French aerostructures company Latecoere is to build a 5,000-sq.-meter plant at Gimont, near Toulouse, to assemble lower nose panels for the A380. Latecoere is also bidding for A380 doors and cabling work, as well as for the rear fuselage of the new Dassault FNX intercontinental business jet, which would also be manufactured at the 8-million euro ($7-million) facility, to open in late 2002. The company is also investing 11 million euros to modernize Czech aerostructures firm Letov, acquired in 2000 to provide lower cost production capacity.
The Model 3500-II RF component amplifier assembly cell is for precision placement of adjacent die and steady-state heat eutectic processing. Exact positioning of adjacent die allows for the wire bonding of consistent wire loop profiles that are essential to high-frequency RF device performance specifications required in microwave, RF and wireless applications. The unit employs a temperature control system that allows for eutectic bonding of adjacent die in RF packages.
This month, the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum celebrated its 25th anniversary. When I toured the yet-to-be-opened facility with then-director Michael Collins in May 1976, it was easy to imagine that this soaring building would become a big attraction. The fact that the NASM has become the most visited museum in the U.S. attests to the public's enthusiasm for aircraft, spacecraft and aerospace heritage.
Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory is continuing its push into the civil space arena with a $600-million, 12-year contract to support NASA in three different programs to study the Sun. The Laurel, Md.-based facility will conduct research, design, technology development and mission operations for NASA's Sun-Earth Connection, Living With a Star and Solar Terrestrial Probes programs under the cost-plus-fixed-fee deal.
The Russian Khrunichev FGB-2 could be launched to dock with the International Space Station as early as 2003, depending on the outcome of Russian Space Agency/Khrunichev utilization planning. Boeing has also been involved in potential commercial exploitation of the 20-ton module, which is similar to the FGB module that is a major element of the ISS. The FGB-2 spacecraft has already been integrated and has undergone substantial testing at Khrunichev (AW&ST May 15, 2000, p. 48). But costs are also a problem in the money-strapped Russian space program.
Donald E. Foley, who has been vice president/treasurer of ITT Industries, White Plains, N.Y., also will be director of taxes. In the latter position, he will succeed Richard W. Powers, who plans to retire later this year.
The Democrat-controlled Senate Budget Committee claims the Administration will have to repeal at least part of its $1.3-trillion tax cut to finance a full defense recovery. The budget panel's chairman, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), warned last week that a string of annual deficits, 2002-07, will reach as high as $55 billion and not fall below $22 billion. Cumulatively, the red ink might come to $236 billion.
The Experimental Aircraft Assn.'s AirVenture 2001 convention and sport flying exhibition at Oshkosh, Wis., on July 24-30 will showcase an international array of new aircraft designs and technologies aimed at making aviation more accessible on a global scale.
The FAA charged American Airlines with 38 violations of aircrew rest regulations during a 15-day period beginning Aug. 15, 2000. In each case, American assigned crewmembers to a flight sequence that would not provide the required rest, the FAA said. The agency seeks a $285,000 civil penalty. American said the FAA's regional office and its own pilots' union agreed to give it until September 2000 to train enough pilots to comply with the rules.
Michael Grad has been named vice president-worldwide sales of Avexus Inc. of San Diego, a startup that has acquired the Impress maintenance, repair and overhaul software from the Epicor Software Corp. He was vice president of the Interactive Group.
Industrial Indexing now offers a DeviceNet Master Scanner software option for the Emerald EMC-2000 motion controller. The Emerald EMC-2000 now has the ability to function as a DeviceNet Slave and a DeviceNet Master Scanner. It can unify the control of all types of industrial devices typically found in modern machines such as variable frequency drives, temperature control, operator interfaces, I/O racks, pneumatic valve manifolds and remote sensing devices.
Stanley Roth has been appointed vice president-Asia for Boeing, based in its International Relations Offfice, Arlington, Va. He was assistant U.S. secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs.
The General Services Administration allocated contracts among 14 airlines for official government-employee travel on 4,269 domestic and 686 international routes during Fiscal 2002, which begins Oct. 1. The travel is estimated at $1.16 billion but has a much higher street value--the GSA said the ``City-Pairs'' rates it negotiated are less than 30% of unrestricted coach fares.
The U.S. Air Force has decided to cut its losses on a critical signals intelligence program being developed by BAE Systems because of cost increases and schedule delays.
Xenon has developed a mercury-free pulsed UV/visible curing system with dual lamp housings that provides the benefits of pulsed UV/visible curing at mercury lamp prices. With CoolCure Twin XL, two lamp housings can be operated independently at separate locations in manual, semi-automated or fully automated production applications. Cost savings result because one single CoolCure system replaces two mercury systems. Benefits include low heat, deep penetration of thick and opaque substrates, UV and visible spectra, instant on/off and no mercury.
John Barrass has been appointed air safety manager of the London-based European Regions Airline Assn. He succeeds Ian Wigmore, who will continue to work for the ERA part-time. Barrass was commander of Squadron 30 of the Royal Air Force during operations in the Middle East, Balkans and East Timor.
Lori Garver (see photo), former associate NASA administrator, has become vice president of the corporate space practice of DFI International of Washington. Garver also is president of the American Astronautical Society.
Sean Elliott, who has been executive director of the Oshkosh, Wis.-based National Assn. of Flight Instructors, has become president/CEO. He succeeds Ken Hoffman, who has become chairman.
The MDR-80 is the first in a new line of solid-state mission data recorders from Teac. It is a single line-replaceable unit used for recording video, audio and digital aircraft information by interfacing with military aircraft components and buses. The MDR-80 utilizes plug-in application cards that have 57 operational configurations including MPEG-2 digital video compression, Mil-Std-1553 digital data, ACMI, mission data loader function, and video burst receiving and transmission technology. The recorder provides 10,000-hr. mean time between failure.
HeliFlite Shares, a Fort Worth-based operator offering fractional shares in helicopters, will add a second Bell 430 intermediate helicopter to its fleet in the Northeast U.S. and is scheduled to add a third 430 later this month, according to Mark Ozenick, president and CEO. The company has moved its operating base to Newark (N.J.) International Airport, where flight ops, maintenance and customer service are handled on a regional basis. Scheduling and dispatch will remain at the company's headquarters at Alliance Airport near Fort Worth.
Michael D. Wolf (see photo) has been appointed to the board of directors of the Washington-based General Aviation Manufacturers Assn. He is executive vice president/general manager of Textron Lycoming, Williamsport, Pa.
A state-of-the-art miniature space ground-link system transponder for use on future advanced and miniature spacecraft marked its first year in orbit on July 19. Developed by the Naval Research Laboratory and incorporated into the U.S. Air Force MightySat II.1, the SGLS transponder is the smallest, full-featured, space-qualified SGLS transponder ever designed and flown.
The selection of a contractor to build the Joint Strike Fighter is slipping. The down-select between Boeing and Lockheed Martin was slated for early October, but now has moved to at least late October, industry officials say. The choice will be ``winner-take-all in terms of design,'' said Air Force Secretary James Roche. But the question of how to realign the industrial teams still needs to be sorted out. Roche is interested in making changes to the program, though. Mainly, he has asked whether development time can be shortened.
The shuttle Atlantis and International Space Station crews last week successfully installed the outpost's 6.5-ton Boeing/NASA airlock and at least 1.5 tons of supporting systems, completing Phase II of station assembly. But the crews also had to overcome time-consuming problems with the checkout of the airlock's internal gas and fluid lines and at times were slowed by mislabeled hardware and a higher workload than planned.
