PLANS TO CONSOLIDATE ALL IMAGERY ACTIVITIES under a three-star general is just one example of the Defense Dept.'s growing dominance in areas where the CIA ``played an important if not dominant role,'' former deputy DCI Richard Kerr said. He urged the House Intelligence Committee, which is conducting a review of U.S. intelligence, to maintain a strong ``civilian organization'' to advocate intelligence priorities not central to the Pentagon's missions. The new imagery office announcement planned for last week is now expected in December.
The CV 2000 controlled velocity high-energy finishing machine can handle jobs from light deburring to ultra-fine finishing on a wide variety of metals, plastics and rubbers. Applications include deflashing, improving compressive strength, finishing inner and outer diameter threads and stress relief. The machine also is available with a media handling system. The CV 2000 features four barrels and a capacity of 6 cu. ft. Richwood Industries, 12700 Knott St., Building A, Garden Grove, Calif. 92641.
Charles Crocker, chairman of BEI Electronics Inc. of San Francisco, also has become president/chief executive officer upon the retirement of Peter G. Paraskos. He will remain a company director and chairman of BEI Defense Systems. Glenn Avolio has been named vice president/ general manager of the Industrial Encoder Div. of the BEI Sensors&Systems Co. He was sales and marketing manager.
Aerovias Venezolanas employed about 2,700 last year. Its staff now totals about 800. ``I hope to have that down to about 100 soon,'' said Henry Lord Boulton, president of the Venezuelan airline better known as Avensa. The carrier has not shut down or slashed services. It just has stopped paying people to fly, staff, repair and clean their aircraft. Instead, Boulton now pays contract companies for the services. The company that supplies flight crews used to be Avensa's pilot union.
THE EUROPEAN Space Agency/Aerospatiale ISO infrared space observatory was launched successfully from Kourou, French Guiana, late Nov. 16 on board an Ariane 44P booster (AW&ST Oct. 30, p. 48). The $1-billion mission was delayed as a precaution beyond its planned Nov. 10 launch date when the malfunction of computer hardware on the ground, unrelated to the flight but similar to that in the booster, indicated the launch vehicle could have a generic problem. The launch was reset for Nov. 16 after further tests indicated no difficulty with the vehicle.
Growing political controversy and continuing union criticism of French military procurement policy continues to deepen the French aerospace crisis. French Prime Minister Alain Juppe's unexpected cabinet shakeup on Nov. 7--which occurred only days before a long-awaited parliamentary debate on the deficit and cuts in military procurement spending--has further entangled complex issues that involve both defense contractors and the state-owned Air France group.
Otto Loepfe, president/chief executive officer of Swissair, has been elected to preside over the 52nd annual general meeting of the International Air Transport Assn. in Geneva on Nov. 4-5, 1996.
The demanding customer expectations that are hammering aerospace suppliers may be only a prelude to what vendors may confront in the future. Emerging now are more sweeping performance requirements that could pose an even greater challenge, especially for lower-tier vendors. Among the trends are the following: Prime contractors, including some airlines, are telling suppliers in no uncertain terms that they will have to shoulder more of the burden for reducing costs.
IN A COMPLEX POLITICAL FRAMEWORK, France also is trying to sell the Taiwanese air force an improved version of the Aerospatiale AM-39 Exocet air-launched antiship missile. Two sample missiles have been shipped and at least one has been test-fired by a Taiwanese air force AT-3 light attack/trainer jet. Taiwan has the U.S.-made Harpoon ship-to-ship missile in inventory but can't get the U.S. State Dept. to approve purchase of the air-launched version.
U.S. AIRLINE OFFICIALS EXPECT 11.6 million passengers will travel by air during the busy Thanksgiving week, increasing load factors for most major carriers to their highest levels this year, according to the Air Transport Assn. The busiest day will be the Sunday after Thanksgiving, Nov. 26, when airlines predict load factors should rise to 76.9%. A heightened level of security in effect at most U.S. airports, particularly large hub facilities, however, is projected to cause delays.
LITTON DATA SYSTEMS IS DEVELOPING a low-cost, optical processor-based target recognition system to be used with an airborne laser radar in smart weapons. The configuration is based on ring laser gyro technology, and uses two specialized digital signal processing chips to prepare data for the optical correlation. The optical correlator performs the equivalent of 10 giga ops in a 0.15-cu.-ft. unit weighing less than 5 lb. and consuming about 100 w. Using pattern recognition techniques, it can operate with any imaging sensor, according to Litton.
GALILEO SPACECRAFT MANAGERS have decided to use its tape recorder to record about 3 hr. of high-resolution fields and particle measurements during the critical period passing through the plasma torus of Jupiter's moon Io. Previous plans would have missed most of the valuable data because of the tape recorder anomaly (AW&ST Oct. 30, p. 28). Engineers suspect the anomaly may be due to tape binder adhesive on a tape guide, and new techniques should avoid it.
The Nov. 4 launch of Canada's Radarsat Earth observation satellite also marked the first on-orbit trial of a lightweight ceramic material designed to protect spacecraft from small, high-velocity debris, according to program officials.
A NEW CENTRAL IMAGERY AND MAPPING AGENCY may be unveiled as early as this week by Defense Secretary William Perry and CIA director John Deutch. The new agency would consolidate all imagery collection, analysis and distribution activities under one roof. The work is now handled by myriad defense and intelligence agencies, such as the Defense Mapping Agency and the CIA's National Photographic Interpretation Center. The consolidation plans call for the new agency to be run by a three-star general with two deputies, one from the DMA.
THE TAIWANESE MILITARY IS SCHEDULED to sign a memorandum of understanding for the purchase of French-made Matra Mistral shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles in about five weeks. In the interim, Taiwanese officials hope the U.S. State Dept. will relent and allow the purchase of American-made shoulder-fired Stingers instead. Taiwan already has pedestal- and helicopter-mounted Stingers in operation or approved for purchase.
The Canadian Dept. of National Defense is finally moving ahead with its plan to buy or lease 15 new search and rescue helicopters worth C$600 million (US$444 million). Canada plans to procure ``off-the-shelf'' aircraft to reduce project costs and avoid lengthy delays involved in using unique Canadian Forces design criteria. The first aircraft are to be delivered in early 1998.
ALMOST TWO-THIRDS of upcoming launch opportunities will come from the commercial sector, according to Lockheed Martin projections. The company estimated an ``addressable'' market of $52 billion between 1996 and 2009, of which 64% will come from commercial launches. Commercial customers will especially seek intermediate and large boosters such as the Atlas and Russia's Proton, which Lockheed Martin markets under a joint venture, said Raymond S. Colladay, Denver-based Lockheed Martin Astronautics' vice president for business development and advanced programs.
The Hubble Space Telescope has peered deep into one of the most tightly packed cluster of stars in the Milky Way. What scientists have found is either a black hole or a phenomenon they call ``core collapse.''
James C. Waugh, a retired Pan American World Airways captain and former Flight Safety Foundation chairman from Cary, N.C., has received the FSF-AVIATION WEEK&SPACE TECHNOLOGY Distinguished Service Award for 1995.
DAVID A. FULGHUMBRUCE A. SMITH (WASHINGTONLOS ANGELES )
In an as-yet-unannounced plan, Pentagon acquisition chief Paul Kaminski is proposing an ``aggressive buy'' of 15 C-17 Globemaster 3s per year in order to realize an additional $11 million per aircraft saving on a newly approved purchase of 80 more airlifters. Earlier plans were to buy the C-17 at rates of no more than12 aircraft per year. The Pentagon also has shelved plans to buy C-33/Boeing 747-F commercial transport derivatives until at least June.
A DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION COMPROMISE is hung up over four big issues, according to Sen. Carl Levin (D.-Mich.). Only three--defense, procurement reform and ship construction, particularly submarines--have anything to do with defense. The fourth is abortion. Levin says there are several reasons for the inability to move quickly: The House positions ``are far out.'' The Republicans have no strategy for compromise among themselves, much less the Democrats. Republican staffers have little experience in running a conference committee.
