Expanding demand for regional transports, executive jets, helicopters and special-use aerospace products reflects a growing sophistication in the region's economy. The regulatory environment and the culture of Asian nations still offer fewer opportunities for many of these aircraft to operate. But the restrictions are breaking down.
ANSETT AUSTRALIA IS REDESIGNING its flight management system to improve connections among its own fleet and with its regional affiliates, using a network management system developed by Lufthansa. The system takes the schedules of competing airlines into consideration when maximizing Ansett's flight schedule.
Lockheed Martin's first Atlas launch of the year orbited a $190-million satellite designed to provide telecommunications and broadcasting services throughout the huge archipelago nation of Indonesia. The Atlas 2AS booster designated AC-126 lifted off of Pad 36B here at 8:15:01 p.m. EST Jan. 31 with its Palapa C-1 satellite payload. The launch was delayed 25 min., primarily by questions about the status of the separation system for the Atlas' four Thiokol Castor 4A solid rocket motors.
2A third Bronze Medal was received by another Nesdis team, for improving instrument calibrations in NOAA's polar-orbiting satellites. Team members were: C.R. Nagaraja Rao, Charles C. Walton, Tsan Mo and Jerry Sullivan.
WATCH FOR A MAJOR INTERNATIONAL AIRLINE to start offering inflight gambling on June 1. The croupier: Interactive Entertainment Ltd., a joint venture between casino operator Harrah's and Sky Games International. Three games will be offered on seat-back screens--draw poker, black jack and a slot machine. The company plans to add keno and bingo. Only international passengers will be able to play. U.S. laws prohibit gambling on flights entering or leaving the country. Gamblers will use credit cards and be limited to losses of $350 or winnings of $3,500 per flight.
Tra-Bond F123 is a fast-curing, high-temperature epoxy adhesive with a three-step color-change feature that indicates proper curing. Applications include bonding fiber-optic bundles, potting glass fibers and terminating single or multi-mode fiber-optic connectors. Each component is light yellow in the unmixed state and turns a light green on mixing. After curing, the mixture turns a deep reddish amber. The low-viscosity system yields a high glass transition temperature and meets military specifications. Tra-Con Inc., 55 North St., Medford, Mass. 02155.
The U.S. and Russia have concluded a deal increasing Moscow's access to the commercial space launch market and reached agreement in principle to ensure on-time delivery of key Russian components to the international space station. The launch agreement allows Russia to orbit at least 16 and as many as 20 commercial geosynchronous payloads through the end of 2000, depending on launch market conditions. That's well above the nine launches Russia had been limited to under a 1993 agreement and similar to launch quotas given to China and Ukraine.
NASA is consolidating research, development and planning of extravehicular activities in a new project office based at the Johnson Space Center. Astronaut Donald R. McMonagle, who has been nominated to head the EVA project office, said the move is intended to unify ``the somewhat fragmented EVA community in NASA today.'' The agency is under pressure to improve its planning, outfitting and execution of spacewalks over the next two years. It is to begin assembling the international space station in December, 1997.
Arianespace has revised its strategic plan and now is planning to launch 65-70 satellites in the next four years, a 30% increase above its previous goal. To cope with the anticipated market growth, Arianespace late last week concluded an order for 10 additional Ariane 4 launch vehicles valued at a total of about $1 billion. According to Arianespace's revised plan, 30 Ariane 4s and 12-13 enhanced Ariane 5s will be launched from Kourou, French Guiana, in 1997-99.
Orbital Sciences Corp. is demanding an overhaul in the design of the X-34 reusable winged booster, sounding what could be the death knell for a troubled program once envisioned as a model of cooperation between NASA and private industry. Both OSC and partner Rockwell International have pulled most of their personnel from the project after OSC managers determined the small, air-launched booster would not meet its performance requirements and, with ballooning development costs, would not be profitable.
SOFTWARE INTEGRATION PROBLEMS have led to a one-year delay in the in-service date for the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority's new, 350-million-pound ($532-million) air traffic control center in Stanwick. The new facility, which was to handle all traffic over England and Wales, will now not become operational until December, 1997. The largest in Europe, it is a key element of a 750-million-pound ($1.14-billion) modernization program by the CAA's National Air Traffic Services.
A SENSOR TO REMOTELY IMAGE HAZARDOUS gas plumes at medium distances is being developed by Sandia's Combustion Research Facility, Livermore, Calif. As envisioned, a helicopter-borne version of the device could be used for real-time safety checks and leak detection at refineries, pipelines and other industrial facilities. The technique, already tested to 1,180 ft., uses a CO2 laser that can be tuned to the absorption resonances of many hydrocarbon and other gases.
This all-purpose machete was designed for use by Soviet air force pilots, but is now available in the U.S. The machete is 15 in. long with a 10-in. blade and weighs 1.5 lb. The machete can be used as a knife, parachute cord cutter, shovel, ice pick, saw for cutting metal or wood, screwdriver, wrench, wire stripper, 90-deg. compass, navigational site and ruler. Fishing hooks, line, weights and matches are included in the watertight handle. Sovietski Collection, P.O. Box 81347, San Diego, Calif. 92138-1347.
IS THE BOEING 767-200 AN ENDANGERED species? Boeing soon will launch a stretched 757, now designated the 757-300X. It will seat about 20% more passengers, or 186, in a three-class configuration. Boeing's proposed 777-100X, also expected to be launched this year, will seat about 250 in three classes, with an 8,000-naut.-mi. range. Arguments in favor of retaining the 767-200, which carries 181 passengers in three-classes, include Boeing's plans to recast the 767-200 as the military's new AWACS, tanker and head-of-state platform.
Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems is in the middle of a concentrated two-week drive to overcome software integration and other problems that have delayed first flight of the C-130J by about two months.
JAPAN'S COOPERATION WITH THE U.S. on development of the Mitsubishi/Lockheed F-2 (formerly FS-X) close air support fighter has prompted an agreement to explore new joint military programs. Candidates include a medium-size transport to replace the Kawasaki C-1, a multipurpose patrol aircraft to supersede Lockheed P-3C Orions now made under license by Kawasaki, and an improved version of the McDonnell Douglas/Mitsubishi F-15J fighter. Japan's aerospace manufacturers, however, want their own designs to be used for the C-1 and P-3C replacements.
The E-Power Remote GreaseKart is designed for servicing ground support vehicles at airports, including fuel trucks, cargo lifts and luggage movers. The battery-powered, high-pressure lubricator can be moved easily from one location to another for lubricating suspension mechanisms, joint bearings, pulley assemblies and other components. It uses bulk grease, which is less expensive than cartridges. E-Power Remote Inc., 10800 S. Edon Road, Camden, Mich. 49232.
Quantum Magnetics of San Diego is preparing to start tests in London on a checked luggage inspection system that passed its first field evaluation at Los Angeles International Airport late last year. THE QSCAN-1000 USES quadrupole resonance or QR. The technology is similar to magnetic resonance imaging, which is used in many hospitals to look at tumors and other abnormalities in people. ``It's the same technology, but we figured out how to do magnetic resonance without magnets,'' said Lowell Burnett, Quantum Magnetics' chief technical officer.
Michael Mignogno, a supervisory physical scientist at the U.S. National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (Nesdis), Suitland, Md., has won a Bronze Medal of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for his contributions to the Commerce Dept.'s and NOAA's land remote-sensing program.
U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS HAS BEGUN conducting computerized design reviews of critical architectural and engineering projects. The concept could be expanded to cover aerospace products. The design review software, called Reviewer's Assistant, identifies potential problems due to errors, omissions, inconsistencies or use of inappropriate construction techniques or materials. Plans also are reviewed for compliance with building and environmental codes and future maintenance costs.
Prelude View&Mark-Up allows graphical data from a variety of sources to be shared, viewed and commented on from the desktop. It can be used to annotate drawings, provide manufacturing feedback, analyze geometrical data and create additional geometry from an existing model. Users who are not experts in computer-aided design will be able to type comments in a pop-up window and transmit them to users throughout a network. Matra Datavision, 379 Vista Drive, Marlton, N.J. 08053.
Steven Marcus has been named vice president-manufacturing operations for Smiths Industries Aerospace, Grand Rapids, Mich. He held the same position with the Kaman Aerospace Corp., Bloomfield, Conn.
The RGR 6000 is a reconfigurable global positioning system receiver with patented antijam technology. Features include 18 parallel channels, attitude and attitude rate information, narrow-band adaptive interference suppression and multiple sensor operation. The unit has acquisition sensitivity of -167 dbw., noise of less than 3 dB., high-velocity tracking capability to meet aircraft and space vehicle needs, an update rate of up to 10 Hz. and up to 35 dB. of antijam suppression. The unit is field upgradable. Mayflower Communications Co., 80 Main St., Reading, Mass.
