The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a bill to strengthen military ties with Taiwan, but a presidential veto is virtually certain. The bill would set up direct military links between Washington and Taipei, increase military training and education contacts and foster sales of advanced U.S. weapons to the island nation (AW&ST Nov. 8, 1999, p. 80).
Several FAA Airworthiness Directives have been issued over the operational life of the MD-80 series of aircraft regarding problems encountered with the aircraft's horizontal stabilizer, according to the FAA. One directive, effective in 1995, required inspection of horizontal stabilizer primary trim motors and replacement of motors with certain serial numbers.
In a new cross-border effort to restore flight punctuality, Europe is seeking to unify and streamline air traffic management in its fragmented airspace. In the last few years, flight delays in European airspace soared to an average 30 min.--a condition that is seriously disrupting operations and increasing the airlines' production costs. Trade associations, the traveling public and consumer groups are sharply criticizing the absence of strong politically supported initiatives that would accelerate unification.
Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater expressed ``profound disappointment'' last week that the latest round of aviation talks with the U.K. ended without any agreement on restoring nonstop services between London and Pittsburgh. US Airways has been seeking to take up the service ever since British Airways dropped the route last year. Slater said the U.K.'s ``unwillingness'' to consider a broader open skies agreement was also ``regrettable.'' House Transportation Chairman Bud Shuster (R-Pa.) and ranking Democrat James L. Oberstar (Minn.) used harsher language.
THE CIVIL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA selected Harris Corp. to provide a turnkey system of VHF radios, antennas and operator audio panels for air traffic control systems at the new Xiaoshan International Airport near Hangzhou, in eastern China. The VDR-2000 and -3000 equipment being purchased is capable of both analog and digital voice/data communications. It includes a remote control and monitoring system that functions as a network manager, controlling multiple sites and radios from one location.
The Clinton Administration proposes boosting the FAA's facilities and equipment funding 22% in a $2.5-billion Fiscal 2001 budget it will submit to Congress next week, Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater told the International Aviation Club in Washington last week.
The U.S. Navy has conducted a successful live warhead firing test of the Boeing Standoff Land Attack Missile Expanded Response (SLAM-ER) against a ship target. The mission last month was intended to validate the missile's guidance system and ability to hit a predetermined spot on a ship as well as warhead effectiveness. Launch took place from an F/A-18 Hornet located more than 40 naut. mi. away from the decommissioned cruiser USS Dale at an offshore range near Puerto Rico. While en route, the missile received several inflight position updates.
American Airlines plans to remove two rows of seats from every one of its 700 aircraft to add 3-5 in. of legroom in each of the remaining seat rows while trimming the airline's capacity in the market place by more than 6%. The removals, part of a $70-million fleet overhaul, began last week and should be complete by November for American's domestic aircraft and by mid-2001 for its international fleet.
Arianespace will provide more than $100 million worth of vendor and long-term financing for iSky, a dedicated Ka-band satellite network, as part of an agreement to launch the two spacecraft. ISky-1, a 4,500-5,500-kg. spacecraft being built by Space Systems Loral, will be orbited to 109 deg. W. Long. in the third quarter of 2001. The second unit will be lofted to 73 deg. W. Long. in mid-2002. ISky (formerly KaStar) is the second major financing package arranged by Arianespace, after the Ellipso satphone network.
In a crowded launch field, China Great Wall Industries Corp. is presenting itself like a customer-oriented, Western-style business eager to reassure customers and find its niche. ``We are looking for a comprehensive risk-assessment policy,'' Zuoyi Huang, president of China Great Wall's U.S. marketing arm, GW Aerospace Inc., told the Pacific Telecommunications Council's PTC2000 conference in Honolulu last week.
The chairman of the House Appropriations panel that oversees the FAA and NTSB is calling on those agencies to convene a national summit this spring to identify solutions to ``the alarming number of runway incursions'' in the U.S. (AW&ST Jan. 31, p. 26). Rep. Frank R.
Trans World Airlines was No. 1 in on-time performance for the 12-month period ending November 1999, according to U.S. Transportation Dept. Air Travel Consumer Reports. For the period, 80.9% of the carriers' flights arrived on time or within 15 min. of published schedule. The monthly statistics are based on data collected from the 10 largest U.S. carriers.
Brig. Gen. Paul Nielsen is scheduled to become commander of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory and the service's chief technology officer on June 1. He will succeed Maj. Gen. Richard Paul, who will retire. Nielsen has been vice commander of the Aeronautical Systems Center.
Israel's El-Op ElectroOptics Industries has won a contract to supply airborne reconnaissance systems to the Turkish air force for its RF-4E aircraft. The system includes an electro-optic, infrared long-range oblique photography camera and a real-time data link which will be installed in a modular reconnaissance pod that can also be adapted for use on F-16s. El-Op will also provide ground stations to process and receive imagery.
A congressionally chartered commission created to undertake a broad review of the National Reconnaissance Office is expected to start its work this week to determine what changes are needed in the organization.
A federal court has ruled that startup carrier Legend Airlines has the right to begin long-haul flights from Dallas' Love Field Feb. 29, but key events required for FAA certification remain incomplete and could delay inaugural service.
Geoffrey E. Perry, acclaimed sleuth of Russian space activities and founder of the Kettering Space Observer Group in England, who died Jan. 18. Perry, an unassuming schoolteacher, turned an educational project for his physics students into a 35-year quest, uncovering the secrets of the Soviet and Russian space program.
Daniel D. Mickelson has been named president/chief operating officer of the VisionAire Corp., Chesterfield, Mo. He was chairman/president/CEO of Aerofil Technology Inc.
Tera Computer is testing its eight-processor Multi-Threaded Architecture (MTA) supercomputer at the San Diego Supercomputer Center, and the National Security Agency is funding upgrades to an MTA-16 configuration with 16 processors and 16 gigabytes of shared memory. The MTA-8 was initially funded by the National Science Foundation and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. ``The performance achieved on our eight-processor MTA supports the argument that hardware multithreading will be the future of high-end computing,'' said SDSC director Sid Karin.
Derek Quigley, former chairman of a select defense committee in the New Zealand parliament, has been named by Prime Minister Helen Clark to look into the diplomatic, financial and strategic implications of canceling the proposed lease of 28 Block 15 F-16A/Bs. In her parliamentary election campaign, she said the F-16 deal was a waste of money. New Zealand has told allies it is not reducing defense spending but wants to shift programs to benefit the army, including converting the F-16 expenditure to change six options on Lockheed Martin C-130J-30s to firm orders.
CIA director George Tenet is telling Congress that the U.S. can expect tensions between China and Taiwan to escalate, with the possibility of a military encounter in the run-up to Taiwan's presidential elections this spring.
The replacement of a critical electronics box on Endeavour will delay liftoff of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission until at least Feb. 11. But the discovery of what should have been a scrapped part, in an engine on a different orbiter, will have a broader impact on shuttle vendor process control and documentation.
The U.S. Navy is reinitiating a competition to field a supersonic sea-skimming target for use in testing ship self-defense systems. The first attempt to start an engineering and manufacturing development program failed when none of the bidders met all of the service's requirements. The Navy is looking to buy up to 80 missiles, each capable of a speed of Mach 2 and a range of 45 naut. mi. The primary target the Navy wants to replicate is Russia's SS-N-22 antiship missile.
To get final congressional approval to buy both the F-22 and Joint Strike Fighter in the numbers it wants, the U.S. Air Force must clearly explain the differences between the aircraft and define the advantages each will provide in its own combat arena in some future conflict.
The U.S. Air Force and Boeing have worked out a complex arrangement that will allow the service to cut the number of C-17s it is buying this year from 15 to 12 without breaking the multiyear contracting arrangement for the transport, officials said. In budget drills, the Air Force reduced its C-17 buy, but was at risk of having to pay Boeing a fee for violating the terms of the existing contract. The reduction is part of the Air Force's Fiscal 2001 budget being submitted to Congress on Feb. 7.
