Raytheon is fabricating a test article representative of the fuselage shell of its new Premier 1 lightjet, using a new Cincinnati Milacron automated fiber placement machine. The almost 42-ft.-long Premier 1 fuselage shell will be built in two main parts. Raytheon already has built and tested at least three, 13.5-ft.-long sample fuselage barrels at the Cincinnati subcontractor's development facilities (AW&ST Oct. 2, p. 24).
VALUJET AIRLINES' five-member board of directors could choose a new aircraft at its meeting on Oct. 19. The Atlanta-based carrier plans to buy as many as 25 aircraft from Airbus Industrie, Boeing or McDonnell Douglas.
FINNAIR HAS COMPLETED what it calls the world's first heavy maintenance of an MD-11 wide-body aircraft early this month along with a test flight. The work 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 No. 1 and 3 engine pylons, a repainted fuselage and refurbishing of cabin decor.
The U. S. National Reconnaissance Office and Lockheed Martin are modifying an existing U. S. reconnaissance satellite system so it can provide more real-time/broad area coverage than current systems, which provide extremely high resolution pictures, but of only localized targets.
Investors in U.S. airline stocks may be in for a bumpy ride as the prospect of UAL Corp. or AMR Corp. buying USAir Group Inc. spawns speculation of a coming wave of airline industry consolidation.
First flight of the Swedish air force SK60 trainer with new Williams-Rolls FJ44 engines is expected shortly, with first deliveries to the air force scheduled for the first half of 1996.
Hawker Siddeley Canada's Orenda Engine Division expects to start flight testing a liquid-cooled, aluminum-block, 600-hp. turbocharged V-8 engine on a Beech King Air late this year.
THE TWO LOSING BIDDERS to develop the common spacecraft bus for NASA's Earth Observing System--Lockheed Martin and Hughes--have filed formal protests. All three bids were kicked back as unrealistically low. In its rebid, winner TRW promised to eat half of any cost overrun. Meanwhile, the Clinton Administration has urged the Federal Communications Commission to keep Comsat out of Inmarsat-P until concerns are resolved about Comsat getting an unfair advantage in the soon-to-boom hand-held mobile satellite services market.
BOEING IS OFFERING CORPORATE-CONFIGURED versions of its new 737-600 and -700 transports. The $30-million and $37-million jets will be substantially wider and taller and have at least twice the passenger cabin floor space of the top-of-the-line Bombardier Global Express and Gulfstream 5 business jets. None of these aircraft is in production yet. The Global Express and G5 cost about $30 million each. The Boeings, however, will have a 5,000-naut. mi. range, about 1,500 less than the Global Express and G5.
DENRO INC. OF GAITHERSBURG, MD., is under contract to provide voice communications systems to all medium and large towers and Tracons used by the FAA and Defense Dept. in the U.S. The company's initial $13-million contract to supply 100 systems could expand to 400 systems. The Enhanced Terminal Voice Switch is controlled using color, active matrix liquid crystal displays with touchscreens, hard keys, and interfaces for digital line and integrated services digital network (ISDN).
The Chatsworth, Calif.-based Sensor Systems' small (4.5-in. high) hemispherical low gain satcom antenna could give aircraft equipped with GPS an affordable way to send data link positions to air traffic control via Inmarsat.
WAKE VORTEX FLIGHT TESTS completed last week by the National Transportation Safety Board provided generous data on wingtip vortices but revealed no significant clues regarding the crash of a USAir 737-300 near Pittsburgh in September, 1994 (AW&ST Oct. 2, p. 33). Detailed results of the tests will be made public when the board reopens public hearings on the accident Nov. 15.
As the GPS revolution shifts into high gear with the benefits of satellite navigation becoming well known, a big surge from the consumer market is just around the corner. Already, some civil advances are flowing back into the military, which developed the system. Senior Avionics Editor Bruce D. Nordwall reports on new developments with GPS and its Russian counterpart system, Glonass. Aviation needs still drive many of the advances in Global Positioning System technology, but the consumer market is about to come alive.
MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT is the first customer for the Honeywell/Pelorus Satellite Landing System (SLS-2000) and the company's TracLink vehicle tracking system. Honeywell expects Pelorus, a differential GPS ground station, to receive FAA certification in early 1996. TracLink will also be used in conjunction with Pelorus, sending vehicle position over an RF data link to a central control station, where computers will plot the positions on an electronic map.
NATO aircraft fired on Serb air defense sites last week after three separate incidents in which surface-to-air missile fire control radars locked onto patrolling allied aircraft. The aircraft were conducting routine Deny Flight missions when radar lock-ons were detected, according to NATO officials. In each case a single allied aircraft fired a HARM missile at the site. Under the rules of engagement, NATO aircraft can fire on any missile site that locks onto them.
The Tennessee Air National Guard is testing an upgraded version of an automated voice checklist system in two of its C-141B transports that also will alert pilots in the event of an autopilot disconnect. The CMS400C, made by Heads Up Technologies, adds a cross-checking capability for as many as 12 aircraft systems or activities to the digital voice checklist system that the company first offered in 1991. The CMS400C also will issue a verbal warning if an alarm is issued on any system with the cross-check feature.
TEXAS INSTRUMENTS WILL ATTEMPT to reduce by 30% the cost of manufacturing cryogenic coolers used to cool infrared detectors or focal plane arrays for the Defense Dept.'s most sensitive thermal imaging systems. The process improvements will be applied to existing Texas Instruments designs for 1-w. and 0.15-w. linear drive Stirling cycle cryogenic coolers. The 22-month effort is under a $2.6-million contract from the Army Communication Electronics Command, Ft. Monmouth, N.J.
HARRIS CORP. WILL SUPPLY 386 GPS signal data converters to the U.S. Air Force to allow GPS to be added to aircraft with steam gauge cockpits. The device converts digital GPS output to analog to drive flight instruments for older aircraft. The converter has application to analog military cockpits for all services, according to Harris.
International communications satellite operators will hear sharp criticism about reserving slots for spacecraft that are never built and a lack of discipline in preventing radio interference between spacecraft that are flown, next month at the World Radio Conference in Geneva. The conference, held every two years by the International Telecommunications Union, is critical to negotiating rules of the road for commercial satellite operations.
Japan is beginning development of the first planetary spacecraft designed to land on an asteroid, then automatically gather a sample for analysis on Earth. Space managers at the IAF conference here said the new mission shows the maturity of Japan in advanced planetary exploration--a space activity that earlier only the U.S., Russia and Europe could pursue.
When the next-generation GPS satellite is launched next year, it will offer a number of improvements over the existing spacecraft. Lockheed Martin Astro Space is building 21 of the GPS 2R satellites, which are scheduled for delivery through the fall of 2000. The first four 2Rs are currently undergoing integration and testing. Compared with the GPS 2A satellites deployed today, the 2R will offer improvements in: -- Autonomy, with the ability to navigate with full accuracy for up to six months without ground contact.
The microprocessor-based H384 Series Engine Monitor watches signals from multiple channels in parallel with existing cockpit instrumentation and displays engine values in real time. Readings are shown on a 24-character alphanumeric display. Typical modes are real time, trending, cyclic, exceedance, ID and usage, and operational profiles. Parameters can include temperature, torque, air speed, rpm., fuel flow and altitude. When a reading exceeds a user-defined parameter, the unit sets a ball flag and outputs an alarm signal. Howell Instruments Inc., 3479 W.
Adrian Bellamy has been named chairman of the board of directors of Airport Group International Inc., Glendale, Calif., formerly Lockheed Air Terminal Inc. He was chairman/chief executive officer of DFS Group Ltd.
Following are excerpts from a speech earlier this year on U.S. export policy by C. Michael Armstrong, chairman and chief executive officer of the Hughes Electronics Corp. He addressed the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. If [the U.S.] is to sustain its role of global leadership and expand the country's economic well-being, it will only happen if America is the export superpower of the world. And there are signs we are on track:
