Charles Stoot, 59, marketing and advertising sales director for AVIATION WEEK&SPACE TECHNOLOGY in the U.K. from 1978-92, died on Dec. 31. Before joining Aviation Week, Stoot was an account manager with the advertising firm of Foote, Cone&Beldin, and senior account manager in London and managing director in Africa for Graham and Gillies. More recently, Stoot was a consultant in Russia and Eastern Europe, serving as international sales manager and a board member of St. Petersburg Yellow Pages Ltd. and international sales manager for the Hungarian Yellow Pages.
GERMAN ENGINEERS WHO have inspected the 1,700-lb. German/Japanese Express satellite believe the vehicle's advanced aerospace materials experiments will provide the desired data, in spite of the spacecraft's bizarre reentry and landing in West Africa. Advanced German ceramic materials experiments mounted on the exterior performed well during reentry, according to German space agency (DARA) engineers who have inspected the satellite in Ghana. The German embassy in Ghana is negotiating over the terms for release of the Russian-built vehicle (AW&ST Dec. 18/25, 1995, p.
Webb F. Joiner, president of Bell Helicopter Textron of Ft. Worth, has been promoted to chairman. He has been succeeded by Lloyd Shoppa, who was senior executive vice president. Matthew F. Hartnett has been appointed vice president-used aircraft sales and C. Richard Beine sales director of Canadair Challenger Inc., Hartford, Conn., the U.S. subsidiary of the Canadair Business Aircraft Div. of Bombardier Inc. of Montreal.
Hazardous winter weather has hampered the airlift to Bosnia, but the U.S. Air Force has been making up for lost sorties with a composite unit of 12 C-17s, nine C-141s and two C-5s deployed here. The fleet of heavy jet transports, unofficially called ``Charlie Squadron,'' is the largest single squadron of airlift aircraft in the Air Force and was put together in a matter of days.
The FAA's sweeping proposal to overhaul pilot flight and duty times could adversely affect survival of on-demand and scheduled Part 135 operators, according to the National Air Transportation Assn. (NATA).
Lockheed Martin Corp., no novice when it comes to assimilating newly acquired properties, may be challenged as never before with the purchase of Loral Corp.'s defense electronics and systems integration operations. Loral, itself a product of an aggressive growth-by-acquisition strategy spanning the last 23 years, is a collection of widely disparate businesses that have been allowed to function largely on their own. With each addition, little if any attempt was made to consolidate or streamline the ballooning organization.
LORAL CORP.'S Space and Range Systems--which is slated to become part of Lockheed Martin--has won a $99-million U.S. Air Force contract to define the architecture of the Spacelift Range System and design, integrate and deliver systems to modernize range assets in California, Florida and other locations. The contract, which could be worth up to $400 million over 10 years with options, gives Loral complete responsibility for the work and is aimed at reducing operating costs and mission turnaround time at U.S. spacelift ranges without compromising safety standards.
Eager to consolidate its fleet types while expanding its long-haul options, Malaysian Airline System has placed orders valued at 10 billion ringgit ($3.91 billion) for 15 Boeing 777s and 10 747-400s. Options for two 777s and three 747-400s are included. MAS has been one of Southeast Asia's fastest-growing airlines, averaging a 15% increase in capacity over the past five years. The new purchases will boost seats an average 11% through the rest of the decade.
Electrical servo motors can replace complicated hydraulic actuators to provide simulators with six-degrees-of-freedom motion bases. Servos and Simulation Inc., Altamonte Springs, Fla., supplies electrical motion bases that can accommodate payloads up to 4,200 lb. General Manager Ron Handy believes electrical drive would be competitive for payloads up to about 10,000 lb.; sufficient for regional jet simulators.
NORTHWEST AIRLINES WILL OFFER daily service to Fairbanks, Alaska, a growing tourist destination, next summer. The airline began a Minneapolis/St. Paul to Fairbanks schedule last year with four Boeing 757 flights a week. The route, the only nonstop between the U.S. Midwest and Fairbanks, avoids time-consuming Seattle plane changes and Anchorage stops.
Poor airline safety in Russia and other nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States is generating increased concern as new data show 18% of crashes there are caused by aircraft equipment failure and up to 80% by human factors. The latter often involve poor judgment well beyond cockpit errors, according to the CIS Interstate Aviation Committee.
Henry J. Dhuyvetter, a consultant to the McDonnell Douglas Corp. in Huntington Beach, Calif., has won the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' Digital Avionics Award for leadership in the advancement of avionics systems technologies and integration in launch systems, establishing new standards in operational efficiency.
THE BOMBARDIER AEROSPACE GROUP AND CAE ELECTRONICS LTD. will collaborate on developing new aircraft design technologies and advanced training tools in the new Bombardier Aerospace Training Center in Montreal. In the research center, Bombardier plans to use virtual environment technology including a helmet-mounted display with three-dimensional input devices to study virtual cockpits, aircraft structures, systems and cabin interiors. CAE will equip the R&D center with 3-D interactive software design tools.
JAPAN'S MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT has mandated installation of traffic collision avoidance systems (TCAS) on transports of 30 or more seats and freighters with takeoff weights of 33,000 lb., except the Nihon YS-11 and Boeing 737-200. They are expected to be retired from service shortly. Japan's airlines are well along the path to fulfilling the mandate; 261 of the 406 aircraft that would be affected by the ruling already have TCAS.
Russian investigators are poring over the flight recorders from three Su-27s that crashed in Vietnam, killing four members of the Russian Knights aerobatic team. The Russian air force commander, Col. Gen. Peter S. Deynekin, said one possible cause of the Dec. 12 accident was a poor approach by an Il-76 leading the formation of five fighters in an attempted bad-weather landing at Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam.
ALTHOUGH WORKING TO IMPROVE its defense posture, Taiwan also is pushing hard on plans to develop a commercial aerospace capability. Oversight of military manufacturer Aero Industry Development Center is scheduled to be transferred to civilian control, under Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs, in July. Fueled by the Taiwanese government's active promotion of aerospace joint ventures, AIDC is envisioned evolving into a civil aircraft manufacturing capability similar to Indonesia's IPTN.
Eugene L. Haggerty has been promoted to vice president-training services from managing director at SimuFlite Training International, Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport. Other recent promotions are: Jeffrey G. Roberts to vice president-sales and marketing from managing director; Allison K. Blankenship to managing director of courseware and communications from director; and Thomas M. Ferranti to managing director of technical services from director.
C-130s have played a major role in Operation Joint Endeavor, carrying 3,355 tons of cargo and 1,753 passengers from Germany to Taszar, Tuzla and other destinations during the first month of the airlift.
C-17 pilots are finding the aircraft's automated cockpit systems make it easy to operate along the busy air corridor into Tuzla as they move large volumes of cargo into this austere airfield. The mission computers are making it easier to manage timing in the corridor to Tuzla, while the head-up displays are helping pilots gauge their touchdown point on wet and icy runways. In addition, the C-17's cargo compartment is designed so that one loadmaster can supervise engine-running off-loads at Tuzla.
Wesley Lematta and Joseph Sutter have won the Museum of Flight Pathfinder Award, given by the Seattle institution and AIAA Pacific Northwest section, for contributions to the development of flight in the region. Lematta is the founder of Columbia Helicopters Inc. Sutter is a former executive vice president of the Boeing Co. and is chairman of the NASA Aerospace Safety Panel.
A MODEL FOR A LASER-POWERED, unmanned aircraft made six short flights in July, 1993, according to previously withheld Naval Research Laboratory records. The flights were part of a now-dormant NRL study to determine if energy beamed from a ground-based laser could keep aloft a remotely controlled, electric-engined aircraft for indefinite periods. The 36-in. wingspan, 7-oz. ``balsa and tissue'' test vehicle made preliminary flights with a small battery on board in place of the planned photovoltaic laser receptor.
THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY and U.S. Air Force's Rome (N.Y.) Laboratory have planned a workshop on the intrusion of moisture into microelectronics. Discussions will be on moisture in the manufacture and use of semiconductor packages and electronic interconnects. NIST will host the Oct. 15-16 conference at its Gaithersburg, Md., facility.
RAYTHEON CANADA LTD. of Waterloo, Ontario, will supply two air traffic control primary radars to Swiss Air Navigation Services Ltd., under a $5.5-million contract. The two air-cooled, solid-state ASR10SS radars are scheduled to become operational at the Zurich and Geneva airports in mid-1997.
A bipartisan presidential commission and both houses of Congress are drawing up recommendations that could set the U.S. intelligence community on a dramatically new course before the year is out. The proposals being looked at involve unprecedented overhauls in the organizational structure and missions of U.S. intelligence.
