The U.S. Air Force is quickly upgrading its Europe-based fighter aircraft to ensure they can continue operating in bad weather despite emerging restrictions on instrument landings. The service faces a deadline of Dec. 31 to modify its aircraft or else risk having flight restrictions imposed by civil aviation authorities.
The Greek government has postponed plans to sell a 49% stake in state-owned Hellenic Aerospace Industries (HAI) because offers it has received are too low. Officials said they would revisit the sale next year. Bids were submitted by two consortia--one consisting of Eurofighter partners BAE Systems, European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co., and Alenia. The other was Dassault Aviation, Thomson-CSF and Snecma. The officials said the sale has been disconnected from contract negotiations pertaining to an order for 60 Eurofighters.
London City Airport is seeking planning approval for five additional parking stands and a larger runway holding point to enable three aircraft to await takeoff. The work, expected to be completed by 2004, will allow the airport to increase traffic toward its new limit of 73,000 aircraft movements per year. The projects are part of a general plan to increase annual passenger capacity at the airport from 1.6 million to 3.5-4 million by 2010.
Lee Baldwin (see photo) has been promoted to manager of technical operations from supervisor of technical support for SimuFlite Training International, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
Few today would question that we have a problem in our skies and at our airports. Americans are reminded of these problems during peak travel times and when computer and radar outages result in tens of thousands of passengers being stranded or delayed.
The U.K.'s Defense Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) has completed field trials in Kosovo of a prototype of an ultrawideband synthetic aperture radar being developed to detect mines and unexploded ordnance.
During the Cold War, U.S. airborne spies didn't all fly fast, stripped-down bombers or exotic reconnaissance aircraft such as the U-2 and SR-71. Many were packed into cramped compartments tucked into converted transport aircraft.
The nuclear aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle limped into home port in the southern French city of Toulon last week to replace a damaged propeller. The Nov. 10 failure cut short final ship trials that were due to take the ship to Norfolk, Va., and other overseas stops prior to commissioning at year-end. The incident is expected to lay the carrier up for three months or more, adding to a long list of equipment failures that have plagued it since it first took to sea in January 1999.
British R&D consultancy Roke Manor Research is proposing employing transmissions from mobile telephone base stations with height monitoring sensors to detect stealthy aircraft. Company officials said the system would act as a bi-static radar with the transmitter and receiver separated by a long distance. The concept is similar to Lockheed Martin's ``Silent Sentry'' system that relies on energy from TV and FM radio broadcasts to track air targets (AW&ST Nov. 30, 1998, p. 70).
Using the Internet to communicate with employees has been receiving more attention lately. Ford is even buying them computers to make sure they're Web-connected. Boeing's Executive Council met earlier this month and said it is as interested in establishing an employee portal as it is in putting separate portals in place to service customers and suppliers, Chief Information Officer Scott Griffin told Aviation Week's recent Aerospace Exposition 2000 conference.
Allan P. Slattery has been named president/chief operating officer of Aero Pro- pulsion Support Inc. of Cincinnati. He was general manager and has been succeeded by Jack Lane.
Avolo, the Seattle-based privately held online aerospace marketplace, is working with San Jose-based 2netFX to bring HDTV to inflight entertainment. 2netFX uses multicast streaming to put high-definition TV over ordinary networks and now wants to reach the aviation market, Vice President William Reed said. Avolo Chief Executive Andrew Fedak said his company has held talks with several airlines about offering cabin HDTV programming. He also sees growth potential for applying streaming high-definition media to the surveillance and reconnaissance communities.
America's fleet of newer aircraft (B-2, F-22 and JSF) are shifting from radar-reflecting coatings to radar-absorbing materials (RAM) that will allow the service to abandon the time-consuming use of tape and putty to produce a smooth, stealthy exterior. Radar energy flows like water over an aircraft's skin, so when it gets to a gap or seam, it disrupts the flow and produces a radar reflection. Radar-reflecting material keeps the flow intact, but maintaining smooth surfaces on the F-117 and B-2 was demanding.
David G. Nord has become vice president/controller of the United Technologies Corp., Hartford, Conn. He was assistant controller and later acting controller.
Bombardier Aerospace has mated the wing and fuselage of the first super midsize Continental business jet and plans to install the two Honeywell AS907 engines before the end of this year. Each engine is rated at 6,500-lb. static thrust at sea level and flat rated to ISA +15C. Plans call for the aircraft to make its first flight before the middle of next year, according to a company official. Certification is tentatively scheduled for the third quarter of 2002 followed by initial deliveries in the fourth quarter.
USAF Gen. (ret.) Ronald Fogleman has been named to the board of directors of International Airline Support Group Inc. of Atlanta. He is president/chief operating officer of international aviation consulting firms B Bar J Cattle&Consulting Co. and Durango Aerospace Inc.
Much has happened in the simulation and training business during the last decade. What was once a sleepy engineering-driven niche with modest earnings has been transformed into a production-based, multi-billion-dollar enterprise. Business has never been better for the manufacturers of full-flight simulators and flight training devices (FTDs) and facilities that train thousands of airline pilots annually on equipment that operates up to 24 hr. a day. Demand for new equipment creates a corresponding demand for new pilots and maintenance technicians.
A U.S. federal judge has granted Northwest Airlines' request for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Assn. (AMFA), which represents the carrier's 10,000 mechanics and cleaners. Northwest sought the court order after determining that the AMFA was engaged in an illegal work slowdown which resulted in a number of delays and flight cancellations. Days earlier, United Airlines won a TRO against its International Assn. of Machinists-represented mechanics for the same reasons.
The Pentagon is trying to defuse attacks on its use of some munitions after being stung by repeated criticism from humanitarian organizations that the U.S. military's air wars have left battlefields littered with land mine-like objects.
Boulder, Colo., based-Spatial Inc. has completed the spinoff of its Component Software Div. to France's Dassault Systemes and transformed itself into PlanetCad Inc., the better to focus on the Internet market for interoperable design, manufacturing and engineering data. The evolution of Spatial has been underway for more than a year, but has accelerated with the acquisition of some of the industry's leading design quality and distribution software systems.
Michael S. Lilley (see photo) has been promoted to vice president/general manager from vice president-finance of Wood Group Turbopower Inc., Miami Lakes, Fla.
The U.S. Air Force has completed verification flights of its stealthy Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, clearing the way for the start of the cruise missile's critical development test phase. The second of two controlled test flights (CT-2) was conducted successfully earlier this month, validating the redesign of the Lockheed Martin missile and the performance of its engines. Both caused problems early in the development program and led to a restructuring that included a 10-month delay.
NASA Langley will modernize the aft flight deck cockpit of its Boeing 757 Airborne Research Integrated Experimental System flying laboratory with eight Rockwell Collins 8 X 8-in. color, active matrix liquid crystal displays. The 757 is being modified from a passenger-configured revenue aircraft to a research platform, replacing ``Fat Albert,'' NASA's 737 flying laboratory, retired in 1997. Aries will have a conventional 757 front cockpit for the safety pilots, and a reconfigurable aft flight deck for research.
THE U.S. NAVY IS RECEIVING NEW COCKPIT VIDEO recording systems from TEAC that will be a replacement upgrade on about 600 F/A-18 C/D aircraft, and a new installation on F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, under a $10-million contract. The TEAC V-80AB-F9 is an existing, commercial off-the-shelf product, but one designed to military specifications for airborne applications. TEAC has supplied more than 250 of the same recorder to the Navy for combat aircraft, and has demonstrated greater than 2,000 hr. MTBF.
