The Swedish Ministry of the Interior has ordered three Eurocopter EC135 helicopters, with options for another five, to replace Bell 206 JetRangers in law-enforcement operations. The sale follows recent orders for the twin-engine aircraft from Bond Air Services (15) and the Austrian Automobile Club (11). More than a dozen police forces, including units in Kuwait, Chile, Texas, Germany, Spain, the U.K. and Ireland, operate or will soon begin operating the EC135. Eurocopter has delivered more than 100 EC135s, according to the company.
Andrew C. Ross, director of technology for Dense-Pac Microsystems, Garden Grove, Calif., has been elected to the board of the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council Solid State Technology Assn.
Crossair has reached agreement on a new labor pact with its pilots, ending a dispute which threatened aircraft orders. The Swiss regional carrier had earlier reached a pay agreement with negotiators for the pilots' union, but it was rejected by a majority of union members.
Charlie Ergen, founder of the EchoStar Communications Corp., received the first Aviation Week Space Business Executive of the Year Award, during the annual Space Conference and Exhibition sponsored by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Aviation Week and Business Week.
Securaplane Technologies has expanded the number of transport category aircraft using its ST3000 wireless smoke detection system to about 1,000, company President Dick Lukso said. The system uses spread-spectrum radio technology to link smoke detectors throughout an aircraft with a cockpit panel to warn of possible fires and to release halon (AW&ST Jan. 11, 1999, p. 448).
BFGoodrich Aircraft Sensors improved its renamed IceHawk Wide-Area Ice Detector and signed a major customer in Hudson General Aviation Services Inc., which provides deicing services at Lester B. Pearson International Airport in Toronto. The handheld IceHawk uses an eyesafe infrared laser to scan an aircraft wing in 1.5-2 sec. for signs of contamination. The laser fires 60,000 times during a scan, covering a grid of 200 X 300 pixels. ``You can get an entire MD-80 wing in the image,'' BFGoodrich Business Development Manager Vince LoPresto said.
China Northern Airlines, in a contract valued at approximately $120 million, has opted for the International Aero Engines AG V2500-A5 to power its 10 new Airbus A321-200s, the first of which is to be delivered in October 2001. The Shenyang-based carrier's 13 MD-90s are powerd by IAE V2500-D5s.
Kansai International Airport is sinking fast. The six-year-old, $15-billion offshore airport with a single 11,400-ft. runway, has accumulated about $1.5 billion in losses in its brief six-year history, and the artificial island has settled 11.5 meters (38 ft.) as of December--only half a meter less than that predicted after 50 years of operation.
The Army found itself paying $40 million per year to maintain a 25-30-year-old wholesale logistics management system, and now is paying the same amount to get state-of-the-art service. The Army Materiel Command asked the Communications-Electronics Command (Cecom) to implement a wholesale logistics modernization program (WLMP), and Cecom chose Computer Sciences Corp. as its WLMP industrial partner (www.wlmp.com). The old system was written in tightly-integrated COBOL 74 and was hard to maintain and adapt, with outmoded databases and sequential processing.
Absorption Corp.'s Absorbent GP is an effective, environmentally friendly, light-weight material that quickly absorbs all nonaggressive liquids. Venues for use include: emergency response, general maintenance sludge/liquid solidification and material packaging. Liquids are absorbed into natural cellulose fibers. The product is manufactured from reclaimed cellulose and can be incinerated to less than 1% ash. Absorption Corp., 1051 Hilton Ave., Bellingham, Wash. 98225-2908.
On balance, the global transparency engendered by satellite systems and the information revolution is more a plus than a minus for the West's security interests, a new university analysis says.
Pat Doyle has become corporate vice president/controller/chief accounting officer, Mike Gaines corporate vice president-finance and Ken Heintz corporate vice president-mergers and acquisitions, all for the Hughes Electronics Corp., El Segundo, Calif. Doyle was vice president-taxes and mergers and acquisitions. Gaines was acting treasurer and vice president/ controller/chief accounting officer. He succeeds Mark McEachen, who has resigned. Heintz was executive vice president/chief financial officer of the PanAmSat Corp.
SWISSCONTROL INTENDS TO START OPERATIONAL USE of Orthogon's Computer-assisted Approach and Landing Management (CALM) system in March. CALM was accepted at the Zurich airport in September and is now being used for training. It will support the planning and management of all inbound traffic to Zurich and gives controllers suggestions for optimum arrival sequences. The calculations use radar and flight plan data and consider airspace structure, operational procedures, specific aircraft performance and weather conditions.
The Defense Dept. and national security agencies are evaluating Globalstar's hand-held satellite telephones, using them in military exercises and negotiating development of an encrypted version. To establish communications in potential theaters of operation, Globalstar has proposed a mobile ground station to provide service in a 1,000-mi.-dia. circle that could be carried by a C-17 transport. The company also is exploring the general aviation market and inflight entertainment for airliners.
CAA/FAA certification of BAE Systems' Avro RJX aircraft has been delayed until December 2001 because a manufacturing process for the integrated powerplant system (IPPS) is taking longer than anticipated. The IPPS includes pylons, nacelles and Honeywell AS900 turbofan engines. First flight of the RJX-85 is scheduled in February 2001, followed by the RJX-100 in April. Company officials said there are no technical problems with the system or engine, which have logged 3,300 hr. in testing. BAE Systems flight test crews, who have flown the IPPS for 85 hr.
USAF Maj. Gen. (ret.) Michael Butchko has become program manager of Space Gateway Support's Joint Base Operations and Support Contract for Logicon, Herndon, Va. He has been a management consultant since retiring as commander of the Air Force Development Test Center, Eglin AFB, Fla. Butchko succeeds William P. Hickman.
Qualcomm has become a partner in the SkyBridge broadband satellite network. The agreement will allow Alcatel-led SkyBridge and its other partners to use Qualcomm's CDMA digital wireless technology and licenses in its terminals and gateways along with TDMA and other protocols. Alcatel and Qualcomm are already partnered in the Euteltracs satellite tracking system.
An Antonov An-26 turboprop crashed on the night of Oct. 31 in northeastern Angola after taking off from Saurimo en route to the capital of Luanda, 450 mi. to the west. All 42 passengers and six crew were reported killed in the crash. According to Angolan civil aviation authorities, the aircraft lost contact with the control tower roughly 20 min. after takeoff. An official at the Angolan company that operated the aircraft said the An-26 ``exploded'' in mid-air.
Sally Ball has been promoted to executive vice president/chief financial officer from vice president-finance/controller of Exigent International Inc., Melbourne, Fla.
Ball Aerospace will design and develop a Stellar Reference Unit for the Outer Planets/Solar Probe Project under a $10.4-million contract from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Paul Corcoran has become engineering director of Jasmin plc, Nottingham, England. He was head of the Electronic Systems Div. at the University of Derby.
Loral Space&Communications--its much vaunted satellite-telephone service faltering badly--is not teetering on the brink. Nor is the company about to fall into the arms of another company.
Raytheon Co. recently reported a 53% drop in third-quarter earnings from a year ago, to 39 cents a share, on sales of $3.68 billion. Nevertheless, earnings essentially met targets, and the company's cash flow was solid. Wall Street views the results as evidence that the defense contractor may be on track for a sound recovery from a faltering financial performance in the last year or so.
Air France plans to terminate the Paris-Brussels route in March 2001. The French flag carrier's shortest European route (160 naut. mi.) is expected to be replaced by an expanded business agreement with Thalys International, a cross-border organization operating the Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam TGV high-speed trains. Today, in addition to nonstop services, four Brussels-Paris TGVs stop daily at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport to provide increasingly popular intermodal services. TGVs link Brussels and Paris in 1 hr. 20 min.
David Southwood has been appointed science director of the European Space Agency for 2001-04. He will succeed Roger-Maurice Bonnet. Southwood is strategy manager of the agency's Earth observation future programs.
