The U.S. Defense Dept. is reshaping the management of military space system acquisitions and operations to focus increasingly scarce resources on field commanders' actual needs. The sweeping changes also are aimed at defusing congressional criticisms of U.S. Air Force, Navy and Army competition for dominant space management roles.
U.S. UNIVERSITIES COULD BETTER transfer technology to industry if they adopted the German practice of establishing Fraunhofer institutes, according to a report by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A Fraunhofer institute is run like a business, faces fewer legal constraints than universities and employs full-time workers as well as university professors, the latter effectively functioning as senior executives.
Antonov Design Bureau's prototype An-70 transport crashed near Kiev Feb. 10 after colliding with an An-72 chase aircraft. All crewmembers on board the An-70 died. The crew of the An-72 made an emergency, gear-up landing at Gostomel, the departure point for both aircraft. Gostomel is Antonov's flight test facility, located near the Ukrainian capital.
BRITISH AIRWAYS PASSENGERS traveling between London and Auckland, New Zealand, will be able to save up to 3 hr. on the lengthy journey using new code-sharing, connecting service through Los Angeles beginning Mar. 26. Three times a week, a British Airways London-Los Angeles flight will connect to a Los Angeles-Auckland flight operated by BA partner Qantas. Currently, BA offers flights, with two or three stops, to Auckland going east from London.
David Mitchell is now vice president/general manager of Batelle's Transportation Div., Columbus, Ohio. He was deputy director for transportation systems.
Richard S. Wigton has been appointed manager of Challenger training programs at SimuFlight Training International, Dallas/Ft. Worth. He was director of operations for Rainin Instrument Co. SimuFlite has promoted Marjorie K. DeLong (see photo) to manager of sales representatives. She was sales manager for the North Central Region, based in Chicago, where she is succeeded by George Black, 3rd (see photo), who represented SimuFlite in the Western U.S. and Canada. Karen D. Montalvo (see photo) has been promoted to manager of marketing services.
Rough seas and winds nearly destroyed the $76-million pair of solid-rocket boosters that helped launch the shuttle Discovery. NASA engineers did a full-scale failure analysis to verify that the damage to the SRBs was in fact caused by surface conditions and not by a problem during their roughly 2 min. of powered flight Feb. 3. The effort was required to clear Endeavour to fly on Mission 67 at 6:37 a.m. GMT on Mar. 2.
Japan's army has confirmed plans to buy 80 Sikorsky UH-60A Black Hawk combat/utility helicopters that will be assembled under license by Mitsubishi using some indigenous Japanese equipment. The $2.67-billion purchase will replace 132 Bell/Fuji UH-1Hs now in service. Japan's navy also has announced that it will extend its procurement of Sikorsky SH-60J antisubmarine helicopters to 90 aircraft. The Maritime Self-Defense Force had purchased 56 of the SH-60s through fiscal 1994 and is to buy another six for $297.3 million in 1995.
North American helicopter tour operators are evaluating new, self-imposed safety standards for scenic flights. A draft document circulated for comment here at Heli-Expo `95 last week included minimum pilot qualifications and pilot and ground crew training standards. Recommended weather minimums, aircraft equipment and company management guidelines also were covered.
THE FAA IS HOLDING $37 million slated for Denver International Airport until the agency is sure the field will open Feb. 28. The money is DIA's 1995 installment of promised grants from the Airport Improvement Program fund. The grant money should be issued soon, but ``we want to be absolutely certain'' the airport will open on time, an FAA official said. ``We're being cautious until we pass V1,'' he added, comparing the issue to a transport aircraft's takeoff go/no-go decision speed.
FireMaster Blanket is an inorganic insulating material that can be used to isolate cables, structural steel, plastic pipe, tanks and other surfaces from the heat of a fire. The material is available with or without a laminated foil facing. It comes in 25-ft. rolls in thicknesses of 0.5-2 in. and widths of 2 or 4 ft. Density is 8 lb./cu. ft. FireMaster has an R value of 4.15/in. at 70F and has a service range of -280-2,300F. 3M Fire Protection Products, 8200 Highwood Drive, Minneapolis, Minn. 55438.
WorldView Imaging Corp. is merging with Ball Corp.'s Aerospace and Communications Group to develop a constellation of spacecraft to provide commercial, on-demand high-resolution satellite imagery services as early as next year. Operating initially as a Ball subsidiary, the new entity--EarthWatch, Inc.--also is allying with several international partner companies to market timely gray-scale and color images in North America, Europe and the Pacific Rim at projected prices below current Spot and Landsat rates.
The Condor 86A articulating aerial work platform can lift workers to a maximum of 86 ft. With the platform at a height of 32 ft., the device has a side reach of 60 ft. The machine can be operated at many boom angles, including below grade. It has a width of only 8 ft. and has a 500-lb. capacity platform. It can be powered by a gasoline or diesel engine. Calavar Corp., 8300 Imperial Drive, P.O. Box 21447, Waco, Tex. 76702.
Avro International Aerospace has named Tony Ennis senior vice president-sales for the Americas and Northeast Asia and Peter Connolly senior vice president-sales for the rest of the world. Bruce Jones has been named vice president-customer support.
The Japanese aerospace industry ended the 1980s knowing it had to build the commercial side of its business well beyond its traditional subcontracting role. In many respects, it has. Japan's major aircraft firms are risk-sharing partners in development of the Boeing 777 and will produce about 20% of its airframe. Mitsubishi is involved in designing the wing for Canadair's new Global Express long-range business jet.
Force Sensing Clevis Pins with internal amplifiers can be used to replace any existing shear pin, bolt or axle. Inclusion of the amplifier makes for a self-contained, load-sensing pin without sacrificing ruggedness or durability. Amplifiers are available for a 4-20 milliamp range and 0-5 or 0-10 v. d.c. outputs. Internal amplification also is available on most internally gauged, bi-axial and dual-bridge circuit clevis pins. Strainsert, Union Hill Industrial Park, West Conshohocken, Pa. 19428.
The HiRel LumineCKS is a ruggedized, illuminated keyboard that is fully compatible with IBM AT and PS2 computers. Applications include military and air traffic control centers and other limited light environments. The LumineCKS 96 RS232 model allows for user-addressable backlit keys via individual backlighting. Each keyswitch has a life expectancy of 20 million cycles. The user can control light intensity. The keyboard is protected by a 14-gauge steel plate to withstand the impact of a 2-lb. steel ball dropped from more than 3 ft.
The CP-1 Mobile Satellite Data Terminal can be used for Part 121 and 135 operations. Messages can be transmitted and received within 10 sec. or at longer intervals. An emergency feature will alert a recipient of a crucial message immediately. The system can support more than 100,000 users, but its Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum architecture ensures privacy. The system relies on GPS satellites for positioning while sending data-only messages via geostationary satellites. The receiver weighs less than 7 lb. and requires 6 w. of power at 12-28 v. d.c.
IL SE007 Series Infrared Detectors can be used to calibrate night vision systems and related sensors. They can handle low and high-level measurements over a range of 850-1,700 nanometers and provide a flat, linear response. User signals can change by a billion-to-one ratio without affecting accuracy. Sensitivity is 1 picowatt-2 mw. and noise equivalent power of 6 X 10-14 w./Hz.1/2. International Light, Inc., 17 Graf Road, Newburyport, Mass. 01950.
Trans World Airlines is slowly gaining the support of key lender groups who stand between the St. Louis-based carrier and its crucial debt-restructuring. Without their approval of management's complicated restructuring plan, TWA almost certainly will wind up back in bankruptcy court. It emerged from Chapter 11 in November, 1993, still saddled with an enormous debt load that has proved to be unmanageable for the survival of the U.S.' seventh largest airline.
PLV 2040 is a high-performance, fluoroelastomer sealer and curative agent in an aerosol spray form. Formulated from DuPont's Viton fluoroelastomer, it is available in a 12-oz. can. It is capable of withstanding temperature extremes ranging from -40-400F and is resistant to many corrosive chemicals and liquids, including oil, gasoline, hydraulic fluid, hydrocarbon solvents and sulfuric acid. PLV 2040 is also resistant to ozone, ultraviolet radiation, salt spray and fungal growth. Pelmor Laboratories, Inc., 401 Lafayette St., Newtown, Pa. 18940-0309.
Japanese crash investigators have questioned an Airbus expert witness about the logic of the autopilot controls in the A300-600, but they are not expected to single out the autopilot as the cause of the crash that killed 264 persons at Nagoya last year. In a one-day hearing last week, the members of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee of Japan's Ministry of Transport concentrated on use of the aircraft's autothrottle during the approach to landing of a China Airlines A300-600 on Apr. 26 (AW&ST Jan. 30, p. 57).
Rockwell will drop its first GPS-aided bomb as a ``piggyback'' project on B-1B tactical munition dispenser flight tests this month under a company-funded program. Characterized as a near-term ``poor-man's JDAM,'' the system does not require a Mil-Std-1760 data bus, cannot be retargeted in flight, and requires no direct connection between the aircraft and weapon. However, it could significantly improve the accuracy of Mk. 80-series weapons equipped with low-cost tail kits, according to company officials.
Frederick W. Sine has been appointed vice president-engineering services and quality assurance for Intertrade, Ltd., Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Sine was an executive in maintenance and operations for United Parcel Service.
