L-3 Communications is introducing a new suite of hardware modules designed for satellite telemetry, tracing and control ground systems. ``Astra,'' as the product is called, combines a variety of powerful, reconfigurable satellite communications functions that can be integrated in a single PC to reduce the price and complexity of current ground system equipment. The Astra hardware suite adds advanced modulation, demodulation and ranging capabilities to what already is on the market.
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. will build an additional nine airframe subassemblies for Japan's F-2 fighter aircraft, including aft fuselages, leading edge flaps, stores management systems and 80% of the left wing boxes. Prime contractor Mitsubishi Heavy Industries plans to build up to 130 F-2s for Japan's Defense Agency.
The BEA French accident bureau has rejected allegations that a missing spacer in the left landing gear of the Air France Concorde that crashed last July aggravated the sequence of events that led to the accident.
Midwest Express Airlines' selection of the Boeing 717 for its fleet modernization program should strengthen the twinjet's foothold in what has been a sluggish 100-seat aircraft market for Boeing. The airline's decision to place a firm order for 20 717s, with options for 30 additional aircraft, follows a year-long evaluation during which the 717-200 edged out the competing Airbus A318. The value of 717s on firm order will be $750 million, with deliveries set to run from February 2003 into 2006 at a rate of one aircraft every other month.
As the Pentagon tries to sort out its future missile defense plans, U.S. Air Force and industry officials say they could undertake an in-orbit Space-Based Laser experiment several years earlier than anticipated and accelerate the fielding of an anti-missile system.
Scaled Composites' Proteus aircraft has completed a science mission that circled the Pacific and included a flight directly over the North Pole (AW&ST Nov. 20, 2000, p. 34). The NASA-funded 36-day mission ended on Mar. 26 and was testing two atmospheric sounding instruments that may be used in future Earth-observing satellites. The aircraft reached 55,000 ft. carrying the 1,700-lb. external payload and had a flight as long as 11.6 hr.
Telesat Canada has filed a request with the Canadian government for a slot to operate a new spacecraft, Anik F3. The company declines to specify the architecture of the spacecraft, which would be orbited around 2002-03. However, Anik F2, to be launched in 2002, will feature 24 C- and 32 Ku-band transponders and ``around 3 gigabits'' of Ka-band capacity, according to Ted Ignacy, vice president of finance at Telesat. It will have a 15-kw. power output and cost C$640 million ($410 million).
Intelsat spinoff New Skies Satellite N.V. has picked Boeing Satellite Systems to build NSS-8. The 14-kw. Boeing 702 spacecraft will cover all 50 U.S. states, Central America and South America from its location at 105 deg. W. Long., and will be able to target linguistic groups across the region such as Japanese speakers in the U.S. and Peru or Spanish speakers in the U.S. Not joining the bidding was Europe's Astrium, which is still in arbitration over New Skies' rejection of one of its spacecraft in a dispute over solar array performance.
NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN), which tracks spacecraft en route to the planets and beyond, is becoming overwhelmed with U.S. and international missions consuming its available tracking time and bandwidth. The primary DSN sites are at Madrid; Canberra, Australia; and Goldstone, Calif. (see photo). This is prompting NASA, Russia, Japan and the European Space Agency to study how the DSN might be converted from a U.S. operation to an international one with more non-U.S. antennas.
Pacific Rim-based commercial transport fleets will more than double in the next 20 years, a promising trend that is expected to play a key role in Airbus' quest for a 50% share in the Pacific Rim market, according to company executives. In the shorter term, however, economic and financial uncertainties could impede some orders.
United Airlines' new schedule to Asia, billed as its largest expansion ever to the region, features a 7,339-naut.-mi.-flight between New York and Hong Kong, a resumption of its around-the-world service linking Delhi from the east and the west, and additional flights to China.
The FAA is losing nearly 40% of its funds for fuel systems research, even as a center fuel tank explosion is being cited as the preliminary cause of the fatal Thai Airways 737-400 blast Mar. 3 at a gate at Don Muang International Airport in Bangkok. Early last week, the White House budget office recommended scaling back several FAA research, engineering and development (RD&E) accounts, including propulsion and fuel systems research, which would fall to $5.2 million in Fiscal 2002, a 37% cut.
Reducing the risks of weapons of mass destruction requires a radical shift in security strategy, former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) argued in a recent speech at the National Press Club in Washington.
The volatile Pacific Rim will play a vital role in Airbus' and Boeing's future. Aircraft sales are forecast for the region in record-breaking numbers. The divergent approaches taken by the manufacturers are heightening the competition. Boeing continues to be influenced by the prospect of market fragmentation. Airbus traditionally has stressed technology advances. New aircraft designs exemplified by the A380-800 and the Mach 0.95 ``sonic cruiser'' have added fresh seasoning to an already interesting marketplace--The Editors
William R. Carmichael, a principal communication systems engineer for Rockwell Collins Government Systems, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has been elected chairman of the High Frequency Industry Assn.
Current aircraft purchase plans indicate that Japan Airlines will continue to acquire Boeing aircraft, while recent buys by All Nippon Airways reflect ANA's pattern of mixing its fleet between Boeing and Airbus aircraft.
FedEx has decided to acquire the Airbus A380-800. Why? The Asia-Pacific region, FedEx's fastest growing international market, already has prompted the Memphis-based parcel express and cargo operator to acquire 60 MD-11s to meet forecast demand.
The plan to privatize Air Niugini is back to the drawing board. The Privatization Committee asked the Papua New Guinea government to explore options to achieve the goal. The group said it could proceed no further because none of the offers for a 49% stake in Air Niugini complied with key requirements. In addition, union resistance was cited as a ``serious disincentive'' to investment.
Capt. David Webb (see photo) has been elected president of the FedEx Pilots Assn. for a two-year term. Also elected were: vice president, Capt. Willy Huggins; and secretary/treasurer, First Officer Tony Hauserman.
A Presidential Emergency Board may be needed despite plans to resume contract talks on Apr. 18 between Delta Air Lines and its pilots, the company stated late last week. Refuting reports by the Air Line Pilots Assn. (ALPA), which represents Delta's 10,000 pilots, management said there is still a $1.7-billion gap between the respective proposals.
Timothy J. Puckorius has been named senior vice president-worldwide marketing and sales, Yajaman N. Bhushan senior vice president-business integration and product strategy and John M. Novack senior vice president-finance, all of the Washington-based WorldSpace Corp. Puckorius was vice president-international marketing and business development of Orbimage, while Bhushan was senior mission system engineer for ICO Global Communications Services Inc. Novack held a similar position at Access Teleconferencing International.
Despite manufacturers' generally upbeat outlook for commercial aircraft demand in the near-term--based partly on aircraft retirement rates and more rational ordering by airlines compared with previous cycles--some analysts in both the U.S. and Europe are growing increasingly nervous.
For the second time, accident investigators have determined that the V-22's proprotor configuration led to asymmetric forces that made the tiltrotor more difficult to fly to avoid a crash. While neither the Apr. 8, 2000, crash near Marana, Ariz., nor the Dec. 11, 2000, crash near Marine Corps Air Station New River, N.C., were initiated by asymmetric flight conditions, pilots in both cases faced control difficulties that presented hurdles to recovering the aircraft once it encountered problems.
The FAA has ruled that U.S. airlines must begin carrying automated external defibrillators on all domestic and international flights by 2004, a move the agency says will cost airlines more than $16 million in the next 10 years.. The mandate applies to aircraft with more than 7,500-lb. payload capacity requiring at least one flight attendant, a description that covers more than 1,200 aircraft in the commercial fleet.
