Stephen J. Morrisey has been named Eastern U.S. director of public affairs for United Airlines. He was senior adviser to the U.S. Transportation Dept. general counsel.
Parker Hannifin Corp. used the National Design Engineering show in Chicago last week as a platform to debunk the ``myth'' that manufacturing is tied only to the ``old economy.'' Parker brought 27 new products to the four-day show to help illustrate the role high technology plays in manufacturing goods that improve the standard of living around the world, according to CEO Duane Collins. The company claims its new 8-mm.-wide X-valve, for instance, is the world's smallest valve.
Failure of Sea Launch on its third mission will set back plans by ICO Global Communications to begin a comprehensive satellite test program as the London-based mobile communications company continues to work toward emerging from bankruptcy. The Mar. 12 launch failure will result in another delay for the program, which was originally scheduled for its first launch in December 1998. Previous delays in the scheduled launch date have been the result of satellite development and launch vehicle problems, as well as ICO's bankruptcy last year.
Clare Brown has become director of corporate communications at the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority. Adrian Moorey will be director of corporate communications at National Air Traffic Services when it is separated from the CAA.
Stress Engineering Services offers a way to acquire and process virtually every signal variable used in stress testing and strain measurement. The StrainDAQ strain gage data acquisition system is an economical, high-channel count data acquisition solution designed for both field and laboratory testing use. The software is an intuitive, Windows-based ready-to-run program. On-screen pull-down menus offer quick procedure selection and simple setup of hardware and channels.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China will press the country's airlines to reduce services on trunk routes with a limited number of passengers, while increasing ``lateral'' flights to destinations with poor or no air service in China's vast west. China's airlines also must better coordinate flight arrival and departure times at major airports to enhance passenger transfers, according to Bao Peide, CAAC deputy director.
Continental Express plans to start a regional jet hub at New York LaGuardia Airport, adding 22 routes within two years. The regional airline subsidiary of Continental Airlines will use all-new Embraer ERJ-135 and -145 regional jets, and said it has filed for the necessary slot authority. Congress recently passed legislation encouraging the development of air service to smaller communities from slot-controlled airports such as LaGuardia. Planned destinations range from Buffalo, N.Y., to Birmingham, Ala.
The acquisition last week of Honeywell's Traffic-alert Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) business by Thomson-CSF's Avionics Group and L-3 Communications removes the final obstacle to the alliance between Honeywell and AlliedSignal, and creates a new player in this vital aviation safety technology.
The U.S. petitioned international authorities to settle its dispute with the European Union over the legality of transports fitted with engine ``hushkits,'' a move that U.S. officials said they hope will prompt the Europeans to negotiate a settlement of the matter.
The growing use of Russian and Ukrainian rocket systems in major joint ventures with U.S. commercial, military and NASA programs is becoming a mixed bag of business success tempered by technology transfer headaches on all sides. The tech-transfer issues are being further exacerbated by mission failures and proliferation issues that are as much about U.S. politics as missile or technology concerns.
The Next-Generation Space Telescope, the successor to Hubble, is likely to be one of two new projects to be added to the European Space Agency's long-term science program. The projects, intended for launch in 2005-09, are so-called Flexi-missions--medium-scale efforts with lower costs and shorter lead times introduced in 1997 (AW&ST July 21, 1997, p. 56). They will be chosen--in principle, by September--from among six proposals short-listed by ESA's Science Advisory Committee earlier this month.
SR Technics, SAirGroup's maintenance and overhaul subsidiary, has received a 15-year contract from Martinair Holland to maintain its MD-11 trijets. Monarch Airlines has selected SR Technics to maintain its Airbus A330 twinjets.
Like a duel with no survivors, Boeing and its engineers' and technicians' union remained deadlocked late last week with no movement toward negotiations. A small but steady stream of strikers, however, have been crossing the picket lines, Boeing reported (AW&ST Mar. 13, p. 42). Internal head counts showed 1,200 returnees in the first 30 days of the strike, Boeing said. More have come back to work since then. All told, 15,000 of 20,300 engineers and technicians remained out as of late last week, Boeing said.
On the eve of President Clinton's trip to South Asia, two anti-nuclear weapons groups unveiled commercial, high-resolution satellite imagery. They say the pictures show Pakistan is working to put nuclear warheads on the mobile M-11 missiles it acquired from China. The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) turned to Space Imaging Inc.
WorldSpace is preparing to expand coverage of its digital radio network and to launch a mobile data service, and is considering setting up operations in Europe.
Progress on the Joint Strike Fighter and F-22 appear to be heading in opposite directions, according to two new studies by congressional investigators. While the auditing agency is projecting problems for JSF, it has issued an unusually benign assessment of the F-22.
This program is designed to give ExxonMobil's piston engine oil customers a warning against possible engine failure as well as to provide a basis for planning cost-effective preventive maintenance. Aviation oil sample should be taken shortly after the engine has been shut down, filling the sample bottle (supplied) midway through the drain to ensure a representative sample. The Exxgard lab processes the sample and prepares a report, usually within 48 hr. If a critical situation is indicated, results will be faxed.
Clinton is backing a toughened congressional stance on Russia's illicit technology transfers to Iran, but insisting that Moscow remains ``a valued partner'' in the International Space Station. Clinton signed the Iran Nonproliferation Act of 2000 last week, codifying a ban on future station payments to Russia if it fails to halt the transfer of missile technology and weapons of mass destruction to Iran.
The market for sales of new military aircraft and weapon systems in the Latin American region is projected to remain soft in the near term, but countries such as Brazil, Chile and Argentina represent potential customers for long-term, strategic partnerships with U.S. defense contractors.
The Spanish air force has ordered 15 Eurocopter EC 120Bs to provide ab initio training. The single-engine aircraft, to be delivered between July 2000 and June 2001 along with a computer-based training simulator, are worth about $15 million.
An Orbital Sciences Corp. Taurus booster carrying a scientific payload was launched successfully from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., Mar. 12. The 1:29 a.m. PST flight from Site 576E at North Vandenberg was made about 7 min. into the 30-min. launch window. The Taurus carried the multispectral thermal imager (MTI) satellite developed by Sandia National Laboratories and a high-energy X-ray spectrometer developed by Space Devices in the Czech Republic. The spacecraft was to operate in a Sun-synchronous, 575-km.-high orbit.
Misonix's WS-6 Downflow Ductless Work Station offers a safe working environment for OEM applications such as acid etching, heat sealing, soldering and other applications that could possibly create hazardous by-products, like chemical aging or surface conditioning or etching applications. The WS-6 draws fumes and vapors down and away from the operator. Multiple units can be linked to form extended, multioperator work areas. The WS-6 has no side or front panels which allows for easy access to the work area.
The British government will fund one-third of BAE Systems' investment in Airbus Industrie's proposed A3XX mega-transport, a move that has intensified the transatlantic dispute over state aid. Although uncertainties still surround the European consortium's business plan, the 555-686-seat A3XX is tentatively scheduled to be launched by the end of the year or in early 2001.
Greg Crum has been promoted to vice president-flight operations/chief pilot from director of flight operations for Southwest Airlines. He succeeds Paul Sterbenz, who has retired.
Brief or varying noises can be hard to track down in testing, but the Transient Acoustic Holography software module by LMS International is written to handle them. The module operates within the company's CADA-X Noise&Vibration testing software suite. Acoustic holography uses the measurements taken in one plane to predict what the readings would be in any other plane. The module can calculate acoustic fields from the measurement plane back to the source, and forward to the far field, and is ideal for source location within multi-source environments, LMS said.
