The first of Russia's new-generation, longer-lived navigation satellites, designated Glonass-M, is slated for launch before the end of next year. Glonass-M's design life is five years compared with three years for the current models, according to Victor Kuranov, deputy director for air navigation in the Russian State Research Institute of Aviation (GosNIIAS).
THE U.S. AIR FORCE has formally killed the Alert, Locate and Report Missiles (ALARM) program intended as a follow-on to the Defense Support Program. The service is now seeking industry bids for a broader effort dubbed the Space-Based Infrared (SBIR) program.
Jean-Pierre Landrot has been appointed chairman/chief executive officer of INLHC, an Intertechnique group subsidiary that succeeds Hydraulique Chateaudun and Le Bozec Aeronautique.
Valujet Airlines will intensify the competition it faces by expanding its operations to include daily flights from Washington to several Florida destinations next month. The addition Jan. 5 of two daily flights each from Washington's Dulles International Airport to Miami and Tampa would mark the first time that Valujet will operate from a base other than its headquarters at Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport.
UKRAINE OFFICIALLY ACCEDED to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty at a 52-nation summit in Budapest last week. That cleared the way at the same meeting for Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus and the U.S. to put into force the START 1 Treaty, signed by the U.S. and the Soviet Union in July, 1991, less than six months before the Soviet Union collapsed (AW&ST Oct. 3, p. 26). In the wake of the collapse, the Bush and Clinton Administrations conducted intensive negotiations to ensure that the ex-Soviet nuclear states adhered to the treaty.
Wide Band Systems, Inc., Franklin, N.J., has appointed James N. Bird supervisor of quality inspection and material control. He was a materials control manager for General Instrument Corp.
Barfield, Inc., of Miami has promoted Morris Venezia (see photograph) to vice president in charge of service, sales, marketing, engineering and manufacturing.
HEWLETT-PACKARD WILL PRODUCE a new family of general purpose amplifiers for electronic warfare applications. They operate in 6-18 GHz. and are designed to meet defense and aerospace requirements for low-noise and medium-power amplifiers. The thin-film devices use Hewlett-Packard's pseudomorphic high-electron mobility (PHEMT) gallium arsenide field-effect transistors and have gains up to 48 dB. for general purpose, low-noise amplifiers.
NASA INTENDS TO CUT its headquarters staff 35-40% by the end of the decade. Throughout the agency, civil servant jobs must come down 16.5% from the 25,000 working for NASA in 1993, when the Clinton Administration began cutting and reinventing government. NASA submitted a streamlining plan to the Office of Management and Budget in October. But last week, when employees were briefed on the cuts, some NASA observers were figuring it was a response to the Republican landslide and the radical reform ideas aired by incoming House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R.-Ga.) (AW&ST Dec.
This instrument is designed for calibrating thermocouples, thermometers, recorders, transmitters and controllers to ANSI Type J and K calibration curves. The output cable connects to the input of the meter or controller. Then dial the output knob to the desired temperature and calibrate. Temperatures to 1,999F can be calibrated to an accuracy of 0.2%. The device is switchable between Celsius and Fahrenheit. Nanmac Corp., 9-11 Mayhew St., Framingham Center, Mass. 01701.
FAA ADMINISTRATOR David R. Hinson expects the agency to propose more stringent pilot qualifications and training requirements for commuter airlines flying aircraft with 10 or more seats. The new rules, which would emulate those in FAR Part 121 for major airlines, will include specific mandates for crew resource management. Increased use of simulation devices also will be stressed. The regulations should be implemented in late 1995.
Aviation Tradescan, a monthly index of aviation publications, journals and reports, now includes entries from the Federal Register concerning the FAA and U.S. Transportation Dept., including requests for route authorities and exemptions from rules. The publication is available in both printed and electronic formats. Aviation Tradescan, Aerospace Research Group, 2812 Summit Ridge, Grapevine, Tex. 76051.
Kiwi International Airlines, Inc., responding to unrelenting pressure on yields and concerns about cost-cutting at the larger carriers--is implementing a major program to reduce operating expenses and boost productivity. The Newark-based, employee-owned carrier has targeted cuts of at least $1 million a month, with the goal of reducing available seat mile costs by year-end to 6.6 cents from the current 6.9-7.1 cents. At that level, full-service Kiwi clearly would be among the lowest-cost airlines--if not the lowest-cost carrier--industry-wide.
For a mature industry, the defense sector more than held its own in the stock market in 1994--and could do as well in 1995, according to senior aerospace analysts. While there was no repeat of the spectacular gains that investors saw in1993, the group largely outperformed the Standard&Poor's Industrials.
NORAD'S star-crossed Cheyenne Mountain upgrade program is celebrating a rare triumph--activation of the Command Center Processing and Display System-Replacement. After more than 10 years of development by the U.S. Air Force's Electronic Systems Center, the complex system for the North American Aerospace Defense Command now receives, processes and distributes missile warning and assessment information gleaned from satellite and remote ground-based sensors. Analyses done by U.S. Space Command and NORAD are relayed to the National Command Authority.
AIRBUS INDUSTRIE HAS PLACED ITS FIRST A320s in Taiwan, with the delivery this month of the first of two leased aircraft to China Airlines. The aircraft, powered by IAE V2500 engines, will operate out of Taiwan's southern gateway, Kaohsiung.
The following commentary was written by Will Stackhouse, who was the U.S. Air Force, and later NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, assistant for high-leverage technology. He currently supports an advanced strategy group in the telecommunications industry. The views expressed are solely his own.
The MegaMotion video capture board Release 1.06 allows PC users to integrate full-motion video on their desktops. The board is compatible with Northrop View image processing and communications software. It also allows overlaying of as many as 16 images, up from four previously. The improved Metromotion board allows playback at 20 frames per sec. at a resolution of 640 X 480 pixels, a 33% increase from the previous rate of 15 frames per sec. The board also supports real-time data compression and decompression. Another improvement is a 30% increase in video decoding speed.
LANCAIR PLANS TO ASSEMBLE its fixed-gear, four-place Lancair ES at a new $9-million facility in Redmond, Ore. The factory will transition Lancair from kit-plane maker to dedicated lightplane manufacturer. The 140,000-sq.-ft. factory would employ about 275 by the time the first piston-engine-powered, $135,000 Lancair ES models roll off the assembly line in 1996. Financing is being provided by a Malaysian investment group, and some aircraft components will be fabricated in Malaysia. Recent reform of U.S.
The Canadair Regional Jet has lengthened Comair's route structure to a radius of 700 mi. from its main hub in Greater Cincinnati and provided new capacity for a traffic boost. In recent months, with 20 RJs in its fleet of 84 aircraft, Comair has registered a 30% traffic increase from the previous year, and the airline's officials expect continued growth. At least 10 RJs will be delivered to Comair in 1995, and a decision is pending on the remaining 10 options.
The FAA is conducting an operational evaluation of its Pacific Oceanic In-Trail Climb (ITC) program and will consider expanding the TCAS-2-based procedure to North Atlantic routes in the near future, according to an agency official. ITC is a distance-based procedure designed to allow transports on long, overwater flights to climb above another aircraft to improve fuel economy and airspace capacity.
Finnair will replace 17 aging DC-9s with used McDonnell Douglas MD-80 series aircraft over the next five years in a move that could double the size of its existing MD-80 fleet. The decision to standardize its narrow-body fleet with the MD-80 came after an extensive study that also considered the acquisition of an entirely new type of aircraft. But Antti Potila, Finnair's president and chief executive officer, said that adding a new aircraft type now would have meant ``an even less uniform fleet.''
The DataFlex Model AV logs the condition of nickel-cadmium and lead-acid aviation batteries during routine maintenance and generates a hard-copy servicing report. It fully automates the service documentation process and calculates battery discharge capacity. A clip-on current sensor loop measures charge or discharge levels. Data on individual cells are gathered via quick-connect probes. Readings are displayed on a liquid crystal diode screen, and when a fault is detected a fault LCD illuminates and an aural warning sounds.
