The European Commission last week adopted a proposal to strengthen airline passenger protection against overbooking, flight cancellations and long delays. The voluntary code of conduct is an attempt to restore trust between European carriers and the increasingly angry traveling public. The long-overdue code of ``air passenger rights'' results from a six-month effort to respond to ``the main sources of complaint and frustration expressed by large numbers of passengers,'' according to EC officials.
This high-strength, flame-retardant aircraft cargo hold tape meets FAA and military requirements for joining, sealing and repairing cargo liner panels. It is a polyethylene-laminated fiberglass cloth tape that the company says is easy to apply, lies flat and conforms to contours. It has a high-tack acrylic adhesive that prevents lifting and curling, and is flame retardant per FAR 25.853(a) and 25.855(a). Featuring 150-lb.-per-in. of tensile strength and 85 oz.-per-in. width peel strength, the cargo liner tape is 8-mm.
NCL Version 9.2 multiaxis machining software generates simultaneous 2-5-axis NC tool paths and provides parametric 3D modeling. All geometric modeling functions are fully associative: a change to the model results in an immediate change to corresponding tool paths. The software supports the trimming of surfaces. Closed curves are used to define the outer and inner boundaries of the trimmed surfaces. Surfaces trimmed with NCL act like surfaces imported from other CAD systems. For true offset curves, they can be created from an existing curve, spline or composite curve.
The economic role of full-fledged carriers vis-a-vis low-cost, no-frills competitors is evolving into inappropriate speculation about the industry's future, according to the Assn. of European Airlines' (AEA) executives. ``The one should not be seen simply as a substitute for the other,'' Leo van Wijk said. He is AEA's new president as well as chief executive of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. Ironically, a KLM subsidiary owns U.K.-based Buzz, a fast-growing no-frills airline.
This extendable, elevating conveyor telescopes to 40 ft. from a collapsed length of 18 ft. and elevates up to 30 deg. from horizontal. It was custom-built for the U.S. Navy's Mayport Naval Station, Jacksonville, Fla., where it will be used to transport stores between piers and small vessels. The Mayport station is the second largest aircraft carrier homeport in the U.S., and is home to the USS John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier, as well as Aegis guided-missile cruisers. The conveyor weighs 11,000 lb. and can convey a unit load of approximately 20 lb. per ft., or 800 lb.
Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories recently completed a three-year internally funded project to develop and demonstrate key ``nanosatellite'' technologies tailored specifically to national security space missions. Ultimately, nanosats could greatly reduce government launch costs, while increasing military and intelligence agency space-based capabilities.
This low-cost power unit lets users operate their GPS at home. Models are available for Honeywell/AlliedSignal KLN35A, KLX135A, KLN89B and KLN94 GPS units. The home-use capability helps users learn and get comfortable with GPS units, since they can enter waypoints and practice approaches. Users can update the GPS database via a home computer. The price for the power supply for GPS home use is $169.95, for each Honeywell system. Tanis Aircraft Services, P.O. Box 117, Glenwood, Minn. 56334.
The FAA is getting both less and more than it asked for when it solicited public comment on firearms and less-than-lethal weapons on airline flights. Less, in that the agency asked many questions that most commenters aren't answering. More, in that the solicitation has triggered an unusual outpouring of strongly-held opinions, plus some decidedly fringe views on aviation security. The blowgun idea, as an example.
The Pyrofiber fiber-optic, noncontact automatic emissivity correcting IR thermometer incorporates a single digital and two analog outputs. Utilizing patented pulse laser technology, it measures infrared radiance inside a furnace while simultaneously measuring and correcting for emissivity, which helps provide true target temperature.
Jeff Bettger has been appointed sales manager of the QuickTurn division of SimuFlite Training International Inc., Grapevine, Tex. He was a sales representative for SimuFlite.
Israel has been awarded a contract to equip Turkey's military helicopters with electronic warfare systems. Under a $108-million deal, TAAS-Israel Industries is to supply chaff-flare systems and infrared suppressors to protect the rotorcraft from missile threats. Turkey has been hampered by the lack of such systems on its helicopters while facing attacks with RPG-7 (Stinger) rockets in ongoing clashes between Kurdish separatists and government forces. At least three helicopters were downed in the last three years, and about 20 military officials were killed.
Kathie L. Olsen has been nominated as associate director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. She has been chief scientist at NASA and acting associate administrator for the Office of Biological and Physical Research.
Wesley G. Bush has been appointed executive vice president-aeronautical systems of TRW Inc. of Cleveland. He was vice president-space and electronics. Alan Baratz and Gregory L. Summe have been named to the TRW board of directors. Baratz is CEO of Zaplet Inc. and former president of the software products and platforms division of Sun Microsystems. Summe is chairman/president/CEO of PerkinElmer Inc.
The Japanese government has approved an environmentally controversial plan to build an airport for civilian and U.S. military use on a coral reef off Nago, a city in the southern island of Okinawa, as a relocation place for Futenma Air Station. A government panel also confirmed that the airport, which will accommodate U.S. Marine Corps helicopter operations now conducted from Futenma in central Okinawa, will have a 2,000-meter (6,560-ft.) runway.
San Diego-based Cubic Applications Inc. has won a follow-on contract valued at up to $63 million to provide technical and general services for the U.S. Joint Forces Command Joint Warfighting Center in Suffolk, Va. Cubic, undr subcontract from TRW Inc., is providing development, production and assessment support for planning, preparation and execution of joint and combined exercises.
ANTS ON THE WALL IS THE DESCRIPTION Titan Systems Corp. uses for its concept of very small autonomous sensors, with self-organizing software, for aviation security. The company's work on ant models is exploring the idea of swarm intelligence. It hopes to overcome some disadvantages of small ``real'' sensors, which can be noisy, give incomplete information, and have difficulty handling complexity. In the ant's-eye view, each cell would have only local knowledge of its state and that of its nearest neighbors.
Karl Gross of the Sandia National Laboratories has received a Young Investigator Award from the U.S. Energy Dept.'s Office of Power Technologies. The award recognizes talents of researchers who are working to advance DOE programs. Gross was cited for his research toward developing new lightweight hydride materials for hydrogen fuel-cell powered vehicles.
Do we have the priorities right in aviation security? We seem to be focusing too much on keeping certain kinds of objects off commercial aircraft--files on nail clippers as well as knives and guns--and not enough on stopping certain kinds of people--terrorists and the dangerously unbalanced. So far, the discussion of security dwells far too much on how to develop and field technology to thwart terrorists. It shortchanges the people aspects of the problem. Maintaining security depends foremost on people--the people on both sides of the screening machines.
The FAA's first revision of last summer's 10-year air traffic control modernization plan shows less impact from the Sept. 11 terrorist hijackings than many in the aviation community might have expected. Will shrunken demand for air travel reduce the urgency of expanding the aviation system's capacity? Only in the short run, and not enough to enable people to rest on their oars, according to Charles Keegan, the FAA's free flight program director, who administers the plan.
Air Force officials keep insisting that Congress should not view their lust for 767 tankers and intelligence-gathering aircraft as a bailout for Boeing. They still have to explain their angling, though. There are currently three acquisition schemes being considered. The most smelly is leasing. The Defense Dept. would have to return the birds to Boeing and then pay to convert them for civil use--a stick in the craw of some legislators. Almost as unrealistic is an outright buy; the service simply doesn't have the up-front money. That leaves lease-to-buy.
Canadian Forces and the Royal Australian Air Force have selected Boeing to develop and delivery integrated maintenance training system for their F/A-18 aircraft, under a three-year, $32-million contract. Boeing will work with Atlantis Systems International.
Startup Phuket Air became the sixth airline in Thailand and the fourth with rights to operate international flights. Vikrom Aisiri, who owns the airline, said it is beginning operations with one Boeing 737-300, but a second 737 is scheduled to enter service this month with three more operating by midyear. Initial flights are centered on South Thailand, but permission has been granted for Phuket Air to serve Malaysia, and Aisiri is seeking rights to serve Myanmar, Singapore and China.
SEEKING MATERIALS TO HARDEN aircraft against explosions and projectiles, the Oak Ridge (Tenn.) National Laboratory has evaluated two protective composite materials, Spectra and PBO polymeric fiber. The tests first examined their ability to withstand a fire in the cabin, and then ballistic resistance. Spectra has been used for some time for bullet-proof vests, but needed a flame barrier on the outside to pass the flame test. PBO, used in Army helmets, was denser and stronger and did not burn.
