Luxell Technologies Inc. has received a contract from Marconi Electronics Systems U.K., to supply display systems for the Sky Guardian 200 Radar Warning Receiver.
Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems (LMTAS) has completed modifications of an F-16 operated by the South Korean air force to carry the AN/ALQ-165 Airborne Self-Protection Jammer (ASPJ) electronic countermeasures (ECM) system. Built by Northrop Grumman and ITT, the ASPJ degrades or defeats an enemy's radar-tracking ability, thereby improving survivability for the F-16 pilot. One aircraft is being modified at Fort Worth and is scheduled to undergo testing in the anechoic chamber here before flying to Edwards AFB, Calif., for flight testing this summer.
Air New Zealand has become the first major airline to fully implement a commercial-based software system designed specifically to manage the airline's maintenance, repair and overhaul activities by scheduling work on a ``just-in-time'' basis. Projected improvements include reduced downtime, significant reductions in inventory levels and materials usage, and more rapid inventory turnaround on rotables and component repair.
Transatlantic seating capacity is expected to soar by an estimated 8% during the summer season, but despite a robust demand, major airlines may suffer from decreasing load factors as well as weak yields. Air France, Continental Airlines and Delta Air Lines, for instance, this month added 18 weekly flights between Paris and U.S. points. Other carriers, such as British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Swissair, also are significantly boosting their transatlantic operations. The traveling public expects to benefit from the emerging excess capacity.
MacNeal-Schwendler Corp. is adapting the popular structural program NASTRANS to take full advantage of the parallel processing features of AIX, IBM's UNIX operating system used on the RS/6000 SP reduced instruction set supercomputer. By running a NASTRANS problem in parallel mode on the RS/6000 SP or a network of AIX workstations, a one-day job can be cut to a few hours, the company says. MacNeal-Schwendler also signed an agreement with Tera Computer Co. to make NASTRANS available for Tera's ``multithreaded architecture'' parallel scheme (AW&ST Feb. 22, p. 17).
Egypt plans to sign an order in May for as many as 24 Lockheed Martin Block 40 F-16C/D fighters. Including spares, training and mission/support equipment, the contract is worth about $1 billion. According to the company, deliveries would begin in 2001 and continue for 15 months. The order, which calls for 12 single-seat F-16Cs and 12 two-seat F-16Ds, follows five earlier acquisitions of the F-16 by Egypt. Of these, three were for the Block 40 version.
After landing a contract two weeks ago to launch the Alcatel-Loral Europe*Star telecom satellite, Arianespace has been selected to orbit two satellites for Japan's B-SAT Corp. The Europe*Star launch will be the first to benefit from partial funding from Arianespace Finance.
Logicon Inc. has won a $52-million contract from the U.S. Air Force to provide a leased network license of Oracle software for the Air Force integrated logistics community.
The opening of a new midfield terminal at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in late 2001 will be a major boon for Northwest Airlines, according to top airline officials. The facility is to have 74 gates for Northwest's hub operation and another 25 dedicated to Northwest Airlink commuters. There will be 18 luggage carousels. Northwest has 60 of 99 gates at Detroit's current terminal, some of which are aircraft-size restricted, with only six luggage carousels. The Minneapolis-St.
The Pentagon says a new satellite that Worldspace plans to orbit this fall could ruin U.S. and Canadian flight test activities. The spacecraft, called AmeriStar, is to provide digital radio services to Latin America and the Caribbean using L-band downlink. Pentagon officials contend that AmeriStar's spot beams could interfere with frequencies used by the military and aerospace companies for flight tests over the U.S. Industry officials say scores of civil and military test programs could be disrupted. The U.S.
The Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter team has chosen Parametric Technology's Windchill software to integrate and share information from the team's various project data management, enterprise resource planning, database and other applications. The software is to operate with team partners Northrop Grumman and British Aerospace as well as suppliers. . . . Composite Design Technologies has made FiberSIM 3.1, a composite material design program, have better interaction with finite element structural programs so fiber orientation and other properties can be tuned earlier.
Robert E. Leskow has become corporate controller of the Signal Technology Corp., Danvers, Mass. He was vice president-finance and administration of Lockheed Martin IR Imaging Systems, Lexington, Mass. Leskow succeeds Edward Rockwell.
Jan. 1, 2000. The day the dreaded ``Millennium Bug'' strikes. By now harrowing predictions for the Year 2000 story are a staple of the nightly news. But the aerospace industry has been working on Year 2000 for years. In the following stories, we report on how manufacturers, airlines, the FAA and Defense Dept. assess the situation eight months before the big event.
Moving quickly on its quest to restore profit margins, Boeing reported a strong first quarter last week. The company had revenues of $14.4 billion and net earnings of $469 million for the first three months of 1999, compared to $12.9 billion and $50 million for the same period last year. Last year's first-quarter results also were reduced by a $219-million after-tax write-off on the next-generation 737 program.
A missing surface-to-air missile battery, a misplaced jamming aircraft, a repetitious flight route and some spectacularly good luck by Serbian missileers conspired to bring down a stealthy F-117 in Yugoslavia, the only manned aircraft lost in the first three weeks of the air campaign to stop Serbian oppression in Kosovo.
Boeing has offered to sell the Navy 222 F/A-18Es and Fs for $54.4 million each if the Pentagon will sign a five-year deal. While the Pentagon and Congress seem to like the idea, Boeing officials warn that the multiyear contract is only good for this congressional session; the inexorable pressure of economics will drive the price of the Super Hornet higher if Capitol Hill doesn't act soon. Congress has approved a similar deal to keep down costs of the C-17, also a Boeing product.
The U.K. Ministry of Defense has selected two teams to study preliminary design for the next-generation Skynet 5 military communications system. The teams, led by Lockheed Martin and Matra Marconi Space, will examine various options, including a private finance initiative, during the 20-month design phase.
UPS International, a subsidiary of United Parcel Service, has acquired Shannon MRO, a maintenance and overhaul company previously owned by Aer Lingus. It maintains UPS' Europe-based Boeing 727-100s, which have been reengined with Rolls-Royce Tay 651 turbofans.
Wilbur C. Trafton has become president of the Lockheed Martin/Khrunichev/Energia joint venture International Launch Services. He was acting president and had been NASA associate administrator for the Office of Space Flight.
Nishioka Takashi has been selected to be the next president of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, effective in June. He has been executive vice president. Nishioka will succeed Masuda Nobuyuki, who will become chairman. The current chairman, Aikawa Kentaro, will become a consultant.
ATHENA TECHNOLOGIES OF MANASSAS, VA., HAS DEMONSTRATED an analytic fault tolerant aircraft control system that could revolutionize the ability to automatically detect failures in flight-critical sensors and reconfigure control systems. It could offer a safety enhancement for aircraft with digital flight control systems and reduce some requirements for redundant hardware. The capability was demonstrated early this month, under a Naval Air Systems Command small business innovative research program, in a Cessna Skymaster modified with a digital flight control system.
Boeing's Joint Strike Fighter team of more than 150 world-class suppliers is taking shape as selection of ``final'' partners begins. Partner-suppliers are expected to make investments in the form of services, hardware developed at reduced prices, internal research and development, or dedication of key personnel to the program.
Fine Air Services last week completed its acquisition of Arrow Air Inc. Miami-based Fine Air provides cargo service between South and Central America, the Caribbean and the U.S. International air cargo services carrier Arrow Air also is based in Miami and operates a major hub in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
