Following are excerpts from a recent speech by Rod Eddington, managing director of Cathay Pacific Airways, on the future of Hong Kong as the aviation hub of Asia. He spoke at the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Hong Kong. Hong Kong's Kai Tak airport has for so long been Asia's principal aviation hub that we can be forgiven for taking it for granted.
Raytheon is beginning the development of an Enhanced Fiber Optic Guided Missile for the U.S. Army in a program that plays an important role in the Pentagon's plans to allow lightly armed troops to defend themselves against tanks and helicopters.
LOOK FOR CONTINUED STRONG growth in passenger and cargo at Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport. The U.S. gambling and entertainment mecca has 12,000 new hotel rooms slated for construction by the end of 1997. Each room generates about 320 passengers a year for the airport, or a total of over 10,000 new passengers a day for the airport, according to Robert Broadbent, director of aviation.
EXPECT TO HEAR MORE about the vulnerability of Japan's airports to flight interruptions. Recently, a Northwest Airlines 747 inbound from Honolulu lost all eight tires on the right wing and body main landing gears. The incident closed the single runway at the nation's busiest international airport, Tokyo's Narita, for 1 hr. 45 min. But as a result, 32 arriving flights had to be diverted to Kansai International in Osaka (another one-runway airport) and other nearby airports. Nine departing flights were delayed for 2 hr.
COLLINS IS EXTENDING its hourly-fee airline avionics maintenance programs into U.S. regional airlines. For a fee based on monthly flight hours, regional carriers receive avionics repair and maintenance services (AW&ST Feb. 27, p. 17). Collins units with problems are replaced with a loaner unit and guaranteed to be repaired and returned to stock in 10 days. The program allows regional airlines to budget for avionics maintenance without unexpected outlays and to reduce spares stocks.
ADM. WILLIAM OWENS, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and head of the Joint Requirements Oversight Council, is circulating a staff-generated memo generally praising the value of airships and aerostats as early warning sensor platforms. Senior Navy officials are said to be interested in setting up a string of aerostats in Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to provide around-the-clock surveillance of the volatile Persian Gulf region.
Daimler-Benz Aerospace (DASA) is considering a stretched-fuselage, increas-ed-capacity version of the Dornier 328 twin-turboprop regional transport. The new version is scheduled to have 40-45 seats, up from 33 seats for the 328-110 and 328-120 versions currently in production, a company official said. DASA's Regional Aircraft Div. is assessing the market for the larger aircraft.
Adyr da Silva has been appointed president of Infraaero of Brazil. The company also has named five directors: Afonso Ferdinand Barros, operations; Tercio Ivan de Barros, commercial and industrial; Amilcar Ferrari Alves, administration; Joao Alcides do Nascimento, economy and finance; and Marco Aurelio Syrio, maintenance and engineering.
Lockheed Martin Hellfire 2 missile is launched from a Ground Launched Hellfire 2 missile system jointly developed with Boeing. The GLH2 system consists of a High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, rear-mounted launcher and four Hellfire 2 missiles that can be fired in rapid succession. Five more missiles are carried for reload. A stabilized electro-optic targeting and surveillance system (EOTS) is mounted on the launch arm bridge. The EOTS video console is located in the armored driver and gunner's compartment.
The U.S. Air Force expects to be told by senior Pentagon officials to terminate its effort to develop a low-cost JTIDS terminal and use a version of the U.S. Navy/European MIDS terminal instead on USAF fighters.
Don W. Smith has been appointed president/chief executive officer of Advanced Information Technologies Corp. of Ottawa. Peter N. Bennett has been named chief operating officer. Smith was president/chief operating officer. Bennett was chief financial officer.
LOCKHEED MARTIN AND BOEING displayed their Tier 3 Minus reconnaissance drone on June 1 at Lockheed Martin's Palmdale, Calif., plant, and the 69-ft.-span stealthy aircraft is to begin flight tests in the final quarter of 1995 (AW&ST Jan. 9, p. 22). Tier 3- has a saucer-shaped fuselage reminiscent of the B-2, and straight wings with an unswept leading edge and a trailing edge with mild forward sweep. The ARPA and Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office-sponsored drone is made mainly of graphite composite.
Learjet is revitalizing its product line and increasing efficiencies as it integrates operations with sister Bombardier aerospace companies Canadair, de Havilland and Shorts.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. must strengthen its code-share reporting requirements to properly monitor and analyze the effects of airline alliances on consumers and negotiate future international agreements, according to a General Accounting Office report.
AIR FRANCE AND BOEING last week concluded an agreement involving order cancellations and rescheduled deliveries. To eliminate excess capacity, the troubled French flag carrier will cancel orders for three 767-300ERs, three 737-500 twinjets and one all-cargo 747-400F transport originally scheduled to be delivered in 1995-96. Boeing also will sell to an unspecified third party one Air France 767-300, delivered in 1994, which has not entered service.
Lower fuel prices and stronger economies in industrialized nations that encouraged international air travel helped Singapore Airlines record a 52.9% boost in its operating profits for the fiscal year that ended Mar. 31, company directors report. The government-controlled airline's strong showing helped push Singapore Airline (SIA) Group's operating profit up 13.6% to S$931 million ($657 million) for the fiscal 1994-95 year. Operating profits for the airline alone rose S$282 million ($236 million) to S$817 ($576 million).
WATCH FOR A CURIOUS SHOWDOWN THIS WEEK on the international space station, pitting House space enthusiasts against each other. Republican Wisconsin Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr.'s, space subcommittee is to mark up a GOP multiyear spending bill. Science Committee chief Robert S. Walker (R.-Pa.) canceled a previous markup when long-time station supporter Rep. George Brown (D.-Calif.) said he would oppose the multiyear funding. Brown said GOP budget cuts so threaten space science that he is willing to sacrifice the station.
Allen J. Wolff (see photo) has been named vice president-quality assurance for G&H Technology Inc., Camarillo, Calif. He was manager of quality assurance for Loral Librascope, Glendale, Calif.
Kenneth J. Gilkey (see photo) has been appointed vice president-marketing of MacAulay-Brown Inc., Dayton, Ohio. He was vice president-marketing of Cincinnati Electronics Corp.
Frederick S. Billig, associate supervisor and chief scientist at Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, Md., is among the new members of the National Academy of Engineering. Also elected recently were: Thomas M. Cook, special consultant to the chairman of the AMR Corp. of Dallas-Ft. Worth; Edward M. Greitzer, H.N. Slater professor of aeronautics and astronautics and director of the Gas Turbine Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge; Wesley L. Harris, NASA associate administrator for aeronautics; Elvin R.
NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC AND ATMOSPHERIC Administration is testing massively parallel processors as a way to improve aviation short-range forecasts and as a less expensive way to generate national-scale weather forecasts. Scientists at NOAA's Forecast Systems Laboratory in Boulder, Colo., are using real-time weather data to make forecasts every 3 hr., but in a research setting. An Intel Paragon XPS-15 is being used for the MPP work. It has 200 nodes, but only 64 are being used for the current resolution.
Mike Buckman has been named chief executive officer of Worldspan of Atlanta. He has succeeded Calvin L. Rader, who has retired. Buckman was executive vice president-travel management services for American Express Travel Related Services.
Transfer of the Hawker business jet assembly line from Chester, England, to Raytheon Aircraft here is on schedule with facility construction underway and completion expected this fall. Raytheon Aircraft will begin assembly of the first U.S.-built Hawker 800 by November. At least 15 key Hawker engineers from British Aerospace facilities in Hatfield, England, already are on-site, according to John Dieker, group manager for consolidation at Raytheon Aircraft.
ERGONOMICALLY MODIFIED rivet hammers and bucking bars will be introduced later this year that dramatically reduce the tool's vibration and related worker wrist injuries. The new tools, developed specifically for the aircraft industry, maintain the hammer's hitting force but dampen and isolate vibration, according to developer U.S. Industrial Tool and Supply Co., Plymouth, Mich. Tests indicate the tools reduce rivet hammer vibration by as much as 53%.
William L. Gray (see photo) has been appointed vice president/general manager of American International Airways Inc., Ypsilanti, Mich. He was vice president/program manager.
