The Bombardier Business Aircraft Div. has named John Brodeur (see photo) and Robert Habjanic (see photo) service representatives in Toluca, Mexico, and Dubai, respectively. Mark Abbott is the new representative in the U.K.
Airbus Industrie booked more civil transport orders last year than arch-rival Boeing, and this year will again seek an increased market share despite the still-fragile upturn.
U.S. NAVY AND AIR FORCE OFFICIALS HAVE IDENTIFIED separate approaches to filling the void in standoff ordnance left by cancellation of Northrop's expensive Tri-Service Standoff Weapon (TSSAM). The Navy plans to buy more Standoff Land Attack Missiles (SLAMs), including extended range versions. The Air Force will explore a version of TSSAM that would cost $750,000 rather than $2 million each. This ``Son of TSSAM'' would offer a stealth capability from head on, but not from behind, to avoid the high costs of all-aspect low observability.
With the U.S. and Russia working intensely toward an era of joint space flights, the similarities and differences in U.S. and Russian hardware have assumed far more than an academic interest. Nowhere is such understanding more important than with the equipment astronauts and cosmonauts rely on during extravehicular activity (EVA).
Lockheed Martin Corp. is poised to become the world's largest defense contractor, now that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has conditionally approved the merger. FTC commissioners last week unanimously sanctioned the transaction without requiring either Lockheed Corp. or Martin Marietta Corp. to divest any businesses--a stipulation that could have derailed the merger.
INTRODUCTION OF THE FIRST Airbus Industrie A330s has not gone smoothly. Thai Airways International took delivery of its first two aircraft, but the third is suffering from chronic wing weeping. The aircraft was due in Bangkok Dec. 19, but delivery was postponed until Jan. 8 because of trace leakage in its right wing. British Aerospace solved that problem, but a Thai delivery team then discovered leakage in the left wing. The new plan is for the third aircraft to arrive Jan. 17, Thai officials said.
BEGINNING APR. 23, MOST OF THE NEARLY 5,000 PUBLIC AIRCRAFT owned and operated commercially by the U.S. government must comply, when applicable, with the same Part 121 safety and operating rules for civilian aircraft. Congress last year enacted laws requiring the compliance. Previously, FAA and other government aircraft were exempt from obeying such rules. Public aircraft involved with search and rescue, firefighting and law enforcement will remain exempt.
A NEW CAMERA for the Hubble Space Telescope will be built by Ball Aerospace Corp., Boulder, Colo., for about $30 million. The Hubble Advanced Camera for Exploration (Hace) is to be installed on the space shuttle's third servicing mission to the orbiting observatory, set for November, 1999. Development of the instrument will be led by Holland Ford of Johns Hopkins University. Hace will replace one of the telephone booth-sized axial science units currently on Hubble.
Alliant Techsystems of Minneapolis has promoted Kenneth J. Jenson (see photos) to president/chief executive officer from executive vice president/chief operating officer. Anthony R. Fabiano has been appointed vice president-materials and manufacturing. He was president of the company's Ferrulmatic Operations Div.
HONEYWELL HAS registered the latest victory in a patent infringement suit filed by Litton Industries concerning a manufacturing process used by Honeywell to coat the high-precision mirrors of ring laser gyroscopes. Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer of U.S. District Court in Los Angeles last week ruled the Litton patent invalid, nullifying a $1.2-billion jury verdict returned Aug. 31, 1993. John M.
A Martin Marietta Atlas 2AS launched the Intelsat 704-2 satellite from here last week. The first U.S. launch of 1995 lifted off Pad 36B at 6:18 GMT, Jan. 10. The launch marked the first flight of the newest and most powerful twin engines for the Atlas' Centaur upper stage.
A BD-10 inflight breakup on Dec. 30 killed Michael D. Van Wagenen, the president and chief executive officer of Peregrine Flight International, which holds the worldwide rights to the civil version of the small two-place jet. Peregrine has 10 BD-10s under construction at its Minden, Nev., facility and will decide whether to complete them after the accident investigation, according to sales manager Lowell G. Craig. ``We're working on a daily basis,'' he said.
Rockwell International Corp. has named John Vaswani vice president/general manager of its North American Aircraft Modification Div., Anaheim, Calif. He was division vice president.
TRW, Inc., anticipates 1995 to be a watershed year, when the company's space/defense businesses are expected to begin growing again after years of shrinking or just holding their own in the face of difficult market conditions. ``To do that, we have to take a bigger share of the pie, and we are,'' Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Joseph Gorman said. ``We've been displacing [competitors] more than people realize in [program] areas we can't discuss. We are treating 1994 as the trough.''
The U.S. and Russia plan for cosmonauts and astronauts to perform extravehicular activities together outside the Mir space station, including the first four-person space walk. NASA and the Russian Space Agency (RSA) are still charting their joint extravehicular activity course for the era of space shuttle flights to Mir, set to begin next month and run through 1997. But, currently, they are planning three space walks.
NASA RELEASED two ``cooperative agreement notices'' for reusable launch vehicles (RLVs)--the large X-33 single-stage-to-orbit demonstrator that could lead to a replacement for the space shuttle and the small X-34 for which it wants to split costs with industry. Proposals are due Feb. 24. The agency's ``implementation plan'' for a new national space transportation policy calls for the shuttle to fly at least through 2012. If the RLV effort does not pan out, NASA wants the U.S.
TRW and Montreal-based Teleglobe are pressing their worldwide search for telecommunications partners to participate in the creation of Odyssey, one of several competing personal-communications satellite systems striving to be the first to market. The limited partners, which recently completed a review of Odyssey's system requirements, already have assembled a sizable industrial team for the $2.5-billion project (AW&ST Nov. 21, 1994, p. 29).
U.S. Air Force Secretary Sheila Widnall is expected to eliminate funding requests for the nascent Hypersonic System Technology Program from the upcoming federal budget, a move that could destroy the U.S.' lead in hypersonics. HySTP, an effort aimed at launching scramjet experiments atop scrapped ICBM boosters beginning in 1997, was conceived several years ago as a part of the National Aero-Space Plane project. The launches originally were expected to extend verifiable scramjet test data to speeds of approximately Mach 15.
HNTB Corp. of Ft. Worth has promoted Loy F. Warren to aviation services manager for its Central Div. He was in charge of the company's new Austin (Tex.) airport projects.
THE FIRST OF SIX prototypes of Japan's new FS-X fighter, which Defense Minister Tokuichiro Tamrawa said would play ``the center role'' in the country's future air capability, was rolled out here at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' Komaki Minami Plant on Dec. 12. The FS-X is based on the Lockheed F-16C but has been beefed up with 25% more wing area for better turning performance, the use of advanced materials to cut weight, an improved electronics warfare suite and an improved General Electric F110-GE-129 engine.
THE FAA, TRANSPORT CANADA, and United and Delta airlines are evaluating an electro-optical ice-detection system developed by RVSI of Hauppauge, N.Y. When perfected, the device, called ID-1, could serve as a tool for airline and military ground crews to determine the requirement for, effectiveness of, and holdover time for aircraft deicing.
The 1990s' lesson for the U.S. aviation and aerospace industry is that no one can afford to throw money at their problems and dreams. Even in the best of times, the survivors of ``downsizing'' in both sectors have learned, they must limit investments to those that promise the greatest return. As Washington pares government's size and spending, it should embrace that lesson in overhauling federal aviation research.
Cirrus Design, Duluth, Minn., has named Roger T. Shea (see photo) vice president- sales and marketing. He was vice president-marketing for Astra Jet Corp.
