflecting growing interest among the airlines in the air express business. KLM Cargo and Alitalia Cargo last week kicked off a new family of services, dubbed Select, to be offered jointly by the two airlines and partner carriers. KLM/Alitalia partner Northwest will begin marketing the service in July and other partners may begin doing so next year, officials said.
U.S. Navy F-14s in Operation Allied Force are using a new system to relay targeting information and are about to get a series of other upgrades to dramatically improve the aircraft's ability to drop bombs and conduct battlefield reconnaissance. The Navy has been slowly expanding the F-14's bombing capability with the introduction of the Lantirn Flir-targeting system and of its reconnaissance capability provided by the Tarps imaging pod. The new upgrades will make advances in both areas.
In January 2002, Eurocontrol-member states will implement revised vertical separation rules in the European airspace. The Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum (RVSM) will be reduced to 1,000 ft., down from 2,000 ft., between 29,000-41,000 ft. (FL290-FL410). The RVSM program's primary goal is to create six additional flight levels and generate 20% more airspace capacity, an initiative that is expected to slash flight delays. Vertical separation below FL290 already is 1,000 ft.
Buoyed by a stabilizing Brazilian economy, Embraer has rolled out new versions of a commercial passenger jet and a military trainer aircraft that will be deployed jointly to protect the strategic Amazon basin, a mineral-rich and environmentally vulnerable colossus that is 20% larger than all of Western Europe.
Dassault Aviation will soon split into combat aircraft and business jet subsidiaries that will be known as Dassault Defense and Dassault Falcon. They will be fully owned by the parent company. The company's ongoing restructuring is expected to further lower the Falcon business jets' production costs, enhance competitiveness and strengthen profitability. In the last two years, Dassault concluded orders for 173 2-3-engine Falcon jets, including 60% in the U.S. Nearly 800 Falcons are operated here.
U.K. airport operator BAA intends to seek planning permission later this year to expand the north terminal at London Gatwick to accommodate growth at the airport. BAA already has approval to expand the airport's south terminal. With the opening of a fifth terminal at London Heathrow Airport, which is now not expected until 2006 at the earliest, passenger traffic at Gatwick is anticipated to grow to 40 million from the current 29 million per year by 2008. BAA last week said its profits were up 7.5%, to 516 million pounds ($826 million), for the fiscal year ended Mar.
Boeing's new 717-200 is a point design for the short-range airline market, and the 100-seat aircraft has the body of the venerable DC-9, the soul of the much larger MD-11 and the heart of a new BMW Rolls-Royce turbofan engine.
Flight Visions Inc. of Sugar Grove, Ill., plans to announce two teamings at this month's Paris air show to strengthen and broaden its position in the head-up display (HUD) market. In the first, Flight Visions will work with Pilkington Optronics of the U.K. to offer an advanced HUD for planned USAF C-130 upgrades. A second alliance, with BVR Avionics of Israel, is intended to develop and demonstrate an advanced remote air combat training system based on the Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation processor embedded in Flight Visions' FV-3000 mission computer.
United Technologies Corp. has been awarded a $26-million contract to supply 19,555 second-state vanes for F100/200/220 engines for F-15 and F-16 aircraft.
US Airways plans to raise pay, benefits and job protections for 9,500 passenger-service employees who recently were denied an opportunity to be represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA). Under the new pay scales, compensation will be increased to parity with the U.S.' four largest airlines (American, Delta, Northwest and United), plus 1%. A 15-year worker will see an hourly pay raise of 13.7%, to $20.33.
Lockheed Martin plans to cut 2,000 positions in the next year in a long-anticipated restructuring of the company to balance the staff with the previously slimmed-down touch labor force that actually builds aircraft. C.T. Burbage, the Aeronautical Systems president, said the cuts will be evenly distributed between hourly and salaried employees. About one-third of the reductions will fall on the C-130J program, about one-fourth on the F-22 and the rest elsewhere in the company.
Cathay Pacific Airways canceled more than a third of its flights last week, when pilots staged a sickout as pay talks broke down. But the Hong Kong carrier made up part of the loss by chartering Boeing 747s from nine other carriers, including Singapore Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Japan Airlines and Canadian Airlines.
