Boeing, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman have been awarded design study contracts for a U.S. Navy multirole unmanned aircraft. The value of the four contracts is $3 million. The potentially armed UAV is intended to be capable of 24-hr. operations at a range of 200 naut. mi.
Scapa 702 is a clear, pressure-sensitive double-coated adhesive film designed to bond silicone gaskets in aircraft and aerospace assembly applications. It is engineered to offer adhesion to silicone-coated substrates and other difficult-to-bond surfaces, providing rapid initial adhesion and strong holding power. Well-suited for high- or low-temperature gasket sealing, the product can also serve as a splicing tape to join silicone-coated papers or films. It can withstand application temperatures from -20F to 400F. Scapa Tapes, 111 Great Pond Drive, Windsor, Conn. 06095.
Walter Valarezo has been appointed Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based vice president-marketing and business development for Latin America and Southern Europe for CIT Aerospace of New York. He was sales director for the Americas for the Boeing Co.
Fred L. Marion has become president of the DRS Technologies Electro-Optical Systems Group, Palm Bay, Fla. He was vice president-special projects for the Lockheed Martin Electronics Sector.
The U.S. Air Force's classified YF-113G aircraft was a MiG-23, not an early effort to explore radar-evading technologies, as reported earlier (AW&ST Apr. 10, p. 18). The existence of the aircraft was verified by one service official, but a second had mistakenly identified it as a U.S. stealth testbed that was abandoned by the early 1980s.
As an increasing percentage of the military's skilled civilian technicians are nearing retirement age, the Defense Dept. is being forced to try and find ways to avoid a possible readiness problem that would occur if too many positions suddenly are vacated. The aging trend is being experienced by the Pentagon throughout its civilian workforce after about a decade of personnel cuts during which few new people were hired. The average age of civilian employees has gone to 45.7 from 41.6 in the last 10 years, but the trend is accelerating.
The sale of Fairchild Aerospace to Clayton, Dubilier&Rice (CDR) and Allianz Capital Partners was completed last week, with the signing of formal contracts. The U.S. and German investment firms now hold more than 90% of the aircraft manufacturer. Former Chairman Carl Albert still holds a minority stake and is on the supervisory board. Fairchild is still looking for a new CEO to replace Jim Robinson, who left the company when the deal was announced last December.
The space shuttle Atlantis and its U.S./Russian crew are set for liftoff Apr. 24 on a logistics/repair mission to the International Space Station. The STS-101 flight will replace or refurbish key batteries in the Russian-built FGB Zarya module and install new equipment on the outside of the U.S. Node-1 Unity module. Kennedy managers decided they could replace a faulty Atlantis rudder power drive hydraulics unit with the vehicle vertical on Pad 39A to hold the late April target.
Scandinavian Airlines System and Icelandair have filed for anti-trust immunity from U.S. authorities in order to deepen their cooperation on North Atlantic routes. The two carriers began code-sharing on certain routes between Scandinavia and the U.S. in January.
Look for Airbus Industrie's board late next month to green-light the beginning of formal offers to airlines of the super-jumbo A3XX. The company's marketing honcho, John Leahy, says the the 555-seater will have a 7,650-naut.-mi. range, 450 naut. mi. more than the 747-400, and will burn 13% less fuel per seat than the Boeing aircraft. The Airbus double-decker will list for $216 million, $30 million more than the big Boeing's nominal price. But Airbus' sales pitch will emphasize comfort and ambiance, which Leahy likens to that of a cruise ship.
The RM Series is a versatile in-line load cell that delivers combined linearity and hysteresis of 0.15% over ranges of 100-200,000 lb. The fully welded, stainless steel construction is hermetically sealed and designed for rugged use in humid or corrosive environments. The series has a 50% overload capacity rating and full-scale deflection of only 0.003 in. and an operating temperature range of -65-250F compensated from 60-160F. Sensotec Inc., 2080 Arlingate Lane, Columbus, Ohio 43228.
General Electric's selection by the United Arab Emirates to provide a 32,000-lb.-thrust version of the F110 powerplant for that nation's Block 60 F-16s is providing the U.S. Air Force with an opportunity to reap substantial life-cycle savings in its existing F110 fleet.
Raytheon is planning to open a three-month tour of Europe with a mockup of the Horizon at the AREX exhibit in Turkey, to be held May 18-28. Vice President of Jet Sales Ted Farid said at the European Business Aviation Assn. convention, held in Geval, Belgium, that more than 150 orders had been received for the new midsize twinjet, which is scheduled to be certified in mid-2002. The second wing for aircraft No. 1 is being joined by partner Fuji Heavy Industries, and the first flight is planned in the fourth quarter of this year.
Nicola Marmo has been named managing director of Turboprop International, a new joint subsidiary of Snecma Moteurs, Motoren- und Turbinen-Union, FiatAvio and Industria de Turbo Propulsores.
In response to the shortage of aircraft mechanics, the aviation community has formed the Make It Fly Foundation to help attract young people to a career in aviation maintenance through education, outreach and counseling.
In the wake of a fierce controversy with pilot unions, Air France abandoned a plan to enforce an ``English-only'' rule upon its flight crews when they are communicating with air traffic control at Paris/Charles de Gaulle airport. Communicating in a foreign language increases the workload and does not enhance flight safety, the French flag carrier's pilots claimed. They are nevertheless required by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to speak English when operating outside France's airspace.
Northrop Grumman's Integrated Systems and Aerostructures sector will supply 71 BQM-74E multirole aerial target systems and 30 air launch kits to the U.S. Navy under a $20.1-million contract, beginning in February.
It's time the U.S. aviation industry rolled up its collective sleeves and got serious about attracting young people to a career in aircraft maintenance. There simply aren't enough students learning mechanics to supply an industry experiencing steady growth. By some projections, about 12,000 new mechanics will be needed every year for the next 10 years. But fewer than 4,000 are earning their FAA airframe and powerplant (A&P) licenses each year.
Renso L. Caporali, retired chairman/ CEO of the former Grumman Corp., is one of three honorary fellows recently elected to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. The others are: Angelo Miele, professor emeritus in the Astro-Astronautics Group at Rice University in Houston; and Dennis J. Picard, chairman emeritus of the Raytheon Co.
The seven U.K. airports managed by BAA Group handled 117.8 million passengers in the fiscal year ending March 2000--an increase of 47% compared to the previous year. In March, the airports handled 9.6 million passengers, up 3.2% over March of 1999. In the 12-month period, Stansted, Heathrow and Gatwick for the the first time jointly surpassed the 100-million passenger mark. At Stansted, the number of passengers increased 33.7%, to 9.9 million from 7.4 million--which, according to BAA, was due mainly to an 88% rise in European scheduled traffic.
Boeing has alerted airlines that rivets used on the upper deck and main deck of 27 747-400s will have to be replaced. The rivets help reinforce aircraft structure and cannot handle the stresses involved. Each aircraft may have 300-1,000 rivets that need replacing out of tens of thousands. Ten of the affected 747s are already in service; the other 17 are still in assembly.
