Head-up Guidance System (HGS) symbology developed by Flight Dynamics allows pilots to more precisely and safely react to a traffic-alert and collision avoidance system (TCAS) warning or resolution advisory while keeping eyes focused outside the cockpit. Preventive advisories do not require pilot action but indicate an ``unsafe zone'' with two angled lines (see diagram, left column). Upon receiving a TCAS resolution advisory, a double-lined box on the HGS display indicates a safe ``fly-to'' region (see right column of diagram).
Steven P. Irish has been appointed director of defense intelligence programs and George A. Greenwood QuickBird product manager for EarthWatch Inc., Longmont, Colo.
Biological warfare is fast emerging as the ``weapon of choice'' to end-run U.S. military superiority, requiring a fundamental shift in strategy and a long-term research and development program in defensive high technologies, authorities say.
Sheila C. Cheston (see photo) has returned to the Washington law firm of Wilmer, Cutler and Pickering as a partner She was general counsel of the U.S. Air Force. Matthias Wissmann has become a partner in the firm's Berlin office. He is former German minister of transport and chairman of the parliament's Committee for Economics and Technology.
James D. Moffett has been appointed manager of modification of the Atlantic Aviation Corp., Wilmington, Del. He was manager/lead industrial designer of the Savannah, Ga., and Long Beach, Calif., interior design departments for Gulfstream Aerospace.
The gradual shift of NATO air strikes from fixed targets to mobile ground units has caused military planners to change the mix of weapons being employed and how aircraft operate.
BOEING HAS STARTED TESTING the first electronic warfare suite for the U.S. Air Force's F-22 Raptor in its Avionics Integration Laboratory in Seattle. Lockheed Martin's Sanders produced 11 of the ALR-94 EW suites under the EW engineering and manufacturing development phase of the F-22 program. The second and third EW suites are slated for the first two full avionics aircraft, and the fourth for the 757 testbed, which is slated to fly the EW system in November. Sanders' on-time delivery of the first system included advanced apertures and electronics for missile warning.
Embraer, coming off a record financial year in 1998, expects to make a go-ahead decision in the next few months on the company's planned 70-passenger ERJ-170 regional jet. The Brazilian aircraft manufacturer, now making 37- and 50-seat regional jets, has been working on preliminary specifications for the ERJ-170, as well as a larger, 90-passenger version called the ERJ-190.
Head-to-head competition between US Airways and Southwest Airlines for East Coast market share is shaping up to be one of the hardest- fought wars in the U.S. airline industry in a long time. US Airways, with 32% of the capacity on the East Coast, clearly has the most to lose. SalomonSmithBarney analyst Brian Harris believes the rivalry--with challenges to US Airways also coming from Delta Express and UAL Corp., parent company of United Airlines--will drive East Coast capacity up by 6% through the first nine months of 1999.
A new Landsat Earth-imaging spacecraft with an improved field of view and better data storage is set for launch from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., on Apr. 15. Launch is to be at 11:32 a.m. PDT on board a Delta 79-20--a two-stage Delta II with nine solid rocket boosters. The launch has a 2-min. window that is open for three days. The spacecraft will be launched into a 705-km. (438-mi.) Sun-synchronous polar orbit inclined 98.2 deg.
David F. Nelson (see photo) has been promoted to general manager of the Weather and Navigation Div. of The Aerospace Corp. of Los Angeles, while continuing as principal director of the GPS Directorate. Walter L. Bloss and Joseph Fennell have been promoted to distinguished scientist from senior scientist. Bloss works in the Electronics Technology Center, while Fennell is in the Space and Environment Technology Center.
Boeing has implemented the eighth of 11 steps in its plan to streamline and modernize the design, outfitting and production of its commercial transport products.
Goodyear is supplying prototype ``intelligent tires'' for Lockheed Martin's Joint Strike Fighter candidate. The tires use an embedded transponder to sense and monitor tire inflation pressure and temperature. A unique tire serial number will help maintenance personnel track the tire throughout its life cycle. The transponder includes both an integrated circuit and capacitive pressure sensor, the latter a microelectromechanical (MEMS) device. Monitoring tire pressure also reveals potential mechanical problems with aircraft wheels or brakes.
Singapore Airlines (SIA) is bounding away from other Asian carriers by recording its third straight lift in load factor. Its load factor for February--typically a quiet month--was 75.2%, a leap of 9.9 percentage points over last year. While other Asian carriers saw their load factors drop last year, SIA survived with a relatively flat performance. But in December it began to see improvement with a 0.5 percentage-point increase, followed in January with a 4.3-point gain. The airline carried 1.04 million passengers in February, up 18.4% from a year ago.
Major changes are underway at both NASA headquarters and the Johnson Space Center in management of the International Space Station and space shuttle programs. Tommy W. Holloway will become ISS program manager at Johnson, replacing Randy Brinkley, who is leaving to join private industry. Ronald D. Dittemore, a veteran shuttle flight director, will replace Holloway as space shuttle program manager. Gretchen McClain, NASA's station chief in Washington, is also leaving to join private industry.
The 45-year-old Lockheed Martin U-2 has recently benefited from the installation of a new engine and proposed avionics and sensor upgrades that should keep the Dragon Lady an effective high-altitude reconnaissance platform with the U.S. Air Force into 2020. The same general airframe outline and much of the systems and cockpit layout of the U-2 that first flew in August 1955 is found in the current U-2S flown by the U.S. Air Force, but the aircraft has matured over the decades.
Deep Space 1 is midway through the second six-week burn of its xenon ion engine, gently altering its trajectory toward a 9-km. flyby of the asteroid 1992 KD on July 28-29.
Asked at a Colorado Springs space symposium to grade the Administration on missile defense, the National Security Council's Robert G. Bell 'fessed up to several faults. ``Clearly we came late to the recognition of the threat,'' he said, conceding that the pace of North Korea's missile advances, including a major test last summer, took the White House by surprise. But he added that North Korea is still the only nation that could pose a threat before 2005, when the Administration believes a National Missile Defense (NMD) system would be fielded.
Projected economic benefits from just three projects sponsored by the U.S. Commerce Dept.'s Advanced Technology Program (ATP) likely will pay for every ATP project funded to date, according to a report by Business Performance Research Assn., of Bethesda, Md. The ATP program, which made its first awards in 1991, provides funding to accelerate the development of innovative technologies that have broad national benefit. The study covered all 38 ATP projects completed by March 1997--plus 12 failed or terminated projects--out of 280 awards made up to that date.
John-Paul B. Clarke has received the Jay Hollingsworth Speas Airport Award from the AIAA, American Assn. of Airport Executives and Airport Consultants Council. Clarke, who is Charles Stark Draper assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, was honored ``for development of effective tools for modeling and evaluating new approaches to noise reduction . . . that will be particularly valuable to airports surrounded by noise-sensitive communities.''
Inter-National Research Institute has won a three-year contract worth $47.5 million from the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency to provide technical support for current and future versions of the Defense Information Infrastructure Common Operating Environment.
Len Hobbs (see photos) has become vice president-maintenance and John Flagg vice president-information technology of Fine Air Services of Miami. Hobbs was senior vice president-technical services and Flagg was vice president-information systems, both for Southern Air Transport, Columbus, Ohio.
