Air France is increasing shuttle service on the French domestic route system. The airline, which already operates ``navette'' flights on the country's busiest city-pairs, inaugurated shuttle-like service on Paris-Bordeaux this month. However, in contrast with U.S. carriers operating shuttles in the Northeast corridor, Air France does not have a guaranteed-seat policy to eliminate backup aircraft and extra sections. Three Airbus A320-family aircraft types, in single-class high-density cabin configuration, provide the required seating flexibility.
Garuda Indonesia has been huddling with creditors in London about servicing more than $1 billion in debt, but no relief is in sight. The carrier's short-term debt problem is $380 million. It also has about $700 million in long-term debt on leasing commitments for aircraft. President Abdul Gani said that Garuda and its financial adviser, Deutsche Bank, are preparing a business plan for a June meeting with creditors. The airline also has chosen Lufthansa to help in its restructuring and to advise on operational and training problems.
The European Space Agency has approved development of the payload packages for two of the agency's major scientific missions of the next decade. One package, low-frequency and high-frequency instruments designed to cover a frequency range from 30-857 GHz., will equip Planck, which will study the cold (minus 270C) cosmic background radiation from the Big Bang. They will be designed and built by consortia led by the Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale of France and the Istituto di Tecnologie e Studio delle Radiazioni Extraterrestri of Bologna, respectively.
Motorola will supply the U.S. Defense Dept. with Iridium hardware and satellite communications services. The Defense Information Systems Agency awarded the company a three-year contract with a potential value of $219 million. Motorola is to provide portable handsets, pagers and annual usage of up to 28 million min. using a government-dedicated gateway in Hawaii. The company also is developing secure Iridium handsets.
FAA officials signed a government/industry partnership agreement for the Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS) with Honeywell Inc. on Apr. 7 and were expected to sign a similar one with Raytheon Co. late last week. There is no FAA funding for the initial phase of work, which will focus on developing airborne receivers and ground-based differential-GPS (D-GPS) systems, and demonstrating how they work at various airports to provide precision approach capability based on satellite navigation. The project also involves developing operational standards.
Pennant International of the U.K., Alenia Difesa of Italy, BDE of Spain and STN Atlas Electronik of Germany have formed a consortium, called Aeromentor, to bid for a contract to supply ground training aids for Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft. Four systems are required--desktop, crew escape and safety, maintenance simulator and weapon loading trainers.
Charles A. Hunnicutt has rejoined the Washington law firm of Robins, Kaplan, Miller and Ciresi after serving as assistant U.S. Transportation secretary for aviation and international affairs.
James L. Murdy, executive vice president-finance and administration/chief financial officer, has been appointed to the board of directors of Allegheny Teledyne Inc. of Pittsburgh.
Breitling Orbiter 3 pilots Bertrand Piccard (left) and Brian Jones received a trophy and check for $1 million last week from Anheuser-Busch Inc. at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington.
Malaysia has approved China's Guangzhou Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering Co. for maintenance work after an inspection tour by senior officials of the Malaysia Dept. of Civil Aviation (AW&ST Mar. 29, p. 47). The first customer will be cargo carrier Transmile sending a 737-200 for a C check.
Heeding calls to act before it is too late, European space leaders are mounting a strategy, involving close collaboration between the European Space Agency, national agencies, industry and non-European partners, to enable Europe to begin work on a reusable launch vehicle sometime in the second half of the next decade.
The South Korean Defense Ministry is digging in its heels at a plan by the nation's aerospace industry to buy more F-16C/D fighters, fearing this would jeopardize the air force's plans to buy an F-15E-type fighter. The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy is championing a proposal to buy 20-40 Block 52 Lockheed Martin F-16s. Any further production work is sure to help Samsung, Daewoo and Hyundai as they struggle to consolidate their money-losing aerospace divisions.
The Aerospace Corp.'s enhanced Space Launch Operations Telemetry Acquisition and Reporting System (Stars) has 23 workstations, each equipped with the capability to listen to 24 audio channels. The system--developed to monitor military, national security and commercial space launches at Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg AFB, Calif.--serves as a ``separate set of eyes'' to spot possible trouble areas during launch operations and it significantly reduces time required to analyze post-flight data.
A Turkish Airlines Boeing 737-400 crashed in bad weather 9 min. after taking off from Adnana in southern Turkey on Apr. 7 and reaching an altitude of 11,000 ft. All six crewmembers were killed. No passengers were on board the aircraft, which was en route to Jeddah to pick up Turkish pilgrims in Saudi Arabia. The day after the accident, Yusuf Bolayiri, the head of Turkish Airlines, said an initial investigation indicated that problems with the wires controlling the vertical stabilizer were apparently the cause.
Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., have developed a cheap and effective foam that begins neutralizing most chemical and biological agents in minutes. The otherwise benign foam could be quickly dispensed at disaster sites without having to identify the toxin, according to Greg Thomas, Sandia program manager for chem-bio nonproliferation.
The U.K.'s Airborne Stand-Off Radar (Astor) competition has taken another twist. Defense Secretary George Robertson is calling in all three bidders to make final pitches for their systems, as early as this week, before he acts on a Ministry of Defense equipment approval committee recommendation. Defense officials said Robertson took the unusual step because of intense lobbying pressure, mainly by one of the contenders, rather than because of any need for further information. Nor does it represent yet another call for best and final offers.
George H. Alvord has been named president/CEO of Dobbs International Services Inc., Memphis, Tenn. He succeeds the late Frederick J. Martin. Alvord was vice president-marketing and sales. Gordon W. Anderson was promoted to executive vice president from vice president-operations, Robert L. Suttie to executive vice president/chief financial officer and Robert E. Teutsch to executive vice president-administration and legal from vice president-legal.
Michel Guerard has been named vice president-corporate communications of Airbus Industrie. He succeeds Robert Alizart, who resigned to form an aerospace consultancy.
Lucien A. Schmit, Jr., Rockwell professor of aerospace engineering at the University of California at Los Angeles, will receive the AIAA Walter J. and Angeline H. Crichlow Trust Prize, for ``contributions to the initiation of structural optimization and multidisciplinary design, and their evolution from abstract concepts to widely used practical tools.''
American Airlines has placed its first Boeing 777-200s into service on routes from Dallas-Fort Worth to London and Tokyo. American has 34 777s on order and is scheduled to receive 11 of them this year. Delta Air Lines also has taken delivery of the first of 13 777s it has on order, to become the 23rd operator of 777s. The Delta aircraft was configured for 279 passengers, including 52 in ``premium'' seating. The airline's first 777 transatlantic operations are scheduled to begin next month. Delta's initial 777 was the 200th delivered.
Jet A fuel prices have rebounded from the lowest inflation-adjusted level since the Great Depression and are forecast to continue rising this year. The increase, approximately 10-15 cents per gallon on average in a month's time, has been highest on the West Coast, where supply has been lowest. Fires at the Chevron refinery at Richmond, Calif., and the Tosco Avon plant at Martinez, Calif., have put both refineries out of commission. A pipeline break at Exxon's Benecia refinery and production problems at ARCO's plant exacerbated supply problems.
Lufthansa has chosen the large metropolitan markets of Detroit and Philadelphia to add to its considerable service between Europe and North America. In Detroit, Lufthansa's daily Frankfurt service, launched on Mar. 28, competes with Northwest, which hubs at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport. Detroit has been growing rapidly as an international gateway. International passengers have risen from 1.2 million in 1989 to nearly 3 million in 1998, a figure that would have been higher had it not been for the Northwest pilots' strike last year.
The Russians are proposing that the South Koreans accept military hardware as repayment for debt. On offer are Antey NPO S-300V/9M83 antiballistic missiles and the Sukhoi Su-35 fighter. South Korea is examining the Raytheon Systems MIM-104 Patriot for its air defense requirement and could have a number of candidates for its F-X air superiority fighter, including the Su-35 (see p. 71). The South Korean Ministry of Finance and Economy is eager to settle the Russian debt issue because a Russian default would leave the ministry liable for 90% of the loans to Korean banks.
Kevin J. Eustace has been named vice president-industry programs and William A. Schwartz vice president-human resources of the Structural Dynamics Research Corp., Milford, Ohio. The following have been promoted: William A. Carrelli to vice president-marketing, Ronald G. Schmitz to vice president-Metaphase strategic marketing and product planning, Scott A. Berkey to vice president/general manager of Asia-Pacific operations, William M. Gascoigne to senior vice president-European operations and Curtis H. Staker to vice president/general manager of Americas operations.
