ROCKWELL COLLINS' KAISER ELECTRONICS WILL SUPPLY 5-in. active matrix liquid crystal displays to Boeing for retrofit into USAF F-15Es and for new production aircraft for export. The color, flat panel AMLCDs will replace the current CRTs.
CONTRAN, A SYSTEM TO PREVENT BLOCKED RADIO TRANSMISSIONS, is up and operating on Britannia Airways, a leading charter operator, which has equipped its fleet of 32 Boeing 757/767 aircraft. The avionics division of BAE Systems produces Contran in Plymouth, England. The device is designed to prevent both simultaneous and unintentional VHF voice transmissions by listening and inhibiting a transmission if a conflicting signal is detected. It does give the pilot an override, which he can control through a double-key action of the press-to-talk switch.
Dennis Tito wasn't the only commercial payload Russia returned from the International Space Station in a Soyuz vehicle on May 6. Also on board were 300 toy ``aliens'' and at least three different promotional videos shot on ISS, including a Father's Day ad for Radio Shack that shows Expedition Two Commander Yuri Usachev receiving a gift from his 12-year-old daughter.
United Airlines, which operates a 100-aircraft Airbus fleet, recently ordered another Airbus A320 and two A319 aircraft. All three aircraft are scheduled for delivery in the second quarter 2003.
Robert Nitsch has been appointed chief operating officer, Vincent Campanella director of engineering and Leonard Swiontek senior program manager of Frequentis USA Inc., Rockville, Md.
More stealth capability is among the investment priorities for the Israeli military, along with non-lethal weapons for combating crowds of stone-throwers; directed-energy weapons for missile defense; reconnaissance satellites; intelligence gathering; and unmanned aircraft for reconnaissance and strike missions. While the Israel Air Force already ``has stealth,'' says David Ivry, Israel's ambassador here, its application so far has been to UAVs and standoff weapons. Israel is designing stealthy UAVs that would attack mobile anti-aircraft and ballistic missile launchers.
Stuart Rogers, an aerospace engineer at the NASA Ames Research Center, was cited for his work in the Advanced Subsonics Technology Program in receiving one of several Arthur S. Flemming Awards, which recognize contributions by U.S. employees. Shinyu Kevin Kuniyoshi,FAA program manager and senior engineer specializing in certification of transport aircraft, was honored for leadership in the first FAA-JAA joint certification of an aircraft, the Boeing 717-200. USAF Capt.
The only remaining prototype of the Antonov An-70 four-engine transport made its first flight last week after being repaired following a crash landing on Jan. 27. The accident was caused by powerplant equipment failure (AW&ST Apr. 9, p. 50). The Ukrainian-Russian military transport underwent repairs at the Polet aviation plant located in Omsk, Siberia, which cost the Antonov Design Bureau roughly $3 million. The An-70 is to return to Kiev for further flight testing which is scheduled to be completed in the second quarter of 2002.
A PARK AIR SYSTEMS UPGRADE OF THE ADVANCED SURFACE MOVEMENT Guidance and Control system at Toronto's Lester B. Pearson International Airport is giving controllers a better surface picture by fusing the tracks from three surface movement radars into a single mosaic display. The fusion avoids shadowing and false targets from construction cranes and new buildings and gives controllers one comprehensive picture, rather than forcing them to mentally integrate the information on two displays.
Military aircraft cannibalization is down somewhat, but there is mounting evidence the problem is systemic and its causes diverse. The aggregate Air Force cannibalization rate has fallen 15% since 1997, while the Navy's barely shrank to 8.8 from 8.9 cannibalizations per 100 flight hr. the past two years, following a high of 9.3 in 1997-98. The extent of Army cannibalization is unknown because the service has only partial data, but they suggest the problem is worsening.
Volga-Dnepr Airlines has struck an agreement with Atlas Air intended to help Atlas win oversize freight business from the U.S. government. Atlas will act as general sales agent for Volga-Dnepr, enabling the carriers to jointly sell space on An-124 transports to federal agencies. U.S. agencies already use Atlas for charter carriage. The agreement could later be expanded, perhaps to replace a joint venture agreement between Volga-Dnepr and HeavyLift of the U.K. dissolved earlier this year (AW&ST Feb. 12, p. 38).
Michelin expects to contribute significantly to the ongoing Franco-British effort to reinstate Concorde's airworthiness certificate with an all-new radial tire. Development and tests of the Near Zero Growth (NZG) tire have been completed and production could begin very rapidly, Pierre Desmarets, chief executive of the French manufacturer's aircraft tire unit, said late last week. He added that the highly resistant NZG, which would not blow up in the most extreme conditions, uses an unspecified new material that is being patented.
Wally K. Warner, chief engineering test pilot for de Havilland aircraft at Bombar- dier Aerospace in Toronto and project pilot for the Q400 Dash 8, has won the 2001 Trans-Canada (McKee) Trophy from the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute. He was cited for contibutions to the development and flight testing of the Dash 8 family since 1983.
Robert Andres has become director of the North Dakota Space Grant Consortium at the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. An associate professor, Andres also is director of the North Dakota NASA Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research.
Fairchild Dornier is in discussions with the German government about potential export support to counter the Brazilian government's Proex export incentive program for rival Embraer. President and CEO Louis Harrington said the move was being made to counter what he considers an ``unbalanced playing field'' on the world market. Fairchild Dornier would use the financing aid ``as a defensive measure'' only in competitions where it is pitted against Embraer.
The European Union has indicated its approval of Portugal's plans for reviving state-run TAP-Air Portugal. The plan includes cost-cutting measures and partial privatization of the financially troubled carrier.
PLANETARY SCIENCE AT Pluto has another lease on life, at least for the next three months. Teams from the University of Colorado and Southwest Research Institute (SWRI), both in Boulder, will spend that time preparing detailed feasibility studies for possible NASA robotic missions to explore Pluto and its neighborhood, under contracts awarded last week.
The FAA and Boeing revealed their plans to cope with growing air traffic delays by modernizing the nation's air traffic control system last week, and what a contrast! The FAA's Operational Evolution Plan (OEP) pulls together more than 50 initiatives in what appears to be a well-integrated plan, complete with time lines and responsibilities. It is noteworthy not for new technologies, but for the clear overview it presents of the steps toward a 21st century system.
The long-range Airbus A340-600, which made its maiden flight in late April, is scheduled to obtain certification in the second quarter of next year. First delivery to Virgin Atlantic Airways is planned for June 2002. The 380-seat A340-600, Europe's biggest commercial aircraft until the first A380 mega-transport is completed in late 2004, is complementing the in-production A340-300 and will be followed next year by the 313-seat A340-500, a shortened-fuselage derivative set to further increase maximum range to 8,500 naut. mi., up from 7,500 naut. mi.
Pratt&Whitney and General Electric have agreed that their engines will work interchangeably in the Joint Strike Fighter, giving the Pentagon options to switch suppliers far into the JSF program. The powerplants (P&W's JSF119 and GE's JSF F120) will be physically and functionally interchangeable in all three variants of the strike aircraft. The designs will start competing for production funding beginning in 2011.
LaGuardia Airport has defied government, issued a flight moratorium and held a slot lottery in an effort to solve its capacity dilemma. Now congestion fees, slot auctions and more large aircraft may become part of its future.
An official of airline labor watchdog organization The Newfoundland Group says Delta Air Lines' pilots will announce on June 20 their approval of a tentative agreement that will make them the highest paid cockpit crewmembers in the U.S. airline industry. He said despite ``hefty pay raises,'' only one-third of the pilots like the agreement and another one-third ``loathe the contract.'' The remaining pilots ``are slowly realizing that their chances of improving the outcome with a Bush-appointed Presidential Emergency Board are a faint hope,'' he said.
Industria de Turbo Propulsores (ITP) of Spain has become the sole supplier of low-pressure turbines for Rolls-Royce engines of more than 35,000-lb. thrust. This includes the Trent 500, being developed for Airbus A340-500/-600s, and the Trent 900 for the A380. ITP said the agreement is expected to generate additional revenues of more than 90 million euros ($77 million) annually. Rolls-Royce has a 46.9% stake in the Spanish engine maker, whose revenues increased by 25% to 260 million euros in 2000.
A month ago, you couldn't find anyone in Washington willing to use the adjective ``optimistic'' without the adverb ``cautiously'' when speaking about the coming summer airline delay season. Now, with Memorial Day past and some favorable data coming in, they're throwing caution to the winds. ``This summer will be better than last summer,'' House Transportation Committee Chairman Don Young (R-Alaska) said at a press conference. Donald Carty, chairman and CEO of American Airlines, agreed, it will ``certainly'' be better.
Seven images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2--along with the Faint Object Camera, Near Infrared Camera and the Multi-Object Spectrometer--have produced a color composite image of NGC 1512 (see picture). The image reveals a 2,400-light-year-wide circle of infant star clusters in the center of the galaxy, located 30 million light-years away.
