LanChile Airlines plans to resume Santiago-Orlando service beginning on Dec. 26, with three weekly flights using 767-300ERs in three classes of service. The Santiago-based carrier said it offers the only daily nonstop service to Lima and the only direct service to Santiago from both Los Angeles and New York.
Boeing's testbed 757 transport is shown with a representative F-22 fighter wing installed on its crown. The ``sensor'' wing will allow Boeing to test and integrate F-22 avionics and related software in parallel with airframe testing now underway at Edwards AFB, Calif. Problems encountered can be evaluated and solved before installation into an actual F-22 cockpit, lowering program cost and length by reducing flight test hours, according to Boeing.
Samuli Haapasalo, ministerial counselor for the Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications, will join the board of directors of Finnair on Jan. 1.
Singapore Airlines has told Philippine Airlines not to count on it as a financial savior. That means the Philippines flag carrier has no credible rescuers and will require a government bailout if it is to survive. Philippines President Joseph Estrada is reportedly trying to resuscitate Cathay Pacific's earlier proposal to buy some 40% of PAL and take over its management. Meanwhile, employees are talking about abandoning a no-strike pledge, apparently anticipating huge layoffs.
Although U.S. negotiators walked out of the last U.S.-U.K. talks on a new bilateral air services pact, they are hopeful the U.K. will ask for a resumption of talks soon. ``We believe the ball is in their court,'' Patrick V. Murphy, deputy assistant secretary of Transportation for aviation and international affairs, told the Airports Council International-North America's international air service seminar (see p. 70). Murphy said it is possible the U.K. may be considering offering a more gradual or phased approach toward the open skies goal the U.S. seeks.
European air defense system consortium Eurosam has completed the fifth successful test firing of the Aster antiaircraft/antimissile missile in 12 months. The weapon, fired from a land-based launcher, destroyed a target drone intended to simulate an aircraft equipped with powerful electronic countermeasures.
Robert E. Brown, who has guided Bombardier Inc.'s aerospace operations for the last 10 years, will become the corporation's next president and CEO, effective Feb. 1. His appointment puts him in line to eventually succeed Chairman and CEO Laurent Beaudoin.
Idemitsu Apollo Corp. has won a $56-million contract to deliver F-76 naval distillate fuel and JP-8 aviation turbine fuel to the U.S. Defense Dept. Energy Support Center, Ft. Belvoir, Va.
Compressor blade damage discovered during a routine check of an F/A-18E Super Hornet's engine has led the Navy to inspect all engines built for the new aircraft carrier-based fighter. The investigation may reveal a design flaw that could ground the small fleet of test aircraft for at least several days. The fighter is expected to be operational in Navy units by 2001.
Boeing is looking at possible refinements to the baseline 717-200, which could make the transport more appealing to smaller carriers in the fast-growing regional aircraft market. The company recently completed an analysis of 50-70-seat aircraft operators to learn more about an evolving segment of the industry in which Boeing has had relatively limited experience to date. The company previously focused the 717 primarily as a replacement for DC-9s and older 737 aircraft.
Hartzell Propeller Inc.will supply propellers for Raytheon Aircraft Co. propeller-driven aircraft, under a $35-million, 6-year contract. The propellers will equip the Beech 1900D; King Air 350, B200 and C90B; Baron 58; and Bonanza A36 and B36TC; plus the Raytheon Aircraft T-6A Texan 2 JPATS.
Paul G. Casner, Jr., has been named executive vice president-operations of DRS Technologies Inc., Parsippany, N.J. He was president of the Gaithersburg, Md.-based Electronic Systems Group. Casner has been succeeded by Terrence L. DeRosa, who has been promoted from group executive vice president.
Secret codicils to the Israeli-Palentinian Wye agreement obligate the U.S. to pay a major share of the R&D costs for an Israeli system that can strike incoming ballistic missiles within 90 sec. of launch. The system is expected to use a UAV to orbit over Israel carrying missiles--one type to strike boosters in flight and possibly a second type to hit mobile missile launchers before they flee. The funding is to move research on boost-phase intercept from paper studies to hardware testing.
Sundstrand Aerospace has acquired Shannon (Ireland) Aircraft Motor Works, which has subsidiaries in Agen, France, and Toronto. It specializes in the remanufacture and repair of electric motors and generators.
TRANSISTOR PERFORMANCE CAN BE ENHANCED using silicon-based high-speed resonant tunneling diodes, according to research reported at the IEDM by a team from the University of Delaware, Raytheon, Naval Research Laboratory and NIST. Previous research found benefits from tunneling diodes, but they were not compatible with common silicon transistors. Two classes of silicon-based negative differential resistance (NDR) devices that operate at room temperature aim to reach the silicon mainstream.
Peter Smith (see photo) has become managing director of Dunlop Precision Rubber, Shepshed, England. He was general manager of Dunlop Equipment. Smith succeeds Gordon Midgley, who has retired.
A dispute over financing capital improvements between Air Canada and the Greater Toronto Airports Authority is escalating into an airlines' campaign to revise the National Airports Policy, the legal instrument that guides airport privatization in Canada. The airline-airport disagreement at Toronto took a very public turn when Air Canada, the dominant carrier at Lester B. Pearson International Airport, was not represented at the Dec. 2 groundbreaking for a key Pearson redevelopment project, a CAD$3.3 billion ($2.17 billion) terminal.
General Electric Aircraft Engines will furnish 29,244 high-pressure turbine blades to be used on F404 engines for U.S. Navy F/A-18 aircraft, under a $15-million award.
Rolls-Royce's market outlook for the next 20 years forecasts a demand for 43,500 new engines (both installed and spares) worth $280 billion based on deliveries of 16,900 new aircraft. The company estimates 56% of engine deliveries will be for narrow-body short- and medium-haul aircraft. The forecast is based on annual growth rates of 5.1% in passenger traffic and 6.5% in cargo traffic.
China's civil aircraft industry finally has reached the triple-digit mark for aircraft exports. In the past 20 years it has delivered 81 Y-12s, a de Havilland DH-6 Twin Otter lookalike, to 20 countries and regions as well as eight Y-7s, a development of the Russian AN-24 and 11 Y-8s, a version of the Russian An-12B. Customers for the latter two aircraft types include Laos, Mauritania, New Guinea, Sudan, Iran, Sri Lanka and Myanmar.
Michael F.X. Gigliotti, a metallurgist specializing in advanced turbine alloys, and E. Trifon Laskaris, a mechanical engineer whose research focuses on syperconducting systems, have won the General Electric Research and Development Center's Coolidge Fellowship Award. Both work at the Schenectady, N.Y., center.
Privatization of airports is spreading slowly in the U.S. from roots laid down by the airport managing company BAA USA Inc. at Indianapolis airport 3 years ago.
The U.K. has always been an innovator in transport policy, and nowhere more than in aviation. We were the first country in the world to privatize our major airports, and our main airport operator, BAA Plc., is using its expertise to manage airports in very non-British locations such as Pittsburgh, Indianapolis and, very soon, Newark.
Horizontal integration is emerging as an increasingly common theme among lower-tier suppliers seeking capabilities spanning a broader spectrum of systems, structures and functionality.
