ViaSat has received a five-year $13-million contract from the Raytheon Co. to supply UHF Satellite Communications Demand Assigned Multiple Access modem modules for multiband terminals.
PACIFIC AEROSPACE&ELECTRONICS of Wenatchee, Wash., has developed a tiny capacitor for filtering electrical interference noise from sensitive circuits. The multilayer ceramic discoidal capacitor, with a diameter of 0.05 in., and a length of 0.03 in., can be provided as a bare capacitor chip or included in other packages. The small size allows it to be incorporated in a variety of hermetic feedthru applications that have stringent electromagnetic interference requirements.
The Pentagon would like to explore some different technologies for its National Missile Defense system in case its single-track approach runs into problems. But there isn't money in the current $13-billion program for that insurance policy. Asked by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) during a hearing in the House whether the program could use more funds for testing, Air Force Lt. Gen.
Gerard Chauvallon has been appointed Washington-based senior vice president-U.S. for Aerospatiale Matra. He will remain chairman of American Eurocopter. Jacques Jacob de Cordemoy has been named deputy vice president-technical affairs and programs of the Aerospatiale Matra Launchers Div. He was industrial director and has been succeeded by Michel Freuchet, who was head of electric systems at Eurocopter France.
Lockheed Martin once again is the Pentagon's largest contractor with $12.7 billion out of $125 billion in contract awards in 1999. There were no changes among the top six companies, with Boeing second and Raytheon third. Further down, General Electric moved from eighth last year to 13th in 1998, while Textron slipped to 10th from seventh.
Reinhard Schnabel has been appointed Stuttgart, Germany-based vice president-Europe for the Hughes Space and Communications International Service Co. He was vice president-business development and programs for the Space Communications Div. of Bosch Telecom.
Laurette Koellner, Boeing vice president/corporate controller, will assume responsibility for the company's insurance organization in March. She will succeed Denny Crispin, vice president-insurance and taxes, who plans to retire on Mar. 1.
Precision dovetail slides are computer designed to ensure accuracy and repeatability in test, gage, motion control and machining applications. They are available in three models: Express, Select and Super Select. Each meets specific design, choice, delivery and price needs. A CD-ROM is available so the entire DS slide series, and related CAD drawings, can be downloaded to PCs, providing instant reference and engineering data to the design process. Setco Group, 5880 Hillside Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio 45233.
MICHAEL A. TAVERNAPUSHPINDAR SINGH and NEELAM MATHEWS
To help promote renewed growth in air transport following several years of stagnation, the Indian government has begun accelerating plans to open up the domestic airline industry to market forces.
Plans to modernize Russia's aging civil satellite communications network, derailed by a Proton failure last October, are now back on track, with two new satellites scheduled to be launched by midyear. The first, Express 6A (formerly designated Express A2), will be orbited on a Proton booster in early March, according to officials at Intersputnik, which will operate the satellites. The Proton resumed operation on Feb. 12 (see p. 47).
Russian space managers, in an important Moscow-based meeting with U.S. and other station partners, have agreed to launch the critical Service Module for the International Space Station (ISS) between July 8-14 on a Khrunichev Proton booster. But NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin expressed sharp criticism before Congress last week about the Russian Energia Corp.'s attitude toward ISS cost issues and the possible diversion of ISS Soyuz and Progress resources toward extending the old Mir station for Energia's commercial gain.
THE FAA HAS GRANTED TSO CERTIFICATION to UPS Aviation Technologies' MX20 multifunction display. The 6-in.-dia. active matrix liquid crystal display gives pilots a visual picture of the relationship between the aircraft's flight path and surrounding terrain, warning the pilot when the aircraft comes within 2 min. of a close encounter with the ground. In addition to the terrain mapping, the MX20 can provide weather and traffic. It is the only multifunction display certified to show Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) traffic reports, according to UPS.
Boeing has installed a radar simulation pod (RSP) on one of its T-33 jet trainers. The pod, which resembles an underwing fuel tank, emulates the radar characteristics of various U.S. and international military aircraft, including radio-frequency waveform and antenna scan pattern. The RSP-equipped T-33 already has flown in conjunction with Boeing's Flying Test Bed, a modified 757 transport being used to integrate and test F-22 avionics.
Pilot hiring continues at record levels, with 6,145 slots filled in January, according to Air Inc., airline career consultants. Major airlines hired 498 new pilots, the nationals, 579. The remaining categories, including helicopter operators and fractionals, accounted for 1,077 hires. Air Inc. forecasts that continued hiring at the January rate would yield about 20,000 pilot jobs in 2000. Meanwhile, the number of pilots on furlough at the end of January totaled 164, or 0.2% of 82,790 active pilots.
After a year of negotiating, Air New Zealand is nearing completion of a complete takeover of Ansett Australia. ANZ holds 50% of the carrier's owner, Ansett Holdings Ltd., and is to buy the remaining half now owned by News Ltd. for a reported A$600 million ($378 million). Three months ago the half-ownership was valued at A$900 million, but that was before Virgin Atlantic Chairman Sir Richard Branson vowed to start a discount carrier this June in competition with Ansett and Qantas.
Everything from El Nino to FAA bulkhead regulations has become part of the story of Asia Pacific Airlines, but the startup cargo airline is building a niche connecting Micronesia with the fish-hungry markets of Japan and garment centers in Hong Kong.
DataSoft Systems had developed a module containing all the necessary hardware and software to permit easy conversion of serial data to infrared light signals. The converter is said to meet the complicated IrDA world standard for IR communication. The module can be used for interference-free data transfer between almost all computer equipment that has a serial interface. IR transfer can replace radio modems and cables and may be used in environments where radio communication is prohibited or unsuitable, such as in aircraft and laboratories, according to the company.
Rockwell Collins has stepped up its focus on e-business by creating a separate Electronic Business unit. Heading the unit is former Enterprise Resource Planning Director John-Paul Besong, who has been named a company vice president. He is charged with consolidating the company's infotech, enterprise resource planning and e-commerce departments. Collins' customers can go online with password security to check the status of parts and equipment repairs as an aid in schedule planning.
NASA is asking Congress for another $35 million to buy Russian hardware that would enable it to dock the backup Interim Control Module (ICM) to the International Space Station's ``Zarya'' FGB tug. That comes on top of a $60-million bailout for Russia that Congress approved in late 1998--a fund from which Moscow has ``borrowed'' to help reactivate its aged Mir space station. Meanwhile, Administrator Daniel S. Goldin last week railed against what he said was double-dealing by Russia's RSC Energia company.
Air Canada has selected the Megadata Corp.'s Passur Flight Tracking System for its station operations control center at Toronto's Lester Pearson International Airport.
Shortages have forced Japan's Defense Agency to resume contracts with 11 major fuel suppliers that were suspended last October for bid rigging. The JDA, concerned about shortfalls in aviation fuel for the army and air force (the navy uses a different fuel base and is unaffected), sought stepped-up deliveries from Esso and Mobil, which were not touched by the scandal. But the two suppliers could provide only 85% of the services' needs, hence the decision to obtain the rest from the Japanese firms that were under a nine-month suspension.
Air Force Secretary F. Whitten Peters is concerned about the tendency of some members of Congress to support one weapon program over all the others: ``What we want to avoid is irrational exuberance for a single platform.'' That narrow support is hurting the service's efforts to build ``an integrated force.'' Of course, critics of the Air Force charge that the service is irrationally exuberant about the F-22. There already are signs that USAF will sacrifice in other areas before trimming the F-22 program any further.
Larry Coyne, CEO of Coyne Airways and parent company Coyne Aviation, has been elected vice president of The International Air Cargo Assn. (TIACA). Coyne, who also chairs the Miami-based TIACA's Industry Affairs Committee, succeeds Guenter Rohrmann, president of AEI.
Delta Air Lines has entered a marketing partnership with electronic personal financial services company, E*Trade. Delta SkyMiles members who open accounts with E*Trade could earn up to 50,000 bonus miles per year, the number of miles scaled to the amount invested. Delta has just revamped its Web site, offering a corporate purchasing function, which the carrier claims is the first for a major carrier, and plans to introduce an online travel agency service center in March.
A new duct finger cutting tool is now available from Panduit Corp. It is specifically designed to cleanly cut away duct fingers in tight spaces where there isn't enough room to remove them by bending and breaking them away. It easily cuts 2-in. tall fingers. Taller fingers can be removed by taking multiple cuts. The tool can also be used to remove NR1 nylon rivets. Product Management, Network Systems Group, Panduit Corp., 17301 Ridgeland Ave., Tinley Park, Ill. 60477-3091.
