The cruise speed of the Boeing 777 was misstated in the article entitled ``777 Expands Its Niche With Derivatives'' (AW&ST Aug. 13, p. 25). The correct figure is Mach 0. 84.
Thanks to an 11th hour reprieve by the FAA, many airlines were able to keep their fleets flying last week despite having outdated digital flight data recorders (DFDRs). The FAA issued stiffer recorder requirements in 1997 at the behest of the National Transportation Safety Board, giving operators of transport aircraft that carry 20 or more passengers four years to comply. The upgrades--capturing more parameters, increasing the sampling rate or providing better resolution and accuracy--are designed to aid investigators in reconstructing accident or incident scenarios.
Despite strong opposition, the FAA will require operators of popular narrow-body Airbus aircraft to modify the elevator control systems to prevent potentially serious vibration problems.
NASA Langley Research Center is conducting crash tests of a Cirrus Design Corp. SR-20 prototype airframe to study how aircraft built of composite materials react under high-impact forces. The tests at Langley's Impact Dynamics Research Facility in Hampton, Va., are part of the agency's Advanced General Aviation Transportation Experiments (Agate) program, aimed specifically at determining whether a redesigned engine mount and energy-absorbing sub-floor can reduce the risk of injury to occupants.
President Kim Dae-jung called for an investigation of South Korea's Audit and Inspection Office and the country's air safety standards after the FAA downgraded its safety rating from Category 1 to Category 2 (AW&ST Aug. 20, p. 21). Kim rejected calls for the resignation of Transport Minister Oh Jang-Seop. The FAA's action prevents Korean Air and Asiana Airlines from expanding services to the U.S. and carrying out joint operating programs with U.S. carriers.
Haneda airport's experiment with two international charter flights per week has worked out so well that Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport will open the Tokyo airport to 70 flights per week in April. Haneda has traditionally been a domestic airport, except for flights from Taiwan, which use Narita, Tokyo's international airport. Relocation of one runway and expansion to three runways has removed two big objections to Haneda handling more flights by cutting noise and increasing capacity.
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, which soon plans to order up to 34 300-seat long-range transports, sent requests for proposals to Airbus and Boeing, as well as to General Electric, Pratt&Whitney and Rolls-Royce engine manufacturers and lease companies. Some of the aircraft are being considered as replacements for 12 Boeing 747-300s in KLM's fleet.
After reviewing Air Afrique's alarming financial difficulties, Air France executives are offering to devise and implement an all-new rescue plan. With debt estimated at $270 million and still growing, the Ivory Coast-based multinational carrier urgently needs a long-overdue restructuring and strategic reorientation to avert bankruptcy (AW&ST Aug. 13, p. 42).
Lockheed Martin bested Raytheon and Northrop Grumman by winning the U.S. Air Force competition for an Advanced Targeting Pod that is expected to replace the Lantirn system. The $843-million contract calls for delivery of up to 522 pods for USAF F-16s and F-15Es. Lockheed Martin's Sniper Extended Range pod will first go on F-16CJs Harm-shooters and Air National Guard F-16 Block 30, with F-16 Block 40s and F-15Es to follow. First deliveries are slated for January 2003. Production is estimated to last seven years.
Northrop Grumman is continuing its full-court press to persuade the Pentagon to buy more B-2s. Company officials are sanguine. They say the Defense Dept. is soon going to sign up to purchase at least eight B-2Cs, the name given the updated bomber that Northrop Grumman says it could produce for less than $1 billion a copy. Not so fast, say Air Force officials, there is no money for a bomber buy. Besides, they add, any funds would be better spent on upgrading the existing fleet. The wild card in this standoff is Defense Secretary Donald H.
Cargo operators are coping with an economic downturn and a huge decline of shipments while the entire industry sector is in the throes of massive change. Analysts foresee a shakeout of the air cargo industry if trends continue even as Boeing and other forecasters predict in the long-term a bright horizon for the marketplace. The problems besetting heavy-lift operator Emery Worldwide, the bankruptcy of Kitty Hawk Cargo and the acquisition of Polar Air Cargo by Atlas Air Inc. may be rumblings of a larger upheaval.
Passenger self-service appears the key to reducing ground delays, at least those of the airport check-in kind. The do-it-yourself method enables an e-ticketed passenger to step up to a special kiosk and swipe a major credit/frequent-flier card to gain system access. The passenger, pressing a touch screen, selects a seat and obtains a boarding pass. Tags for luggage print out behind the counter where customer service employees process the bags. American's One-Stop Self-Service will be available at more than 30 airports within a few months.
Air France and British Airways expect to resume Concorde operations in the next few weeks, ending year-long speculation regarding the supersonic operations' future.
Art Rosales (see photos) has been appointed vice president-commercial programs and John Konrad vice president-commercial marketing and sales for Boeing Satellite Services of Los Angeles. Rosales was vice president/general manager and Konrad director of the Americas for the Fixed Satellite Systems and Broadcast Satellite Systems programs.
For the first time since Washington Group International Inc. (WGI) earlier this year abandoned two power plant construction projects guaranteed by Raytheon Co., the aerospace/defense company has provided a definitive cost estimate to complete the work. The figure, $633 million--net of cash receipts--is well within the $450-700 million previously announced. As a result, Raytheon increased its second-quarter pretax charge to $308 million from $125 million.
If they can't beat it, they should endorse it, the six-airline China Sky Aviation Enterprises Group Alliance (CSAEG) has told the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).
After deliberating for three weeks, a Florida jury recently decided that Cessna Aircraft Co. must pay $80 million in compensatory, and $400 million in punitive, damages to three people seriously injured in a 1989 Cessna 185 landing accident in Myrtle Grove. Though the NTSB found the probable cause to be an ``inadvertent'' stall by the pilot during a balked landing, other evidence pointed to a failure of the pilot's seat latching system--a problem that was supposedly fixed through an earlier airworthiness directive.
Otto Goetz, former chief engineer of the Space Shuttle Main Engine Project, is one of six new members of the NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel. The others are: Sid Guttierrez, former astronaut and now manager of the Physical Sciences Dept. at the Sandia National Laboratories; Shirley McCarty, former principal director of software engineering at The Aerospace Corp.; USN Adm. (ret.) Paul Reason, former commander-in-chief of the U.S.
Outsourcing of maintenance work by air cargo carriers is accelerating as they seek ``one-stop shops'' to streamline operations while urging MRO providers to prepare for coping with a myriad of aging aircraft issues that lie ahead.
The MiG Russian Aircraft Corp. is proposing to lease MiG-AT trainers to the Russian air force in the hope of enticing the service to acquire a trainer years earlier than is currently foreseen. The unusual financing scheme marks the latest step in MiG's aggressive marketing efforts for the aircraft. It underscores the importance the company attributes to the success of the project.
David J. Gorney (see photo) has been promoted to corporate chief architect-engineer from principal director of the Meteorological Satellite Systems Directorate of The Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, Calif.
Singapore has ordered 12 more AH-64D Apache Longbows. The buy adds to eight of the Boeing-made attack helicopters Singapore bought previously. The deal is estimated to be worth in excess of $600 million. It would include spare T700-GE-701C engines, Hellfire II launchers and missiles, and other gear.
