McCain also found time last week to introduce a bill to help commercial U.S. launch vehicle operators. The measure would extend by 10 years a provision in the Commercial Space Act of 1988 that commits the U.S. government to pay for third-party launch accident claims above $500 million. The provision, which effectively caps the amount of launch insurance needed by commercial operators, is set to expire on Dec. 31. McCain said his bill would encourage U.S. satellite builders to launch their payloads domestically.
Photograph: President Clinton in the Cabinet Room with his national security team, including (from right) Joint Chiefs Chairman Henry H. Shelton, national security adviser Samuel R. Berger, Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright and CIA director George Tenet. WHITE HOUSE Lawmakers nervous about the perils of undeclared wars, but duty-bound to back American personnel overseas, are expected to approve President Clinton's $6-billion emergency defense and humanitarian funding request for operations in the Balkans.
Trans World Airlines remained in the red in the first quarter, although losses narrowed to $21.6 million, or 42 cents a share, from $55.5 million, or $1.06 a share from a year ago. TWA's results were helped by the sale of shares in Equant NV, an airline telecommunications firm (AW&ST Apr. 19, p. 15). Also benefiting from the sale of Equant shares in the first quarter was AMR Corp., which reported earnings of $158 million, or 96 cents a share. But this included one-time gains totaling $102 million.
Comair, the regional carrier affiliate of Delta Air Lines, broke ground Apr. 21 for $40 million in new construction and facility upgrades at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. Facilities include a new corporate headquarters and renovated buildings for maintenance and training, and to support charter and private aircraft. Concourse C will be expanded to increase seating to accommodate 1,700, with improved telephone and computer connections (AW&ST Mar. 15, p. 44).
Arnold Lewis, a longtime aviation journalist, died on Apr. 21 at home in Fredericksburg, Va. He was 60. Lewis was most recently the editor of Aviation Daily's Regional Aviation Supplement and a contributing editor for Aviation Week's Show News. For many years, Lewis was editor of The Weekly of Business Aviation and a contributing editor for Business&Commercial Aviation magazine. Early in his career, he was a reporter for the Wichita (Kan.) Eagle.
Ignoring the financial doldrums prevailing in much of the world, Executive Jet Aviation is forging ahead with plans to reinforce its young NetJets fractional ownership operation in Europe and to expand into the Middle East, Asia and Latin America.
The Sonalert II MAS800 is an audible signal piezo indicator with built-in drive circuitry. It is designed for printed circuit board applications with 15-mm. center-to-center through-hole pins for electrical connection and mounting. The MAS800 also is wave solderable. It is suited for applications where the sound emanating from the device must be heard outside of the chassis or enclosure. It operates at temperatures ranging from -20C -65C. North American Capacitor Co., 7545 Rockville Road, Indianapolis, Ind. 46214.
The TB1/F is a fybrglass utility brush used for a wide range of burnishing applications, such as cleaning oxidized electrical contacts, precious metal connections, removing markings from integrated circuits and cleaning motor commutators. The toothbrush-like shape can clean contacts in confined or hard-to-reach areas. The fine-grade fybrglass material provides effective cleaning with slight pressure, without damaging components. The TB1/F has a wood handle and flat design to allow better access to confined areas, and measures 6 in.
Most officials would not consider the National Reconnaissance Office a ``Mickey Mouse'' organization, but the NRO is not below seeking advice from ``The Mouse.'' As a result, NRO's annual technology forum planned for May 11-12 at the agency's Chantilly, Va., headquarters will have as one of its keynote speakers Bran Ferren, head of Walt Disney's Creative Technology Group. The NRO is interested in hearing Ferren's concepts on ``how to think differently to achieve information superiority.'' Local vacationers to the Washington area need not apply.
American GFM RMT-50 six-axis composite honeycomb core cutting machine uses an ultrasonic blade to speed manufacturing of large engine nacelle parts while eliminating dust and reducing hand labor and waste. The RMT-50 was developed as part of American GFM's Advanced Fighter Aircraft Composite Manufacturing Initiative, according to Robert Kralowetz, president of the Chesapeake, Va.-based company. Key future fighter and commercial aircraft programs are expected to require large amounts of contoured composite honeycomb material, he said.
The metal-seal 300 Series Metaline meters and controllers are designed to measure mass flow without corrections or compensations for gas pressure and temperature. The instruments do not require periodic maintenance under normal operating conditions with clean gases. They are inherently linear, so no linearization circuitry is employed. The meters feature an output signal that is linear for large overflows. The signal will come back on scale when the flow is stabilized within the normal range. Teledyne Electronic Technologies, Hastings Instruments, P.O.
Photograph: Proposed upgrades to the E-2C Hawkeye could make it five times more reliable and add the capability to passively detect enemy communications. A wide range of upgrades is emerging for the E-2C Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft that would dramatically expand the capability and mission set for the Navy surveillance aircraft to see targets in clutter and intercept communications.
NATO's war effort in the Balkans is highlighting the need for the military equipment of 19 nations to operate together better (see p. 38). But the Pentagon's Jacques Gansler is thinking beyond greater interoperability to related industrial issues. The acquisition and technology honcho envisions a future in which competitions for U.S. procurements are open to European industry, technology is shared within the Western alliance and defense contractors even combine to form transatlantic corporations.
A new think tank analysis blames Air Force readiness problems more on resource management than on resource shortages, challenging the conviction that the service is squeezed between declining budgets and a higher ops tempo. Pilot shortages and slipping mission-capable rates are rooted in management mistakes, says the Commonwealth Institute report. It argues that the Air Force has more than enough aviators to fill its operational cockpits, but must stabilize retention rates by reducing pendulum swings between surpluses and shortages.
United Airlines and several other carriers will continue their push for cheaper ``no-frills'' transports at the Air Transport Assn.'s May 3-4 Engineering, Maintenance and Materiel Forum in Memphis.
The Model 1521 LLK is a handheld thermometer that reads RTDs and thermistors without user programming. Probes connect to the 1521 using an INFOCON connector. The connector stores the serial number, recall date, conversion method, and calibrated coefficients. Information is automatically downloaded so readings can be taken without programming the thermometer to match the probe being used. Calibrated resistance temperature detectors may be read using ITS-90 or Callendar-Van Dusen conversion methods. Hart Scientific Inc., 799 E.
Photograph: Eugene Joseph, founder of Virtual Prototypes Inc. Eugene Joseph started Virtual Prototypes Inc. in 1985 with one dollar and a vision of causing a paradigm shift in display development and simulation in the aerospace world. The idea that led to the startup was simple: instead of building hardware prototypes of control panels and displays, use ``virtual prototypes'' to define their look and real-time interaction.
Photograph: The Beech 1900D will pioneer a fiber-optic network that is to greatly increase the amount of information supplied to an aircraft's flight data recorder. Fiber-optic-type data collection systems are to make their civil air transport debut early next year on Raytheon Aircraft's Beech 1900D, expanding the number of flight parameters monitored by aircraft flight data recorders (FDR). To aid accident investigators, FAA regulations require newly built transports to record 57 different parameters by mid-August 2000.
Nutral-Strip HS-224 aircraft paint stripper is an environmentally safe alternative to other stripping chemicals. It is a water-based stripper with no chlorinated components, and is noncarcinogenic, nonacidic, noncaustic and nonflammable. The stripper has a neutral pH, is low in toxicity, and has no air pollution potential. It has been used on metals, including aluminum, magnesium, titanium and steel with exposures times ranging from 24-192 hr. at temperatures up to 100F and humidity of up to 100%. Solvent Kleene Inc., 1311/2 Lynnfield St., Peabody, Mass. 01960.
Chemtex is a surface-texturing process that provides bonds between metallic and non-metallic surfaces. It creates a 3D face for bonding dissimilar metals and metals to nonmetals. Height, depth and location of surface texture can be varied to avoid the problems of the existing technologies of plasma sprayed, sintered or bonded materials. The unitary nature of the substrate and surface features provides a strong anchoring surface that is resistant to cracking or breaking.
Photograph: Advanced KH-11 spacecraft image of a suspected mass grave site in Kosovo illustrates how space imagery is being used to build evidence of war crimes. The most intensive space reconnaissance operations ever undertaken are being mounted to lead NATO targeting operations and bomb damage assessment of the strikes against Yugoslavia--challenging image analysts to keep up with the pace of providing imagery to strike planners and the aircrews flying the missions.
Aviation Week&Space Technology's Laureates Hall of Fame recognizes all of the Laureates winners selected by the magazine's editors since 1988. Each year, the editors also select a group of past Laurels winners to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. The first Hall of Fame display, featuring the Laureate Trophy, Legends Plaque and a listing of the members inducted to date, is on display at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington.
Honored as the ``developer of the area rule concept and for his further development of the supercritical wing that promises major performance improvements for military and commercial aircraft in the transonic range.'' Aviation Week&Space Technology, Dec. 20, 1971
Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems recently delivered its 3,035th F-16 from Air Force Plant No. 4 in Fort Worth, which makes the F-16 the longest production run since the plant opened in 1942. The record had been held by the B-24 bomber, the first aircraft produced there. From April 1942 to December 1944, Plant No. 4 produced 3,034 B-24s, including 286 C-87 cargo versions and five AT-22 navigator training versions.
Boeing is digitizing its principal maintenance manuals so customers can access the documents on compact disk. The manuals will be offered on all in-production and most out-of-production Seattle- and McDonnell Douglas-built transport models over the next two years. Documents in the new format can be viewed on almost any desktop computer using widely available Adobe Acrobat Reader software, according to Tom Schick, Boeing Commercial Aircraft Group executive vice president for customer service.
