Martin R. Shugrue, Jr., a Pan American World Airways executive who launched a new Pan Am in 1996, died Mar. 7 in Houston. He was 58. Shugrue was hired as a Pan Am pilot in 1968 after serving in the U.S. Navy. He shifted to management and rose to vice chairman in 1983. Shugrue left in 1988 to be president of Continental Airlines and later was trustee-in-bankruptcy of Eastern Airlines. In recent years, he had been a consultant.
Wind tunnel tests of a full-scale replica of the Wright brothers' 1903 Flyer are being completed here this month, and are part of activities to mark the 2003 centennial of their first powered, heavier-than-air controlled flight. There are several efforts to build and fly replicas of the 1903 Flyer during the centennial, which by all accounts was unstable and tricky to control. The tests at NASA Ames Research Center's giant 40 X 80-ft. wind tunnel here should provide the best hard data for engineers and historians.
Japan Airlines and Japan Air System expect to save 1 billion yen ($8.2 million) a year with a 50/50 partnership to jointly operate their computer reservation systems. A joint CRS company is expected to be formed by April of next year and to begin operations in October. Initial operations will be for domestic flights. Expansion into international services has not been determined. JAL is Japan's largest carrier and JAS its third-largest. The two compete most on domestic routes. Their CRS merger is a first for Japan.
The U.S. Air Force will drastically improve its space surveillance capability with the planned camera replacement for the Ground-based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance system. The tube-based cameras can no longer be maintained and will be replaced with charge coupled devices (CCDs) under the Deep STARE program. As a welcome consequence, the observation system will double its quantum efficiency, which means the cameras will be able to detect objects much farther away, or darker objects such as satellites designed to avoid optical detection.
The fatal accident rates for U.S. twin- and single-engine turbine-powered helicopters has remained about equal since 1993, indicating that pilot error and bad weather remain more of a safety threat than engine and component failures. According to a summary of National Transportation Safety Board data by Alexandria, Va.-based Flight Safety Foundation, almost half of the 48 twin-turbine engine helicopter accidents from 1993-97 were fatal. That works out to a rate of 1.4 fatal accidents per 100,000 hr. flown.
Arnold Engineering Development Center has produced a remote sensor tele- metry package to test U.S. Army helicopters. The system was formed from wind tunnel telemetry test technology and is expected to provide better in-flight data on helicopter rotor heads than does the hard-wired system in use.
Aeroperu last week shut down most operations for what the airline said would be a 60-90-day hiatus while they attempt to reorganize the carrier's $174-million debt. Peru's flagship airline has been seeking new investors to replace Aeromexico and its partner, Delta Air Lines. Those carriers, Aeroperu's main shareholders, want to reduce their investments. Each holds a 35% stake in the airline, Peru's oldest.
Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand have signed Asia's first open skies agreement. The initiative came from Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed and opens the way for carriers to expand intrastate routes without restrictions on capacity or frequency. It builds on an earlier cross-border agreement for regional carriers. The long term aim of the three countries is to devise a simple border pass for tourists rather than using passports.
Lockheed Martin is still struggling to contain potential cost overruns on the Joint Strike Fighter, but the company has backed off a tentative plan to build only one demonstrator after the idea was apparently rebuffed by senior Defense Dept. acquisition officials. Even inside the company the plan was considered a high-risk gamble.
Antonov has decided to display the An-140 twin-turboprop regional transport, now undergoing certification flight tests, at the Paris air show in June. The two Ukrainian-built aircraft in the flight test program have accumulated 280 hr. during 230 flights. A third aircraft is in static tests. A fourth An-140, in final assembly at Kharkov, is scheduled to fly this spring.
Sverdrup Corp. has turned over the launch and processing facility for the Lockheed Martin X-33 Advanced Technology Demonstrator at Edwards AFB, Calif., following completion of development and testing. The 30-acre, $32-million X-33 flight operations center, located on the eastern side of the Air Force base, has facilities for maintaining the reusable vehicle in a horizontal position and then raising it to vertical for preflight servicing and launch. The center includes: -- A rotating launch mount and strong-back.
Tactics and targets for the U.S. Navy's fleet of EA-6B Prowler electronic combat aircraft are being subtly but fundamentally changed to maintain their ability to foil a new generation of air defense weapons.
U.S. Navy Capt. John Hammerer has become commander of the Joint National Test Facility at Schriever AFB, Colo. He succeeds Capt. R. James Abbott. Hammerer was director of test and exercises for battle management, command, control and communications for the U.S. Ballistic Missile Defense Organization.
Air traffic in Finland is expected to be back to normal this week following the settlement of a lengthy strike by air traffic controllers. Controllers had gone on strike on Feb. 1 over a new pay package, paralyzing domestic traffic and causing the cancellation of nearly 20% of international flights. Revenue losses at Finnair as a result of the strike could reach $50 million.
Canada's Transportation Safety Board and the U.S. NTSB last week urged aviation regulators to require the installation in commercial aircraft of two separate and redundant sets of cockpit voice and flight data recorders, and mandate that the CVRs have the capability to capture 2 hr. of audio data as well as a backup power supply to preserve data recorded in the final 10 min. of an accident. The investigative bodies cited numerous accidents, including incidents involving 737s and the Sept.
NASA has approved a plan to launch an emergency shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope in September or October to replace its six stabilization gyros. Hubble needs at least three gyros to maintain science operations. Two of its current gyros have already failed, and a third is likely to fail within the next several months. That would leave the observatory only one gyro failure away from going into a safe mode--from which it could recover--but not provide any science until repaired.
Russia's air defense manufacturers are expanding their offerings to the world market with an upgraded SA-10/S-300 missile system, plus a design for an even more sophisticated weapon that would triple the basic missile's range, says a senior Pentagon analyst. The current third-generation SA-10C/S-300PMU ``Grumble'' system fires a missile with a range of about 80 mi. A new, upgraded version, the SA-10E/S-300 PMU-2 Favorit, has a range of 120 mi., the analyst said.
Frederic A. Lanes (USN, Ret.) is now vice president-corporate development at DRS headquarters, Parsippany, N.J. He was director of the Tomahawk Cruise Missile Baseline Improvement Program for the Naval Air Systems Command.
Lawrence McMahon has been promoted to vice president-fuel consortia from managing director of the LaxFuel Consortium of the Aircraft Service International Group, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Industry executives critical of the FAA should follow Joe DiMaggio's example, says Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.). The chairman of the House transportation appropriations subcommittee recalled that baseball's Yankee Clipper, who died last week at 84, interrupted his big-league career to serve in the Army in World War II, sacrificing what probably would have been an even more impressive record. Wolf's point: civic-minded aviation executives should spend a few innings away from their careers, and join the FAA's upper ranks for a while.
Northrop Grumman has agreed to acquire California Microwave's Information Systems Div., which specializes in airborne reconnaissance and surveillance systems, ground-based satellite communications equipment and mission planning systems. The agreement, expected to close in April, calls for Northrop Grumman to pay $93 million in cash at closing and an additional amount of up to $5 million in 2000 based on certain revenue goals.
Rebounds in the South Korean economy and a concentration on international services have helped Korean Air rebound from 2 years of losses, posting a 296.6 billion won ($246 million) net profit for 1998. The airline reported total operating revenue of $3 billion and operating profits of $254 million last week. It had operating losses of $397.5 million in 1997 and $249.2 million 1996.
The Pentagon wants to establish at least five more Rapid Assessment and Initial Detection (RAID) teams to respond to domestic weapons of mass destruction attacks. Ten teams were formed last year to cover the 10 federal regions, but Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre says more are needed because some metropolitan areas are not adequately covered. At least one team is supposed to be capable of reaching any U.S. location within 4 hr. The Pentagon also plans to establish a Joint Task Force for civil support at the U.S. Atlantic Command.
