American Airlines Cargo plans to inaugurate drive-through service for small packages in the first quarter of 2002. The airline's Global Priority Shipping Center will be built at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and allow customers to drop off packages for shipment on the next available flight.
Bell Helicopter Textron has formed Bell Aerospace Services to provide technical, logistics and systems support for any military helicopter in service worldwide. The new subsidiary features a flexible manning structure to respond quickly to customer needs, according to the company. In related news, after 50 years of factory-direct sales, Bell has established Oregon-based Hillsboro Aviation and Helistream Inc. in California as authorized dealers to sell the 206B-3 JetRanger, 206L-4 LongRanger and 407 single-engine turbine helicopters.
The U.K. has moved aggressively to fill in shortfalls highlighted in the Kosovo conflict, although efforts in some areas continue to lag and procurement cutbacks may be looming. The U.K. is one of the few European NATO nations that has increased defense spending after years of decline. Last year, Defense Minister Geoff Hoon secured an extra 1.25 billion pounds ($1.75 billion) from the Treasury to spend on defense over the next three years.
The increasing reliance by makers of military hardware on the timing signal provided by GPS satellites is putting stress on competing technologies that could serve as backups in case the GPS-signal is jammed or unavailable for other reasons, experts warn. One notable area is the declining market for high-precision oscillators, said Scott Pace, of NASA headquarters. ``The industrial base winds up shifting'' because of the sole reliance on GPS, he added. Oscillators aren't the only affected businesses.
A memorandum of understanding between Pratt&Whitney and six manufacturing companies from the Netherlands to join in work for the Pratt-powered Joint Strike Fighter program was signed last week. Although many of the companies--Eldim B.V.; Fokker Elmo B.V.; Hamilton Sundstrand-Maastricht B.V.; Nederland Centrum voor Laser Research; Urenco Nederland B.V. and Stork N.V.--have individual agreements with Pratt for specific JSF119 work, the group has agreed to take a team approach. This assures that information can be shared and marketing can be coordinated.
The European Union's pledge to have a 60,000-man rapid reaction force ready for deployment by 2003 will be a huge airlift challenge for national air forces that are struggling to meet this daunting task through new procurement and better utilization of existing assets. Most European air forces have already been pushed to their limits during recent humanitarian and military operations. Rapidly deploying and sustaining the large task forces envisioned under the EU plan for upwards of two years will be an enormous undertaking.
A fresh set of tough conditions from the European Commission threatens to block a proposed takeover of Honeywell by General Electric that had already been approved by the U.S. Justice Dept. These demands would require GE not only to divest of Honeywell's regional jet engine unit and minor avionics businesses, as had been expected, but to sell a range of key Honeywell assets and spin off its own GE Capital Aviation Services (Gecas) aircraft financing and leasing unit--one of its most cherished operations.
Virgin Atlantic Chairman Richard Branson is looking at creating an all-business-class airline across the North Atlantic and is in talks with Bombardier about employing its Global Express. The new carrier, dubbed Jetset Airlines, would fly between London and North American cities Virgin Atlantic does not serve, such as Philadelphia and Seattle. But it could also augment Virgin Atlantic services to cities where business travel demand is high, such as New York. ``We have a solid business plan and feel it is a workable proposition,'' a Virgin official said.
Aerospace leaders are expressing more confidence in their information technology choices, as they brace for an era in which worldwide data networks are likely to be the business norm.
As a software engineer, Amanda VandePol is a much-needed commodity in today's economy. She ended up in aerospace as a result of a student internship at Smiths Industries, where she learned there's more to the aerospace technical challenge than merely making software work.
J. Stephen Joiner (see photos) has become vice president/general manager of Jet Aviation at Dallas Love Field and Thomas S. Rechsteiner head of production for Jet Aviation Basel in Switzerland. Joiner was general manager there for Signature Flight Support. Rechsteiner was head of project planning for SR Technics.
PCB Piezotronics Model 393B05 seismic accelerometer features a high output, 10 V/g sensitivity to capture low-level, low-frequency vibrations. The all-welded titanium housing provides durable construction in a lightweight 50-gram package. The unit is suited for seismic vibration monitoring and structural testing of space structures, as well as low-frequency low-amplitude modal analysis and vibration testing applications.
SPS Technologies is offering of line of self-aligning nuts that are used in assembly to solve the problem of misalignment of mating holes and to assure the load path of the bolt is aligned with the nut. The nuts are available in a variety of sizes from 0.164-0.750-in. diameters, and in materials that include alloy steel and steel. The ultimate strength of these nuts ranges from 125-160 KSO, depending on the material and size. All metal and nylon locking features are available.
Arianespace has begun operating a mammoth new facility here that will group payload processing and user control/testing/tracking installations on the same premises, substantially enhancing launch preparations for satellites carried by the Ariane 5 heavy-lift booster.
General Electric Aircraft Engines is buying configuration, inventory and asset management software for its 60 repair and overhaul shops around the world from software-specialist IFS. In addition, the two companies have agreed to jointly market and sell the software to commercial airlines and outside maintenance, repair and overhaul shops worldwide. GE will handle sales, marketing and implementation of the software while IFS will be responsible for software development and training.
The P330 precision blackbody radiation calibration source has a 25-mm. (1.0-in.) aperture opening and uses a uniformly heated cone-shaped cavity that achieves near-ideal emissivity values of 0.99 or better over its temperature range. Applications include calibration of thermal imaging systems. The P330 will provide any temperature from 300-1,700C accurately to 0.25% of reading 1C. The unit uses a microprocessor-based, self-tuning digital PID controller to display and hold the operator selected temperature to within 1C at 1,600C. Pyrometer Instrument Co.
Jon Lyford has been named vice president-program management of the Avidyne Corp., Lincoln, Mass., in its headquarters. He was head of development and certification of general aviation electronic flight and engine instrumentation display systems for Meggitt Avionics.
THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA IS WORKING with Vaisala Inc. to install Automated Weather Observing Systems (AWOS) at airports throughout the state. AWOS provides real-time reports on temperature, dew point, wind speed/direction, altimeter setting, visibility, cloud height and sky coverage, as well as precipitation. To date, 24 airports have AWOS capability, which includes an interface to the National Airspace Data Interchange Network, which provides pilots with weather information for flight planning.
European air forces are gradually moving to increase their short- and long-range precision-guided weapon capabilities, but a large gap remains in the medium-range category and the capability to attack relocatable targets.
With more than 40% of its civilian population eligible to retire in the next few years, the U.S. Air Force is facing a shortage of critical experience and skills. However, USAF Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Ryan thinks many of those civil servants will choose to stay onboard, mitigating some of the impact. He said the service has asked Congress ``for help in trying to shape the force . . .
Capt. Roger Wanamaker has become chief pilot and Capt. Peter Budd director of safety for the Flight Services Group, Stratford, Conn. Wanamaker was a check airman and director of flying for Trans World Airlines, while Budd was a Seattle-based Boeing 737-300/400 captain.
Alconox offers a cleaning analysis service to help manufacturing and process engineers improve clean system performance/product integrity. A preconsultation form is used to suggest process changes. An analysis kit includes a guide to cleaning and monitoring procedures for soaking, manual, ultrasonic and machine-wash cleaning, clean-in-place, rinsing, drying, bath-life monitoring, extension and control, corrosion inhibition, as well as a section on cleaning measurement methodologies. The material is free to qualified engineers involved with cleaning process management.
