NORTHROP GRUMMAN REPORTS IT HAS ACHIEVED a six-fold increase in output power from solid-state lasers during the past year, without increase in size, weight or power consumption and further increases are in prospect. The company's AAQ-24 DIRCM, developed under an accelerated timetable, uses lamps but was designed to facilitate its upgrade to use a laser when suitable devices became available.
Allison Engine Co. will supply 10,851 turbine engine vanes for $5 million to be used on the T-56s that power U.S. Air Force C-130 and U.S. Navy E-2/C-2 and P-3 aircraft.
Smiths Industries has acquired Stewart Hughes Ltd. of Eastleigh, England, for 8.3 million pounds ($13.9 million), further expanding its health and usage monitoring systems business. Stewart Hughes specializes in rotor track and balance and vibration monitoring systems for helicopters and is involved in the U.S. Army's AH-64 Apache program.
GKN Westland Aerospace of the U.K. has enhanced its presence in the U.S. with the acquisition of Dow-UT Composite Products for $62 million. Set up as a joint venture between Dow Chemicals and United Technologies, the company specializes in manufacturing pre-impregnated laminates and developing resin transfer molding techniques to build lightweight airframe parts and engine components.
The delivery date of the Airbus A319CJ corporate jet is slipping. Despite manufacturer claims the program is ``on time'' at last month's National Business Aviation Assn. convention, certification now is set for July with first handover to customers from outfitters scheduled for November 1999. When the program was launched in mid-1997, Airbus officials said first availability was ``Spring 1999.''
British Midland advanced its ambitious plans to reenter the transatlantic market, securing delivery options on six long-haul aircraft from Airbus Industrie and Boeing worth an estimated $500 million. The U.K. carrier is still deciding between A330-200s and 767-300s for deliveries starting in the spring of 2000. British Midland has applied for licenses to serve 10 U.S. cities from London Heathrow, betting that the U.S. and U.K. governments can eventually hammer out an open skies accord.
Capt. Duane E. Woerth of Northwest Airlines has been elected president of the Washington-based Air Line Pilots Assn. He succeeds Capt. Randy Babbitt, who is retiring. Other new officers are: Capt. Dennis J. Dolan of Delta Air Lines, first vice president; and Capt. John Feldvary of US Airways, vice president-finance/treasurer. Capt. Jerome Mugerditchian of United Airlines was reelected vice president administration/secretary.
As John Glenn and the rest of the shuttle crew went into space after the solid rocket boosters separated during Mission 95, a SoMat 2100 Field Computer System from SoMat Corp. of Champaign, Ill., was gathering data as the two SRBs plunged into the Atlantic. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center calls the Model 2100 the Enhanced Data Acquisition System (EDAS) and is using the $12,000 computer to analyze the SRB's flight environment. The SRBs were studied when the shuttle became operational in the early 1980s, but today's hardware and software are more sophisticated.
Eric Steiner has been named president/chief operating officer of the Fairchild Corp., Dulles, Va. He will remain president of Fairchild Fasteners. Donald E. Miller has been promoted to executive vice president from senior vice president. He will remain general counsel. Robert A. Sharpe, 2nd, has been named senior vice president-operations for the Fairchild Corp. He will remain executive vice president of Fairchild Fasteners.
AirLiance Materials, a Chicago-based parts brokerage company formed by United Airlines, Lufthansa German Airlines and Air Canada, has opened and is anticipating $100-million annual business. The company is based temporarily in a warehouse near O'Hare International Airport, where it is storing excess parts consigned to it by the three Star alliance carriers. A new building of more than 200,000 sq. ft. is under construction adjacent to airport grounds.
German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping has ordered a strategic military review, to be completed by next March, focusing on steps to reshape the country's armed forces in line with the changing face of the NATO alliance. The review will precede a broader study on the role of Germany's military agreed to by the ruling Social Democratic Party and its coalition partners, the Greens, who have long argued for force-level reductions. Scharping said no international weapons contracts signed by the previous government would be rescinded.
Famed Boeing test pilot Alvin M. (Tex) Johnston died on Oct. 29 in Seattle. He was 84. Johnston was best-known for barrel-rolling a Dash 80, an early version of the Boeing 707 transport, over Lake Washington near Seattle in July 1954.
Airlines are scrambling to take advantage of fast-developing information technology advances that promise to significantly increase competitiveness while lowering costs.
The U.K.'s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has lifted a suspension on Air Atlanta Icelandic's British operating permit following an investigation of suspect spare parts. The Icelandic airline specializes in wet-leasing aircraft to other carriers, including three U.K. operators, to meet short-term capacity needs. The CAA took the action on Oct. 23 pending an inquiry into Air Atlanta's use of an out-of-service 747 for spare parts. The grounding order was lifted on Oct.
Airlines and labor unions have fought a see-saw battle for the upper hand in collective bargaining since the government deregulated the industry 20 years ago. During much of the deregulation period, management has been in control but lately labor has demonstrated its strengths.
THREE-BAND SIMULATOR The Model No. TSS-CXK tri-band satellite simulator can replicate the transmissions of C, X and Ku-band frequencies. Their primary use is for live training by satellite earth terminal operators, which saves the cost of actual transponder time. The simulator also can be used for verifying performance of a terminal. The broad-band RF-to-RF converter translates an input uplink frequency band to an output downlink frequency band. LNR Communications Inc., 70 Suffolk Court, Hauppauge, N.Y. 11788. ANTENNA GASKETS
PanAmSat's PAS-8 was launched into geosynchronous transfer orbit Nov. 4 on a Russian/International Launch Services Proton from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The 10-kw. spacecraft, the 18th in PanAmSat's global communications network, is to provide digital-quality video and telecommunications services to the Asia-Pacific region from an orbit at 166 deg. E. Long. PAS-8 was built by Space Systems/Loral and uses an FS-1300 modular bus.
ERC Inc. has received $18 million to provide theoretical and experimental research in the physical and engineering sciences in support of the Research in Propulsion Sciences Program at the Air Force Research Laboratory Propulsion Directorate at Edwards AFB, Calif.
Aid to African nations is in the works at the U.S. Transportation Dept. The department has invited eight African nations to join in its ``Safe Skies for Africa'' program to improve the safety of their aviation operations. The U.S. will offer technical assistance to Angola, Cameroon, Cape Verde, the Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mali, Tanzania and Zimbabwe and facilitate their contacts with U.S. industry representatives interested in securing work to improve aviation facilities.
Boeing Co. senior management is confident that its Commercial Aircraft Group (BCAG) will be able to attain double-digit profit margins, up from the meager 1% posted in the third quarter and the 1.5-1.8% that Wall Street expects in the fourth quarter. Perhaps. Then again, top executives also expressed confidence three years ago they could manage an aggressive ramp-up in new-aircraft production rates.
The Pentagon needs to change its priorities and start concentrating on developing new, more ``decisive'' weapons--from rifles to large vertical-landing transport aircraft--that can be supplied to troops in the field within the next two decades, says Hans Mark, the Pentagon's new director of defense research and engineering.
