Analysis of 152 passenger misconduct accounts submitted to NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System during 1998 indicates alcohol was directly involved in 43% of the incidents. Cockpit crewmembers experienced some distraction from their duties in about the same percentage of instances, with more than half of these resulting in a pilot-initiated route deviation. In almost a quarter of all reported incidents, a flight crewmember left the cockpit to assist flight attendants in dealing with an unruly passenger.
While mobile satellite services were in the spotlight during past World Radiocommunication Conferences, the upcoming meeting in Istanbul (WRC-2000) is expected to pay more attention to deconflicting frequencies, such as those of GPS and other navigation systems.
TRW recently conducted a 6-sec. test of its Alpha high-energy laser that resulted in a 25% increase in power output and improved beam quality, according to company officials.
Messier-Bugatti and Messier Services will establish cooperative wheel and brake service facilities to be completed late this year in Sterling, Va., for North American commercial airlines.
The U.S. Air Force has begun testing an extended-range Joint Direct Attack Munition that features a wing kit. The first test at Eglin AFB, Fla.--off an F-16 flying at speeds of Mach 0.78--deposited a 2,000-lb. JDAM 24 mi. from release point, about three times farther than the bomb without a wing kit would have traveled, said Lt. John Mehrman, program manager for the extended-range version. Another test is planned in which the munition is to travel 15 mi. downrange and 10 mi. crossrange. The U.S.
Mitch Stone has become vice preident-sales for the Americas for IFR Systems Inc., Wichita, Kan. He was vice president-sales and marketing for Datum Inc.
Lufthansa, SAS and Singapore Airlines have reached an agreement to combine their respective cargo airline networks in a project dubbed New Global Cargo. They said the alliance could be the first step toward what could become a coordinated worldwide air freight network.
Craig L. Johnson has been named vice president-Aerospace Systems Div. program operations and Philip A. Dur vice president-domestic and international program development for the Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence and Naval Systems Div., both of Northrop Grumman Electronic Sensors and Systems of Baltimore. Johnson was vice president-systems and technology programs at the AlliedSignal Technical Services Corp., Columbia, Md. Dur was vice president-worldwide business development and strategy at Tenneco Automotive.
XM Satellite Radio plans to begin operations this fall in a new digital radio production facility in Washington. The company's 60,000-sq.-ft. Programming Center will have more than 80 studios, including production, multi-format and voice track facilities, as well as a 2,300-sq.-ft. performance studio large enough to accommodate a full orchestra. For maximum acoustic isolation, each studio structure will float independently on vibration mounts, and each unit will have 4-in.
The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, U.S. Air Force and National Reconnaissance Office are all involved in extensive planning for the early June controlled reentry of the 35,000-lb. Compton gamma-ray observatory. The $557-million Compton, launched by the shuttle in 1991, is down to minimum gyro capability, and NASA has decided to maneuver it into a controlled descent over the Pacific to prevent any danger from falling debris. Goddard is planning the details of the deorbit along with Air Force Space Command.
Pentagon planners are looking at attaching a U.S. Army brigade to deploy with each of the 10 USAF Air Expeditionary Forces. They envision an all-arms force ``under the command of an airman'' that can deploy immediately in an emergency and avoid delays like those experienced in moving an AH-64 Apache force during the Kosovo air campaign. After deployment, direction of the force would transition to an Army or Marine Corps ground commander.
ASA is to be applauded for including a competition between two different reusable launch vehicle designs in its second-generation RLV plan, and for proposing the expenditure of almost $3 billion over five years for definition and technology risk-reduction activities leading to it. Nonetheless, I have several reservations with respect to the competitive aspects of this program. While such competition is necessary and healthy, the designation of one of those competitors as a ``shuttle-derived vehicle'' is neither.
THE GLOBAL AVIATION INFORMATION NETWORK (GAIN) is scheduled to hold its fourth World Conference in Paris June 14-15. The chief theme of the meeting will be to demonstrate the benefits of collecting and analyzing technical and operational safety information, discuss solutions to problems posed by collecting and sharing safety data, and how government can support the GAIN initiative. More than 250 safety experts from 26 nations are planning to attend the conference.
The White House has decided to deny Taiwan's request to buy Aegis radar-equipped ships, as part of Taipei's annual weapons procurement request. The ships could have been the first increment of a missile defense system to shield Taiwan from ballistic missiles launched by China. The deal offered Taiwan instead includes a long-range early warning radar and Amraam beyond-visual-range missiles. But the hook is that the missiles will remain in the U.S. until China fields a similar capability.
Three European aerospace research agencies plan to harmonize their wind tunnel facilities in an initiative aimed at eliminating duplications and improving cross-border efficiency. The Aero Testing Alliance (ATA) is scheduled to be implemented in January 2002 by France's Onera, Germany's DLR and the Netherlands' NLR. They previously established close links to fund and operate the binational European Transonic Windtunnel. Germany and the Netherlands also share a low-speed tunnel.
British Airways is negotiating a 10-year-contract with Amadeus under which the computer reservations company would develop and manage the airline's reservations system, departure control, inventory and related information systems. Amadeus, partly owned by Iberia, Lufthansa and Air France, will also take over BA's existing contracts to provide similar services to other airlines, now handled by the airline's Speedway subsidiary. Contract negotiations are expected to be completed this summer.
A simple vest, using vibrating devices cued by the aircraft's inertial reference system, can greatly improve a pilot's spatial orientation and should nearly prevent vertigo. It uses the sense of touch to give pilots a continuous, intuitive awareness of aircraft attitude, even when they are not scanning their instruments or looking out the cockpit.
Managers of Boeing's F/A-18E/F Super Hornet program are eyeing a range of improvements to make the aircraft more competitive in the export market including radar signature reduction, precision strike capability, conformal fuel tanks and a price some $17-20 million per aircraft less than the U.S. Navy is paying today. Asked if export controls would hamper the effort, they said that Lockheed Martin's sale of the Block 60 F-16 to the United Arab Emirates indicates that there are routes through the restrictions.
When an MV-22 crashed May 8 in Arizona, its propellers were turning, the drive shaft was operating and intact, the engines were running ``certainly above idle'' and the nacelles were in full helicopter mode, said the Marine Corps aviation chief, Lt. Gen. Fred McCorkle, in his first interim report on the accident. The information, from an initial examination of the wreckage, doesn't eliminate any factor from the accident, he said.
An Air Philippines Boeing 737-200 crashed on approach Apr. 19 into a coconut plantation 1,000 ft. up Mount Kalangan, 5 mi. from Davao International Airport in the southern Philippines. Authorities have discounted earlier reports of explosions prior to the crash, which killed all 131 passengers and crew--the Philippines' worst air disaster. Investigators are looking into the possibility that the pilots of the aircraft may have become disoriented.
TERA COMPUTER WILL ACQUIRE the Cray vector supercomputer business unit from Silicon Graphics. The entity, Cray Inc., will combine Tera's new multithread architecture (AW&ST July 12, 1999, p. 55) with Cray's vector processing, which has been a supercomputing leader for the past 25 years. Cray Inc. intends to complete development of the Cray SV2 supercomputer, which has had significant U.S. Defense Dept. support and should be a leader in weather and climate prediction.
Kevin W. Billings has been appointed head of government affairs for EG&G Technical Services Inc., Gaithersburg, Md. He was vice president-environmental and facilities management for ICF Kaiser International.
Defibrillators are to be available at London Heathrow Airport beginning this summer. In a program under a broader British government initiative set to improve public health, more than 700 of the life saving machines will be installed at airports, rail and bus stations and other public sites within the year. The Health Dept. estimates 110,000 people die of coronary heart disease yearly in Great Britain, and the goal of the program is to reduce incidence of coronary heart disease and stroke by 40% by 2010.
