THE U.S. FOOD AND DRUG Administration last week ordered all outdoor laser display owners within 20 mi. of Las Vegas, Nev., area airports to cease operations, initiating a moratorium on the use of lasers that could affect flight operations. The Dec. 11 action was triggered by an Oct. 30 laser encounter that temporarily blinded a Southwest Airlines pilot after takeoff from Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport (AW&ST Nov. 20, p. 92).
A$3-million NASA effort to identify low-cost, low-risk systems for evacuating crews from a space station was set back when its full-scale test vehicle was wrecked in an air drop test. The 24-ft.-long glass-fiber craft plunged to the desert floor after it was extracted from a C-130 about 15,000 ft. above the U.S. Army Yuma (Ariz.) Proving Grounds on Dec. 8. Built by Burt Rutan, the 16,000-lb. craft was intended to validate the compatibility of a lifting-body shape with a parafoil recovery system.
Air Line Pilots Assn. leaders at Delta Air Lines will accept letting some pilots work more for less pay to help the carrier launch a low-cost counterattack against competitors such as Southwest Airlines and ValuJet Airlines. According to ALPA and Delta officials, members of ALPA's Master Executive Council at Delta approved a tentative agreement to revise the pay scales and work rules for pilots working in a low-cost service that airline managers plan to operate in selected short-haul markets.
The U.S Army was analyzing test data last week to try to determine why Lockheed Martin's Thaad missile missed a Storm target posing as a Scud missile at White Sands Missile Range, N. M.
This, the sixth edition of our photo issue, will appeal to those who have been around aerospace for years, as well as those who are newcomers to the field. The images chosen by some of world's best photographers show a wide range of aircraft and spacecraft spanning the years from the World War 1 Fokker D7 and World War 2 Hawker Hurricane and Lockheed P-38 to the Dassault Mirage and NASA space shuttle. The aircraft and spacecraft shown on these pages reflect the vast changes in designs during the past 90 years and the global nature of our aviation heritage.
A News Break item on Dec. 4 gave the wrong U.S. dollar conversions for the U.K. budget. Cuts from previous defense spending plans of $780 million (500 million pounds) in 1996-97 and $624 million (400 million pounds) in 1997-98 will be offset by savings of $1.08 billion (680 million pounds). Defense outlays are set at $33.4 billion (21.4 billion pounds) in 1996 and 1997 and $34.2 billion (21.9 billion pounds) in 1997-98.
The French and German governments have cleared the way for the merger of Aerospatiale and Daimler-Benz Aerospace's missile and space divisions. The new European partnership would have 9,000 employees and combined annual sales of nearly $4 billion. The long-awaited DASA/Aerospatiale merger deal, scheduled for completion in 1996, would be the direct result of a new pact between French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl for joint development of two new space reconnaissance systems worth $4.7 billion.
AFTER NINE MONTHS of wrangling, the European Commission has approved in principle the injection of 87 billion pesetas ($71 million) by the Spanish government into ailing Iberia. The EC is willing to consider authorizing a further 20 billion pesetas ($16 million) in 1997 if the state-owned airline can show substantial improvements in its financial performance. The money will be used to continue massive restructuring efforts, including layoffs, at Iberia, which had originally sought 130 billion pesetas.
British Aerospace Defense and Dassault Aviation have formed a joint venture to explore technologies for a possible future offensive aircraft, which could also be incorporated as mid-life updates to the Eurofighter and Rafale. The move by the two fiercely competitive aircraft producers is another signal of the realization by European defense companies that they must pool their resources in light of shrinking defense budgets and increased competition from large U.S. firms.
Aunique $17-million German/Russian spacecraft, given up for lost after its Japanese booster malfunctioned, came floating down safely on its parachute near a partially inhabited area of Ghana, West Africa. German officials are in Ghana this week to inspect and hopefully retrieve the 1,700-lb. ``Express'' satellite. The vehicle is part of an $80-million project to launch German and Japanese experiments in a Russian military satellite, which was built initially to carry a hydrogen bomb.
THE DEADLOCK BETWEEN Germany and Britain over workshare allocation on the Eurofighter 2000 program could be resolved by some budget tinkering in Bonn. Germany is now considering buying as many as 40 more of the fighters than currently planned. A review will determine whether the extra aircraft would be needed after the year 2012 as Tornado fighter/bombers retire. The trick is that the purchases would come outside the government's current budget planning cycle, which ends in 2010.
