Advanced Pressure Products has released a completely automated, Windows-based hydroburst tester. It provides a solution for testing products for safety, reliability and ISO compliance. To determine the maximum strength of a particular sample, the pressure burst testing system is a key method to get exact burst pressure value. Among factors that affect the burst point, pressurization rate of the test is the most important. Precise control of the pressurization rate is key. Model ABPT-10K can ramp up pressure at desired rates and determine the exact burst pressure.
The BEA French accident investigation bureau and U.S. National Transportation Safety Board jointly seek to determine why an American Airlines Boeing 767-300 on Mar. 27 experienced a pitch control malfunction during its final approach to Paris-CDG airport. At about 6,000 ft., the flight crew radioed that the aircraft was not responding correctly to control column inputs and had to rely on the horizontal stabilizer's trim. The 767, which was operating the Dallas-Paris route as Flight 48, could nevertheless perform an uneventful landing.
Olivier Jarrault has been named chief operating officer for U.S. operations for Fairchild Fasteners. He was senior vice president/vice chief operating officer.
First Officer John Tindall has been elected chairman of the Hawaiian Airlines Master Executive Council of the Air Line Pilots Assn. He succeeds Capt. Kirk McBride.
Iridium Satellite LLC, successor to the bankrupt company that spent $5 billion orbiting a constellation of low-Earth orbit communications satellites, has launched commercial service. The new company, which bought the Iridium assets for $25 million, is targeting government and industry customers who need links to places unserved by other communications.
Macor machinable glass ceramic is a white, ceramic-like material that is nonwetting, exhibits zero porosity and won't deform like ductile materials. It is used by the defense industry and as insulators for lasers, and can be manufactured into a variety of shapes and designs. The material can withstand temperatures to 1,000C, and its coefficient of thermal expansion matches most metals and sealing glasses. It can be machined into complicated shapes and precision parts with ordinary metal working tools, and requires no post-firing.
Triana, the Earth-observing satellite proposed by former Vice President Al Gore as an educational tool for the Internet and derided by his GOP critics as an overpriced ``screen saver,'' is going into mothballs, victim of a NASA retrenchment in the face of $4 billion in cost growth on the International Space Station. Ghassem R. Asrar, associate NASA administrator for Earth science, authorized $24.9 million to bring the program to ``a stable state of suspension,'' with hardware (shown) finished and documentation ready for a restart.
Bernard Hensey has become chief executive and Steve Hardgrave managing director of Ireland-based Aircraft Management Technologies. Hensey was group vice president-sales and marketing at FLS Aerospace. Hardgrave was managing director of Sermatech U.K.
John D. McCormick has become vice president-business development of Executive Jet Management Inc. of Cincinnati. He was director of client services for The Air Group Inc.
Insight preprocessing software increase rapid-prototyping-machine build speeds and improves design engineers' control and efficiency. The software will enhance performance of fused deposition modeling systems. The product speeds model building and facilitates material saving with better control over toolpath and model-support creation. A new remote-notification feature alerts users via e-mail or pager when a job is complete or interrupted. A ``packing'' function lets users combine and build several small models simultaneously.
A looming battle with pilots over wages threatens to bring high-flying Lufthansa down to Earth and set off a round of salary hikes at European airlines.
Kenneth C. Dahlberg has been appointed executive vice president of the Information Systems and Technology Group of the General Dynamics Corp., Falls Church, Va. He succeeds Gordon R. England, who has retired. Dahlberg was executive vice president-business development of Raytheon and president of Raytheon International Inc.
Paul J. Casey, who has been president/ CEO of Hawaiian Airlines, has been named vice chairman. He has been succeeded by Robert W. Zoller as president/ chief operating officer. Zoller was promoted from executive vice president-operations and service.
Demand for Asia-Pacific MRO services is expected to match the tremendous growth of the region's commercial transport industry. During the last decade, the number of aircraft in the area more than doubled, from 1,300 (760 jets and 540 turboprops) to about 2,700. But since more and more companies are establishing bases in this lucrative maintenance, repair and overhaul market, there is increasing fragmentation in an already crowded playing field.
The U.S. Aerospace Industries Assn. has won a legislative victory over much stiffer export control penalties proposed in a new Senate Banking Committee bill. Under compromise language that has the Bush Administration's blessing, criminal penalties for illegal dual-use exports would be cut to $5 million from $10 million and civil penalties to $500,000 from $1 million per violation.
Airbus will seek to acquire a sustainable 50% share in the Japanese market, according to Chief Operating Officer Gustav Humbert. He added that Airbus in June will establish a Tokyo-based unit set to sustain long-term marketing efforts in the region.
Virgin Atlantic Airways claims to be the first carrier to cross ``e'' class lines in its recent promise to deliver e-mail and Internet access to all its passengers by December. Seattle-based Tenzing Communications will be providing services via aircraft satellite communications equipment. Content is to be delivered by an onboard proxy server over a cabin local area network. Both economy and business passengers would be able to send and receive e-mails via laptops, and send text messages or access the Internet via seat-back TV screens.
This 1-gigabit synchronous high-data-rate dynamic RAM module has a range of operating frequencies, programmable burst length and programmable latencies that allow it to be used for a variety of high-bandwidth, high-performance memory system uses for space applications. The 97SD10004RP module is upgradable to 2 or 4 gigabits with the same footprint as the 1-gigabit version. It's designed using the company's patented Rad-Pak packaging technology, which protects COTS components from space radiation.
Jean-Bernard Cocheteux (see photos) has become senior vice president-technical and industrial strategy of the Snecma group. He was chairman/CEO of Turbomeca. Cocheteux has been succeeded by Emeric d'Arcimoles, who was chief executive of Techspace Aero. Jean-Lin Fournereaux, formerly head of the Snecma Moteurs liquid propulsion division, has succeeded d'Arcimoles.
Japan's Transport Ministry--seeking a solution to handling airline traffic growth--last week supplanted its original proposal to build a third Tokyo airport with a plan to expand Haneda airport. A new runway at Haneda could be built in far less time than a new facility, the ministry said, and all the more quickly begin handling traffic (see p. 21).
Fierce competition from aggressively managed, low-cost entrants in Australia's domestic airline market is taking a heavy toll on Qantas Airways Ltd. Its competitive response has been to flood the market with capacity and slash fares. Some Sydney-based analysts believe the strategy is aimed at nothing less than driving Virgin Blue and Impulse Airlines out of business.
Societe Europeenne des Satellites' move to acquire General Electric's satellite operations crowns a several-year effort by SES to establish a beachhead in North America and further accelerates the trend toward satcom industry consolidation.
India's first attempt to launch its 1.5-million-lb.-thrust Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) ended in a fiery, but safe, pad abort Mar. 28 at the Sriharikota complex in Southeast India. A new launch date will be set after an investigation into the problem. The 161-ft.-tall booster is to be one of the most powerful in Asia (AW&ST Dec. 13, 1999, p. 74).
Recent reports on aging aircraft wiring are providing clues on what maintenance organizations can expect in new rules and procedures covering this issue. Fleet inspection has shown that aircraft wire inevitably has breaches in the insulation even when it is relatively new. Small arcs can carbonize the insulation, particularly Kapton, leading to bigger arcs and the potential for fire.
