Coltec Industries has received an order in excess of $5.5 million to supply Sikorsky Aircraft with Medevac Units for installation on UH-60Q Black Hawk helicopters being supplied to the U.S. Army.
With last year's passenger count at Singapore's Changi International Airport dipping by 5.4% to 23.8 million, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) is delaying construction of Terminal 3 (T3) for at least a year. The 5-year, $885-million construction job is now expected to see fruition by 2006. But extensions at Terminals 1 and 2, due to be finished by year-end, will still add another 14 gates, so Changi's capacity will outpace demand by almost 2:1, an official said.
A2-year, multinational research program is underway with the goal of developing new collective limit cueing and tactile feedback techniques to allow helicopter pilots to fly ``eyes-out'' of the cockpit during aggressive, high-workload or low-power margin maneuvers.
International Launch Services (ILS) successfully posted its first two launches of 1999 last week, orbiting two commercial geosynchronous telecommunications spacecraft hours apart on Proton and Atlas boosters. Loral Skynet's Telstar 6 satellite was launched on a Russian Proton from the Baikonour Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 10:12 a.m. (12:12 a.m. EST) on Feb. 15. The mission kicked off a campaign by ILS to conduct 11 Proton launches this year.
Yvette C. Hubbel (see photo) has been named marketing director of Washington-based Arianespace Inc. She was senior analyst-corporate development for Lockheed Martin.
Greece has become the first export prospect to declare its intent to purchase the Eurofighter Typhoon, signaling a desire to acquire 60-80 of the fighters and participate in production.
Lockheed Martin has completed the first tests of conversion from vertical to horizontal flight mode for the Pratt&Whitney F119 engine fitted with a three-bearing rotating nozzle. The nozzle is a critical component of its short-takeoff and vertical landing Joint Strike Fighter design, because it redirects thrust for vertical lift. The ground test included the shaft-driven lift fan used on STOVL aircraft. The lift fan gets its power from the F119. It can be disconnected via a clutch, which Lockheed said has been demonstrated several times.
Fred Allega and John Entieknap have become Western and Eastern U.S. regional managers, respectively, for Mercury Air Group Inc. of Los Angeles. Allega was general manager of the Los Angeles Air Center and Entieknap director of business development for Mercury Air Centers.
Patrick Coulter has been appointed senior vice president-corporate communications of the Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., Savannah, Ga. He was vice president-communications of the Boeing Co. Coulter has been succeeded at Boeing by Judith Muhlberg, who was director of public affairs for the Ford Motor Co.
A team of the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center and Lockheed Martin has won the U.S. Air Force's largest repair and overhaul competition and the final of three major competitions resulting from the 1995 base closings of Kelly AFB, Tex., and McClellan AFB, Calif.
Michael O. Lavitt has been promoted to the new position of editor of Aviation Week Online. He will be responsible for developing Aviation Week's site on the World Wide Web and for working with the editors-in-chief of all Aviation Week publications to enhance their on-line presence. Lavitt, who was new media editor, will remain new products editor of Aviation Week&Space Technology. He joined the magazine in 1988 as a news editor and later was special projects editor.
Repeating its No. 1 ranking from 1997, Newark International was the worst airport in the U.S. for flight delays of more than 15 min. Newark had 31,924 of these from scheduled departures last year, according to the FAA. Others in the top five for 1998 were San Francisco International with 29,409 delays; Chicago O'Hare International, 28,751; Hartsfield International in Atlanta, 27,764; and New York LaGuardia, 24,689. In all cases, weather was the chief cause for delays, but its impact varied by airport.
A new line of variable positioning seat recline locks have been added to the UltraLOC family of locks. Customers can select stroke, range, overall length, clevis type and spring force required for a specific application. The new lock design provides a greater number of recline positions than the standard stroke UltraLOC product, which offers 1-4 standard seat recline positions. Enidine Inc., 7 Centre Drive, Orchard Park, N.Y. 14127.
British Airways and American Airlines have sealed agreements to acquire a 10% stake in the Spanish flag carrier Iberia pending its privatization later this year. British Airways will acquire a 9% share for approximately 200 million pounds ($328 million), and American, 1%, under the terms of the deal. The final price is dependent on a valuation of Amadeus, the computer reservation system in which Iberia owns a 29% stake.
Scandinavian Airlines System posted a 27% increase in pretax profits for 1998, but warned it expects far less growth in 1999. The airline said business-class traffic has been declining since the second quarter of 1998. During the last quarter, pretax profits were nearly 25% lower than in 1997.
Southwest Airlines boss Herb Kelleher wants airlines to lead an effort for comprehensive reform of the way Washington carries out its stewardship of aviation. In New York last week, Kelleher outlined a reform plan he initiated and the Air Transport Assn. has endorsed. It calls for ``structural reform of the FAA to enable it to handle the capacity enhancement and technological modernization we need.'' Under the ATA plan, a presidentially appointed board of directors chaired by the FAA Administrator would oversee the air traffic control system.
Gregory Gurtovoy has been named general director of Kiev, Ukraine-based Aerosvit Airlines. He has succeeded Leonid Pogrebnyuk, who is now chairman of the supervisory board. Gurtovoy was senior vice president-financial of Transaero Airlines and founder of Atlas Project Management.
The LBT90 is a multi-purpose aircraft loader that combines conventional conveyor, tow tractor and baggage cart system. Loading with the vehicle requires two people, a driver/operator and another positioned in the aircraft hold. It features hydrostatic transmission with a built-in automotive-type control. Safety interlocks ensure the vehicle is in creep mode when the platform is raised. Rubber pads fitted to the front of LBT90 are pressure sensitive; and any pressure on them arrests all forward and upward movement.
Aviation Daily reports that a multinational exercise calling for the jamming of Global Positioning System signals along the U.S. East Coast is scheduled this week. Sources told the Daily that signals will be jammed up to 6 hr. during nighttime hours over several days in an area from Jacksonville, Fla., to Newark, N.J. The exercise may be part of the Pentagon's program to develop counterjamming techniques.
DarkStar, the Pentagon's stealthy, unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, was abruptly canceled last month, but U.S. officials are still avoiding a direct answer to the question of whether there is an effort underway to replace it with another long-range, radar-evading vehicle.
Mexico and the U.S. signed an agreement on Feb. 15 calling for liberalized air services between the nations. It would ease restrictions on code-sharing among the nations' airlines and allow code-sharing flights beyond gateway cities to any points in the U.S. and Mexico. Applications for code-sharing between some 10,000 U.S.-Mexican city-pair markets are pending before the U.S. Transportation Dept.
France's Sofradir will deliver Sada II infrared detectors valued at $3.58 million to Raytheon TI Systems to equip the U.S. Army's Improved Target Acquisition System.
Lockheed Martin Vought Systems and DaimlerChrysler Aerospace AG have formed a joint venture known as the Air Defense Systems Co. to collaborate on Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missile work in Germany. Plans call for the company to act as a venue for offset production of missile equipment and final missile integration, test and logistics support for Germany's procurement of the PAC-3. The company also would participate in development of future versions of the missile, according to Dallas-based Lockheed Martin Vought Systems.
The Defense Dept. is forming a Space Launch Monitoring Div. with a cadre dedicated to making sure sensitive technology doesn't leak when U.S.-built satellites are launched from China. That and other changes the Administration will make are detailed in a 31-page response to congressional recommendations to tighten satellite export controls. A select House committee chaired by Christopher Cox (R-Calif.) made the recommendations, but its report had still not been declassified late last week.
A-E Electronics, a new joint stock company dedicated to avionics manufacturing and testing, has started in Bacau, Romania. The company, capitalized at $4.6 million, is a joint venture between Romanian airframe manufacturer Aerostar (45.65%) and Elbit Systems of Israel (54.35%), which is cooperating on Romania's MiG-21 upgrade program.
