Dunlop Aviation has been selected to supply the nosewheels for the new Airbus A340-500/-600 aircraft, the first order that the U.K.-based company has received from Airbus Industrie.
Eurocontrol has begun to restructure Europe's airspace in an effort to increase its capacity and slash flight delays. In the next four weeks, however, implementation of the upgraded Aeronautical Route Network Version 3 will momentarily cut the airways' capacity, involve longer flight times and disrupt operations over France and Switzerland, Eurocontrol officials warned.
If nature abhors a vacuum, business abhors uncertainty. The U.S. government's decision last week to prohibit the export of two Hughes spacecraft worth a total of $450 million for launching in China adds a huge element of uncertainty to the satellite industry.
France-based Revima will overhaul the landing gears and auxiliary power units of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines' 747s, DC-10s and MD-11s. The agreement covers 70 aircraft and extends over 10 years.
A Fairchild Dornier 328 twin turboprop operated by Minerva Airlines overshot the runway at Genoa's Christoforo Colombo airport in heavy winds and plunged into the sea on Feb. 25. At least four of the 31 passengers and crew on board the aircraft were killed. Minerva operates 19 domestic routes for Alitalia under a franchise agreement begun late last year.
Joseph Czyzyk has become CEO of the Mercury Air Group Inc. of Los Angeles. He was president/chief operating officer. Czyzyk succeeds Seymour Kahn, who will remain chairman.
The frequency of flights on Ryanair's six new routes starting this summer was incorrectly listed in the Feb. 15 Airline Observer column (p. 15). The Irish carrier will operate three daily flights to Frankfurt, two flights daily to Genoa and Turin, Italy; and one daily flight to Ancona, Italy, and Biarritz and Dinard, France.
The Clinton Administration's decision to block the sale of a pair of Hughes spacecraft to a consortium with ties to China's military has left U.S. satellite builders more fearful than ever about their ability to compete abroad, but government officials are claiming the move does not represent any shift in long-term export policy.
Europe must begin a major effort to develop reusable launch vehicle demonstrators or face the risk of eventually being surpassed by the U.S. and other competitors, French industry executives believe. The Ariane 4/5 expendable boosters will need RLV successors by around 2020 if Europe is to remain a premier space power, Aerospatiale Space Div. executives warned.
A RAYTHEON PROGRAM TO IMPROVE the radar for the U.S. Air Force's U-2 aircraft has successfully completed the first phase of flight testing. The Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar System-2, in operation since the early 1980s, received earlier upgrades that added an electronic scanning antenna and improved capability to detect moving targets. The current effort injects commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technology into the on-board processor and into the receiver/exciter/controller, shrinking two boxes into one.
LOOP ANTENNAS CAN SOLVE the precipitation static that can degrade Loran-C navigation data in flight, according to Illgen Simulation Technologies of Goleta/Santa Barbara, Calif. Flight tests were conducted with aircraft generating p-static, primarily from corona discharge at the trailing edges of the wing and tail. Under controlled but severe p-static conditions, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of whip antennas was degraded by more than 25 dB., resulting in the loss of navigation data. Identical receivers connected to loop antennas experienced only a 2-dB.
Racal Avionics Ltd. has been selected to supply versions of its control display and navigation unit to GKN Westland Helicopters for EH 101 helicopters and to British Aerospace for the Nimrod MRA 4. The new business is worth 5 million pounds ($8.28 million).
Boeing has signed a contract with Spacehab for use of the organization's integrated cargo carrier to support Boeing's role of assembling the International Space Station. The contract is expected to total $5 million. Boeing will use the carrier to transport assembly components and maintenance hardware that will be stored on orbit on shuttle mission STS-102 in March 2000. It is the first contract signed under a December 1998 memorandum of understanding between Boeing and Spacehab.
United Parcel Service has selected Pratt&Whitney PW4158 engines to power its new Airbus A300F4-600R freighter aircraft. UPS has 30 of the freighters on firm order and holds options on 45 more. First aircraft deliveries are anticipated in mid-2000. The sale, worth approximately $3 billion to Pratt, also includes a long-term engine maintenance agreement.
Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space's Valley Forge, Pa., facility has turned over Landsat-7 to NASA at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., in preparation for launch Apr. 15 on a Delta II. The newest Landsat is distinguished by its Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM) Plus built by Raytheon (formerly Hughes) Santa Barbara (Calif.) Remote Sensing. ETM Plus will provide 15-meter resolution for panchromatic imaging, compared to the 30-meter resolution of Landsat-6.
Efforts at Cape Canaveral to perfect capabilities to launch Boeing Delta missions with fewer Air Force Eastern Range assets accidentally resulted in a 1-day launch delay for the Stardust comet mission booster on Feb. 6. Range safety rules call for two Cape radars and an optical system to always have contact with the vehicle. To reduce those necessary assets, Boeing has added an extra C-Band transponder to the Delta, giving the vehicle two transponders and a greater ability to be tracked by fewer assets.
Valdimar Saemundsson has been appointed director of technical operations of Icelandair. He succeeds Kristinn Halldorsson, who has been named director of fleet planning.
Three competitions that are coming to a head--including intense helicopter and airborne early warning contests--are likely to make Australia a trendsetter for future military designs, especially elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region. The Australian army is about to shortlist two helicopter designs in its A$1.2 billion ($768 million) competition to purchase up to 30 units for its Air 87 requirement for an armed reconnaissance helicopter platform.
The Australian Defense Dept. will get a close look at the Teledyne Ryan Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle under the terms of a recently signed agreement with the U.S. Air Force.
Foreign airlines and diplomats are blasting a U.S. effort to impose tough security requirements at overseas airports. Prompted by the 1996 Hatch Amendment, the FAA is weighing a rule requiring foreign airlines serving the U.S. to adhere to FAA security standards at their home airports if U.S. carriers operate on the same route. The proposal stems from a bureaucratic, political, diplomatic Gordian knot. U.S. carriers were stymied in their bid to kill more stringent security imposed after the crash of TWA Flight 800--which no one now considers a terrorist act.
A second liquid oxygen tank for the X-33 program has been completed by Lockheed Martin Michoud Space Systems in New Orleans and shipped to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. There, the test article will undergo structural tests to verify the tank design for the reusable launch vehicle (RLV) demonstrator's flight test program set to begin this year. The dual-lobed aluminum tank weighs 6,700 lb. It is 26 ft. long, 19 ft. wide and 12 ft. tall.
Technical experts are about to descend on different anti-missile programs. The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization is thinking about bringing in outsiders to assess the national missile defense program. The national academies of engineering and science may look at the basic science of missile defense. The Air Force has asked for two independent assessments of the Space-Based Infrared program--one to examine cost growth on the SBIRS-High, the other to look at technical aspects of SBIRS-Low.
Steve Hussey has been appointed managing director for Asia and the Middle East of Aviall Inc. of Dallas. He was managing director of Aviall Pte. Ltd. of Singapore.
