Ed Questell and Brian Parker (see photos) have been appointed codirectors of development, marketing and operations of Transport Facilitators Inc. of Houston.
Air Commo. Dirk Starink (see photo, p. 10) has been named to become director of material for the Royal Netherlands Air Force next spring. He will succeed Maj. Gen. Marcel Wagevoort, who will retire.
The British Royal Navy submarine HMS Splendid test-fired a Tomahawk land-attack cruise missile, equipped with a live warhead, earlier this month off the coast of Southern California. The missile, launched from a torpedo tube, was guided to a simulated target 500 mi. away on San Clemente Island by its GPS and Digital Scene Matching Area Correlation systems. Two previous launches used unarmed missiles equiped with terrain countour matching systems in addition to DSMAC and GPS. The Royal Navy is acquiring 65 of the Block 3 Tomahawks.
Arianespace has contracted to launch the N-SAT-110 telecom satellite for Japan Satellite Systems and Space Communications Corp. Including orders last month for PanAmSat's Galaxy 11--previously earmarked for Sea Launch--and Galaxy 4R, the company has garnered nine awards so far this year, bringing its order book to 38 spacecraft.
THE FAA HAS GRANTED A SUPPLEMENTAL Type Certificate to the Honeywell/Racal team for the compact Aero-I satcom system on the next-generation Boeing 737-800. Launch customers are Morocco's Royal Air Maroc and China's Hainan Airlines. The installations use the spot-beams of the new Inmarsat-3 satellites, which permit smaller intermediate-gain antennas with less powerful and smaller high-power amplifiers than the Aero-H, which was introduced on long-range, wide-body aircraft in 1990. Aero-I does not need the external beam steering unit required with Aero-H.
LOCKHEED MARTIN SANDERS DELIVERED the first components of its common missile warning system (CMWS) to GEC Marconi for the U.K.'s WAH-64 Apache program. The CMWS electronic control unit processes threat data from the helicopter's four electro-optical sensors for the Marconi Helicopter Integrated Defensive Aids System. The CMWS will undergo integration and testing at GEC Marconi Avionics Radar and Countermeasures Systems Div.'s integration rig in Stanmore, England.
Gaza International Airport, for more than a year a hostage of stalemated Israeli-Palestinian peace talks until the signing of the Wye River agreement last month, was officially opened last week. Palestine National Airline, with a fleet of two Fokker 50s donated by the Netherlands and a donated 727, plans to start operations this week with flights to Cairo; Amman, Jordan, and Jedda, Saudi Arabia.
Airline industry economists say air carriers have been able to increase the spread between their average and breakeven load factors since the 1990-92 downturn. Some officials, such as Air Transport Assn. Senior Economist David Swierenga, point to the performance as evidence that airlines, by reducing debts and managing costs, are prepared to survive the next downturn (AW&ST Nov. 23, p. 34).
Pilots and negotiators for air express operator FedEx have returned to the bargaining table, avoiding a threatened holiday strike, and US Airways last week thwarted a walkout by settling on a proposed contract with Shuttle flight attendants.
The Lockheed Boeing F-22 fighter program accomplished two critical milestones last week, clearing the way for an initial production contract. Early in the week, the two F-22 flight test vehicles attained a combined 183-hr. flying time after takeoffs from their Edwards AFB, Calif., test site. The 183-hr. mark was a Congressional and Defense Dept. requirement before monies for the first production lot of six F-22s could be awarded.
R.K. (Kelly) Ortberg (see photos) has been appointed vice president-communications systems and Gregory S. Churchill vice president-integrated applications and navigation systems for Rockwell Collins, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Ortberg was director of data links and Churchill vice president-program management for the Government Services Div.
British Aerospace Regional Aircraft is moving ahead with plans to upgrade its Avro RJs, believing operating cost pressures will not allow many carriers to justify acquiring all-new 70-100-seat aircraft.
FIBERTEK HAS DEMONSTRATED A LIDAR for the U.S. Army that is intended to alert airfields and other high-value assets of the release of biological agents. In tests at the Army's Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, the system automatically detected and distinguished clouds of simulated biological agents from other clouds at ranges out to 3 km. (1.9 mi.). The system can detect, but not characterize, clouds out to 10 km. (6.2 mi.), according to the company.
Lockheed Martin believes it has scored a technology breakthrough with a totally passive air surveillance system that might revolutionize air surveillance.
North Korea is racing to complete another test of its multi-stage Taepo dong 1 missile before year's end, say U.S. military analysts. To the further consternation of its neighbors, the politically and commercially isolated nation is building new sites from which to test and perhaps operate medium-range ballistic missiles.
Concerned that the FAA is inclined to approve requests to fly twin-engine passenger transports up to 4 hr. from the nearest emergency airfield, a coalition of pilots' unions is seeking a meeting with top agency officials to review the risk of such operations.
ProAir plans to launch service from its Detroit City Airport base to Atlanta and Orlando by mid-month with its new Boeing 737-300, which was delivered on Nov. 23. The aircraft, the airline's third, also should allow ProAir to increase the frequency of its Detroit-Baltimore Washington International and Detroit-Newark (N.J.) International flights. Airline officials plan to double the size of their fleet by adding a fourth aircraft this month. The 16-month old airline plans to start service from Detroit to New York's LaGuardia Airport on Jan. 10.
The European Space Agency has kicked off full-scale development of the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (Egnos)--one of three regional GPS augmentation systems that will make up the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS-1). GNSS-1 is intended to provide improved signal availability, integrity and accuracy for CNS/ATM and other civil navigation applications.
Debonair Airways has signed an agreement with Lufthansa to operate five BAe 146-200s it is acquiring on behalf of the German carrier's regional subsidiary Lufthansa CityLine. The U.K. carrier is scheduled to begin operating the aircraft from Munich to various European destinations in March. Lufthansa CityLine has been looking for ways to increase capacity to meet demand on its short-haul route network.
Two Rolls-Royce-powered Tupolev Tu-204-120 aircraft, the first of 30 ordered by Sirocco Aerospace International, have been delivered to Egyptian carrier Air Cairo.
Altair Avionics Corp., jointly with AlliedSignal Inc., will market and support Altair's engine monitoring products, and will assist in development of future monitors and engine controls.
Colombia's air force chief resigned last week after U.S. officials found about 1,200 lb. of cocaine on a Colombian military C-130 after it arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on a routine trip to pick up spare parts. President Andres Pastrana accepted the resignation of Gen. Jose Manuel Sandoval, who took final responsibility for what amounted to a major embarrassment for the newly elected Colombian leader. In October, Pastrana traveled to Washington to pledge his commitment to ridding his country of cocaine and heroin production.
Boeing Phantom Works has developed a electronic tap hammer for faster and more accurate fault detection in composite materials in the field. The simple-to-use device incorporates a piezoelectric sensor in the head and is used similarly to existing tap hammer techniques, according to E.A. (Bud) Westerman, deputy program manager-aging aircraft, for Boeing structural supportability R&D. Sensor output, rather than a difference in tap sound, signals the site of a potential internal defect or delamination in an aircraft wing or other composite component.
Dispatchers at Part 121 and Part 135 airlines can play a major role in boosting safety. Under U.S. regulations, dispatchers share operational responsibility with pilots for the safe, legal completion of a flight. Southwest Airlines' dispatchers have helped the carrier's flight crews operate without a passenger fatality or serious aircraft accident since the airline started flying 27 years ago, an achievement that has won recognition. The 2,000-member Airline Dispatcher Federation presented its 1998 National Aviation Safety Award to Southwest's dispatchers.
