Benoit Pouliquen has been promoted to president of the Semiconductor Products Group of Johnson Matthey Electronics, Spokane, Wash., from facility general manager. David Savage has been promoted to president of the Assembly Products Group, San Diego, Calif., from director of California operations. And, Bob Heller has been appointed president of the Laminate Products Group in Minneapolis. He was president of acquisition target Advance Circuits Inc.
With two missions completed, the U.S./Russian program of shuttle flights to Mir appears to be a valuable precursor to the international space station era set to begin in less than two years. Some 40 experiments are being conducted in seven joint missions. While many are in life sciences, there are also many designed to lower technical risks of the new space station that involve areas such as structural integrity, stability of electrical power and contamination from thruster plumes.
A DETAILED STUDY OF ALMOST 1,000 RAMP INCIDENTS by NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System indicates a need for increased training, better communications and stricter procedures for both ramp and flight deck personnel. Ramp-related damage is estimated to cost world airlines $740 million, or the equivalent of 30 new MD-80 aircraft. Recommendations included simulator and parallel training. The latter concept exposes flight deck and ramp personnel to each other's training so each side understands the other's responsibilities and expectations.
Alaska Airlines has returned to profitability and is preparing for expansion of its West Coast route structure under the new U.S.-Canada ``open skies'' bilateral.
Daimler-Benz Aerospace will cut nearly 9,000 jobs and eliminate excess production capacity in the next three years. Late last week, a recovery plan providing for the cuts was approved by the board of management of Stuttgart-headquartered Daimler-Benz A.G., DASA's parent. The plan was finalized with only minor modifications (AW&ST Oct. 30, p. 26).
CATHAY PACIFIC AIRWAYS WILL TAKE TWO AIRCRAFT used in the Airbus Industrie A330 development program for a ``quick delivery'' to replace Boeing 747-400s now being used on Asian regional routes. The A330s will be delivered in late 1996 and early 1997. Cathay has nine A330s on firm order, seven of which will arrive by year-end with the eighth in January. But the last is not due until mid-1997. A shift in aircraft to accommodate new U.S. routes meant Cathay needed to strengthen its regional fleet sooner than it could exercise its A330 options.
Additional cuts in France's military procurement spending, scheduled to materialize in the 1997 defense budget, are expected to lead to program cancellations and an industry consolidation. Although public deficit reduction is not taking priority over defense requirements, delays, reductions or cancellations of some programs are becoming unavoidable, top French Defense Ministry officials warned.
Walter Roessger has been appointed Brussels-based managing director for European operations for Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International. He succeeds Paul L.M. Davis, who is now director of international operations at SEMI's Mountain View, Calif., headquarters. Roessger was director of technology and industrial relations.
The U.S. Congress is considering redistributing some of the estimated $1.5 billion in recently exposed, unspent National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) funds, with part possibly going for the purchase of reconnaissance balloons.
A summit next week between German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and French President Jacques Chirac is expected to result in agreement on joint development of up to $4 billion in new military imaging reconnaissance systems. The summit planned for midweek in Baden-Baden, Germany, will solidify cooperative development of the Helios 2 follow-on imaging system. It will also address future French/German work on a new Osiris imaging radar spacecraft. DEVELOPING EACH OF the highly classified programs will cost $2 billion.
IBM AND STANFORD UNIVERSITY LEAD a consortium seeking to demonstrate and integrate key hardware technologies for a practical holographic optical data storage system. As envisioned, the Holographic Data Storage System would use lasers to store thousands of ``pages'' of electronic patterns in special optical material the size of a small coin. The compact, rugged system could allow soldiers and military commanders rapid access to detailed information and visual images such as airborne reconnaissance.
Cathay Pacific Airways' pilots see the airline's move to hire U.S. and Canadian pilots at less than scale as the first step toward an airline-wide ``cheap'' labor contract. ``There's a great deal of anger that Cathay Pacific has set up this company [Aircrew Services Ltd.] to bring in imported labor,'' according to John Findlay, general secretary of the Hong Kong Aircrew Officers' Assn. ``The concern is that if they're going to do it on a freighter division, what is the next part of the operation that they can bring in cheap contract labor?''
Concerns are emerging in the Middle East about training sufficient personnel to man and maintain the combat aircraft and other sophisticated equipment now arriving in earnest from orders placed after the gulf war. After the war all the focus was on strike aircraft, said Russell D. Haworth, managing director of Slingsby Aviation. ``Now that things have settled down, it is being appreciated that you need pilots and the best possible training to get the most out of your real estate.''
RAYTHEON'S CONTRACT with the Brazilian government to build a $1.4-billion surveillance system for the Amazon basin is the subject of controversy again. The latest problem involves allegations of attempted bribery based on taped phone conversations between Raytheon's Brazilian representative and a former Brazilian presidential aide. Raytheon officials said that no payment of bribes or gratuities have been made by Raytheon in connection with the Amazon contract and the company does not condone such conduct.
ERICSSON MICROWAVE SYSTEMS will provide its Improved Hard 3D air defense radar to the German Light Air Defense system, with deliveries commencing in 1996. Use is planned with the Rapid Deployment Forces, for surveillance and target designation on tracked combat vehicles. In Sweden the radar is used in the RBS90 tactical air defense system. Improved Hard is a short-range, track-while-scan radar, with pulse-to-pulse frequency agility and electronic multi-beam scanning in elevation.
The United Arab Emirates fighter competition, which has narrowed down to a battle between U.S. and French contenders, dominated the military portion of the air show here and highlighted the intensity of export efforts to shore up shrinking domestic markets. Experts here say that the battle for the multimillion-dollar order is among Dassault Aviation's Rafale, the McDonnell Douglas F-15U and Lockheed Martin, which is offering several versions of the F-16. ``It's a three-company race now,'' said one U.S. industry official.
A U.S. National Transportation Safety Board investigation of an incident involving an airline pilot who suffered temporary eye damage when struck by a laser beam shortly after takeoff from McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas is spurring new research and government policing of ground-based lasers.
JAPAN AIRLINES WILL INSTALL A SPECIAL ``SMOKER'S NOOK'' in the tail of each of its 54 Boeing 747s that will feature aft-facing seats and special air conditioning. JAL customarily designates smoking sections based on the number of smokers making reservations. But the airline has discovered that many smokers like the seating in the non-smoking section. The problem is, they still want to light up--so, where to go, especially as the lavatories are off limits? JAL decided on the next best thing: two seats next to the lavatories on either side of the cabin.
Flight controllers and engineers are reviewing restrictions on emergency space shuttle landing sites that forced NASA managers to scrub their first attempt to launch Atlantis on its second flight to Mir. ``I think we could have launched on time'' on Nov. 11 except for those restrictions, Wayne Hale, the NASA flight director in charge of Atlantis' ascent, told AVIATION WEEK&SPACE TECHNOLOGY.
The MiniArmor-700 multiplex/demultiplex system for digital data recording is designed for applications that require simultaneous recording of avionics bus, on-board PCM and other high data rate sources. The system can transform a variety of analog and digital signals into a composite data stream of up to 240 megabits/sec. for digital recording. The MiniArmor-700 is fully compatible with the earlier Calculex Armor 1. The new system is available in 5, 7, 9 and 11-slot configurations. It measures 5.35 X 7.5 X 10.3 in. and weighs 13.55 lb. Aydin Vector Div., P.O.
William H. Wilhelmi has been promoted to senior manager of marketing and business development from manager of advanced programs for SimuFlite Training International, Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport. Mark R. Malkosky has been promoted to manager of maintenance training from supervisor.
Vance D. Coffman has been appointed executive vice president/chief operating officer of the Lockheed Martin Corp., Bethesda, Md., effective Jan. 1. He is president of the corporation's Space&Strategic Missiles Sector and will be succeeded by Melvin R. Brashears, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Missiles&Space, Sunnyvale, Calif.
Sanders and ITT Avionics have won a key electronic warfare contract to develop a towed decoy RF countermeasures system for use on the U.S. Navy F/A-18E/F and the Air Force F-15 and B-1B.
SATELLITE COMMUNICATION IS COMING to regional airlines and corporate jets. Inmarsat plans to introduce service of the new smaller, lighter and cheaper Aero-1 avionics and antenna equipment next year, making satellite services available to smaller aircraft. Aero-1 uses a new communications channel and voice coding technique that need less frequency bandwidth to produce comparable quality, according to Inmarsat. Flight tests of Aero-1 equipment are planned for January/February, 1996, in a Cessna Citation.
Computer-controlled CM Series Electronic Locks allow for 150 user codes and an optional 100-event audit trail. The unit can be programmed through a keypad or a DOS-based portable computer. It can be configured for touch entry or a data key. Four AA batteries can power the lock's micro-motor for 80,000 actuations. Locknetics Security Engineering, 575 Birch St., Forestville, Conn. 06010.
