An Ariane 44LP booster has successfully orbited the Superbird 4 telecom satellite. The 8,990-lb. spacecraft will be operated by Space Communications Corp.
Chester M. (Chet) Lee, chairman of Spacehab's Astrotech Space Operations unit and a veteran of NASA manned space programs, died on Feb. 23 in Washington, following heart bypass surgery. He was 80. Lee joined Spacehab in 1987, following a 23-year career at NASA. He was mission director for the Apollo 12-17 manned Moon landings and the Apollo-Soyuz U.S.-Soviet joint manned flight. A 1942 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Lee had also commanded a destroyer and been involved in the Polaris missile program.
Rockwell Collins and BFGoodrich Aerospace said they have formed an alliance to combine their industrial strengths for providing airlines with equipment, parts, maintenance and services. Rockwell Collins will emphasize avionics and inflight entertainment while BFGoodrich will supply specialty avionics and accessories, wheels and brakes, landing gear, thrust reversers and safety systems.
The U.S. Air Force has exercised single three-year options valued at more than $605 million of two support contracts to operate and maintain the Arnold Engineering Development Center, Tullahoma, Tenn. This action extends the current five-year contracts held by Sverdrup Technology Inc. and ACS.
Problems with FAA certification of special equipment installed in Legend Airlines' DC-9 fleet has forced the startup carrier to delay revenue operations until the issues are resolved.
US Airways, hit with the likelihood of a strike by flight attendants, indicated last week it will shut down when a 30-day cooling-off period expires on Mar. 25. The National Mediation Board has declared that the more than three-year-old contract talks between the airline and its 10,000 flight attendants are at an impasse, and the employees have declined binding arbitration. Management's rationale for shutting down would be to avoid losing customers' confidence in the face of the labor action.
Michael Hancock has been named senior vice president-American operations of U.K.-based Servisair following the acquisition of Global Group of Cleveland and Tri-Star Airline Services of Dallas.
Thomson-CSF and state-owned shipbuilder DCN plan to form a 50-50 joint venture in the area of naval programs and combat systems. The venture is intended to streamline management of the Franco-Italian Horizon frigate program, in which the two firms are involved, and make the companies more competitive in the international arena.
Bombardier Aerospace is scheduled to open a new business jet service center at Dallas' Love Field during the second quarter of this year. The 43,500-sq.-ft. facility, housed within Signature Flight Support's complex, will be used chiefly to provide maintenance and parts for more than 200 Learjets and Challenger airplanes based in Texas and Mexico. Service and support for the larger Bombardier Global Express is set to begin in 2001. Plans call for hiring about 30 maintenance technicians initially, although more could be added, according to Bombardier officials.
The Galileo spacecraft flew by Jupiter's moon Io at 124 mi. on Feb. 22, the lowest altitude yet. Initial telemetry indicates the event went well, but Galileo went into a ``safe mode'' on Feb. 24 after starting playback of encounter data to Earth. Engineers were diagnosing the problem late last week. The spacecraft computer had resets 5 hr. before and 11-12 hr. after encounter but on-board software prevented these from turning into full-blown safe modes, allowing scientific data collection to continue.
The Hong Kong Aerospace Forum thought the Singapore show would be a perfect venue for auctioning aerospace memorabilia to benefit Orbis International, which has benefitted millions of people with eye problems in some of the world's poorest nations. Orbis flies a DC-10 that provides complete surgical services without charge. But the Singapore taxman wanted a cut of anything the forum sold, no matter that the proceeds all went to charity. The solution: Hold the auction but do it online so it was out of Singapore's reach.
The U.S. Air Force's first hybrid launch vehicle--combining motors from deactivated Minuteman II ICBMs and Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus XL boosters--worked as planned, with orbit insertion numbers well within the target.
German aerospace companies are worried that a continued drop in military expenditures could threaten the long-term survival of the country's defense industry and undermine the ability of the German armed forces to operate effectively within NATO.
Engineers at Hughes Space and Communications Co. used television cameras to monitor the deployment of solar arrays and heat radiators on their first HS 702, the largest and most powerful commercial satellite yet launched.
The start of construction of a 2,200-meter (7,200-ft.) runway at Tokyo's Narita airport has prompted opponents to ask a district court to cancel the project on grounds that the runway will pose a hazard because aircraft might run off it onto their farms. Proponents note that millions of people live safely adjacent to railroads and highways.
ARINC Inc. has received a five-year $450-million contract to supply services for all U.S. Air Force Materiel Command platforms, weapon systems, components and equipment.
Regional carriers operating in the French Caribbean are considering the merits of a joint venture that would boost traffic in the region and pave the way for an expanded route system. French Guiana-based Air Guyane, which is promoting such an effort, plans to submit in the next three months a draft agreement to Air Martinique, Air Guadeloupe and Air France, Raymond Abchee, Air Guyane chief executive, said. Air France is expected to support such an agreement that would contribute to increased traffic between the Caribbean and Paris.
The Spanish air force has ordered 15 single-engine Eurocopter EC 120B helicopters. The aircraft, to be delivered from July 2000 to June 2001, will be used for ab-initio pilot training.
SairGroup and German charter carriers LTU, Hapag-Lloyd and Germania plan to establish a company to offer ground handling services at German airports. Swissport Deutschland GmbH will combine the assets of AHS, a ground handling firm owned by the carriers, and Aerogate, a unit of SairGroup affiliate Swissport International set up two years ago to serve German airports. The new entity will be the largest independent ground handling company in Germany, with 12 facilities, including Frankfurt and Munich.
After Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager circled the Earth in an airplane in 1986, and the Breitling Orbiter did the same thing in a balloon last year, there are not many significant records left to break. But the NASA-funded Helios promises to break endurance records by a factor of 10 or more.
A series of software problems with the FAA's Wide Area Augmentation System will delay initial operating capability that had been slated for September. WAAS will improve GPS position accuracy from 100 meters to less than 3 meters across the U.S., using differential-GPS techniques. Despite the schedule slip, the FAA, Raytheon and independent technical experts believe the problems can be resolved in a ``reasonable'' period of time.
Raytheon Aerospace has been awarded a multiple contract from the U.S. Navy and Air Force to provide life cycle contractor support for 109 C-12 aircraft. With the exercise of nine option periods through Fiscal 2010, the contract could be worth $695.5 million.
British Midland has placed a firm order with Airbus Industrie for four A330-200s with options for a further eight. Total value of the order is $1.9 billion. The first aircraft is set for delivery in April 2001. The order underlines British Midland's desire to start operating long-haul services next year.
