Former U.S. Air Force Secretary Sheila E. Widnall, who is Abby Rockefeller Mauze professor of aeronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, has been named an institute professor, the highest honor awarded by the MIT faculty and administration.
The Sea Launch command ship and launch platform are scheduled to conduct tests for more than 2 weeks this month off the coast of Baja California, Mexico. Current plans call for 17 days of testing--including a countdown to within seconds of first-stage ignition--and a total of 6 days required to make the round trip between the Sea Launch homeport in Long Beach, Calif., and the test site, located more than 200 mi. west of Cabo San Lucas.
James A. Hodgson has become vice president-operations for the Airframe Services Div., William B. Ashworth, vice president-maintenance, quality and engineering, and Terry Davidson, vice president-operations of the Component Services Div., all of the BFGoodrich Aerospace Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul Group, Everett, Wash. Hodgson was director of maintenance and Ashworth vice president-quality and engineering. Davidson was general manager of the AAR Corp.'s Technical Services Center.
Engineers at the NASA/Langley Research Center are modifying a Boeing 757 into a flying laboratory as part of the agency's Transport Research Facilities project designed to support testing of advanced technology concepts. In November, the aircraft was designated the Airborne Research Integrated Experiments Systems (Aries) and made its first flight on Dec. 10 at Langley facilities in Hampton, Va.
F-22 production has been approved by top Pentagon procurement officials following a Dec. 17 program review. The move eliminates one hurdle in the U.S. Air Force's plan to award multimillion-dollar production contracts to Lockheed Martin and Pratt&Whitney for the first two F-22s, designated Production Representative Test Vehicles, and their F119 engines. It also clears the way for long-lead funding of 1999's six-aircraft Lot 1 of USAF's new stealth fighter.
The Independent Assn. of Continental Pilots has signed a 5-year contract with Continental Airlines that provides increased pay and improved working conditions for 1,200 pilots at its Continental Express subsidiary. The agreement becomes amendable in October 2002.
Kaman Corp. has started a search for a new chief executive as CEO Charles H. Kaman prepares to relinquish that role and continue working on the company's strategic direction as chairman. Kaman, 79, has led the company he founded for 53 years. He suffered a mild stroke in August but is currently back at work.
Anew, substantially streamlined tactical intelligence structure formed by multiple U.S. intelligence agencies and the military services is being used to monitor Iraq to prepare U.S. and British forces for new strikes against Iraqi facilities in early 1999 if more attacks become necessary. The new intelligence framework made its combat debut Dec. 16-19, when it was used to speed Iraqi strike planning and bomb damage assessment (BDA).
Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov's visit to India that started on Dec. 20 is expected to produce several agreements on economics and defense cooperation. Primakov met with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpaye and other Indian leaders. The Indian navy has been negotiating for 3 years to acquire the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov and may soon complete that deal. In a related development, the Rosvoorouzhenie company of Russia signed a deal to deliver 10 more Su-30K fighters to the Indian air force in addition to eight already delivered.
For systems that get their time reference from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the agency is providing special time signals via the Internet and by dial-up modem that are exactly two years in the future to check for Year 2000 problems. For example, at noon on Dec. 28, 1998, the signal will say it is noon on Dec. 28, 2000. The century can be deduced from a 5-digit modified Julian date in the Internet and dial-up modem codes, but the 100-Hz. subcarrier on NIST's radio signal only has enough bandwidth for a 2-digit year.
The Galaxy super mid-size, intercontinental business jet received FAA certification on Dec. 17 after an aggressive flight test program that was completed in less than one year after the airplane's first flight. The Civil Aviation Authority of Israel certified the Galaxy on Dec. 15.
QuickStream has released Version 2.4 of its DocCentral file management system. DocCentral can transfer files across the Internet and is Java-based to run on different computer types. Version 2.4 includes additional security by incorporating TriStrata Security's Random Keystream encryption system . . . CMstat has released CMwebStat, a query tool that gives manufacturers access to and analysis of their distributed data via the Internet. The software installs on a company server and can be remotely accessed by standard Web browsers.
The FAA has issued the first U.S. type certificate for an aircraft of Russian design, preparing the way for export of CIS aircraft to countries which do not recognize Russian type certification.
The U.S. and Pakistan have reached a reimbursement agreement for 28 undelivered F-16s Islamabad purchased but did not receive as a result of its violation of American nuclear weapons sanctions. The White House said Pakistan will drop its nearly $464-million claim in exchange for a U.S. payment of just under $325 million from a special Treasury Dept. fund used to settle legal disputes involving the U.S. government.
[Russia] does not impress one by plenty or industry; it can't go on like this, reforms are absolutely necessary. But how is one to carry them out, how is one to begin? Ivan Turgenev, ``Fathers&Sons'' (1862) We can only guess where the times are leading us. Countless events, known and unknown, seen and unseen, burst upon us everywhere, all at once, at every instant. They occur close by and far away, at our feet and beyond our grasp, inducing vertigo.
I'd been back from Antarctica 9 months when I learned of the aircraft mishap. It was strange--enjoying shirtsleeve weather in November while mentally transporting myself down to ``the ice.'' A taxiing Air National Guard LC-130 recently found a crevasse the hard way, when a snow bridge collapsed, causing it to slip partway in, but there were no injuries (AW&ST Nov. 23, p. 19).
Investigators are assessing why a Thai Airways International Airbus A310 apparently stalled during a missed approach and are reviewing what roles inoperative runway lighting and bad weather played in the aircraft's Dec. 11 crash in Thailand.
International Space Station ground controllers at the Russian Korolev Flight Control Center near Moscow have placed the embryonic ISS into a slow rotation, with most of its systems powered down, now that the initial shuttle Endeavour assembly mission has been completed.
The U.S. Trade Representative's Office is threatening to take a dispute over a proposed European Union ban of hushkitted aircraft to the World Trade Organization. The ban, expected to be formally approved early next year, would bar EU airlines from adding hushkitted Chapter 2 aircraft to their fleets after Apr. 1, 1999, and allow carriers from non-EU nations to fly hushkitted aircraft within the union only if they were registered before that date and were serving EU destinations between 1995 and 1999. The U.S.
Thomson-CSF will take a one-time charge of FF3 billion ($540 million) against 1998 earnings to cover the costs of restructuring, including the elimination of 4,000 jobs (AW&ST Oct. 19, p. 76). The charge, at the high end of analysts' predictions, will cause an estimated net loss of FF1.5 billion for the year, but it will raise operating margins from 5.7% currently to 7%. Analysts deemed the target too low compared with competitors.
Chairman and CEO Phil Condit urged Boeing employees and managers to ``focus on performance, not rumors'' in a mid-December message. The memo was intended to put to rest ``media speculation about senior management changes,'' he said, and followed a 2-day board meeting that reviewed the performance of Boeing's various business sectors. Condit said Boeing's Aircraft&Missile Systems unit is profitable and seeking to expand. The company is making heavy investments in its Space&Communications group, which is temporarily depressing its profitability.
Delta Air Lines exercised options and added new, incremental orders for 25 Boeing transports. It also confirmed a previously placed order for 24 Boeing jets. The options and incremental orders include 14 737-800s, eight 757-200s and three 767-300ERs. The confirmed order consists of 16 737-800s, six 757-200s and two 777-200ERs.
NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter will be 3 million mi. from Earth Dec. 29, following its launch on Dec. 11 on board a Boeing Delta 2 Med Lite booster. The launch was the first to use the Delta 7425 Med Lite version with 4 solid rocket motors and the second mission of the long-term Mars Surveyor program
