U.S. manufacturers and members of Congress are pleased with a nearly $3-billion White House initiative to shore up basic research and technology, but the aerospace industry says $50 billion is needed over five years to offset the severe losses of the 1990s in federal R&D support.
The first of two midair collisions last week occurred on Feb. 7 when a Questair Venture sport aircraft and a Bellanca 8GCBC collided near Van Nuys Airport north of Los Angeles. Two people in the Venture were killed, as were both occupants of the Bellanca. The next day, a Zlin 242L flown by Chicago radio host Bob Collins, and a Cessna 172 collided near Waukegan Regional Airport in Zion, Ill. Collins and a passenger were killed when the Zlin crashed into a hospital roof. The pilot of the 172 died when her aircraft crashed into a residential street.
Pratt&Whitney has tabled plans to develop a 73,000 lb.-thrust version of the PW4000 engine for higher gross weight A330 transports eight months into the powerplant's test and certification program. Poor sales, a shifting marketplace and a reluctance to spend money to correct problems that showed up in testing are being blamed for the action.
President Clinton's final budget proposal for NASA would give the agency something none of his previous six plans did: a steady stream of funding increases over the next five years. The only catch is the vast majority of the new money would come after Clinton has left office.
USAF Gen. (Ret.) Alfred G. Hansen has been appointed chief operating officer of EMS Technologies, Norcross, Ga. He was a member of the EMS board of directors, and had been commander of the Air Force Logistics Command, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, before retiring.
Boeing's purchase of Hughes Space and Communications will allow the satellite maker to pursue an aggressive research and development effort to complete the company's promise of a 25-kw. HS 702 satellite, Hughes President and CEO Tig H. Krekel said.
Thai Airways International is thinking of bolting the Star Alliance because Singapore Airlines (SIA) is set to join. Thai is being courted by the Delta/Air France alliance. The Bangkok-based flag carrier reports a $10-million loss in revenue last year because of code-sharing by SIA and Lufthansa. Ironically, both SIA and Lufthansa expect to be bidders later this year when the Thai government sells off a portion of Thai's stock.
Sabena Belgian World Airlines and Southern France-based Air Littoral have concluded a code-share agreement covering the French carrier's 130-point European route system. Nice-Geneva and Marseilles-Zurich flights, however, will continue to be operated under an earlier agreement with Swissair. Last year, Air Littoral carried 2.1 million passengers and had about $340 million in revenues. The SAirGroup, Swissair's parent company, owns a 49% stake in Air Littoral.
Airbus Industrie is completing a full-scale, wingless mockup of the proposed A3XX mega-transport and will install it in a new building close to the group's Toulouse headquarters--an indication of Europeans' commitment to launch the 455-656-seat aircraft. The mockup will be used to fine-tune cabin interior arrangements as well as serve as a marketing tool.
OFFICIALS OF THE GENERAL AVIATION Manufacturers Assn. (GAMA) said the organization's ``Be A Pilot'' recruiting program attracted about 70,000 new student pilots in 1999, and reached 30,000 potential students through its Web site at www.beapilot.com. In addition, the program has obtained strong support from more than 1,600 flight schools in the U.S. A GAMA official said the number of student pilots has increased about 14% since the initiative began in 1996.
J. Michael Hateley has become corporate vice president/chief human resources and administrative officer of the Northrop Grumman Corp. of Los Angeles. He succeeds Marvin Elkin, who is retiring. Hateley was corporate vice president-personnel.
Pacific Aerospace&Electronics Inc. has received separate purchase orders totaling $2.3 million from Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin's Sanders to supply modular components and assemblies for the U.S. Army's Hellfire anti armor missile.
Pierre Moskwa has been named director of CNES French space agency's French Guiana space center. He succeeds Michel Mignot, who is now CNES' adviser for French Guiana's economic development.
Flir Systems of Portland, Ore., is introducing a stabilized, dual-sensor infrared airborne camera aimed at law enforcement markets. The turret-mounted Ultra 7000 employs an indium antimonide infrared focal plane array operating in the 3-5-micron range to sense minute thermal signatures in a variety of atmospheric conditions. It incorporates a 10X continuous zoom capability to allow crews to fly higher and see better IR detail, according to Andrew Teich, senior vice president of marketing. A collocated CCD camera provides clear color video for daytime surveillance.
CFM International's long-awaited strategy for maintaining propulsion dominance in the highly profitable 18,500-34,000-lb.-thrust-range engine market should be decided upon early next year.
PHOTOBIT HAS DEVELOPED a CMOS image sensor on a chip that uses only 48 microwatts of power and can run on a 1.2-volt watch battery. A comparable CCD array would consume 10,000 times more power, according to Photobit. The microdot sensor has a 176 X 144 array of detectors, each with an embedded amplifier, on a 2-mm. square die. Photobit's active-pixel technology combines camera signal-processing on one piece of silicon to provide full-frame 8-bit monochrome video at 20 frames per sec.
Boeing has consolidated its commercial aircraft group into a single organization to increase operational efficiency, optimize asset use and improve its customer focus.The change essentially melds Boeing's narrow- and wide-body divisions and their related sales, marketing and engineering functions. It will be phased in at sites and component-making facilities in the Puget Sound area as well as Long Beach, Calif. Layoffs are expected, although the company said the exact number is yet to be determined. No interruption to production is planned.
Bouncing back from dramatic drops in passenger and freight bookings during the peak of Asia's financial crisis in 1998, South Korea's Asiana Airlines plans on hiring 1,100 new employees this year. The total includes 120 pilots and 290 cabin crew. A program of rolling one-month furloughs, instituted to avoid staff layoffs after the crisis hit, ended last June. Aided in part by the poor safety record of competitor Korean Air, Asiana in December had a 38% domestic market share and carried 22% of all international traffic and 20% of all air freight to and from the country.
An oversupply of transponders in a weak economy will be relatively short-lived for Asia, but the challenges posed by regulatory liberalization, telecom globalization and the Internet invasion will be longer lasting. Satellite industry analysts commenting at the recent Pacific Telecommunications Council conference here see an Asian market ready to move after two years of recession. ``We are seeing slow but perceptible improvement,'' Loral-Asia Pacific President William H. Wright said.
FLIGHTSAFETY INTERNATIONAL has received orders for 25 business aircraft simulators scheduled for delivery through 2001. The simulators, all certified to FAA level D standards, are being built for the Gulfstream IV and Gulfstream V, and eight different versions of Cessna Citations including the Sovereign, Excel, CitationJet, Citation X and Ultra. Simulators also are being built for the Falcon 2000 and 900EX, Bombardier's Challenger 604 and Global Express as well as the Learjet 31A, 45 and 60 models, and the new Continental, which is under development. Raytheon Aircraft Co.
Diane Soucy Bergan has become city manager for Boston operations for United Airlines. She previously worked in the carrier's governmental affairs division office in Washington.
The U.S. Air Force plans increased oversight of its launchers as it transitions to the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle. The service has spent the last two months studying recommendations from a White House-chartered space launch review that examined a spate of launch failures in 1998 and early 1999. EELV contractors Boeing and Lockheed Martin made their own recommendations, and the Air Force is now drawing up its action plan.
The U.S. Army has scored its third successive intercept with the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missile and air-defense system. The test at the Army's White Sands Missile Range, N.M., on Feb. 5 was the first time the system's remote engagement capability--in which the launcher and fire control radar are separated by several kilometers--was demonstrated. The Army will conduct 14 more Pac-3 firings in the development program.
