Swissair group is in final negotiations to acquire a 34.2% stake in German air charter carrier LTU from WestLB, a Dusseldorf bank. WestLB was obliged to divest the holding in return for German antitrust office approval last year of a merger between charter carrier Hapag-Lloyd and tour operator TUI, in which the bank also has a major interest (AW&ST Sept. 29, p. 41). U.K. leisure operator Thomson had also been linked to a possible takeover, but WestLB said it was now in discussion only with Swissair.
Conflicts over defense budget priorities have arisen from arguments about readiness on Capitol Hill. As Pentagon budget planning for Fiscal 2000 moved into high gear last week, there was no dispute among the Republican Congress, the Democratic White House and the Pentagon that readiness is down and must be reinforced (see p. 29).
The U.S. Air Force has awarded Boeing a $1.2-billion contract to provide for the Integrated Weapon System Support Program for the AC-130H, AC-130U, MC-130E and MC-130H aircraft, including modification and enhancement integration, repair and maintenance, support and training equipment, and associated software, data and testing.
General Electric Aircraft Engines has received an $8.2-million order from the U.S. Navy for approximately 19,000 high-pressure turbine blades to be used on the F-404 engine on F/A-18 aircraft.
Interplanetary spacecraft are high-performance machines that benefit from new technology, but missions are so few and so expensive that project managers are reluctant to use unproven devices. The upcoming flight of NASA's Deep Space 1 will operate promising technologies on a real mission, providing experience to help future project managers decide what new systems to use.
In a step toward stabilizing her command of the agency, FAA Administrator Jane F. Garvey named Thomas E. McSweeny to take over as associate administrator for regulation and certification. McSweeny, until last week the director of the FAA's Aircraft Certification Service, succeeds Guy S. Gardner who left the agency last month after two years in the associate administrator's post.
A Sept. 24 flight test at the White Sands Missile Range demonstrated that position-correction signals transmitted to a GPS/inertial navigation system (INS) package on a Pershing 2 reentry vehicle can significantly improve RV accuracy. The technique could give long-range ballistic and cruise missiles a precision targeting capability.
Additional U.S. Air Force F-15E and F-16 units were being moved to Aviano, Italy, late last week to join aircraft already there in preparation for precision bombing strikes on Yugoslavia that could begin this week. The threat comes in response to Serbian attacks on ethnic Albanians in the province of Kosovo.
Al Archuleta has been appointed general manager of the Houston facility of the Atlantic Aviation Corp. He was general manager of the Mercury Air Center facility in Dallas.
The NASA award of a $3.4-billion Consolidated Space Operations Contract to a Lockheed Martin team is paving the way for significant cost reductions at five major facilities and a radical shift at the agency from traditional to commercial business practices. Under terms of the Consolidated Space Operations Contract (CSOC), Lockheed Martin Space Operations Co. will be responsible for management of NASA's data collection, telemetry and communications operations, as well as activities associated with planetary exploration and human flight in space.
Susan Janes has been named marketing manager for sensors and Kristin Watson controller of the Eaton Corp.Pressure Sensors Div., Bethel, Conn. Janes was market development manager for United Electric Controls, Watertown, Mass., and Watson was senior vice president-finance and administration of the Eastern Fairfield County (Conn.) United Way.
The Asian economic crisis is sweeping like a storm across once-vibrant Asia-Pacific commercial satcom and government space programs. The downturn has been more severe than initially expected and therefore will take longer to overcome, analysts here believe. But the enormous size of the Pacific market and the momentum of existing large government programs here indicate Asia-Pacific space efforts should emerge from the crisis as early as 2000-01 toward more solid growth, according to international space managers.
Readiness funding will be short by nearly $20 billion next year, largely because the Republican-controlled Congress has not closed enough military bases and has indulged in billions of dollars of pork barrel projects the Pentagon does not want, the Joint Chiefs of Staff charged last week. In fact, the readiness shortfall probably exceeds $20 billion because it does not reflect needed pay and retirement increases for Fiscal 2000, which starts next Oct. 1, the JCS told Congress.
Two problems encountered early in the Boeing 717 flight test program could be resolved by mid-October and probably will not push back the planned certification date for the 100-passenger twinjet, according to Boeing officials. The problems involve brakes and fly-by-wire spoilers on the initial test aircraft which flew for the first time on Sept. 2.
THE U.S. FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION is investigating whether to allow the operation of unlicensed ultra-wideband (UWB) radio systems. UWB systems generally use either extremely narrow pulse (impulse) modulation or swept frequency modulation over a large bandwidth, which usually exceeds 1 GHz. and can exceed 10 GHz. Applications include ground penetrating radar and covert voice or data communications.
A new, low-cost launcher effort for the U.S. Air Force won't begin for at least a year. Officials at Kirtland AFB, N.M., had asked industry what systems may be available to place a payload up to 3,000 lb. into a 400-naut.-mi. Sun-synchronous orbit. The responses show the Air Force is better off waiting a year or two to allow developing commercial launch technologies to mature, said Maj. Steve Buckley, chief of USAF's Small Launch Vehicle Div. at Kirtland. A USAF agreement with Orbital Sciences Corp. for Pegasus and Taurus launches expires at the end of the year.
Singapore Airlines' wholly owned subsidiary, Silk Air, took delivery of an Airbus A320 last week, the first of eight A319/A320s on order. But General Manager Mak Swee Wah said it will stretch delivery of its remaining aircraft to 2002 because of the Asian airline recession. The original plan was to take delivery of all the aircraft by 2000. The initial five aircraft will replace the airline's fleet of Boeing 737-300s, and the remainder will extend its fleet.
The trend toward privatizing German airports is gathering speed, and the recent decision of Lufthansa German Airlines to become a strategic airport investor could quicken the pace.
Dr. Irene D. Long, director of the Biomedical Office at the Kennedy Space Center, has received the 1998 Outstanding Achievement Award from Women in Aerospace for her contributions to aerospace and occupational medicine, life sciences research, environmental health and operational management of life sciences support facilities. Marjorie Sparks, director of management integration for the United Space Alliance, received the Lifetime Achievement Award. She was recognized for her work over 27 years on the Apollo, Skylab and space shuttle programs.
Graham H. Smith has been appointed general manager of the Toronto office of ICO Global Communications. He was a consultant and executive vice president/ chief operating officer of Telular Canada.
GKN Westland has taken delivery from Boeing of the first production WAH-64 Apache destined for the British Army, three days after it made its maiden flight. The flight was conducted on Sept. 25 at Boeing's Mesa, Ariz., facility. The 30-min. test flight included hover tests, forward flight to 60 kt., with rearward and lateral flight to 45 kt.
