Trans World Airlines could proceed with a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing as early as this week. Creditors have until June 27 to vote whether they want TWA to restructure its bond payments out of court or through Chapter 11, and committees representing the two most influential creditor groups--8% and 10% noteholders--strongly favor the latter.
Japan's reluctance to approve cargo service between Japan and FedEx's new Subic Bay transshipment center in the Philippines has erupted into a full-scale bilateral dispute between Japan and the U.S. After failing to solve differences in bilateral negotiations in Washington, Transportation Secretary Federico Pena on June 19 started the process to impose sanctions by mid-July against scheduled all-cargo flights of Japan Airlines and Nippon Cargo Airlines.
Saudi Arabian Airlines has confirmed a $7.5-billion order for 61 U.S.-built transports including 23 of Boeing's new 777. The sale was formally announced in a short, televised speech June 18 by Saudi Arabian Defense and Aviation Minister Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz. He was speaking in Jeddah at a dinner commemorating the state-owned carrier's 50th birthday.
Allison Engines has embarked on a long- term, ambitious program aimed at restructuring and revitalizing its eroding manufacturing and production divisions. Although specific plans are still evolving, the company's new management has set an ambitious goal of reducing Allison's cost of doing business by about 50% over the next 30 months. The proposed shakeup comes just months after Rolls-Royce acquired Allison from a management team backed by the investment firm of Clayton Dubilier&Rice.
The shuttle Atlantis will repeatedly point Mir toward the Sun to ease power supply problems on the space station during the first docking of U.S. and Russian spacecraft in 20 years. Atlantis was to lift off Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center during a 7-min. window that opened at 2108 GMT June 23 on its historic flight to dock with Mir.
GENERAL ELECTRIC AND THE U.S. AIR FORCE will begin a test program in November aimed at qualifying the F110-129 engine in the McDonnell Douglas F-15E. Officials estimate that about 25 flights will be needed to complete qualification, a process that was begun, but never finished, in 1989. The test flights are scheduled to be conducted from Edwards AFB, Calif., and could lead to F110-129 qualification for the F-15E in the third quarter of 1996.
CROSSAIR IS DISCUSSING A JOINT VENTURE on training services with Avro International Aerospace that would allow the carrier to train its own crews and third-party customers on Avro RJ aircraft. Training would be conducted at Crossair's Basel, Switzerland, headquarters beginning in 1997. The airline already offers pilot training on the Saab 340 and 2000. Crossair will begin training pilots on the RJ100 at Avro's Woodford, U.K., facilities in August for the dozen aircraft it is acquiring. Crossair will take on 90 pilots for the expanded RJ fleet.
Pratt&Whitney and the U.S. Air Force have successfully concluded tests aimed at eliminating a vibratory problem in the F119 engine's high-pressure turbine. Tests of an F119 conducted in late May have confirmed that modifications to the high- and low-pressure turbines eliminate a high-pressure turbine blade vibration that first cropped up in early 1993 (AW&ST Apr. 4, 1994, p. 27).
Edward J. Smith, a project scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has been awarded NASA's 1995 Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal for his work on the Ulysses mission to the poles of the Sun.
THE SPARKS FLYING BETWEEN Rep. Robert S. Walker (R.-Pa.) and NASA boss Daniel S. Goldin over Mission to Planet Earth should not be taken at face value. Walker, who chairs the House Science Committee and is vice chairman of the Budget Committee, wants to chop $2.7 billion from the program. Goldin charged in a strongly worded statement that such a big cut would cripple the program's core, the Earth Observing System (EOS).
The Office of the Secretary of Defense has instructed the U.S. Air Force to drop plans to develop a low-cost JTIDS Class 2R terminal on its own and work through the Navy/European MIDS office to fill its requirements. With the USAF needs folded into the Multi-Function Information Distribution System (MIDS) program, the U.S. and four European nations might buy as many as 1,500 JTIDS terminals worth $200-300 million. JTIDS is also called Link 16.
Dale R. Niederhauser has been appointed president of JetSolutions, which was formed by AMR Combs and Bombardier Aerospace Group-North America. He was vice president of AMR Combs' Worldwide Flight Operations. Robert D. Gillespie has been named president of Bombardier Business JetSolutions Div. He was vice president-strategic planning and business development of Bombardier Aerospace Group. Dennis G. Keith has been appointed vice president-marketing and sales of the JetSolutions Div. He was director of flight operations for Frito-Lay Inc.
Two advanced cryogenic rocket engines from the Energia booster program are about to begin Russian firing tests involving participation by 14 European aerospace component companies. The tests with two RD-0120 engines will be sponsored by the European Union and industry in connection with Russian industry. A kickoff meeting for the program was held just prior to the Paris air show.
RUSSIANS HAVE COME to the Kennedy Space Center in force to help prepare the shuttle/Mir docking module and two solar arrays for launch to the Russian space station. About 80 RSC Energia personnel are working to ready the module and arrays to be carried by Atlantis on space shuttle Mission 74 this fall. The docking module is the first component being prepared for flight in the new Space Station Processing Facility (right). An Antonov An-124 brought the hardware to Cape Canaveral earlier this month, along with a training module to be delivered to Houston.
Daimler-Benz Aerospace (DASA), Europe's biggest aerospace company, will not be able to restore profitability in the next months, as it had planned. The German company's wide-ranging plan to cut costs is seriously endangered by factors outside the aerospace industry's direct control. Sales are decreasing, a trend tied to weak civil and military markets and the U.S. dollar's unfavorable exchange rates against European currencies such as the Deutsche mark.
AIR FORCE CONTROLLERS on the Western Test Range destroyed a Pegasus XL booster June 22 due to an in-flight problem. The command was issued at about 1 p.m. PDT after the vehicle was separated from an L-1011 carrier aircraft about 65 mi. off the coast at Monterey, Calif. The booster was at an altitude of 90 mi. and about 170 mi. downrange when the destruct command was transmitted. Separation from the L-1011 and first-stage burn appeared normal, but the problem came during second-stage burn. The Defense Dept.
ONE OF THE NATION'S TOP INTELLIGENCE OFFICIALS will go to Moscow next month to talk to his Russian counterparts about how to share spy satellite imagery. Jeffrey K. Harris, assistant secretary of the Air Force for space and head of the National Reconnaissance Office, will travel with Vice President Al Gore for a meeting of the cooperation commission that Gore cochairs with Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. Harris will explore how the two nations' intelligence satellites might be used to provide ``derivative products'' to environmental scientists.
Barry Massey has been named manager of the FlightSafety Greater Philadelphia/Wilmington Learning Center. He was manager of aviation management contracts for AMR Combs Inc. at Windsor Locks, Conn.
BELGIUM'S SABCA, A DASSAULT-FOKKER joint subsidiary, will upgrade eight Northrop F-5E and four F-5F lightweight fighters operated by the Indonesian air force. The contract, valued at $40 million, includes the installation of a head-up display, air data computer and inertial navigation system. Passive countermeasures and a video recording system also are included in the three-year program. SABCA also will supply 10 upgrade kits to Indonesia's Iswahyudi AFB to locally upgrade additional F-5s.
COCKPIT CHECKLISTS SHOULD BE SIMPLE, single-page and standardized, according to Flight Safety Foundation of Arlington, Va. Many current airline and general aviation checklists have hard-to-read type, poor design and organization, out-of-sequence procedures and nonessential information, a recent FSF report said. Some emergency checklists are buried in flight manuals and difficult to locate quickly. Suggested improvements include the use of unambiguous, standardized phraseology, numbered steps and color-coding for improved readability under stress.
All three Joint Advanced Strike Technology contractor teams will have their advanced STOVL aircraft designs fairly well defined by late July, despite a recent McDonnell Douglas change to a lift-plus-lift-cruise configuration.
A summit in early July between German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and French President Jacques Chirac is expected to help determine both the near-term course of European military space development and the closely related issue of whether Daimler-Benz Aerospace (DASA) and Aerospatiale can merge their space and missile system divisions. At stake are tens of billions of dollars in long-term European military satellite development, as well as the debut of German/French industry structures important to European aerospace consolidation.
Raytheon Aircraft Co.'s Beech Mk. 2, discounted by many analysts because of a perceived institutional bias against turboprops and a 50% foreign content, was the surprise winner of what is expected to be the last major U.S. military aircraft competition of the century.
The order by Saudi Arabian Airlines for four MD-11 freighter aircraft underlines the growing importance of the long-range, international air cargo market for McDonnell Douglas' commercial transport division. While orders for MD-11 passenger and freighter aircraft have lagged in recent years, the trijet's utility as an air cargo transport has gained increased attention as freight markets continue to expand and some carriers attempt to supplement their passenger yields.
