Jerry Vonau, Poland's permanent representative to the International Maritime Organization, has been elected director of the intergovernmental organization that will oversee Inmarsat's public service obligations once it is privatized in April.
NASA is considering splitting the next servicing of the Hubble Space Telescope into two space shuttle missions. As it stands, a single flight is planned for mid-2000. But two of Hubble's six gyroscopes have failed and a third is showing signs it could falter in as little as 3 months. That would leave the Hubble just one gyro failure away from going into a coma. Joseph Rothenberg, NASA's space flight chief, said the agency is mulling a servicing mission as early as October, followed by another a year later.
American Airlines and the Allied Pilots Assn. (APA) have agreed to mediation if ongoing negotiations fail to settle a dispute over American's recent acquisition of Reno Air. As of late last week, a mediator had not been named. In the wake of a 9-day sickout that led to widespread flight cancellations last month, the APA faces two lawsuits filed by disgruntled passengers who are seeking up to $100 million in damages.
Limited national missile defense is gaining political support in response to North Korean missile proliferation, seen by some as a harbinger of a long-term missile race in Asia. In the worst case, a 21st century offensive/defensive missile buildup might pit China and North Korea against Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and the U.S.
Frank J. Lucchino has been named to the board of directors of the Allegheny Teledyne Corp. of Pittsburgh. He is a senior partner in the Pittsburgh law firm of Grogan, Graffam, McGinley and Lucchino.
Edmund M. Carpenter has been appointed president/CEO of the Barnes Group Inc., Bristol, Conn. He succeeds Theodore E. Martin, who has retired. Carpenter was a senior managing director of Clayton, Dubilier and Rice of New York.
Data Systems&Solutions, a 50-50 joint venture between Rolls-Royce and Science Applications International Corp., has been established in Reston, Va. The new company will provide information to help predict engine health and remaining life before maintenance.
Deploying a national missile defense without touching off offensive missile buildups or increased dependence on nuclear forces will involve tough strategic tradeoffs, security experts say. Amending the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty could boomerang in a resurgence of multiple warhead missiles (MIRVs), a defense nightmare from Cold War days that would be partially defused under a pending U.S.-Russian treaty banning land-based MIRVs.
Hughes Global Services Inc. will provide a wide variety of satellite services for the U.S. General Services Administration under a 2-year contract worth $100 million.
Terry Rose has become vice president of the How- met Corp., Greenwich, Conn., and president of the Cercast Group. He was general manager of the Howmet facility in Wichita Falls, Tex. Rose has been succeeded by Scott Sanders, who was general manager of the Exeter (U.K.) Casting facility and himself has been succeeded by Michael Pepper. James Hauska has become general manager of Howmet-Tempcraft in Cleveland and Terrence V. Zuk general manager of Grennevilliers (France) Casting.
The FAA held a ``forum'' for aviation GPS users last week in an attempt to build a consensus on how to transition to satellites as the sole means of air navigation. The FAA is rushing to develop a business case for satellite navigation before a June 3 agency powwow on infrastructure investment. That may be easy compared with forming an acceptable transition plan. Although convinced by a Johns Hopkins University study that GPS can eventually provide sole-means navigation, the FAA now concedes some terrestrial navaids will be needed during the transition.
British Aerospace's 1998 pretax profits (before exceptional items) rose 17% to 708 million pounds ($1.13 billion), and it closed the year with a record order book of 28.1 billion pounds ($45 billion). In the commercial sector, BAe said Airbus Industrie experienced pricing pressures on single-aisle aircraft, and with deliveries weighted toward these smaller aircraft, this would continue to hold back profit improvements in 1999. BAe said Airbus incurred an operating loss in 1998, of which its share was 25 million pounds ($40 million).
The Advanced Research and Global Observation Satellite (Argos)--the U.S. Air Force's largest and most capable R&D satellite to date--was launched from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., after more than a month of delays caused by weather and technical problems. The two-stage Boeing Delta II 7920-10 booster, launched at 2:29 a.m. PST Feb. 23 from Space Launch Complex-2 (SLC-2), also carried the Orsted spacecraft for Denmark and the Sunsat micro-satellite for South Africa. Both are NASA-sponsored payloads.
To support an ambitious plan to boost seat capacity on long-haul routes by as much as 50% in 1999-2003, Air France is planning to invest about $7 billion in the next few years to replace a significant part of its 205-aircraft fleet. Air France is scheduled to take delivery in the next 5 years of nine additional Boeing 777-200ERs, five more Airbus A340-300s and 23 single-aisle A319/ A321s twinjets to replace aging 747-100s, 767-300s and 737-200s. It also has options on four A340-300s, 13 777-200ERs and 20 A320-family aircraft.
CASA of Madrid has ordered a 7-axis Viper 3000 Fiber Placement System from Cincinnati Machine, the first machine of its kind in the European Community. CASA will use it to produce components for the Ariane 5 rocket launcher and for other programs. The FPS is the largest Viper system produced yet by Cincinnati Machine, a Unova company, formerly part of Cincinnati Milacron. The computer-controlled machine constructs 3D structures from composite materials.
Lynda L. Morse has become director of materials management, Dana C. Weber director of quality assurance, John L. Zachary corporate controller/chief accounting officer and John W. Mulvihill finance and administrative manager for the Americas, all of Oceaneering International Inc. of Houston.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is testing full-scale components for a planned 10 X 3-meter inflatable synthetic aperture radar (SAR) array antenna scheduled to be demonstrated on the space shuttle in 2002. The work is based on two subscale technology demonstration model antennas delivered earlier by ILC Dover and L'Garde Corp. The roll-up array design is intended to provide low mass, reliable deployment and packaging efficiency for future NASA spaceborne SAR array antennas that could be used for remote sensing missions.
U.S. investigators are examining critical rudder control units from two 737s to determine whether they suffered failures in the last 2 weeks similar to those that are suspected of causing fatal 737 crashes in 1991 and 1994. Both units were of a new design developed by Boeing, Parker Hannifin and the FAA specifically to prevent the type of failure suspected in the March 1991 crash of a United Airlines 737-200 near Colorado Springs and the September 1994 crash of a USAir 737-300 near Pittsburgh.
Indonesian authorities are not planning to release a full report of the SilkAir Boeing 737 crash, due to cultural sensitivities over its probable cause of pilot suicide and murder, according to confidential documents obtained by Aviation Week&Space Technology.
The Federal Trade Commission late last week was expected to approve the proposed merger between BFGoodrich Co. and Coltec Industries over strong opposition from Crane&Co., according to Washington-based officials.
A Japan Airlines cabin attendant, Atsuko Taniguchi, 34, died last month from injuries she received during air turbulence when her head hit the cabin ceiling. The mishap occurred June 8, 1997, as a JAL MD-11 was on approach to Nagoya's airport. Mrs. Taniguchi was walking the aisle checking that passengers' seat belts were fastened when the aircraft experienced violent pitch-ups and -downs. She was knocked unconscious and had been in a coma ever since. Two other cabin crew and a passenger were seriously hurt, and seven attendants and passengers received minor injuries.
Richard Lewis (see photo) has been named president of Rolls-Royce Defense-North America of Indianapolis. He was corporate vice president of ITT Industries.
Jon C. Weisheit is the new leader of the Los Alamos (N.M.) National Laboratory's Applied Theoretical and Computational Physics Div. He was a professor of space physics and astronomy at Rice University in Houston and has been chairman of the division's Advisory Committee.
