The new Inmarsat equipment for smaller aircraft is Aero-I, where I refers to the intermediate gain of the antenna, as differentiated from the low-gain Aero-L or high-gain Aero-H. The new smaller, lighter antenna will extend satellite communications into smaller corporate aircraft. More than 200 of the bigger corporate jets, led by the Gulfstream 4, have a satellite communications capability using the larger antennas.
State-owned IPTN has settled on three preliminary designs for its new 100-seat regional jet and has set a delivery schedule that will coincide with Indonesia's air show in 2006. Called the N-2130, the twin-engine jet is the second commercial project for IPTN. The first, the 64-seat N-250 regional turboprop, had completed 29 test flights and 36 hr. of flight time as of a month ago following its rollout last August.
BOMBARDIER HAS JUST COMPLETED a C$108-million ($80-million) training center in Montreal to provide comprehensive support for the Canadair Regional Jet and Challenger programs as well as maintenance training for the CL-415 amphibian. The 66,000-sq.-ft. facility will also house a joint research and development center for Bombardier and CAE Electronics Ltd. The facility will train 2,700 pilots and maintenance technicians per year and will have two CAE Level D simulators for the Regional Jet and one for the Challenger 604.
A News Break published on Nov. 20 gave the misleading impression that an inertial measurement unit (IMU) was to blame for the Oct. 23 failure of the Conestoga booster. The IMU acted properly, and the spurious navigation data it generated were caused by unexplained low-frequency vibrations.
The VG941 fiber-optic gyro is designed as a replacement for conventional, mechanical rate gyros. Manufactured by Fizoptika in Moscow, it measures 1 in. in diameter and 2 in. long. Applications include aircraft, missiles, radars, electro-optical sensors and cameras and antenna stabilization. The VG941 is available with the input axis aligned axially or radially. Operating voltage is 15 v. and 5 v. Power consumption is less than 2 w. Fibersense Technology Corp., 198 Vanderbilt Ave., Norwood, Mass. 02062.
Martin A. Kamarck will become acting president/chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the U.S. on Jan. 1, succeeding Kenneth D. Brody, who has resigned. Kamarck has been vice chairman/chief operating officer.
U.S. aerospace/defense industry consolidation will remain strong in 1996 but overheated acquisition prices may cool. This is the assessment of some Wall Street analysts, company executives and industry observers. If they are correct--and agreement by no means is universal--such a trend could have far-reaching implications.
EMPLOYEES OF ALENIA Spazio have completed work on the Tethered Satellite System at the operations and checkout building at the Kennedy Space Center in preparation for the payload's reflight in February. The $400-million payload, a joint effort of NASA and the Italian space agency, will be stored while the orbiter Columbia undergoes preflight assembly and inspections. Columbia's three main engines and its forward reaction control system are to be installed this week. The launch of Mission 75 is set for Feb. 22, 1996.
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad says his government will give ``every support to the aerospace and aviation sector as an important component of Malaysia's industry,'' but he stops short of offering direct subsidies. ``Malaysia wishes to be a player in the aerospace industry,'' the prime minister said during the LIMA '95 air show last week. But direct subsidies would contradict Malaysia's goal of privatizing industry, he said. Instead, liberal trade and investment policies will be part of the government's strategy.
SATELLITES ARE PLAYING a prominent role in Malaysia's efforts to establish a communications industry that is not dependent on the West. The first Malaysia East Asia Satellite (Measat-1), a Hughes-built HS 376, is due for launch by an Ariane booster Jan. 8-9 from Kourou, French Guiana. Owned and operated by Binariang SdnBhd, the satellite's services will be marketed under the Maxis trademark as a communications node for the Asean nations of Southeast Asia.
Boeing's Military Airplanes Div. is running a 94% scale model of its Joint Advanced Strike Technology fighter on a one-of-a-kind test rig outside Seattle.
MALAYSIA'S RESORT ISLAND OF LANGKAWI, in the Andaman Sea near the Thai border, could be the country's next international gateway. While dedicating a $29-million airport terminal there this month, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said the time is right. Passenger volume is expected to reach 1 million this year, up from 17,300 seven years ago, when the airport opened. Now served mainly by Malaysia Airlines Boeing 737s, the airport probably will need a longer runway to allow it to compete in the big leagues. That is not expected until late 1998.
Trans World Airlines Inc.'s stock is generating growing interest among Wall Street's senior equity analysts. None currently follows the company, but several may initiate coverage within the next few months. The issue could be one of the more interesting airline stocks to watch in the coming year, depending on how effectively management follows through on steps to substantially improve both top and bottom-line growth.
Paul J. Komaromy has been appointed executive vice president of Innovative Solutions and Support Inc., Malvern, Pa. He was senior vice president-operations and engineering for Grimes Aerospace.
CORPORATE JETS OPERATED BY U.S. COMPANIES logged an average of 431 hr. each in 1994. Companies with annual sales of $5-10 billion worked their aircraft the hardest, with each jet averaging 635 hr. of flight time, according to an operators' survey by the National Business Aircraft Assn., Washington. Companies with annual turnover of $10 billion and above, and between $2.5 billion and $5 billion, flew approximately 500 hr. per jet in 1994.
A CD-ROM featuring words recorded for future Mars colonists is scheduled to fly to the red planet next year as part of a time capsule on board Russia's Mars 96 lander. The disk features spoken messages from science fiction writers Arthur C. Clarke and Judith Merrill and part of Orson Welles' famed 1938 ``War of the Worlds'' broadcast of a Martian invasion of Earth. Copies of the interactive CD-ROM are being sold on Earth for $69.95 by Virtual Realities Laboratories of San Luis Obispo, Calif.
Kevin Smith (see photos) has been appointed managing director of business operations at British Aerospace. Mike Rouse, who has been managing director of the Systems and Services Div., succeeds Smith as managing director of the Military Aircraft Div. Steve Mogford, formerly programs director at Al Yamamah air base in Saudi Arabia, succeeds Rouse.
Also honored was C.O. Miller, an aerospace safety consultant and pioneer in the human factors aspects of accident prevention. He received the Laura Taber Barbour Air Safety Award for pursuing ``the application of a systems safety approach to accident and incident prevention.'' And, J.D. Smith, retired vice president-flight safety and industry affairs for United Airlines and an FSF board member for 17 years, was honored posthumously with the FSF President's Citation.
The Pentagon is expected to abandon any future planning for fast, fighter-based air-to-air weapons designed to shoot down ballistic missiles soon after launch.
ORBITAL SCIENCES CORP., generally associated with civil space products, is raising its visibility in the defense industry. At the recent Dubai air show, the Dulles, Va.-based company touted recent contract wins by its Fairchild Defense division, which it acquired in 1994.
A NASA mishap investigation board found that inadequate safety analyses were at the root of many of the actions and omissions that led to the Jan. 19 X-31 accident.
THE FAA HAS BEEN STYMIED in its attempt to reduce the length of pre-recorded Automatic Terminal Information Service broadcasts. Pilots must tune ATIS when flying to and from tower-served airports to obtain terminal weather and other critical information, such as high-speed taxiway closures. Although deleting lengthy Notices to Airmen (Notams) from ATIS messages would increase efficiency, senior FAA officials recently were surprised to learn airlines have no practical way to obtain and distribute local Notams to flight crews.
U.S. AND RUSSIAN NEGOTIATORS ARE DUE in Geneva this week to put into legalese an agreement reached last month on theater missile defense (TMD). The agreement was said last week to set range and speed limits. Not so, say frustrated Administration officials. They maintain they are pursuing a middle road on TMD (see p. 110). Still, many Republicans are suspicious of any agreement on TMD. What was agreed to is that any interceptor no faster than 3 km./sec.
Startup carrier AirOne, Alitalia's first-ever competitor on Italy's domestic route system, is determined to achieve rapid expansion in the Italian domestic market. AirOne, which started operations Nov. 23, offers six round-trip flights per day on the Milan-Rome route with three Boeing 737 transports. Next month, AirOne will add three 737s to its fleet to increase frequency to 13 round-trip flights per day, a plan indicating a strong determination to rapidly acquire a substantial market share on Italy's busiest domestic route.
