Howmet International appears to have dodged the proverbial bullet after the U.S. Air Force last week withdrew its proposed debarment of the corporation, but the company's Canadian aluminum casting operations remains under fire. The government is poised to debar Howmet-Cercast Canada because of alleged kickbacks and failure to follow certain quality procedures at the Group's Montreal plant.
Retiring Adm. Joseph W. Prueher will review safety measures implemented in response to last year's accident when a Marine Corps EA-6B Prowler severed a ski-lift cable in the Italian Alps, killing 20. The review was announced only days after EA-6B pilot Capt. Richard Ashby was acquitted of manslaughter and negligence charges, prompting strong protests in Italy. Prueher will work with Italian military officials to determine if additional safety measures are required. After the accident, the U.S. prohibited flights below 2,000 ft. and low-altitude missions in the Alps.
A French court convicted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's brother-in-law and five others in absentia Mar. 10 and sentenced them to life in prison in the 1987 bombing of a UTA DC-10 over Niger. The blast killed all 170 on board Flight 772. Libya has refused to turn the defendants over to French authority, just as they have refused to turn over suspects in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, to U.S. and British officials.
John Vanderslice has returned to the Aydin Corp., Horsham, Pa., as a part-time consultant to the board of directors. He resigned as president last year.
Microvision and Boeing have teamed to develop a ``virtual cockpit'' for helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft based on helmet-mounted display and upcoming image fusion and synthetic vision technologies. The team has been awarded a $750,000 U.S. Army contract for cockpit optimization with the potential for follow-on contracts.
ReallyQuiet is developing a hushkit for Gulfstream II- and Gulfstream III-series business jets designed to meet noise standards in the U.S. and Europe and plans to market the kits by late 1999.
James J. Murphy has become vice president/general manager of DRS Precision Echo, Santa Clara, Calif. He was vice president-program management and operations.
The FAA has completed siting studies for a wind shear alerting radar for the metropolitan New York area and should soon begin installation of the unit to serve La-Guardia and John F. Kennedy International airports, the agency's head told a congressional panel last week.
United Parcel Service has selected the Pratt&Whitney PW4000 engine to power up to 75 new Airbus Industrie A300 freighter aircraft in a sale worth approximately $3 billion.
Look for increased licensed manufacturing of aerospace systems and components. Licensed manufacturing is an increasingly viable option for original equipment manufacturers as it frees up available resources, improves customer service and bolsters profit from slow-moving and aging products, according to Robert Sadler, marketing manager for Ontic Engineering and Manufacturing of North Hollywood, Calif.
An Indian air force Antonov An-32 crashed Mar. 7 about 2 km. short of Runway 10 at New Delhi, killing 18 air force personnel and three people on the ground. With visibility of about 500 meters (1,640 ft.) in a fog, the crew requested an ILS approach about 8:12 a.m. The aircraft disappeared from radar screens and crashed 10 min. later. Initial reports indicate the aircraft's approach was low enough that its landing gear struck overhead wires.
Tusas Aerospace Industries of Turkey will produce flight deck panels and wing tips for next-generation Boeing 737s. The contracts have a combined value of more than $30 million.
Douglas K. Wright has been named vice president/general manager of Coltec Industries' Menasco Aerospace Oakville Div. in Ontario. He was vice president-operations.
The FAA is revamping its planned development of a Raytheon-built display system for terminal area air traffic facilities and opting to use an entirely different system made by Lockheed Martin at some sites where new equipment is needed urgently.
Half of all corporate purchasers of new Falcon 2000 business jets are choosing to install the optional Flight Dynamics head-up display, according to Teterboro, N.J.-based Dassault Falcon Jet Corp. The Falcon 2000 was the first business jet to be offered with Flight Dynamics' HGS-2850 head-up guidance system. It provides ``guidance-to-touchdown'' capability enabling landings in extremely low Category 3a visibility conditions. In January, a Falcon 2000 equipped with an HGS-2850 performed a manually flown approach at Venice, Italy, in actual Cat. 3a conditions of 50-ft.
Both of the largest new U.S. commercial boosters are on their launch pads at Cape Canaveral. The first Lockheed Martin Atlas III with a Russian Energomash/Pratt&Whitney RD-180 engine was erected on newly renovated Launch Complex 36B on Mar. 9. The original Atlas was America's first ICBM designed specifically to attack the Soviet Union, and old Atlas hands at the Cape find it almost unbelievable that an Atlas now sits ready for launch with Russian propulsion in mid-June.
When Comair President David A. Siebenburgen surveys airport hubs of rival regional airlines, he sees only mirror images of jet feeder services pioneered by Comair regional jets from Cincinnati five years ago. Competitors are faithful to Comair's successful operating formula: flying Embraer ERJ-145s, Avro RJ85s or, like Comair, Canadair RJs, they serve a hub airport linked to a major airline partner and offer multiple daily frequencies aimed at the business flier.
Dennis J. Charlebois has been named president of the San Jose, Calif.-based Data Systems Group of DRS Technologies Inc. He was president of Xetron Inc.
In 1998, general aviation accident rates reached their lowest point since 1938, according to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assn.'s Air Safety Foundation. There were 7.12 accidents per 100,000 flying hours--a 2.3% improvement from 1997. The fatal accident rate was 1.35 per 100,000 flight hours compared with 1.40 in 1997. There were 361 fatal crashes during 26.8 million flight hours in 1998.
Charges that China stole American nuclear warhead know-how from a U.S. weapons laboratory may complicate Beijing's entry into the World Trade Organization, threatening a business plum long sought by U.S. mega-corporations like Boeing. Bipartisan congressional calls have sounded for a fresh round of probes into President Clinton's China policy, stirred by charges that White House ``appeasement'' of China, combined with weak U.S. counterintelligence, enabled the Chinese to steal miniaturization know-how from New Mexico's Los Alamos national laboratory.
U.S. allies in the Middle East will be given access to ballistic missile launch early warning data, Defense Secretary William Cohen said during his tour of Arab countries. He also announced Saudi Arabia and Bahrain will be allowed to buy Amraam air-to-air missiles and that Egypt is going to buy 24 additional F-16s and eight Patriot PAC-3 firing units.
Leonard Roberts, an expert on vortices, died Mar. 6 in Los Gatos, Calif. He was 69. Born in Wales, Roberts received his doctorate in applied mathematics from Manchester University in England and came to the U.S.
F-22 program officials expect to resume Raptor flight tests later this month following the conclusion of dedicated ground tests and aircraft modifications that are now underway. Before breaking off flight test operations in mid-January, F-22s had accumulated 204 flight hours and had flown as high as 50,000 ft. The aircraft also reached speeds of Mach 1.4 at 40,000 ft. and flew up to a 26-deg. angle of attack.
