NATO suspended the immediate threat of air strikes against Serbia last week after concluding Belgrade had made substantial progress toward withdrawing its security police and military units from Kosovo. But NATO Secretary General Javier Solana said allied strike aircraft would remain on alert. U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, based at Aviano, Italy, will continue surveillance flights over Kosovo as part of the alliance's verification regime which will also include some 2,000 observers on the ground from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. U.S.
Flir Systems Inc. has been awarded an $8-million contract for 25 navigation systems and related support equipment for the Bell Helicopter Textron UH-1N.
The Sukhoi Design Bureau is trying to gain more visibility for its Su-33 carrier-based heavyweight fighter, given Russian-Indian talks on the possible sale of the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov. A 24-aircraft regiment of Su-33s, however, has been conducting combat training missions from Russia's only operational carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, for several years. But the Su-33 (also called the Su-27K) was only adopted by the Russian navy at the end of August.
The FAA plans to select a non-U.S. system for oceanic air traffic control by year-end and may elect to buy systems or contract for ATC services. The decision to look at existing ATC systems outside the U.S. is a significant change. It followed on the heels of an FAA decision in May to stop work on a Raytheon contract for oceanic ATC systems development that was over budget and making inadequate progress.
Mike Watkins and Bob Dorran have become PT6A sales managers, Mark Larsen Upper Midwest U.S. sales manager, Tim Cox regional airlines sales manager and Bob Dudley PT6 Total Engine Asset Management program manager, all for Standard Aero, Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Singapore Airlines Group will continue with an aggressive refurbishment of its fleet and investment in overseas airlines despite a 24% drop in profit for the first six months of fiscal 1998 that ended Sept. 30.
Korean Air will sell three Boeing 747-200s, a 747SP, two 747-300s and two MD-11 transports in an effort to reduce inventory to 111 aircraft. The sale would lower its average fleet age to seven years. So far, the airline has no buyers. Korean Air is scheduled to receive 26 new aircraft by the year 2000, including three 777-200/300s, two 747-400s, one 747-400 freighter and an A330 by the end of this year. Next year, it is to take three A330s; and in 2000, four 777s, eight 737-800s and four A330s.
The SAirGroup, Swissair's parent company, will acquire a 45% stake in Air Europe, an Italian charter operator formed in 1989. Air Europe, which operates seven Boeing 767-300s, last year had $255 million in revenues. In addition to charter flights, Air Europe plans to inaugurate scheduled services on Italy's domestic route system.
Scientists tracking space ``weather'' are warning that communications networks are more vulnerable than ever to an approaching peak in solar storms, thanks to a surging reliance on space-based communications.
The inaugural launch from the Kodiak Launch Complex in Alaska is set for this week. The facility, on Kodiak Island, is the first new complete launch range developed since the 1970s. The first mission, set for Nov. 4 during an 8-10 a.m. local time window, is part of the U.S. Air Force's Atmospheric Interceptor Technology program. The launch vehicle, consisting of surplus Minuteman 2 second and third stages modified by Orbital Sciences Corp., is to simulate an incoming missile and allow the USAF to evaluate two early warning radars on the West Coast. On the 16-min.
In an effort to derive more long-term value from large, costly wargames, Congress and the Pentagon established vehicles for conducting simulations and experiments that subject game-produced ideas, assumptions and issues to real-world assessment.
ICO Global Communications last week posted the first of what is likely to be a series of substantial net losses. For the three months and nine months ended Sept. 30, the red ink amounted to $28 million, or 14 cents a share, and $87.5 million, or 44 cents a share, respectively. But heavy losses are to be expected of development-stage companies.
The FAA is recommending that flight medical examiners advise pilots not to fly for at least 6 hr. after taking Viagra medication. The agency voiced its opinion in the recent edition of the Federal Air Surgeon's Medical Bulletin, based on concerns over the drug's potent side effects. For one, 3% of all patients taking Viagra have reported color vision problems; specifically, they are unable to differentiate between blue and green for several hours after dosing.
An Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus air-launched booster dropped from the company's L-1011 aircraft off the coast of Cape Canaveral late Oct. 22 successfully placed the Brazilian SCD-1 environmental data relay spacecraft into a 750-km. (405-naut.-mi.) orbit. The commercial launch was valued at $15 million. In addition to the Brazilian payload, the Pegasus was equipped with a NASA wing glove hypersonic aerodynamics experiment that gathered 90 sec. of pressure and temperature data on the transition from laminar to turbulent flow on the wing at speeds of Mach 6-8.
Airline and Air Line Pilots Assn. officials have reversed field on the Flight Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA) programs. They have been clamoring for more than a year for the FAA to issue a notice of proposed rule-making on FOQA. That would start the ball rolling on regulations enabling airlines, pilots and FAA inspectors to jointly figure out ways of heading off safety problems. But insiders say the proposed rule wending its way through channels at the FAA is so poorly written it would do more harm than good.
The world's first digital radio broadcast satellite and a U.S. company's first European-made satellite were launched from the European spaceport by an Ariane 44L, which broke its record for lofted payload weight.
Air New Zealand has taken advantage of deferments from other Asian carriers to move up a seven-year-old order for Boeing 737-300s as replacements for its -200s on domestic routes. The order signals that ANZ will not switch to Airbus A320s, which are flown by its equity partner, Ansett Australia. Ansett also operates 737-300s, but industry observers expect it intends to replace them with A320s.
As a result of the failure of the first Delta 3 booster two months ago, Boeing plans to change an instruction to flight control system software to identify and ignore the 4-Hz. roll oscillation that ultimately caused destruction of the vehicle and its communications satellite payload. The booster veered out of control Aug. 26 at a velocity of Mach 2.5 and an altitude of 60,000 ft. about 71 sec. after launch from Cape Canaveral on the maiden flight of the Delta 3 program. The next Delta 3 launch is planned for the first quarter of next year.
China has expressed an interest in the Be-200 multipurpose amphibian, sending an armed forces delegation to the ceremony in Irkutsk, Russia, last month marking the first official flight of the aircraft. Aleksey Fyodorov, chairman of the board of the Irkutsk Aircraft-Building Assn. (IAPO), said the Chinese army needs such aircraft, which carry a price tag of $20-22 million. IAPO has also been in discussions for the past year with South Korea, which is interested in the Be-200 for its Maritime Police Force.
James B. Emahiser will succeed retiring Mike Callahan as vice president/general manager of Intermec Technology Corp.'s Government Systems, Everett, Wash.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN WILL DEVELOP a weather systems processor for its ASR-9 airport surveillance radars to detect wind shear and microbursts. The upgrades will require a digital RF receiver system and new software algorithms. The FAA awarded the company a contract to develop the system and produce five prototypes for testing. With a follow-on production option for 37 systems, the contract value could be $49 million.
The governments of the U.K. and Argentina signed an agreement for closer defense cooperation. But Britain gave no sign it was ready to lift the arms embargo put in place following the 1982 Falklands war between the two countries.
Sea surface measurements taken last month by the U.S.-French Topex/Poseidon satellite reveal an ongoing battle in the Pacific Ocean between the warm El Nino pattern and its colder cousin, La Nina. In this Topex/Poseidon image (above, left), the remnants of El Nino can be seen lingering north of the equator in warm, higher-level water pools that appear in red and white. Meanwhile, La Nina's giant mass of cold, lower-level water, shown in purple, had remained unchanged for a month.
Sheila Opitz has become Mid-Atlantic U.S. customer service manager for Signature Flight Support, Orlando, Fla. She was a customer service manager for AMR Combs in San Francisco.
