Pacelab Cabin is a new knowledge-based engineering tool for the design of cabin interiors from business jets to multiple-deck commercial transports. It largely automates the positioning of cabin interior items while checking and assuring compliance with certification regulations and user needs. The essential functions come within a basic software package allowing standard drawings and reports to be generated at the touch of a button. Corporate exclusivity can be assured by adding separate proprietary modules.
Steve Fossett and two other pilots set an unofficial record for medium-weight aircraft last week flying Fossett's Cessna Citation X business jet around the world in 41 hr., 13 min., 11 sec. Average speed for the 23,071-mi. trip was 559.76 mph. The airplane took off from and landed at Los Angeles International Airport. The crew was accompanied by an observer from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, which must certify the record. Fossett beat by 6 hr. and 70 mph. the previous mark set in 1988 by Edgar Kaiser who flew a British Aerospace Hawker 800.
Richard R. Wadsworth, Jr., who was senior vice president-finance/chief financial officer for Kitty Hawk Inc., has taken the same posts at Infrastructure Defense Inc., Alexandria, Va.
K. Wolfram Schaefer has been appointed director of business analysis of Worldwide Flight Services Inc. of Fort Worth. He was senior engagement manager at the Frankfurt and Chicago offices of McKinsey&Co.
Faced with the prospect of the E-2C production line closing and with a looming shortage of airborne early warning aircraft, U.S. Navy officials are betting on an improved E-2 to meet their future airborne surveillance needs. Senior Navy officials have drawn up, then revised plans for an E-2C follow-on strategy during the past few years. Included at one point was building the Common Support Aircraft to perform the AEW mission, the C-2's logistics role, the S-3's tanker and antisubmarine warfare role, and the ES-3's intelligence-gathering mission.
Former French test pilot Jacqueline Auriol died in Paris on Feb. 11. She was 82. The noted aviatrix, who flew more than 100 aircraft types, broke world speed records in the 1950s on French-built de Havilland Vampire and Dassault Mystere IV/Mirage III military fighters in a decade-long rivalry with Jacqueline Cochran of the U.S. On Aug. 26, 1956, Auriol became the first woman pilot to fly at Mach 2.
In the wake of a severe, two-year downturn that crippled aircraft sales, business jet manufacturers are optimistic that the resurgence of major Asian economies is reenergizing demand for government and corporate air transportation in the Pacific Rim.
The spate of attacks on major U.S. Web sites has reinforced congressional complaints that the Administration's $2-billion cyber security plan is inadequate. But the White House says the deployment of computer defenses inherently takes time, in keeping with the historical cycle of technology breakthroughs followed by countermeasures.
Regional jet services are increasing. American Airlines subsidiary American Eagle plans to introduce, on Apr. 2, nonstop service on 50-seat ERJ-145s on five of 11 daily flights between Lubbock and Dallas-Fort Worth. And on Apr. 24, American Eagle is to begin nonstop service linking Baton Rouge, La., and Chicago O'Hare. The carrier is offering two daily round-trip flights with ERJ-145 and 37-seat ERJ-135 jet aircraft.
The U.S. Air Force will hold a nonjudicial punishment hearing rather than court-martial Maj. Sonnie Bates, who has refused to participate in the Defense Dept.'s anthrax vaccination program. Bates, a pilot at Dover AFB, Del., initially insisted on a court-martial but last week agreed to the less formal disciplinary proceeding.
Next summer, NASA will fly a new graphical aviation weather distribution and display system on its Boeing 757 testbed to evaluate how the system can help pilots avoid turbulence and other potentially hazardous atmospheric conditions.
Jann Fisch (see photo, p. 23) has been appointed executive vice president-marketing and sales of Swisscargo, effective Mar. 1. He succeeds Peter Somaglia, who has joined the alliance management team at parent company SAirGroup.
Helen Muir, vice chancellor and professor of aerospace psychology at the Cranfield (England) University College of Aeronautics, has received the Whittle Safety Award from the International Federation of Airworthiness for her contributions to improving airline cabin safety.
Paul Michel Pignal has become president of France-based Satel Conseil. He succeeds Michel Popot, who has retired. Pignal was head of France Telecom's mobile and radio systems.
The U.S. Air Force has some big plans for the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle. The service envisions Global Hawk self-deployments from the western U.S. to loiter near the Korean peninsula, according to Peters. Built by Northrop Grumman's Ryan Aeronautical Center, the vehicle has an endurance of up to 28 hr. and can cruise at 350 kt. Still, the UAV has a way to go in the transition from its research and development orientation to integrated operations by USAF line units.
Greg Stephens has been appointed president of Wichita, Kan.-based Air Midwest, succeding Archille (Dick) Paquette, who is retiring. Stephens was vice president-customer service. Michael Suckow has been named vice president-flight operations. He was senior director of systems control at Mesa Airlines and its parent Mesa Air Group. Suckow has been succeeded by Ronald Mallard, who was director of system operations at Reno Air.
The first orbital test of inflatable reentry technology was successfully completed when a Soyuz Fregat upper stage and an IRDT demonstrator, launched Feb. 9, landed in Kazakhstan. The demonstrator was recovered and showed no signs of burn. The search for the Fregat is continuing.
Matra BAe Dynamics, Boeing and the other members of the Meteor missile consortium are calling for a transatlantic cooperation agreement at the government level if the missile is selected by the U.K. government to arm Eurofighter. Meteor is competing for the contract against a team led by Raytheon, which is offering an upgraded version of the Amraam ( AW&ST Feb. 7, p. 28). The Meteor industry consortium members have written to Jacques Gansler, the U.S. undersecretary of Defense for acquisition, urging a collaborative program with the U.K.
Charles Elachi, a pioneer in the use of spaceborne imaging radar for studies of Earth and other planets, has been awarded the 2000 Dryden Lectureship in Research by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He is director of space and Earth science programs at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Doug Pinckney has become senior vice president-sales and marketing of Worldwide Flight Services, Euless, Tex. He was general manager of customer service for North America for Sea-Land Service Inc.
Louis Le Portz (see photo) has been appointed chairman/CEO of Messier-Dowty International, Velizy, France. He was vice president-industrial and customer services for Thomson-CSF. Le Portz succeeds Dominique Paris, who is now chairman/ CEO of Snecma Moteurs.
The U.S. Air Force is consolidating much of its B-2 bomber support at what officials call the most advanced integrated software development and integration laboratory ever established for an operational weapon system.
DRS TECHNOLOGIES IS DEVELOPING a three-band infrared focal plane array under contract from the Naval Research Laboratory. The development, sponsored by the Office of Naval Research, is initially slated for theater missile defense applications, where the multiband sensor capabilities should improve the ability to discriminate between warheads, decoys, and background debris. Other applications include threat warning, clutter rejection and false alarm reduction.
