These new air-handling, environmental control system and water drain and supply lines are up to 33% lighter than conventional ECS ducting. They are made of flexible silicone, urethane and other materials to ease installation and are resistant to oils, solvents, ozone and extreme temperatures. All meet FAR 25.853 flammability requirements. Nonmetallic externally wound reinforcements resist permanent deformation when crushed and give the hose a smooth fore for minimum drag coefficient. Teflon lining is available in some hoses.
The C-6 GSE Trans-Stop is designed to prevent damage to transmissions, drive lines and rear axles of tugs, tractors, belt loaders and other airport support vehicles. The C-6 GSE, which prevents operators from shifting between forward and reverse gears while a vehicle is moving, recently entered full-scale production. The device requires that all wheels be stopped during a change in direction. The Trans-Stop inhibitors also can be used to prevent an operator from moving from neutral into gear at high engine speeds.
Peter F. McCloskey, president of the Electronic Industries Assn., Arlington, Va., will receive the 1995 Key Award from the American Society of Association Executives for achievement in association management.
Daniel Abehsera has been named president/general manager of Rohr Europe, based in St. Martin, France. He has been senior vice president of Latecoere. He will succeed Jean-Pierre Rouziere, who will be chairman of Rohr Europe until retiring later this year.
Aircraft Components Repair is an illustrated application guide. It describes a variety of repairs that can be done in-house to save time and money. The first section covers selected electroplating. A section on prebraze operations gives accounts of how users have saved time and money on prebraze coatings for turbine stators, frames and blades. Sifco Selective Plating, 5708 Schaaf Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44131-1394.
Thomas J. Bentsen of NASA has been named editorial vice president of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. He succeeds Peter A. Dare of Sony Electronics.
BOEING SUCCESSFULLY IS TRANSFERRING efficiencies pioneered by the 777's integrated product design and manufacturing teams to upcoming ``next-generation'' 737-600, -700 and -800 transports. The first preproduction 737-700 thrust reverser completed by Boeing's Wichita, Kan., division weighs 69 lb. less than targeted, was built on a reduced number of production tools and has a 14% lower overall parts count than predecessor 737-300 thrust reversers. The thrust reverser will be used for ground- and flight-test programs.
CONCERNED ABOUT HOW THE FAA WILL FIT into aviation's long-term future, the agency last week unveiled ``Challenge 2000,'' a comprehensive review of the FAA's unwieldy number of policies dealing with regulation and certification. Administrator David R. Hinson commissioned a high-level task force, to be headed by Barry Valentine, assistant administrator for policy, planning and international aviation. The task force, which will include aviation industry specialists, management consultants and senior agency officials, is to have its initial meeting July 26.
SOUTHWEST AIRLINES will inaugurate service to Tampa, Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando, Fla., in the first half of 1996--a foray made possible by the delivery of 10 new Boeing 737s between now and the end of the year.
IN ANOTHER ACTION ANTICIPATING THE FUTURE, the FAA and 11 U.S. airlines are forming what Hinson terms an ``unprecedented'' government-industry consortium to develop the framework for a worldwide Aeronautical Telecommunications Network. This kind of working relationship was recommended by Clinton's 1993 National Airline Commission. If realized, the network would track aircraft locations and select the best available data link to communicate between air and ground stations, worldwide. In effect, it would be aviation's version of the Internet.
Radar and Laser Cross Section Engineering by David Jenn of the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, Calif., addresses prediction, reduction and measurement of electromagnetic scattering from three-dimensional targets. His analysis methods focus on physical optics and numerical solutions to Maxwell's equations as they apply to radar cross section. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 9 Jay Gould Court, P.O. Box 753, Waldorf, Md. 20604.
HARRIS CORP., SAPURA HOLDING SDN BHD of Malayasia, and Tomen of Japan are teamed to develop and install a total airport management system (TAMS) for the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang, Malayasia. The multi-million dollar contract covers the first two parts of a three-phase, eight-year contract. Harris will integrate and install TAMS, which is intended to handle all of the airport's non-ATC communications. Harris has a similar integrated communications contract for Washington's National and Dulles airports.
JAPANESE NEGOTIATORS WERE TAKEN ABACK by Secretary of State Warren Christopher's opening comments over FedEx's request for beyond rights to Subic Bay, the Philippines. Christopher bluntly told them of President Bill Clinton's instructions that the U.S. would not discuss sore points in the air services agreement with Japan until FedEx's demands are met. Regardless of the merits of FedEx's case, one Japanese observer commented, it is unwise for the West to push an Asian nation into a position in which it has no graceful avenue of retreat.
A NEW METALLIC MEMBRANE filter that efficiently passes only pure hydrogen has been developed by scientists in Los Alamos (N.M.) National Laboratory's Energy Technology Program. The low-cost, thin-foil fused membrane, made of the readily available metals tantalum and palladium, could advance the development of fuel cells used for spacecraft, which are quickly poisoned by contamination. The new filter also has manufacturing applications, as many plastics and polymers are created through dehydrogenation of compounds.
Shipments of a device for creating three-dimensional models of objects designed on a computer are to begin this month. The Personal Modeler, developed by BPM Technologies of Greenville, S.C., uses a technique called ballistic particle manufacturing. Spheres of molten plastic measuring 70-75 microns in diameter are fired through a piezoelectric jetting system. The concept is similar to that used by an ink jet printer, but instead of creating letters or graphics on a page, the microscopic bits of plastic solidify into a three-dimensional structure.
As dramatic as the U.S. aerospace/defense industry's consolidation has been in the last few years, the process, in all probability, is not even half over. And the thought that this painful but necessary ordeal could drag on for three or four more years is distressing. Consolidation can and should be accelerated for a number of reasons, not the least of which is minimizing the terrible toll that mergers, acquisitions and divestitures take on workers and their families. Greater sensitivity to this human dimension would be, frankly, refreshing.
Houdini 3.0 allows eight-node brick meshing while doing computer-aided design solid modeling and finite element analysis. The package can work with either STL or IGES files. Houdini allows a user to break a CAD model into finite elements, easing the process of simulating the workings of a design. Just a few mouse clicks are needed to turn a solid CAD model into eight-node hexahedral bricks. The program is compatible with most solid modeling systems and FEA software. Algor Inc., 150 Beta Drive, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15238-2932.
Charles F. Lyke has been promoted to general manager of the Fluid Power Div. of Vickers Aerospace Marine Defense Group, Jackson, Miss. He was European operations director of the Vickers Industrial Group.
Despite years of double-digit defense budget increases, half of the Chinese air force's fighter and attack aircraft will be retired by 2005 because of old age, and China cannot afford to replace them, according to a new Rand study.
RESEARCHERS AT LAWRENCE LIVERMORE National Laboratory in California are analyzing a technology that could allow early detection and characterization of metal corrosion in aircraft. The dual-band infrared tomography technique detects defects by sensing temperature differences in materials caused by faults, according to Nancy Del Grande of the lab's nondestructive evaluation program. The use of an additional, separate wave length to retrieve images allows greater precision in computer temperature calculations and compensates for the influence of surface contaminants.
These optical filters can provide a quick solution in engineering cockpits that are compatible with night vision goggles. The ring filters block unwanted infrared light emissions from filament lamps in edge-lit instrument panel. Such emissions can cause flaring in NVGs, which degrades image quality. The filter encapsulates the lamp, filtering out any IR transmission, using a one-piece, nonlaminated glass tube structure capped with an aluminum heat sink.
JAPAN AIRLINES REPORTED 458 BIRD strikes during 1994, none of which endangered passengers. Tokyo's Haneda Airport recorded the highest incidence, with 31, while training site Moses Lake, Wash., had 28, and Jakarta, 17. McDonnell Douglas DC-10 and MD-11 trijets appeared to be the avians' targets of choice, incurring 41.5 bird strikes per 10,000 flying hours. Kites, large scavengers with 3-ft. wingspans, were the most frequent culprits. Gulls, swallows, terns, pigeons, ducks and the occasional bat also were midair casualties.
