Raytheon President and Chief Operating Officer Daniel P. Burnham--who will become CEO on Dec. 1--has all but completed his strategic review of the defense electronics company. Based on a firsthand assessment of Raytheon's diverse operations in the last three months, Burnham has determined: -- His principal focus will be on growing revenues and income, with the transfer of defense electronics to commercial markets as an important source of that growth.
China has separated its military and civil space activities as part of market reforms of the country's chronically debt-ridden and inefficient public sector. But aside from removing the military as coleaders with the State Council (or Cabinet) of the space ministry, design and manufacturing, exactly how deep the reforms will go may be unclear for several years.
The successful test of a TRW-designed laser recently has opened the door for a valid demonstration of the device's usefulness as a weapon against ballistic missiles. Less obviously, this test will allow the airborne laser to begin taking on crucial new missions. At the top of the list of potential missions is the airborne laser's use as a defense against cruise missiles and as a passive, long-range optical reconnaissance platform.
Pentagon planners were reeling late last week under what they contend is the most obtrusive White House interference in attack planning since the war in Vietnam. President Lyndon Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara were notorious for picking bombing targets for political and not military reasons. Pentagon officials had already been chafing of late over White House decisions to strike at Iraq, Sudan and Afghanistan only with Tomahawk cruise missiles regardless of their effectiveness against the particular targets--caves, for instance.
With union acceptance of management demands, Philippine Airlines is expecting to resume operations Oct. 7, but the carrier's huge debt still threatens its long-term recovery outlook.
Jean-Robert Martin has been appointed senior vice president-airborne systems of France-based Thomson-CSF. Other recent appointments were: Francois Lureau, senior vice president-avionics systems; Roger Chevrel, senior vice president-information systems and services; Bernard Rocquemont, senior vice president-optronics; Marc Veron, senior vice president-air security and missile systems; and Henri Magnan, senior vice president-tubes and components.
Congress completed final action last week on a $250.5-billion defense appropriations bill for Fiscal 1999, comprising nearly $48.6 billion for procurement, almost $36.8 billion for research and development, $84 billion for operations and maintenance, and close to $71 billion for personnel.
The first forward and center fuselage for the new CRJ Series 700 aircraft has been shipped from Short Brothers' facility in Belfast, Northern Ireland, to Bombardier Aerospace's final assembly line in Montreal. The 17.9 meter-long (58 ft. 9 in.) fuselage is the largest aircraft component designed and manufactured by Shorts since the early 1960s. The Bombardier Aerospace subsidiary also designs and manufactures the CRJ700 engine nacelles.
Administrator Jane F. Garvey has assured Congress the FAA's computers will be ready for the Year 2000 at least six months before the millennium. But she is not as confident about the rest of the world or even some airports in the U.S. ``Some airports, particularly smaller ones, are having difficulty with Y2K compliance because they lack resources to hire the necessary personnel,'' she told a House hearing last week.
Germany's MAN Technologie and Boeing are jointly investigating advanced ceramic thermal protection systems and other hot-structure technologies. Engineers from the companies told the 49th congress of the International Astronautical Federation, held in Melbourne, Australia, last week, that they have developed new carbon-silicon carbide (C/SiC) composite assemblies. They have applications for the space shuttle and for body flaps on NASA's X-38 space station crew return vehicle.
The use of inflatable space systems, long a dream of science fiction writers to provide large lightweight orbiting structures, is fast approaching reality with multiple new inflatable systems under development for use in orbit.
Investigators in Canada have set an Oct. 31 deadline for retrieving the wreckage of Swissair Flight 111 from the floor of the Atlantic and should decide this week which commercial offshore platform will dredge for the debris of the MD-11. Sea conditions may soon make further salvage operations unsafe, according to officials of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. The TSB is leading the investigation into the Sept. 2 crash, which killed all 229 on board.
On the international front, the U.S. has urged the International Civil Aviation Organization to require a Notice to Airmen about Y2K from each nation to provide public assurance of the validated safety of their computer systems into 2000. The FAA also has established special teams with six countries that account for 60% of all U.S. passenger international travel--including Mexico, Canada, Japan and the U.K.--to make sure their ATC systems will be up to snuff. U.S. officials believe that Y2K readiness will run the gamut around the world. Down the line, the U.S.
Comair, the Cincinnati-based regional carrier allied with Delta Air Lines, has signed a 10-year agreement with Bombardier Aerospace of Canada to acquire 50 Canadair jet aircraft valued at more than $1 billion. The order includes 20 of the new 70-passenger jets and 30 General Electric GE CF34-powered, 50-seat Canadair Jets, and options for 115 aircraft.
Stephen Brown and Michael Sowa have become Western and Northeast U.S. sales managers, respectively, for Galaxy Aerospace of Fort Worth. Brown was regional sales manager for commercial avionics systems for AlliedSignal Aerospace. Sowa was a vice president of the Northwestern Aircraft Capital Corp.
Anthony Phillips and John Bailey, formerly of Message Management in Hong Kong, have become heads of the International Air Transport Assn.'s crisis communications consultancy in Geneva.
Boeing is offering the services of its two state-of-the art large blueprint Scan Centers to outside users, including the general aviation industry. The facilities, in Wichita, Kan., and Everett, Wash., operate high-accuracy flatbed scanners that convert paper- and Mylar-based engineering drawings into 3D digital format. The scanned raster image, up to 47 X 130 in., then is cleaned up and vectorized if necessary. Accuracy is 0.005 in. with a scaling correction process available to correct for dimensional distortion in Mylar sheets.
Pro Air, the Detroit-based carrier which started low-fare services 15 months ago, expects to have broken even for the first time in September. Operating from close-in Detroit City Airport to four cities, the carrier charted new ground this summer with five-year ``preferred airline'' agreements with both Chrysler Corp. and General Motors. More corporate agreements are in the offing, according to Pro Air Chairman and CEO Kevin C. Stamper, as are additional cities to be served.
Michael R. Gibbs has become president/CEO of Wintec Inc., Fort Walton Beach, Fla. He succeeds company founder Claude M. Connell, who will be chairman. Gibbs was executive director of Roseland Christian Health Ministries.
Technicians at the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Battlelab at Eglin AFB, Fla., are studying adding Traffic-Alert/Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) avionics to large, jet-powered drones, such as the Global Hawk, to allow them to safely fly in nonmilitary airspace. The capability would significantly enhance UAV training, flexibility and deployability, according to Capt. Charles J. DeLuise, TCAS demonstration project officer. Earlier this month, two McDonnell Douglas QF-4 drones equipped with loaned AlliedSignal TCAS as systems underwent airborne function checks.
AIRPOWER HAS DEVELOPED A SIMPLE CHANGE to laptop computer batteries that the company says will allow them to operate safely in aircraft when connected to in-seat power supply systems. No change will be required in either the aircraft or the laptops. Battery manufacturers have been concerned about safety hazards of recharging laptop batteries when the laptop was receiving in-seat power, although the FAA responded that safeguards built into seats made charging there safer than on the ground (AW&ST Apr. 13, p. 78).
Operation and management of Global Hawk and DarkStar, the Pentagon's big-payload, high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles, was transferred to the responsibility of the U.S. Air Force last week. The service intends to demonstrate both Global Hawk and DarkStar's operational flexibility early with a deployment next year of the stealthy reconnaissance UAVs to the East Coast--perhaps Patuxent River Naval Air Test Center, Md., or Eglin AFB, Fla.
