Edward Chevers has been named a fellow of CPU Technology, Pleasanton, Calif. He was deputy division chief of information systems sciences at the NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, Calif.
SPACE IMAGING, the Lockheed Martin-led commercial remote-sensing venture, is expanding its top-level management as it ramps up toward launch of its first 1-meter-resolution satellite in 1997. The venture has tapped E-Systems Vice President John R. Copple as its chief executive officer. John Neer, who had served as president and CEO of Space Imaging since its founding in 1994, will continue as president.
NORTHWEST AIRLINES IS SET THIS SPRING to become the first U.S. airline to offer direct flights to Beijing from Detroit. The authorization is part of a new air services bilateral that also gives China Southern Airlines, based in Guangzhou, the right to serve the U.S. with nonstop flights. Most passengers now stop in Tokyo. American and Delta airlines are expected to seek some of the nine weekly passenger routes opened for U.S. carriers by the pact. It also approves FedEx's takeover of Evergreen International freight routes to China.
Reeling from record snowfalls, airlines and airports in the Northeastern U.S. struggled to resume service last week after the ``Blizzard of '96'' brought flight operations--and much-needed revenues--to a slippery halt.
Major U.S. airlines posted record traffic and load factors during 1995 chiefly because of a strong economy, low fuel prices, stable labor relations and limited fare wars. After five years of devastating financial losses totaling nearly $13 billion, ``1995 was a good year for U.S. airlines at a time when the industry needed a good year,'' said Carol Hallett, president of the Air Transport Assn. (ATA). ATA represents most major air carriers in the U.S.
Despite weak sales in 1995, Airbus Industrie is scheduled to deliver an increased number of commercial transports during the next 12 months. In 1996, the European consortium is planning to deliver 137 aircraft, up from 123 in 1994. Deliveries are scheduled to include 15 220-260-seat A300-600/A310s, 81 124-185-seat A319/ A320/A321s and 41 256-335-seat A330/A340s.
PLAN TO BEAM INTELLIGENCE IN REAL TIME direct from U.S. aircraft to Bosnian peacekeepers could be hampered by a crucial misconception within the Pentagon, including the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office. The brass still believe the Global Broadcasting System (GBS) could be ready within 60 days even though requirements haven't been written. The satellite network would relay real-time intelligence and reconnaissance, initially from unmanned aerial vehicles, to sites including the intelligence analysis center at Molesworth, England, and the British, French and U.S.
A DELTA 2 7925 BOOSTER is scheduled to launch South Korea's second communications satellite to orbit on Jan. 14 from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla. The Koreasat-2 satellite is to be placed in a geosynchronous transfer orbit by the booster. An identical satellite, Koreasat-1, failed to reach the desired initial orbit when one of the Delta 2's nine solid-rocket motors failed to separate after launch from the Cape on Aug. 5, 1995.
Six astronauts are set for launch this week to retrieve two satellites and perform 13 hr. of spacewalks to test space-station assembly techniques and tools. OAST Flyers for experiments are designed to study sources of contamination in space, the performance of laser ordnance devices and a GPS-based attitude contol system.
The U.S. airline industry will report operating income of $5.5-6 billion for 1995--by far the group's strongest financial performance ever--with record profits expected in 1996 as well. Wall Street analysts are estimating that net profits for 1995 will exceed $2 billion, excluding year-end charges. In 1994, the industry barely broke even, while operating profits totaled $3 billion. Despite such dramatic improvements on both a net and operating basis, however, the picture is deceiving.
CIA DIRECTOR JOHN DEUTCH HAS RUN AFOUL of House Intelligence Chairman Larry Combest (R.-Tex.). Combest is piqued by what he says were Deutch's remarks that he ``did not find many first-class minds in the ranks'' of the intelligence community and that intelligence officers are ``certainly not as competent'' as uniformed officers.
Northrop Grumman will take a giant step toward becoming a major defense electronics provider--and hasten its migration away from airframe manufacturing--with the $3-billion acquisition of a key Westinghouse Electric business unit. This newly emerging identity, coupled with the company's substantial aerostructures business, is likely to define what kind of company Northrop Grumman will be in the 21st century.
NASA ADMINISTRATOR DANIEL S. GOLDIN was in a quandary over this week's scheduled shuttle launch (see p. 333). In a Jan. 4 readiness review, Mission 72 managers cleared Endeavour for flight--even if the federal shutdown drags on. Some 1,500 ``essential``--but still unpaid--agency employees were called to their jobs to support the flight. But Goldin was said to be worried that NASA would appear indulgent for flying the shuttle while many down-to-Earth government services are suspended. The budget brouhaha also forced Rep. F.
Adm. Arleigh A. Burke (U.S. Navy-Ret.), a famed World War 2 squadron commander who went on to shape the postwar Navy during three terms as chief of naval operations, died of pneumonia Jan. 1 at Bethesda Naval Hospital outside Washington. He was 94.
BRITISH DEFENSE MINISTER Michael Portillo pressed the Philippine government last week to honor its contract with GEC-Marconi for a civil/military air traffic control system that could be worth up to 240 million pounds ($372 million). The company was awarded a 90-million-pound ($140-million) contract for the first phase last August after winning a competition against Thomson-CSF and other bidders. But in December the Philippine government suspended the contract pending a review after a lawmaker protested that GEC's bid was too high.
U.S. airlines are struggling to cope with a flood of consumer demands for refunds after carriers stopped collecting federal ticket taxes on Jan. 1. The fees, which expired Dec. 31 because of the budget deadlock between Congress and the White House, included a 10% tax on domestic passenger tickets, a $6 international departure charge and a 6.25% waybill tax on air cargo. Lacking legal authority to collect the fees, many U.S. airlines quickly reduced ticket costs to the base fare last week.
NORTHWEST AIRLINES WILL inaugurate the first nonstop service to China by a U.S. airline on May 1 with three daily flights between Detroit and Beijing. The flights are part of a new aviation bilateral agreement signed last month by U.S. Transportation Secretary Federico Pena and Chinese government officials. It also allows China Southern to serve the U.S. with nonstop service, and provides for expanded code-share opportunities for airlines of both nations.
ARTHUR STEWART of Gary Aerospace Corp., Hondo, Tex., and Jose L. Mendiola of JLM Aviation International Inc., Naperville, Ill., will be sentenced Mar. 12 after being convicted of manufacturing and marketing counterfeit slat track roller bolts for Boeing 727 aircraft. According to the U.S. Transportation Dept.'s Office of the Inspector General, the two men conspired to sell the bolts to U.S. buyers and Mexicana Airlines. Stewart and Mendiola also were convicted of mail and wire fraud and submitting false statements.
NATIONAL AIR TRANSPORTATION ASSN. President James Coyne is imploring FAA Administrator David R. Hinson to give the air taxi industry more time to study a proposed rule governing pilot flight and duty times. The agency would impose virtually identical duty time restrictions designed for airline pilots on hundreds of small, nonscheduled air carriers. The comment period is to end Mar. 19. Coyne wants the FAA to conduct public meetings for Part 135 operators to express their views.
An upgraded Delta 2 booster lofted NASA's X-ray Timing Explorer satellite to a low Earth orbit from which the $195-million spacecraft is to delve into distant, mysterious objects in the universe. Using new avionics and launch control systems, the McDonnell Douglas booster lifted off of Pad 17A here just as the 3-hr., 33-min. launch window opened at 8:48 a.m. EST, Dec. 30, l995. Mission managers agreed to stretch the original window of about 1 hr., 24 min. to improve the chances that upper level winds would drop within launch limits.
LITTON INDUSTRIES' AMECOM Div. won a $3.3-million contract to codevelop and produce advanced radio communication sets for NASA. The first of 27 fully operational flight units, which will be used by astronauts to build and maintain NASA's space station, are slated for delivery in 1997.
A suit filed by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines charges controlling directors of Northwest Airlines with an illegal attempt to restrict KLM's investment in the U.S. carrier. KLM's suit, filed on Dec. 28 in the Chancery Court of Delaware, alleges that a shareholders' rights plan adopted by the Northwest board of directors in November deprives it from increasing its investment in NWA Inc. in violation of a 1992 agreement. KLM valued the stock under the agreement at $150 million.
BEGINNING FEB. 3, UPS plans to implement a distance-based fee scale for most of its airborne express package service instead of weight-based pricing. Using postal zip codes as a basis for determining charges, the new system will lower the cost of next-day shipping over short distances by 40%, but will increase long-distance costs by about 28%, a UPS official said. UPS also plans to charge higher rates for nearly all of its services, including a 4.9% increase for air express service. Competitors Federal Express and Airborne Express had no plans to boost rates.
In the Dec. 18/25, 1995, Photo Contest Album issue, the Beech ``Staggerwing'' aircraft shown on p. 33 was misidentified as was the A-26 pictured on p. 86. The Beech aircraft is a G-17, while the A-26 is an Invader. Also, on p. 65, the description of photographer Jim Winn's work gave the wrong location for Alliance Airport. It is in Ft. Worth.
Airport officials are preparing cost, engineering and schedule studies for adding another 15-gate concourse to the one-year-old Colorado Springs, Colo., terminal to handle projected expansion of air traffic in the Rocky Mountain region.
