With its first export win now under its belt in South Africa, the Saab/British Aerospace Gripen will perform in the flying display at the Paris air show for the first time next month as additional customers are sought for the multi-role aircraft.
BFGoodrich and Coltec have won an expedited review of a recently issued preliminary injunction blocking their merger. The review by the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago is scheduled for June 11. The appeals court will examine the May 7 decision by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana to grant the preliminary injunction at the request of AlliedSignal.
Do federal regulations permit passengers to carry piping hot cups of gourmet coffee onto aircraft? A flight attendant from Alaska Airlines posed the question to the head of the FAA's Flight Standards Service, Nick Lacey. This is a key competitive matter, and not just in coffee-crazed Seattle, a major base for Alaska. In the latest case of inconsistent FAA enforcement, officials overseeing Alaska concluded carry-on coffee poses a risk during takeoff and therefore won't allow it.
Twelve U.K. equipment suppliers, backed by the Society of British Aerospace Companies, will open an office in Toulouse, France. The group of companies includes The Dowty Group, GKN Westland Aerospace, Marconi Electronic Systems and Ultra Electronics.
The U.S. unmanned space operations crisis continued to unfold last week with the malfunction and possible loss in orbit of a new science satellite and a finding by Lockheed Martin that an inherent design flaw in its Athena vehicle caused the earlier failure of the Ikonos commercial remote sensing mission. Further, the failure of a Pratt&Whitney RL10B upper stage engine on a Boeing Delta III on May 4 has now also resulted in the grounding of the Atlas-Centaur commercial booster, delaying additional heavy commercial and government payloads.
Gen. Colin L. Powell (USA, Ret.) has received the 37th annual Thomas D. White National Defense Award from the U.S. Air Force Academy (USAFA). The award recognizes a U.S. citizen for contributions to the national defense and security.
The FAA has shelved its program for focused inspections of airlines and maintenance shops pending an internal critique of its procedures and effectiveness, according to the agency's head of inspectors. The director of the FAA's Flight Standards Service, Nick Lacey, said the review could lead to an overhaul of training for teams of inspectors used on the focused reviews conducted under the National Aviation Safety Inspection Program (NASIP). The Flight Standards Service oversees all FAA safety and regulatory-compliance inspections.
The Indian government appears to be boosting the chances for privatization of state-owned Indian Airlines by allowing it to raise capital funds. Last year the government said it would sell off 51% of the chronically indebted domestic carrier. Indian Air has been struggling ever since the government allowed domestic competition in 1992. But stock market analysts say the government will need to bolster the airline's meager $24-million capital base with new funds if it expects the public to buy shares.
The U.K Ministry of Defense has initiated a program to meet pilot retention problems as more service personnel leave early for jobs with airlines. Under the scheme, the government would provide pilots with up to 10,000 pounds ($16,300) toward the cost of obtaining civil air licenses in return for extending their military service by at least two years, or until age 38, in the Royal Air Force and by three years in the Royal Navy, Marines and Army.
Brussels International Airlines has concluded a lease agreement for an Airbus A321 twinjet with the International Lease Finance Corp. Germany's LTU has leased an A320 from ILFC.
Thomas F. Gibson has been named Washington-based senior vice president-corporate affairs for Mooney Aircraft, Kerrville, Tex. He was strategic adviser for international projects to the CEO of MCI.
Rolls-Royce and two Israeli companies have created a joint venture to manufacture engine compressor blades. Rolls-Royce will have a 50% stake in the new company--Techjet (Israel) Ltd.--which is scheduled to be operating next year in Tefen, Israel. Blades Technology, which produces compressor and turbine blades in Israel and the U.S., will own 30% and the Wertheimer Group, an engineering and tooling company, the remaining 20%. The Israeli facility will forge and machine up to 450,000 blades a year, most of which are now supplied by subcontractors.
The House Armed Services Committee is concerned that the F-22 is headed for more cost trouble, although it has agreed to support President Clinton's Fiscal 2000 budget request for the next-generation aircraft. Following the lead of its Senate counterpart (see p. 31), the House panel last week approved a $288.8-billion military budget for next year that includes $1.6 billion for six initial-production F-22s, plus $1.2 billion for research and development and $277.1 million for advance procurement of 10 of the aircraft in Fiscal 2001.
The Senate Armed Services Committee has approved $288.8 billion in budget authority for defense programs in Fiscal 2000, $8.3 billion higher than the White House request and a real increase of 2.2%, excluding inflation. The add-on is a continuation of the incremental increases in defense spending that have characterized congressional military budgets in the Clinton years. It also is another down payment on the main budget concern of Republican lawmakers during the post-Cold War period, combat readiness.
Precision Castparts Corp. (PCC) plans to acquire Wyman-Gordon Co. in a deal that will create a combined organization that will be a key supplier of both castings and forgings for aircraft engine components. Precision Castparts has agreed to acquire 100% of the outstanding shares of Wyman-Gordon in a cash transaction valued at about $825 million, including the assumption of $104 million in debt. Wyman-Gordon would become a wholly owned subsidiary.
Flight testing of a Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3) missile has been delayed because of U.S. Army concerns that the test could spark a forest fire at drought-stricken White Sands Missile Range, N.M. Both the PAC-3 and Hera target missile are ready for testing, the Army said. This was the first scheduled intercept attempt for the Lockheed Martin Vought Systems-built PAC-3, although the missile hit its target in an earlier seeker characterization flight. The test won't take place until the risk of fire subsides, not expected until July.
Airbus Industrie is setting up a four-person Office of Safety and Technical Affairs in Washington to be headed by John K. Lauber, a pioneering human-factors researcher who served two five-year terms as a member of the National Transportation Safety Board. Since 1997, he has headed Airbus' Miami Training Center as vice president of training and human factors. He was vice president of safety and corporate compliance at Delta Air Lines for three years before joining Airbus.
The Pentagon's shortage of new all-weather weapons is not the result of military miscalculations, but rather the fallout from government-wide budget choices that were made five or more years ago, say senior U.S. Air Force leaders. ``We did not have some of our newest and most capable weapons at their highest rate of procurement at a time when we found them to be very useful and when our models identified them as the preferred weapon,'' agreed Lt. Gen. Gregory Martin, the Air Force's senior military acquisition official.
Head-up Guidance System manufacturer Flight Dynamics of Portland, Ore., is studying expansion of HGS capability to include airport surface movement information and guidance cues. The data would be a natural extension of HGS takeoff roll, touchdown and rollout guidance formats, according to Walt Johnson, chief flight controls engineer. Concepts being explored as part of an in-house study include high-speed runway turnoff and taxi guidance with stop-bar advisories for holding short of active runways.
Also, Denis Verret, chief operating officer of Aerospatiale Matra Lagardere international operations/group managing director for business development; Frederic d'Allest, adviser to the executive space committee; Pierre Bayle, corporate vice president-communications; Rene Chabod, corporate vice president-human resources; Jean-Marie Mir, corporate secretary; and Jean Barrio and Marwan Lahoud, corporate vice presidents-strategic planning.
The Logiscope TestChecker program by CS Verilog now supports the Java language, as well as C/C++. TestChecker uses software probes to monitor the test code and can redefine the probes. It accounts for the real-time operating system being used and constraints such as speed and memory. It notifies about untested code, identifies inefficient tests and lists what tests should be redone if part of the program is modified . . . .
Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Integrated Systems and Aerostructures Sector has won a $1.3-billion, five-year contract to produce 22 E-2C Hawkeye 2000 next-generation airborne early warning and control aircraft for the U.S. Navy.
