Mario Rosso has been named general manager for North America for Alitalia. Previously general manager for South America, Rosso succeeds Aldo Vitturini, who has retired.
IRVINE SENSORS WILL ADAPT its proprietary chip-stacking technology to build a camera on a cube for use in high-resolution video and electronic still cameras, under a NASA contract. The company intends to integrate a video detector array with an analog-to-digital converter, a specialized signal processing chip and a Memory Short Stack in a single structure about the size of a sugar cube. Expected benefits include a high-speed parallel processing architecture and low power requirements.
LITTON HAS BEEN SELECTED to equip all of the U.S. Navy's F/A-18 and EA-6B aircraft with an Embedded GPS/Inertial (EGI) system. Litton's Guidance&Control Systems division will provide the unit, which combines the latest laser gyro technology with a global positioning system (GPS) receiver in a single, lightweight unit. The program for current and projected F/A-18 and EA-6B aircraft could include the purchase of more than 2,000 units.
An article on p. 56 of the Feb. 20 issue, on U.S. government plans to develop two advanced wind tunnels, incorrectly stated the amount of funding that would be involved. The figure is $2.3 billion.$end 19 NEWS BREAKS 777, A340 UNDERGO COLD TESTS New Airbus Industrie A340 (left) and Boeing 777 transports underwent cold weather testing at Fairbanks (Alaska) International Airport last month.
James J. Vogt has been appointed president/director of contract administration for ITT Aerospace/Communications Div., Fort Wayne, Ind. He was director of program management for Unisys Systems Integration Practice.
The FAA needs to exercise aggressive leadership to speed modernization of U.S. air traffic control. The International Civil Aviation Organization's world-wide modernization plan--the Future Air Navigation System--will use satellites, computers and digital communications to expand the capacity and flexibility of ATC.
CRAY RESEARCH, INC., is developing a new family of large-scale parallel vector supercomputers, called the Cray T90 series, that will have up to 32 central processor units and a peak processing power of 60 gigaflops. New technologies include 52-layer printed circuit boards and elimination of all internal wiring, which amounts to more than 36 mi. in the current Cray C916. The T90 will use electrically activated zero-insertion-force (eZIF) connectors to join processor modules to memory. The only wires in the T90 series will be for external input/output connections.
HUMAN FACTORS RESEARCH at the FAA is supposedly a top priority, but newly proposed funding levels have some observers on Capitol Hill wondering if they have been hearing double talk. For Fiscal 1994 and 1995, Congress added $2 million and $7 million to FAA's budget request for human factors, bringing total spending to $32 million this year. FAA Administrator David R. Hinson has been preaching that important safety gains can be made through studies of human factors in the cockpit and that the Transportation Dept. is seeking zero accidents.
WONDER WHY Ball Corp. decided to keep its Aerospace and Communications Group, after trying to sell it last year? Maybe winning a classified contract worth approximately $250 million had something to do with it. Previously, the group was viewed as a likely casualty of defense and aerospace budget-cutting. Primarily a packaging company, Ball was quick to put its struggling aerospace group on the block. But it reversed course when corporate officers realized that secret contracts could be won.
USAF SPACE&MISSILES Systems Center plans to issue a draft request for proposals for an ``evolved expendable launch vehicle'' (EELV) on Mar. 1. The EELV program is envisioned as a nine-year effort to develop medium to heavy launchers based on upgrades of existing vehicles. The plan calls for a 15-month risk reduction phase, in which four contractors would work, then a down-select to two for 13 months of engineering and manufacturing development before a critical design review.
HONEYWELL AND AMETEK PLAN TO WORK TOGETHER to integrate Honeywell's Primus 2000 XP avionics for the Bombardier Global Express. The effort will use Ametek's Sentinel data acquisition unit to gather and transmit information on aircraft systems to Honeywell's integrated avionics computers. Among the systems monitored by the digital acquisition unit will be the electronic engine controller, air data computer, electrical and hydraulic systems. The data will be displayed on a 6-tube engine instrument and crew alerting system in the cockpit.
Production go-ahead for the NH-90 ASW-transport helicopter will slip to late 1997, a delay tied to the program's slow start. The first prototype, now in final assembly, is scheduled to fly in December.
CHRYSLER TECHNOLOGIES AIRBORNE SYSTEMS is under contract to modify the U.S. Navy's E-6A TACAMO aircraft to give it the capability of the U.S. Strategic Command's EC-135 Airborne Command Post (ABNCP) aircraft. The TACAMO aircraft is a Boeing 707, modified to receive and transmit messages from the National Command Authority to submerged submarines and other strategic forces. The upgrade will include adding a MILSTAR satcom terminal, GPS, a new mission computer system, secure telephone and fax equipment. Other equipment will be transferred from the EC-135.
MUCH TO THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION'S chagrin, Rep. Jim Lightfoot (R.-Iowa) plans to introduce legislation this week that would separate the FAA from the Transportation Dept. and endow it with newfound powers of procurement and personnel management. Lightfoot, who is a member of the transportation subcommittee of the House Appropriations panel, opposes a government-owned ATC business. His proposal would create an 11-member management advisory board to interface with senior FAA management on policy and regulatory issues.
A FORMER EXECUTIVE vice president of Chromalloy Gas Turbine Corp., Orangeburg, N.Y., pleaded not guilty to a nine-count indictment related to alleged improper repairs to engine parts (AW&ST Feb. 20, p. 35). James M. Gabriel entered the plea at his arraignment in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, White Plains. A pre-trial conference is scheduled for Apr. 14.
NASA has produced a new space flight manifest that reworks its shuttle plans for seven missions per year, instead of eight. But the schedule also includes a very active period coming soon for payloads on expendable launch vehicles (ELVs).
U.S. Air Force officials say they are working on several fronts to make government facilities more accessible and affordable for use by commercial space endeavors. The service has reduced charges for the support of commercial launches and is overhauling the safety restrictions imposed on those operations. Air Force officials also are developing new policies and guidelines for turning surplus launch-related facilities over to business for conversion to commercial enterprises.
Dan Bart has been promoted to vice president-standards and technology for the Electronic Industries Assn. and the Telecommunications Industry Assn., Arlington, Va. He was vice president-technical and regulatory affairs for the TIA.
OZIRES SILVA HAS resigned from his position as president of Embraer following the privatization of the Brazilian company late last year. Silva was the founding executive of the aircraft manufacturer and served twice as chief executive officer for a total of 20 years. Juarez de Siqueira Britto Wanderley, former senior vice president for production, has been named president of Embraer.
Pat Windham (see photo) has been appointed senior vice president-business development of Barfield, Inc., of Miami. He was general manager for simulation support at Delta Air Lines.
Boeing and Northwest Airlines will accelerate 757 deliveries so the airline gets 15 of the transports--and Boeing gets needed work--this year and next. The agreement will help the Seattle manufacturer maintain its production rate of the 757 at four per month. Several cash-short carriers, including USAir and Continental Airlines, recently canceled or deferred major Boeing orders. By year-end, the company's transport output will be about half the nearly 450 aircraft delivered in 1992 (AW&ST Feb. 20, p. 34).
LOCKHEED MISSILES&SPACE CO. (LMSC) will reduce its workforce of 14,630 by 800 by the end of June. Despite earlier consolidations, Lockheed's analysis of the marketplace has led it to believe it must do more streamlining, Vance Coffman, the company's acting president, said. Do not look for the picture to brighten in the second half of the year. Coffman said, ``Further reductions of a similar magnitude could be necessary.'' In 1986, LMSC's employment was at its peak of 30,230.
LOOK FOR ``POWER-BY-THE-HOUR'' engine maintenance programs to cross over to other airline repair disciplines. The fixed-fee-per-flight-hour equipment contracts save airlines money and help cut costly repair staff positions. Rockwell Collins Commercial Avionics just signed a five-year agreement with Trans World Airlines to support all Collins avionics on more than 50 Boeing 727s and 767s and McDonnell Douglas MD-80 transports. First-year savings will be about $100,000, according to TWA.
William G. Wagner (see photo) has been named managing director of the Performance Review Institute, Warrendale, Pa. He was manager of the Society of Automotive Engineers' Technical Standards Div.
A follow-on to the U.S. Air Force's just-canceled stealthy, air-launched, long-range Tri-Service Standoff Attack Missile--informally referred to as son-of-TSSAM--is expected to take shape within six months.
