United Airlines will end its 3-year-old, round-the-world services on Apr. 4, when it drops its London-New Delhi and New Delhi-Hong Kong services. The carriers says the flights are being suspended for ``commercial'' considerations, but a change-of-gauge issue that arose last June on the Hong Kong-New Delhi segment of the route appears to be at the heart of the issue. United uses Boeing 747s on its U.S.-Hong Kong services, but switches to a 767-300 for the flight onward to New Delhi.
Lockheed Martin aircraft developers have completed the basic aerodynamic design of their Joint Strike Fighter concept and are now going to turn their full attention to working on program costs and subsystems. ``We are now at the point where we know we have the right aero configuration,'' said Lockheed Martin's deputy JSF program manager, Harold W. Blot. ``We have proven to the government's satisfaction and our own satisfaction that this design is the right [one] for us.''
Tests at Lockheed Martin indicate the same type of wiring short implicated in the failure of a Titan IVA at Cape Canaveral last Aug. 12 would not have brought down the new Titan IVB models now in use. The A model involved in the accident was the last launch of that 10-year-old version. The B model has more redundant electrical and guidance system hardware, and tests using B avionics show that the electrical power interruption which pitched the A model out of control would have had no effect on B flight control.
Boeing will close and sell a missile plant outside Atlanta as part of an ongoing facilities and operations consolidation. The plant makes Hellfire missiles and parts of the Patriot system. About 275 engineering and management jobs will transfer to other Boeing locations, while 550 production and other workers will be laid off unless they find jobs elsewhere in the company. Up to 400 of the employees faced layoff or redeployment regardless, Boeing said, due to declining orders. The 345,200-sq.-ft. plant is on 71 acres in Duluth, Ga.
The State Dept., preparing to take control of U.S. satellite exports from the Commerce Dept. on Mar. 15, has drafted a plan for the congressionally mandated transfer, and it's not very reassuring to industry. While Commerce often took U.S. competitiveness into account in reviewing export licenses, the State Dept. says its decisions will be made ``solely on the basis of national security and foreign policy'' and will not be subject to appeal by other federal agencies. U.S.
NASA selected five finalists from 35 applicants for its medium-class explorer (Midex) program. Proposals for the Swift Gamma Ray Burst Explorer, Next-Generation Sky Survey, Full-sky Astrometric Mapping Explorer, Auroral Multiscale Midex Mission and Advanced Solar Coronal Explorer, priced at $130-139 million, will undergo detailed study for 5 months. NASA then plans to select two winners for launches in 2003 and 2004.
David A. Woolsey has become San Francisco-based senior managing director of the capital equipment finance unit of Heller Financial Inc. He was deputy president/chief operating officer of Orix USA.
R. Terry Marlow has been appointed vice president-procurement and finance of the Washington-based Aerospace Industries Assn. He has succeeded LeRoy Haugh, who has retired.
A weld-in-bag technique that allows in-place welding and hot-bond repairs on aircraft has been developed and tested by Boeing's Phantom Works. The In-Situ Inerting System uses a clear bag draped over the area to be repaired and sealed to the structure using a conventional vacuum constraint system, according to Bud Westerman. He's a Boeing technical fellow and deputy program manager for aging aircraft at Phantom Works. The bag is inflated with inert argon, helium or nitrogen gas. Required tools, welding or hot bond equipment must be placed in the bag beforehand.
Unlock the aviation trust fund. Modernize air traffic control. Reform the FAA. Speaking to the International Aviation Club here, American Airlines honcho Donald Carty urged the same changes U.S. airline chiefs have been pushing for a decade. So what's new? Carty says it's a post-Mineta Commission ``hangover'' among airline executives. Once the National Civil Aviation Review Commission, headed by former Rep. Norman Y. Mineta, issued its recommendations for FAA, ATC and budget reform, ``we had an enormous fight'' over the best tax-and-fees schemes to pay for the changes.
British Airways has selected AlliedSignal Aerospace avionics suites, auxiliary power units and convertible wheels and brakes, valued at a total of $225 million, for the Airbus A319/A320 aircraft that the carrier has ordered.
B/E Aerospace Inc., following in the footsteps of other inflight entertainment system manufacturers, plans to align itself with a major avionics supplier. Sextant Avionique last week announced plans to purchase a 51% interest in B/E's inflight entertainment (IFE) business for $62 million. But this purchase price is only tentative.
The U.S. Naval Air Weapons Center and Boeing's Phantom Works are testing new image fusion concepts that build on the unique capabilities of upcoming helmet-mounted displays. Areas being evaluated include ``X-ray vision'' imagery that allows aircrews to ``see'' upcoming targets and defense sites through hills and ridges when flying terrain-masking routes. Also being tried are ``pathway-in-the-sky'' approach guidance and wire-grid representations of terrain for display during low-visibility conditions.
Barbara Wilson has been named program manager for the Center for Space Microelectronics Technology at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. She will also be JPL's chief technologist. Wilson succeeds Carl Kukkonen, who is now head of ViaSpace Technologies of Pasadena. Wilson was manager for JPL's Earth Science Program Office and technologist for NASA's New Millennium Program.
DirecTV's planned buyout of rival Primestar would cap a tumultuous consolidation of the U.S. direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV industry, leaving two surviving competitors to fight for business and challenge cable operators. If approved by federal regulators, the $1.8-billion purchase of Primestar would bolster DirecTV's leading position in the U.S. DTH market while eliminating one of its two major competitors.
The FAA has awarded Boeing simultaneous type and production certification and 180-min. ETOPS operating authority for its stretched 757-300 derivative in a process expected to streamline all future derivative aircraft certification programs. Europe's Joint Airworthiness Authorities recommended 757-300 type validation to its member countries at the same time.
International air traffic is expected to grow 5.5% annually over the next 4 years, down 1.1 percentage points from the generally more optimistic predictions made a year earlier when the full brunt of Asia's recession had not hit. With the exception of the Caribbean and South America, every region in the world is expected to have slower growth from now to 2002 than earlier predicted, according to the latest forecast from the International Air Transport Assn.
An amateur-built Adrian Davis Long-EZ piloted by American singer John Denver crashed on Oct. 12, 1997, in the ocean off Pacific Grove, Calif., after he inadvertently applied right rudder while attempting to change fuel tank selection, the NTSB concluded Jan. 26. The crash killed Denver.
A Sea Launch Zenit booster has been raised to vertical launch position on the company's sea-going platform for the first time (Photo No. 1). The two-stage Zenit, a Block DM upper stage and a demonstration payload and fairing were integrated for the Jan. 23 test at the Sea Launch home port in Long Beach, Calif. The test was in preparation for a nearly 2-week sea trial that will be conducted on the leeward side of San Clemente Island, about 60 mi. southwest of Long Beach.
Japan's Defense Agency has approved the purchase of 51 aircraft--of 56 requested--in fiscal 1999 for the country's army, navy and air force. Mitsubishi and Kawasaki remain Japan's strongest defense contractors, but a big loser this year was Fuji Heavy Industries. It had requested purchase of the first two Fuji T-7 primary trainers but withdrew the request after senior Fuji executives were ensnared in a bribery scandal.
