Continental Airlines has sued Delta Air Lines to keep it from imposing its baggage policies on Continental passengers at San Diego International Airport. Delta, which manages the security contract for the concourse used by it, Continental and America West has installed baggage ``sizers'' on the security screening devices jointly shared by the airlines to keep passengers from carrying on baggage that does not meet its requirements.
Dennis M. Mullins has been appointed general manager of the Broomfield, Colo., facility of Stevens Aviation. He was president of Hollingshead International, Santa Fe Springs, Calif.
Pratt&Whitney has begun about six weeks of sea level tests of the F119 derivative scheduled for use in the Lockheed Martin X-35 JSF candidate. The JSF119-611 engine, designated FX662, completed its first run with the lift fan engaged on Nov. 10. The fan was subsequently run up to 100% speed on Nov. 22. On the same date, the F119-derivative powerplant for the STOVL version of Boeing's X-32 JSF candidate also began tests. CTOL versions of the engines are also in test.
Continental Airlines has ordered 10 Boeing 767-200ERs to complete its wide-body fleet plan. The airplanes will be configured with 176 seats including 25 first-class and 151 coach, and operated on routes to Europe and South America. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2000.
The number of subscribers to satellite TV in the U.S. has surpassed 10 million, or nearly 1 in 10 television households, according to the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Assn. The fledgling direct-to-home industry added 1.6 million new subscribers in the first 10 months of 1998. DirecTV/U.S. Satellite Broadcasting now have 4,165,000 subscribers, followed by Primestar (2,207,000) and EchoStar's Dish Network (1,709,000). In addition, there are 1,963,000 large dish C-band system owners.
A terrible El Nino year--109 days of rain plus the usual fog--has only made San Francisco International Airport more anxious than ever to separate its runways to meet IFR minimums for independent takeoffs and landings in bad weather. SFO has two sets of intersecting parallel runways with 750-ft. separations. Last week, the airport agreed to begin the environmental review process toward a billion-dollar construction program to begin next year that will achieve the FAA's minimum of a 4,300-ft. separation between each runway for IFR operations.
The Galileo spacecraft went into a ``safe'' mode twice during the Nov. 22 flyby of Jupiter's moon Europa, and missed most of the science data. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory spacecraft also missed data two flybys ago on July 20, again due to its entering a safe mode (AW&ST Aug. 3, p. 31). But the intervening Europa flyby on Sept. 25 was generally successful.
Matra BAe Dynamics confirmed it has received orders to supply IR and RF-guided Mica medium-range air-to-air missiles, Black Shaheen standoff weapons and chaff and flare dispensers for Mirage 2000-9 fighters ordered by the United Arab Emirates (AW&ST Nov. 23, p. 26). The orders, worth more than $2 billion, mark the first export successes for the Black Shaheen, derived from the U.K. Storm Shadow and French Scalp, and the Mica IR, which is still in development.
When NASA was seeking White House approval to begin developing a space station in the early 1980s, it billed the station concept as ``the next logical step'' in space development. Finally, almost two decades later, the hardware phase of that ``logical step'' has begun. It is worth recalling, in the face of disputes about cost overruns, schedule slips, the Russian partnership and scientific payoffs, why building a space station made sense in the first place.
Bell Helicopter Textron has begun final assembly of the first production MV-22 for the U.S. Marine Corps at Bell's facilities at the Arlington Municipal Airport.
Under an $8-million contract, General Atomics will develop an integrated manufacturing process for the fabrication of low-cost, high-performance, low-observable pigments for formulation into low-observable coatings for aircraft and other U.S. Air Force assets.
Peter J. Beucher has been named senior vice president-business development of the Time Domain Corp., Huntsville, Ala. He was general manager of the global aircraft products division of PPG Industries, also in Huntsville.
IN THE RACE FOR MORE POWERFUL high-end computers, Mercury Computer Systems claims a new industry milestone. The next generation of its Race family, called Race ++, will have greater bandwidth and system scalability. Mercury says it has the industry's most aggressive power/performance metric of 1 gigabyte per second per watt. Further, Race++ will allow the number of processors in a single system to grow from today's 1,000 to more than 4,000.
The U.K. and Israel have signed a defense research agreement allowing the two nations to exchange information and investigate potential research work. Specific projects would be considered on a case-by-case basis. According to the U.K.'s Ministry of Defense, the agreement excludes cooperation on weapons of mass destruction.
The first shuttle mission to assemble large elements of the International Space Station will require precision flying, extensive robotics and orbital construction to join and outfit the station's initial U.S. and Russian modules. Shuttle Mission 88, set for launch this week, ``easily ranks up there in complexity with any of the more difficult shuttle missions we have ever flown,'' said Bob Castle, the lead flight director at Johnson Space Center.
Rolls-Royce will supply upgrade kits to British Airways to convert 108 RB211-524 engines to the new G/H-T standard. The order, worth more than $200 million, comprises RB211-524G/H-T engines for 25 Boeing 747-400s, plus eight spare engines.
Airline stocks surged last Tuesday on news that further oil production cuts appear likely, which means that fuel prices are apt to remain low for some months to come. Equally significant, economists who only two months ago were predicting a U.S. recession in 1999 are now backing away from those forecasts. Could operating conditions be any better for airlines? The answer to that question may not be as obvious as it might appear. Some crucial indicators for October are just in, and they aren't good.
August traffic figures from Asian airlines are allowing some optimism, while a report from analysts at Salomon Smith Barney suggests the worst may be over for most airlines. Peter Negline of Salomon Smith Barney in Hong Kong says that Asian airlines were close to their ``cyclical nadir'' but urged caution: traffic and earnings are not set for a certain recovery in the short term. But yields are expected to bottom out, as airlines recognize that further price-cutting will not increase demand. Fare increases are not expected in the short term.
Deep Space 1 restarted its xenon ion engine on Nov. 24 and it was continuing to produce thrust after a full day of operation late last week. Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers planned to continue running the engine for at least 4 days. The engine automatically shut down after 4.5 min. on Nov. 10 and could not be restarted in 14 attempts (AW&ST Nov. 23, p. 33). The Nov. 24 restart occurred with no ``recycle'' events of debris short-circuiting the accelerating grids, and only 8 recycles occurred in the first 22 hr., considered to be excellent performance.
Mitsubishi Electric's successful pitch to develop Japan's first reconnaissance satellites was not an overnight reaction to North Korea's surprise Aug. 31 launch of a booster that crossed over Japan. In fact, Mitsubishi had the satellite concepts well in hand and had briefed senior members of Parliament 6 days prior to the launch. With parliamentary approval imminent, the four-satellite constellation and ground system is expected to receive 13 billion yen ($106 million) in Japan's 1999 budget.
Luke J. Gill (see photo) has been appointed vice president-product support for Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems, Fort Worth. He was vice president-maintenance and engineering for Southwest Airlines. Gill succeeds W.B. Zimmerman, who has retired.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and its European counterpart, Eumetsat, have agreed to set up an Initial Joint Polar System that will ensure the continuity and compatibility of meteorological data in coming decades. Under the agreement, the two organizations will each provide a set of common instruments for all new spacecraft that will be part of the joint polar system, beginning with Eumetsat's Metop-1 in 2001. Eumetsat will provide readings for the morning orbit, and NOAA the afternoon orbit.
Fokker Aerostructures, a subsidiary of Stork N.V., has received orders valued at $171 million from Airbus Industrie partners. The Dutch company will provide pressure bulkheads, fuselage shells and fixed front wing sections for A340-500/600s, tail section parts for A320s and fuselage shells for A330s and A340s. Fokker Elmo has received a separate contract from Aerospatiale to design and manufacture pylon wire harnesses for the A340-500/600.
The crucial first shuttle mission to assemble initial elements of the International Space Station is set for liftoff this week as NASA unveils a major new commercialization plan that would turn the multibillion-dollar facility into a ``fee-for-service commercial technology testbed.''
