Donald L. Hickey has been named vice president-marketing of Atlas Air Inc., Golden, Colo. He was manager of commercial/military modification programs for the Boeing Co. at Wichita, Kan.
CANADAIR IS CONSIDERING entering the aerial fire-fighting business to boost sales of its CL-415 water bomber. As envisioned, a partnership with an experienced operator would offer an on-demand airborne fire-fighting service. This would increase efficiency and lower costs as aircraft could be deployed rapidly and battle more blazes per year. The aircraft also could be relocated seasonally. Canadair is having a tough time selling the $18-million CL-415 to governments, often having to gain approvals from five different agencies simultaneously.
BRITISH AIRWAYS THIS YEAR WILL BE TESTING a no-smoking policy on its twice-weekly London-Madras-Singapore service, adding to ongoing trials on routes to the Middle East and South Africa. BA also will add considerably to its no-smoking flights May 1 when it prohibits smoking on most U.S. and Caribbean routes. On those where BA operates a single daily round trip, all flights will be no-smoking. Where two or more daily round trips are operated, at least one will retain smoking.
France is scheduled to consolidate state-controlled aerospace companies, paving the way for a wide-ranging industry privatization plan and additional European alliances. The French government's long overdue initiative, tied to the stringent need to cut public deficits, confirms the nation's evolving defense strategy. It also is heavily contributing to a revised national security policy, for the first time since the end of the Cold War.
France's share in the European NH-90 military helicopter is expected to survive cuts in military procurement spending, which are scheduled to begin in 1997. But uncertainty about the program's survival has not entirely vanished--France's withdrawal would seriously endanger the four-nation joint venture.
Tad Jakes has been appointed director of after-market sales for Australia and Southeast Asia, Scott D. Stultz worldwide customer support director and Juan Garza regional support manager in Asia for Fairchild Aircraft.
ADM. WILLIAM OWENS, THE SOON-TO-RETIRE vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has joined the growing chorus of military leaders saying that defense procurement must jump to at least $60 billion annually from the currently planned $39 billion. Procurement peaked at $123 billion. The much ballyhooed $13-billion savings over six years due to a change in the inflation estimate ``will not fix the problem,'' Owens said. And no one believes Congress will add to the Pentagon's bottom line.
Mil Mi-26T hefts a 16-ton, 98-ft.-long TV tower over Rostov-on-Don, Russia, prior to placement. The helicopter is one of several available for outside contract work from Rostvertol, manufacturer and marketing agency for the Mi-26 and Mi-24 attack helicopters. Tower placement was supervised from a small, under-fuselage gondola dome. Several practice runs were performed in an open field beforehand.
U.S. and European aviation authorities have agreed on a common set of standards for certificating newly designed small aircraft. The new rules, which will help smooth and speed the process of certificating new aircraft in the U.S. and Europe, are part of a continuing effort to harmonize the diverse standards that apply to aircraft certification and operations in the U.S. and the 23 member nations of the European Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA).
Boeing recently put a 777-200 through its paces at Arlanda airport in Stockholm for Scandinavian Airline System officials, who are looking to acquire up to 20 new aircraft by 2000. SAS is studying the possibility of adding as many as 15 250-300-seat, and five 180-200-seat aircraft to its fleet by 2000. Another five medium-haul and as many as 35 more long-haul aircraft could be required by 2015.
Boeing is using liquid flow-through cooling in power supplies for the common integrated processors (CIPs) in the USAF's F-22. The module converts 270 v dc electrical power to 5 v dc.
NASA AND MCDONNELL DOUGLAS have joined in a $17-million program to build and flight test the X-36, a 28% scale prototype of a stealthy tailless fighter design. It weighs 1,300 lb. and is powered by a 700 lbf. Williams turbofan with thrust vectoring. Aerodynamic instability in pitch and yaw are expected to help provide agility better than that of an F/A-18. Length is 19 ft. and span 12 ft. Two of the aircraft will be built, with the first rollout in St. Louis set for Mar. 19. Ames Research Center is managing the program for NASA. Flights will be at NASA Dryden.
SPARKS ARE FLYING OVER A PROPOSAL to consolidate NASA's research aircraft at the Dryden Flight Research Facility at Edwards, Calif. Administrator Daniel S. Goldin wants to base almost all aircraft there as part of his plan to clarify the roles of each NASA center and reduce duplication. Many aircraft are now based at Langley, Lewis, Wallops and Ames. Those field centers' congressional supporters are sharpening their knives to skewer the plan. What's more, NASA's own bureaucrats are duking it out (figuratively, this time). Comptroller Malcolm L.
MCDONNELL DOUGLAS engineers developed a new process to prevent liquids or gasses from leaking into space from tubing joints by using a thin coating of malleable metal such as silver, gold or tin to act as a seal. NASA has patented the process, which was developed for the international space station project.
OWENS IS CANDID ABOUT HIS PERSONAL FAILURES as chairman of the Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC). He said he has been a captive of his schedule, which leaves too little time to spend on completing long-range projects. Owens also faults himself for not being aggressive enough in pushing for big changes in technologies and concepts. ``I didn't realize that time is so short.'' Finally, Owens said the JROC has not been very good at making converts within the military and getting them to embrace revolutionary war fighting concepts.
VIRGIN IS MOVING TO BUY up to 80% of EuroBelgian Airlines, one of Belgium's largest regional carriers. The company has been looking for more than a year to expand into short-haul services in Europe, establishing a ``no-frills'' carrier that would compete against state-subsidized airlines. EBA, which started in 1991 and runs several low-cost scheduled services as well as charter flights, provides Virgin with a ready-made entry into that market.
NASA SPACE STATION Chief Wilbur Trafton raised the ire of Russian Space Agency officials last month when he said American astronauts would always be in command of the international space station. Now NASA is backpedaling, saying that's not necessarily the case. An agency spokesman said the details will have to be worked out when U.S. and Russian officials meet in Houston early next month to renegotiate their station cooperation agreement. But NASA officials say astronaut Bill Shepherd will definitely command the first crew scheduled to be launched to the station.
Andy Tseng (see photos) has been named area manager for Hong Kong and China, W. T. Lee general manager and Jeffrey Yau marketing and planning manager of DHL International/Hong Kong.
Air Outre Mer has refused an order from the DGAC French civil authority to transfer its operations to Orly airport's outdated south terminal and has filed a formal complaint with the European Union.
Major assembly has begun on an increased-gross-weight version of the Boeing 777-200 that will have U.S. to Middle East range. The first 777-200IGW wing components were placed in jigs on Feb. 20 at Boeing's Everett, Wash., wide-body manufacturing complex. Initial deliveries to British Airways are scheduled for this summer.
TO LURE MORE PASSENGERS AWAY from National and Dulles airports, Baltimore-Washington International Airport is expanding its SuperShuttle ground transportation to include door-to-door service within the Washington area. The number of residents using BWI has increased about 45% because of the SuperShuttle, according to airport officials (see p. 34).
STARTUP AIRLINES IN AUSTRALIA CONTINUE to tackle international routes. Australian Connection Airlines, which is being formed in Sydney, has applied for routes from Sydney and Melbourne to Bombay or Madras and then onward to Athens. Melbourne has a large Greek immigrant population and India, widely recognized as the ``next China'' in terms of a boom in air travel, is not served directly by Qantas and Ansett Australia, the country's two international carriers. Looking abroad has been the dream of many new Australian carriers.
U.S. defense and intelligence communities are undergoing major reorganizations aimed at integrating their space activities to better focus the approximately $13 billion collectively spent annually on launch and spacecraft systems.
John R. Copple has been named chief executive officer of Space Imaging, Thornton, Colo. He was a vice president of E-Systems Inc. John Neer, who was president/CEO, will continue as president. Ralph Mason has been named director of federal programs, based in Reston, Va. He held the same position for the Earth Satellite Corp. And, Larry F. Konty has been appointed customer service director. He was general manager of Plano CAD Engineering.
Baltimore-Washington International Airport (BWI) has begun operating three Vactor glycol recovery vehicles (GRVs) in an effort to reduce deicing chemical runoff by 50%. The vehicle collects propylene and ethylene glycol fluids remaining on the ground after aircraft deicing operations at gate, ramp and taxiway areas. The GRVs feature an 8-ft.-wide suction head at the aft end of the truck that recovers fluids and stores them in a 1,600-gal. main tank, located above the rear wheels.
