Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems has delivered the first of up to 961 wing pylons designed to carry Raytheon-built ALE-50 towed decoys on U.S. Air Force F-16s. Pylons initially will equip Block 40 and 50 F-16s, but a company official said, in March, the Air Force plans to order another 548 pylons for installation on earlier Block 25, 30 and 32-series F-16C/D aircraft. The decoys, carried on two outboard wing stations, are designed to counter radar-controlled missiles.
Thomas P. Harper has become manager of marketing communications and Todd A. Curtis manager of original equipment manufacturer for the Avidyne Corp., Lexington, Mass. Harper was manager of marketing technical services at AlliedSignal Electronic and Avionics Systems, Olathe, Kan. Curtis was director of sales and marketing for Teledyne Controls, Business and Commuter Avionics, Bothell, Wash.
The successful first shuttle mission to assemble the Zarya and Unity modules for the International Space Station clears the way for four to five more U.S. and Russian missions to the ISS in 1999. While the Endeavour's Mission-88 flight in December was one of the more complex shuttle missions ever flown--it is to be one of the easier overall ISS assembly missions, said Bob Castle, lead Mission-88 flight director at the Johnson Space Center. An additional 35 shuttle missions and eight Russian launches will be needed to complete the station by 2005-06.
SEATTLE AIR ROUTE TRAFFIC CONTROL CENTER is the first of 20 FAA centers in the U.S. to be upgraded with the Lockheed Martin Display System Replacement (DSR). The FAA recently declared the DSR fully operational at a new control room at the Seattle ARTCC in Auburn, Wash. The center has 106 DSR consoles. Each replaced an existing 20-year-old, 19-in. monochrome display with a high-resolution 20-in. Sony color display. Seattle center controls 26 airspace sectors and handles 4,100 aircraft a day. The Salt Lake City center will be the second to be operational with DSR.
Aviation authorities, who believe the media can play a major role in advancing flight safety, are seeking to forge better relations with its members in order to ensure fair and accurate accident reporting. In the last few years, the media has criticized the inclination of French and European authorities to withhold information and provide only final investigation reports, which are usually published several months or years after an aircraft accident occurred.
Although NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory will be scientists' ``command central'' throughout the Mars Surveyor '98 Mission, the spacecraft also will be closely monitored by a small team of controllers and engineers at a Lockheed Martin Astronautics center near Denver. Called the Mission Support Area (MSA), this facility has served as a Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) control center since the mission was launched in 1996. Science projects are controlled by JPL, but routine health-monitoring and MGS systems adjustments are performed here.
Garuda Indonesia in the new year plans to continue last year's strategy of selling aircraft to limit its losses. It has five Airbus A300s still up for sale, after disposing of nine aircraft in 1998. The latest sales were three Boeing 747-200s. While it looks for customers, two of the airline's directors, Addul Gani and Robby Djohan, are trying to renegotiate terms of US Export-Import Bank backing for the lease of six 130-seat Boeing 737s that have been in storage in Arizona for nearly a year.
Without warning, the Indian government has abruptly disbanded the boards of directors of the country's state-owned international and domestic airlines, apparently in response to their proposal to merge.
Major new launch facility construction during 1999 at Cape Canaveral and the NASA Kennedy Space Center will be the most extensive since the initial space program buildup during the mid-1960s. For example, construction is getting underway at Kennedy on a $8-million hangar designed to help support reusable launch vehicle development and flight testing. The facility is being constructed at the 15,000-ft. shuttle landing runway and is being built under a partnership between the federal government and Florida.
Horst Emker has been named senior vice president-programs of Airbus Industrie. He succeeds Dietrich Knospe, who retired. Emker was DaimlerChrysler Aerospace program manager.
Qantas could buy six 747-200/300s from its Oneworld partners, Cathay Pacific and British Airways, which would bring its fleet for the types to 17. The aircraft would be added in the second half of this year. Qantas was considering replacing the older 747s with Boeing 777s or Airbus A340s, but it also was weighing advantages of buying used aircraft. It talked to Cathay earlier in 1998 about its 747-200s, but could not strike a deal. Now that Cathay also is retiring its -300s, a package arrangement is possible.
Several major U.S. and European defense contractors have been exploring possible merger agreements which, if executed, would significantly alter the competitive landscape of the global aerospace industry. As of last Wednesday, the talks involved Lockheed Martin, U.K.-based General Electric Plc. and British Aerospace--with GEC as the pursuer, according to people familiar with the situation. Its first choice is a merger with BAe. Failing that, management would try to strike a deal with Lockheed Martin. In mid-December, senior U.S. and U.K.
Researchers at Ohio State University are building a concept demonstrator for an adjustable communications satellite antenna. As envisioned, such an antenna could ``self-tune'' and change the shape of its reflector while in orbit to improve signal quality and performance characteristic or specific ground pattern, according to Gregory Washington, assistant professor of mechanical engineering. It also could take the place of several traditional antennas by reshaping to deliver or receive a variety of signals including cellular phones, pagers and GPS.
Tony Marlow (see photos) has been promoted to vice president-operations from director of marketing for Raytheon Travel Air, Wichita, Kan. Drew McEwen was promoted to vice president-sales. He had been regional sales manager for airline sales of Raytheon Aircraft.
Robert A. Davis, corporate vice president-engineering and technology for the Boeing Co., has been elected president of the International Federation of Airworthiness. He succeeds Craig Beard.
Officials of TWA and its flight attendants' union are preparing for a second round of super mediation in the wake of a job action over the Christmas holiday period that resulted in cancellation of more than 200 flights.
Charles Yamarone, the Topex/Poseidon project manager at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Jean Louis Fellous, assistant director of the Earth Science and Applications Programme Directorate at the French space agency Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, have received the 1998 William T. Pecora Award on behalf of the Topex/Poseidon Team. The award is presented annually by NASA and the U.S. Interior Dept. to recognize contributions of individuals or groups who study the Earth with remote sensing.
Faced with a Mar. 31 deadline for securing major-program funding for the rest of 1999--and a Senate likely to be distracted by the impeachment trial of President Clinton--FAA Administrator Jane F. Garvey says she is unperturbed (see p. 38). The rush of last-minute business and major aviation policy disputes prompted Congress last fall to approve FAA funding for only 6 months of the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, 1998.
Seattle-based regional carrier Horizon Air has ordered 25 Canadair CRJ700 transports worth $580 million (U.S.) with deliveries scheduled to begin in mid-2002. The order brings to 96 the number of the 70-seat, twin-engine jets under contract with Bombardier.
Boeing is testing the second stage extendible nozzle of the Delta 3 booster at the U.S. Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) as part of an overall reassessment of the vehicle's design following the first-launch failure 4 months ago. The test--which will evaluate deployment of the nozzle in the cold environment of space--comes only a few months prior to the scheduled second launch of a Delta 3, which will carry a Hughes HS 601HP Orion 3 spacecraft for Loral Orion.
Col. Graham Pritchard, Jr., has relieved Col. Jonathan E. Adams as commander of the 109th Airlift Wing of the New York Air National Guard. He was vice commander.
Howard L. Wesoky has been appointed chief scientific and technical adviser for the environment in the FAA Office of Environment and Energy. He was team leader for environmental compatibility assessment in the NASA Office of Aero-Space Technology.
Mike Bair has been named vice president/general manager of 757 programs at the Boeing Co. in Seattle. He was director of engineering for the 777 program.
In a classified report completed Jan. 2, a House select committee concludes that Hughes' and Loral's dealings with China on satellite launches did indeed harm U.S. national security. But the five-volume, 700-page report, the result of 22 hearings and testimony from 75 witnesses over the last six months, also found that transfers of militarily-relevant technologies to China extend beyond Loral and Hughes and aren't limited to satellites and missiles. ``There was harm in some of the transfer of technology that occurred,'' said Rep.
