This high-intensity flashlight is designed to help aircraft technicians improve inspections in tight spaces or where they must see around corners or past obstructions without producing a glare or shadow. The High Intensity Fiber Optic Flashlight System consists of a high-strength polymer flashlight as well as a 7- or 12-in. flexible fiber and cone assembly with light illuminating from all angles of the thick fiber. The battery-operated system is UL listed for Class I, Div.
Congress is taking a wait-and-see approach to investigating the Columbia accident, apparently opting to let the panel headed by Adm. (ret.) Harold W. Gehman, Jr., do its work before jumping into the fray. While NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe is scheduled for the usual round of budget hearings this month and next, no one plans anything focused specifically on the accident beyond the hearing held last week (see p. 24). That doesn't mean everyone on Capitol Hill is satisfied with the makeup of the Gehman board. Sen.
It will take the airline industry several years to absorb into its fleet all of the modern, Stage 3 aircraft that are parked, according to a Boeing executive. Kent Fisher, vice president of marketing and business strategy for Boeing Commercial Aircraft, estimated the number of parked aircraft at around 2,000. Of those, about 700 are "of recent vintage," he said.
NASA Ames Research Center and the University of California at Los Angeles have formed the Institute for Cell Mimetic Space Exploration (ICMSE) to look into the way biological systems manage information on multiple levels and see if similar structures can be applied to sensors and nanotechnology devices for future spacecraft. With UCLA's engineering, medical and life sciences research pool and Ames' information technology and nanotechnology wellspring, ICMSE will draw on students, as well as scientists.
These stainless-steel hollow balls provide a weight advantage over solid balls, and a strength advantage over nylon balls, both of which are used in ball transfer units for aircraft cargo handling systems. Whereas a typical 1-in. solid steel ball weighs as much as 65 grams, an electron beam welded 1-in. stainless steel hollow ball weighs 25 grams, says the company. On a typical aircraft cargo handling deck in which thousands of balls are used, that weight differential can lead to improved fuel efficiency and/or maximum cargo weight capacity. The 1-in.
Air Canada last week announced its second code-share expansion for services to Italy since November 2002. The carrier is adding services via Rome to Lamezia Terme, Catania, Palermo and Venice under an agreement with Lufthansa partner, Air One, an Italian carrier. In November, Air Canada added daily services to Venice and Bologna via Frankfurt under an arrangement with Star Alliance partner Lufthansa. According to Air Canada, this growth is a result of the recently expanded, and more liberal, Canada-Italy bilateral policy.
Lockheed Martin's Low-Cost Autonomous Attack System, a miniature, winged cruise missile, is scheduled for a flight test and live-fire demonstration at Eglin AFB, Fla., this week. The weapon, which can be launched individually or as a submunition from a large dispenser, is being eyed as a next generation for unmanned aircraft. In this test, the Locaas will be launched from an altitude of 1,000 ft. and a speed of 200 kt.
Harris Corp. has won a one-year, $12-million production contract for telemetry modules supporting the U.S. Air Force advanced medium-range air-to-air missile. This work order is a follow-on to the original 1991 contract, to increase its total value to $125 million.
Air Lib's operating license has been suspended by the DGAC French civil aviation authority as a prelude to the increasingly probable demise of the independent carrier. Negotiations with a Dutch corporate investor that claimed it could save Air Lib, collapsed earlier this month, leading to the DGAC decision to ground the carrier's 30 aircraft. Air Lib's future late last week was in the hands of a trade court and, in the absence of a workable rescue plan, the company was expected to be forced into bankruptcy.
New York-JFK-based JetBlue Airways last week converted two options for Airbus A320s to firm orders. The aircraft, like the other 50 now in JetBlue's all-A320 fleet, will be powered by IAE V2500 engines and are scheduled for delivery in the fourth quarter.
With the recent FAA approval of a Halotron I clean agent portable fire extinguisher to replace ozone-depleting Halon 1211 on civilian commercial aircraft, the first Halotron I extinguisher, manufactured by Amerex Corp. of Trussville, Ala., has successfully completed all required FAA and Underwriters Laboratories tests. The completion was the culmination of a nine-year process started in October 1993, at the FAA Technical Center near Atlantic City, N.J.
Challenges are more severe for air traffic operations in less developed countries, where infrastructure may be thin and it's difficult to find funding to equip and operate even a basic air traffic control system.
Lisa Bottle has become vice president-corporate communications for the Good- rich Corp., Charlotte, N.C. She held a similar position at TRWAeronautical Systems before it was acquired by Goodrich.
American Airlines "would be foolish" not to give serious thought to starting a low-fare carrier, even though the history of such mainline ventures has not been "particularly positive," said Jeff Campbell, chief financial officer of airline parent AMR Corp., at an analysts' meeting last week. It's "a world where Delta and United have said they are going to try it again, and where we see our main long-term competitive challenge being absolutely competitive with low-cost carriers." United's planning one, and Delta plans to launch "Song" Apr. 15.
Greg Wilson (see photo) has been appointed president of Avionics Certification Services, San Marcos, Calif. He was director of certification programs and product marketing for Sandel (Calif.) Avionics.
The Navy's constantly changing intelligence, surveillance and recon (ISR) plan is due for another makeover. Although the Navy has kept the Firescout tactical unmanned aircraft out of production, a senior Defense Dept. official now says the service is likely to increase funding in 2004 to keep the project going, and to boost the budget significantly in 2005. Moreover, the Navy needs to reexamine its ISR strategy because it has gradually shifted intelligence collection to land-based assets, says the director of naval intelligence, Rear Adm. Richard B. Porterfield.
Air Force Space Command's 1st Space Control Sqdn. uses 30 radar and optical sensors to track about 10,000 man-made objects in space. Under a standing agreement with NASA, the unit routinely notifies the space agency when a piece of debris might pose a collision hazard to a shuttle orbiter or the International Space Station (ISS).
Frank Morring Jr. (Washington), Alexey Komarov (Moscow)
nternational Space Station planners developing options for operating ISS without support from NASA's space shuttle fleet could decide as early as this week to begin training a special replacement crew, perhaps with only two members, to relieve the three men on board.
The "de-peaked" flight schedules at key American Airlines hubs, Dallas/Fort Worth and Chicago O'Hare, have caused a ripple effect of cost efficiency for American's operations throughout the airline's network.
The British Defense Ministry during the past three months has approved 90 urgent operational requirements (UORs)--each in excess of $650,000--as it prepares for a potential conflict with Iraq. More than a half dozen of the UORs were for its fleet of Tornado combat aircraft.
Ed Ng has been appointed president of Asian Aerospace, also known as the Singapore air show. He also will be president of Reed Exhibitions, which is co-owner and show manager of Asian Aerospace.
Don't invite Transportation Dept. Inspector General Kenneth Mead and National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. President John Carr to the same party anytime soon. As Congress kicks off FAA reauthorization hearings, Mead suggests that controller pay is out of control--up 47% since 1998, on average, with more than 1,000 controllers making more than $150,000 per year and the top 10 at $192,000-214,000, all of it swelled by hundreds of memorandums of understanding (MOUs) that aren't approved or accounted for at FAA headquarters.
