DRS Flight Safety&Communications plans to begin production deliveries of its DFIRS 2100 deployable flight incident recorder early next year for use on U.S. Air Force RC-135s. But the Carleton Place, Ontario, company really wants to capture the much larger commercial transport market with the device that combines the functions of a flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder as well as an emergency locator transmitter.
Thomas R. Burke has become director of strategic planning and information assurance for the Federal Sector of the Computer Sciences Corp., Falls Church, Va. He was assistant commissioner for the Office of Information Security for the General Services Administration.
The SM2315, a standard Nema 23 frame servo, is the first in an emerging line of low-cost, high-performance motors. It is a controller, amplifier and encoder built into a true brushless DC servo motor--priced competitively with many stepper motor systems, according to the company. A single microcontroller handles all processing functions, including the PID loop, the trajectory generator, the user program execution, I/O control and all communications over as many as three high-speed serial channels simultaneously.
NASA LANGLEY WILL MODERNIZE the aft flight deck cockpit of its Boeing 757 Airborne Research Integrated Experimental System (Aries) with eight Rockwell Collins 8 X 8-in. color, active matrix liquid crystal displays. The flying laboratory is being modified from a passenger-configured revenue aircraft, with a conventional front cockpit and a reconfigurable aft flight deck for research.
Sontara AC is a launderable cleaning wipe engineered to reduce snagging and linting and is produced with strict quality and uniformity controls. This hydroentangled, or spunlaced, nonwovens process invented by DuPont avoids the use of binders and glues and is made from a special combination of wood pulp and polyester fibers. It meets specification qualifications for Boeing (BMS 15-5F), Aerospace Material Specifications (AMS 3819A) and the Air Force (TO-1-1-8) and is included on their authorized specification lists.
Jason Crabtree has been promoted to chief executive of Umeco plc's Aerospace Components Div. He was managing director of Umeco's Pattonair International subsidiary and has been succeeded by Michael Berry.
The Internet is having a profound impact on today's global economy, and as most aerospace executives can attest, the Web unquestionably is challenging long-held business norms in their industry sector.
To help reduce costs and guarantee future capacity, some airframe and jet engine manufacturers are forging deals directly with raw material vendors. But there's a down side to this tactic, which some observers believe will spread as the aerospace industry becomes more creative in leveraging the Web.
Approaches to spur development of new products, technologies and processes vary widely in the changing landscape of the aerospace industry The need to increase safety could be a key driver of innovation and new product development in the 2000s, if the winners of the Aviation Week&Space Technology Fourth Annual Technology Innovation Awards winners are any indication.
Lee Macenczak has become senior vice president-sales and distribution for Delta Air Lines. He succeeds Vince Caminiti, who is now senior vice president for e-business. Macenczak was vice president-customer service.
One of NASA's working prototypes for more cost-effective science missions is scheduled to be launched from Vandenberg AFB this week into an orbit that will track the space agency's most advanced Earth-imaging satellites.
If you can't beat them, join them--and last week the FAA did just that, by joining forces with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in its fight against escalating congestion at New York's LaGuardia Airport. The FAA's solution: a lottery in which an airline would ``win'' a guaranteed position in a 1-hr. block of time to operate services.
Capt. Jay Panarello has been named to chair the mainline negotiating committee of the Independent Assn. of Continental Pilots (IACP). Joining Panarello on the team are First Officer Bill Karnes and Capts. Rick Muir, Paul Pugliese and Tom Stivala.
It had all the appearances of one of those seismic regulatory events. The Justice Dept. prodded Northwest Airlines into an agreement to sell its controlling interest in Continental Airlines. That prompted tremors of speculation last week about U.S. antitrust regulators' attitudes toward consolidation of domestic carriers--especially the proposed $11.6-billion merger of United Airlines and US Airways.
Honeywell expects to have a portable version of its Bendix/King KGP 560 enhanced ground proximity warning system for general aviation aircraft on the market by this time next year. The current KGP 560 is a 1.5-lb. box about the size of a small paperback book that brings pilots of small, piston-powered aircraft a level of terrain avoidance protection similar to that in commercial transports (AW&ST Aug. 21, p. 44).
French investigators are reconstructing the left wing of the Air France Concorde that crashed on July 25 in an attempt to advance the accident probe. But French authorities say the investigation is still far from complete. The inquiry's alleged tardiness is under fire from the British and could evolve quickly into a major French-British contretemps.
Struggling Virgin Express has canceled an order for 11 new leased Boeing 737-700s as it moves to cut capacity and reduce its charter business. The low-cost carrier also returned one aircraft to the leasing company and subleased another five. The Brussels-based carrier posted a third quarter loss of $6.3 million which it blamed on rising fuel prices and the weak euro.
If original equipment manufacturers do a good job of rolling out the e-commerce trading exchanges unveiled earlier this year, major customers should see a measurable improvement in the products and services they buy. But what's the value of the exchanges to lower tier suppliers, whose participation would seem essential to the success of these Web-based sites? Not much, if a random sampling of more than 50 companies representing a broad cross section of the industry is any indication.
Passenger traffic of the U.S. major airlines declined at a faster rate than trends had forecast for the swing month of October. The slowdown in the nation's economy could be the culprit or even the high level of fares, but other forces could be at work.
CEC Vibration Products' 1-890 multipurpose vibration switch can monitor machines and provide a local or remote indication of a fault. Two built-in level alarms, an LCD display and a calibrated 4-20-mA output proportional to the input allow flexibility. The 1-890 constantly monitors vibration levels on critical machinery and provides timely feedback in the event of a machinery fault. A 30-sec. startup delay and alarm reset are initiated via remote input. A three-digit LCD display indicates vibration level and is always visible to a technician.
Brijdeep Sahi, former director of business development for Guangzhou Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Co. in China, has become Asia-Pacific marketing director for SITA.
With the outcome of the U.S. presidential election hanging in the balance late last week, some investors in aerospace stocks undoubtedly were hoping the Bush/Cheney team would prevail, on the assumption their pro-defense stand would lead to increased spending on equipment modernization. That may be erroneous. Industry analysts generally believe companies are apt to fare about the same, regardless of which candidate is declared the winner.
Cracks in the plumbing of the first-stage cryogenic engine for Japan's H-2A launch vehicle have been reported by the National Space Development Agency (NASDA), but they are not expected to delay launch of the first prototype in February. NASDA officials said separate cracks measuring 3-3.5 cm. were found in piping for the liquid oxygen turbopump system manufactured by Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries for the first-stage LE-7A engine. The cracks appeared after test firing in October at Tanegashima, and more tests are scheduled this month.
