KLM Engineering&Maintenance and Hamilton Standard have formed a joint venture company to serve the European, Middle Eastern and African repair and overhaul markets for large commercial aircraft pneumatic components.
Beginning this month, Turner Inflight Services will become the exclusive supplier of inflight news and entertainment on board Delta Air Lines' video-equipped aircraft. Under a ``multiyear'' agreement--the specific duration and value of which remain undisclosed--the inflight production/distribution arm of Turner Private Networks is to provide separate programming packages for Delta's international and domestic flights. Program content for ``Delta Air Lines Horizons'' will draw on the resources of CNN News Group, Turner Broadcasting System and Time Warner.
Philippine Airlines has made an $80-million payment to creditors--its first since strikes began last summer--in an effort to keep them from seizing its remaining 17 aircraft. The cash is believed to be part of a $200-million infusion pledged by billionaire Lucio Tan, who owns 70% of the airline's stock and is its chairman. He has stepped down as CEO as part of a deal to turn management over to a team of former Cathay Pacific executives. PAL board member Luis Juan Virata, an investment banker, is the acting CEO.
Four Globalstar satellites were cleared for launch on a Russian Soyuz when the U.S. State Dept. signed a Technology Safeguards Agreement with Russia and Kazakhstan on Jan. 26. Drawn-out negotiations had held up the launch of the mobile telephone satellites for 2 months (AW&ST Dec. 14, 1998, p. 21). The launch, now set for mid-month, will be the first for the new European Starsem venture, which markets an improved Soyuz version.
Dina M. Long has been appointed vice president-communications for the Alexandria, Va.-based American Society of Travel Agents. She was editor of ASTA Agency Management Magazine.
Chatting on the phone, watching TV and surfing the 'net are not the sorts of things that leap to mind when one thinks of using ``munitions.'' Maybe they should be though. For on Mar. 15, the U.S. is putting commercial telecommunications satellites back on its Munitions List, subjecting the export of spacecraft for launch to its International Traffic in Arms Regulations.
Bombardier Aerospace has selected the Collins Pro Line 21 integrated avionics suite for the company's new Continental super midsize business jet. The package includes four 12 X 10-in. LCD displays.
Raytheon Aerospace Co. has won a 1-year, $41.5-million contract to provide aircraft maintenance in support of the U.S. Customs Air Interdiction Maintenance Program.
Hong Kong has signed its 35th bilateral air services agreement, this time with Russia, a move by the Hong Kong government that apparently is intended to expand freight and passenger services between the two. No Hong Kong carrier serves Russia, but Aeroflot serves Hong Kong from Moscow with an Airbus A310 twice weekly. Whether Hong Kong's carriers see enough traffic to warrant a route is questionable. Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways said it has no plans to begin Moscow service.
A tentative agreement on new contracts at Northwest Airlines for 18,000 employee members of the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) eases pressures on the carrier, but the long battles over labor contracts continue. Northwest and the Teamsters, the union representing the flight attendants, are in mediation and scheduled to renew talks on Feb. 1. Furthermore, the IAM has contested the November election of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Assn. (AMFA) by Northwest's 9,000 mechanics, placing it before the National Mediation Board (AW&ST Nov.
Aides to Sen. John R. Breaux (D-La.) are reworking legislation to create a $400-million fund to provide government loan guarantees to new launch vehicle ventures. The new version of the Breaux bill (the original died in the Senate last year) would make the proposed program friendlier toward smaller outfits. It would offer small business set-asides and give management of the fund to the Transportation Dept. instead of NASA, which critics charge is biased toward big contractors. Proponents say the fund could leverage as much as $4 billion for new launchers.
Prompted by U.S. regional commanders-in-chief (Cincs) who are increasingly concerned about the rapid proliferation of threats to military computer and communications networks, the Defense Dept. has activated a Joint Task Force on Computer Network Defense to centralize one subset of ``information operations.'' However, current laws will limit the unit's counterattack options.
Intense discussions are underway between Pentagon and Israeli officials about how to shore up the latter's defenses if they give up the West Bank of the Jordan River. Two items high on Israel's list of needs are ballistic missile defenses and improved electronic intelligence-gathering aircraft.
The Total Ozone Mapping System (TOMS)-Earth Probe satellite has been restored to normal operations after engineers modified control software to despin and reorient the spacecraft using its magnetic torque rods. The torque rods are designed to balance out small disturbances in attitude of the spacecraft (see rendering). A single event upset last December is believed to have caused the spacecraft to go into a safe mode in which the satellite points toward the Sun for generation of solar power and spins at 3 deg./sec. for stability.
Delta Air Lines has scrapped the $1-per-flight-segment fee it imposed last month on tickets that were not purchased through its Web site, in the face of protests from travel agents.
Gerard David has been named vice president-communications of Dassault Aviation. He was vice president-communications of Intertechnique. David succeeds retired Adm. Jean-Pierre Robillard.
Pilatus Aircraft Ltd. will increase production of its single-engine PC-12 this year--from four aircraft per month to five--in response to strong demand for the dual-purpose turboprop. It can be outfitted to carry up to nine passengers, outsize cargo, or a mix of the two, thanks to an aft-mounted 52 X 53-in. cargo door. Pilatus received orders for 76 aircraft and delivered 51 last year. A recent FAA ruling that expanded single-engine use in Part 135 operations boosted demand for PC-12s.
Laurent Maury has been named vice president-strategy and business development of Sextant Avionique. He was senior manager-export marketing and sales of Dassault Electronique.
Competitors for the U.S. Air Force space-based laser demonstration program have been lumped into one large team after the service backed off plans to orbit a demonstration system in 2008. The ``Community Team'' comprises Boeing, Lockheed Martin and TRW. The team will receive a sole-source contract for what is now called the SBL Integrated Flight Experiment. That work will lead to an on-orbit laser experiment around 2010-12. The 2008 launch was deemed too risky and unaffordable. The Air Force has increased funding for the program to ensure the new program can be executed.
Pentagon officials decided the military utility of the DarkStar would not be enough to justify completion. DarkStar had to give up a lot to get stealth. Another high-altitude UAV--Global Hawk--has had a trouble-free test program, and it has greater range, ceiling, payload and endurance. UAV specialists say the Air Force wants something like the classified Tier 3 UAV--said to have resembled a B-2. It was canceled in the late 1980s for high costs.
To head off a projected spike in the price of its Joint Strike Fighter candidate, Boeing has redesigned the tail, wing and air inlet of the 21st century aircraft and changed materials to be used in some critical areas. During the 1998 redesign effort, which also involved cutting the aircraft's weight, Boeing officials say they improved control and maneuverability--particularly for the short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) version of the aircraft--added versatility in projected weapon and fuel payloads, and improved stealth around the aircraft's nose.
The Taiwanese air force suspended operations of its 80 F-16A/Bs last week after an F-16B crashed into a mountainside residence in heavy fog Jan. 26, killing both pilots. No one was injured on the ground. A Taiwanese F-16 disappeared last March in bad weather; no wreckage was found. Local media are carrying reports of widespread defects in the Taiwanese aircraft.
U.S. accident investigators may soon urge National Transportation Safety Board members to recommend transports be retrofitted with backup power supplies that would enable cockpit voice and flight data recorders to capture pilots' conversations and performance indications after an aircraft's main power is lost. Senior safety board officials said the prospective recommendation stems from a string of investigations that were hampered by premature cutoffs of the recorders.
A government/private sector forecast says U.S. aerospace shipments will increase in value about 5% in 1999, then taper off to 3% annually from 2000-2003. That represents a sharp slowdown from the 20% gain last year but a continuing improvement from the mid-1990s plunge, according to U.S. Industry&Trade Outlook '99, compiled jointly by the Commerce Dept.'s International Trade Administration and The McGraw-Hill Companies, which owns Aviation Week&Space Technology.
