IMPROVED PILOT AWARENESS of controlled-flight-into-terrain hazards and prevention strategies are the aims of a new Flight Safety Foundation videotape. The 33-min.-long tape, created by Arlington, Va.,-based FSF and 28 industry cosponsors, details three fatal CFIT accidents and demonstrates how a FSF-developed CFIT checklist could have helped prevent them. Statistics indicate more than 8,300 people have been killed in CFIT accidents since 1958.
Pulsed linear induction motor technology developed for coilgun electromagnetic satellite launchers is being applied to economical high-speed trains that run on existing tracks.
Daniel A. Grafton (see photo), president of Raytheon Aerospace, Wichita, Kan., has been appointed a vice president of parent organization Raytheon Aircraft Co.
Randolph M. Kennedy has been named director of market development of the Dassault Falcon Jet Corp., Paramus, N.J. He was manager of a corporate Falcon 900 flight department at Teterboro (N.J.) Airport. David Salkovitz has been appointed supervisor of interior design. He operated Executive Aircraft Design in Philadelphia. And, Jeffrey M. Habib has been named district sales manager in the Far East. He was a pilot for Southwest Air.
Didier Desnoyer has been named vice president-repair and overhaul for Turbomeca, Bordes, France. He was head of the auxiliary power unit program. Jean-Claude Leyssieux has been appointed vice president-commercial and technical support. He was general representative of the Aerospatiale Group in Germany.
NASA has recalled astronaut Scott E. Parazynksi from Mir training in Star City following a determination that he is too tall to serve safely as a crewmember on the Russian space station.
The Pentagon has several research efforts that feed data into the joint helmet-mounted cueing system (JHMCS) program. The three top programs are Vista Sabre 2/Vista Sabre Navy to operationally evaluate current helmets; the Visually Coupled Acquisition and Targeting System (VCATS) to build an affordable and producible helmet that has new technology, and the First Shot Integrated Product Team to investigate overall system and real-world issues like pilot-induced oscillation and g-loads.
FINNAIR COMPLETED WHAT IT CALLS the world's first heavy maintenance of an MD-11 wide-bodied aircraft early this month. The work, along with a test flight, was carried out on Finnair's OH-LGA aircraft, the first MD-11 to enter commercial service, on Dec. 20, 1990. The airplane had logged 3,598 flights and 17,868 hr. before the overhaul. Finnair's technical division at Helsinki airport oversaw the work, which included spar changes of the No. 1 and 3 engine pylons, a repainted fuselage and refurbishing of cabin decor.
The United Parcel Service has taken delivery of the first of 30 Boeing 767-300ER freighters. The aircraft is flying FAA proving runs scheduled to end in early November. Initial operations will be conducted from UPS' air headquarters at Louisville (Ky.) International Airport to large U.S. cities. The carrier intends to fly the 767-300ER on international routes. Discussions with the UPS pilots' union, the Independent Pilots Assn., are underway on whether the international relief pilot should be a captain or first officer.
ENSTROM IS EXPANDING its South American military presence with the delivery of 12 F28F helicopters to the Colombian air force. The piston-powered, three-place helicopters will be used for training and are accompanied by a Frasca International F28F flight simulator. Enstrom, based in Menominee, Mich., also has sold training helicopters to the militaries of Chile and Peru.
French defense industry officials fear the effects that additional cuts in procurement spending will have on their companies in the absence of a post-Cold War strategic policy that would redefine the nation's security interests. French aerospace and armament contractors urgently require firm procurement commitments, including a strong multi-year plan, to avoid ``an industrial catastrophe,'' according to top industry officials.
The U.S. Air Force and Navy issued an operational requirements document this month that will put helmet-mounted displays in fighter aircraft beginning around 2001. The document is the strongest sign that the U.S. is serious about meeting the threat posed by Russian and Israeli helmet-mounted sights that have been deployed for a decade. These helmets are available for export, increasing the prospect that U.S. fighters will encounter a third-world air force with superior look-to-shoot capability.
Kevin Kuykendall (see photo) has been named executive director of satellite communications for the Interstate Electronics Corp., Anaheim, Calif. He was executive director of carrier sales for Orion Atlantic. George K. Webster has been named president/chief executive officer of the Miltope Corp., Hope Hull, Ala. He was senior vice president-business development and marketing.
French taxpayers who watch the aerospace scene are increasingly perplexed and discouraged by what they see happening to their nation's historically strong and innovative aerospace sector. Their concern is justified. France's aerospace industry remains Europe's biggest and most comprehensive, but it is engulfed in turmoil on every side.
The F-16XL supersonic laminar flow control research aircraft has made its first flight with a large suction panel fitted to the left wing in a test series that could play an important role in the design of a U.S. high speed civil transport (HSCT).
Paul Tyksinski has been appointed vice president-operations of the Pro-Log Corp., Monterey, Calif. He was manager of supplier management for SunService, a division of Sun Microsystems.
BAA PLANS TO OPEN 10 AIRCRAFT GATES in a new ``Europier'' at London Heathrow's Terminal 1 in December; part of an ongoing 150-million-pound ($237-million) redevelopment of the busy facility. Another improvement is the recent opening of 20 new desks in an expansion of the check-in area. A new departures lounge offers twice the seating in an area four times as large as before; it also features a large aquarium with exotic Cichlid fish from Africa's Rift Valley.
System integration is looming as a major problem in satisfactory operation of helmet-mounted displays. The difficulty is in reducing time delays in the helmet-aircraft-weapon system so they are acceptable for relatively precise cueing in a dynamic, buffeting environment. The delay or ``latency'' has reached several tenths of a second in some tests, enough to cause pilot-induced oscillation (PIO) of the helmet display.
U.S. Air Force Titan 4 program officials are laying the groundwork with the Arnold Engineering Development Center for testing the booster's second-stage motor at altitude conditions early next year.
Gary E. Perrault (see photo) has been appointed corporate lubrication engineer for the E/M Corp., West Lafayette, Ind. He was a senior lubrication engineer for General Electric and Delco Remy.
Engineers from Pratt&Whitney and NPO Energomash are analyzing data from their first joint firing of the Russian RD-120 rocket engine. Pratt&Whitney and Energomash fired the 187,400-lb. vacuum-rated thrust engine for 3 sec. on a stand at Pratt's Government Engines&Space Propulsion test facility in West Palm Beach, Fla. The companies are not yet publicly discussing the performance data gleaned from the firing.
Igor Bocharov has been appointed head of Airbus Industrie's Moscow office. He was quality management director. Airbus also has named Wolfgang Schneider head of its Programs and Processes Directorate. He was deputy senior vice president-engineering.
Wall Street is reacting positively to the official launch of the McDonnell Douglas Corp. MD-95 twinjet (see p. 29), but most market professionals are not allowing their enthusiasm to get ahead of them. That is why the company's stock price may not fully reflect ValuJet's order for 50 aircraft and 50 options anytime soon. ``This is not a slam dunk,'' Goldman Sachs analyst Howard Rubel said. ``The market won't give them full credit until McDonnell Douglas performs. Still, there is opportunity for investors.''
