The Republican Senate leadership is in no mood to accommodate the Administration's desire for an early vote on China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), to keep it out of presidential politics. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) delights in pointing out the political heartburn Vice President Al Gore will suffer if White House impatience for legislative action riles up WTO opposition from labor unions and environmentalists, two key Democratic constituencies. The White House is said to be hoping for a vote no later than August.
You should be worried. Every time the communications industry becomes entangled in the political issues, bad things happen. The last time, just this past year, Congress dealt a body blow to the satellite industry by enacting ill-advised export control legislation.
Mineral and petroleum geologists who have used U.S. Landsat and other spacecraft for years to characterize terrain for potential exploration, are now keeping an eye on each other with the new higher resolution Landsat 7. The satellite was launched last April carrying a sensor suite that can provide up to 30-meter (98-ft.) resolution.
The year ahead will put U.S. airlines in a tighter squeeze than ever. Their costs are rising, the U.S. fleet has gotten bigger and traffic growth is hard to get. This combination means a tough year of competition for the carriers. As a consequence, there will be continued downward pressure on airline ticket prices. Consumers can expect some good deals, perhaps even a fare war or two.
After a month of testing, the curse of contaminated aviation gas that has afflicted two-thirds of the Australian general aviation fleet hasn't gone away. Just five of 6,000 aircraft tested were permitted back into the air last week, in part because hundreds of test kits failed to arrive at airports throughout the country. The fuel crisis has been traced to a toxic alkaline corrosive cleaning agent used by Mobil to clean its cracking plant in the southern state of Victoria.
Crossair is assembling an international team of experts to review ``operational and technical aspects'' at the Swiss regional carrier. The move, which follows the Jan. 10 crash of one of the carrier's Saab 340B turboprops, is designed to promote clear and open communications regarding flight operations and maintenance activities. The accident, in which 10 people were killed, is still under investigation.
The International Air Transport Assn., which annually updates a five-year air cargo forecast, predicts growth will average 5.5% through 2003. Earlier estimates put average growth at 6%, based on a pickup in traffic with the end of the Asian recession. IATA says growth will taper to just above 5% by the end of the period.
Italian space officials are mounting an 11th-hour effort to keep alive Europe's Vega light launcher project. Initially conceived as an Italian initiative, Vega is now proposed as a European Space Agency program. However, France's decision to withdraw support cost the project its second biggest backer (AW&ST Oct. 25, 1999, p. 40).
Domodedovo Airlines, one of the 10 largest Russian domestic carriers, has been forced to cancel most of its scheduled flights after regional government tax authorities froze the airline's bank accounts. The state-owned airline, which carries about 70% of the traffic between Moscow and Far Eastern destinations, has run up debts of $759,000 with the regional government. Other creditors are also pressing to be paid, including airports and fuel companies.
Runway incursions pose the most serious threat to safe air travel in the U.S., according to government and industry officials who are stumped as to how they can reduce that threat quickly.
German aerospace industry association BDLI is urging the government not to go ahead with a proposed stiffening of export controls for military hardware systems. Noting that German companies such as DaimlerChrysler Aerospace were in the middle of European defense industry consolidation, BDLI chief Eberhard Birke warned that such controls would only encourage industry executives to transfer plants and jobs to other countries in Europe.
India says it will create an aviation security force employing 20,000-25,000 personnel to put commandos on 37 ``sensitive'' domestic and international routes. The Civil Aviation Ministry acted in the wake of the Christmas Eve hijacking of an Indian Airlines Airbus A300 flying to New Delhi from Kathmandu, Nepal (AW&ST Jan. 1, p. 46). Civil Aviation Minister Chaman Lal Gupta said that, depending on the size of the aircraft, two to six National Security Guard commandos will be deployed on the routes, which his agency and the Home Ministry chose.
Despite the plight of two key competitors in trying to launch satellite-based telephone services, Globalstar has retained the confidence and support of Wall Street. Investors' faith in the $3.8-billion venture, which aims to offer worldwide voice service to industries and individuals with far-flung interests, is based in large measure on their faith in its leader. For more than 20 years as the head of Loral Space&Communications, Bernard L. Schwartz, guided the company to produce average annual returns of 27% to investors. Loral owns 45% of Globalstar.
When the aerospace industry gathers next month for Asian Aerospace 2000 in Singapore, it will step into a region emerging from one of the worst recessions since World War II. The crisis triggered the grounding of some airlines while freezing the plans of others. It precipitated riots and toppled a government, prompted military planners to rethink strategy and squelched nationalist plans for aircraft making.
Lockheed Martin is launching a new effort to sell F-16s to Saudi Arabia. The initial campaign is for 24 aircraft, said one source. Several years ago, Saudi Arabia was considering a major F-16 buy, but those plans ended with the drop in the price of oil. Even though oil prices have rebounded, Lockheed Martin's efforts to secure a new order are expected to take at least two years.
The U.K. is considering a U.S. proposal regarding the possible use of the phased array, early warning radar site at RAF Flyingdales in North Yorkshire as an element of a U.S. National Missile Defense (NMD) system. ``The U.S. has informed us of the role they'd like Flyingdales to play in NMD,'' Ministry of Defense officials said. The proposal is still under study and the U.K. has made no commitments, they said, noting the U.S. has yet to decide on proceeding with NMD deployment.
Scott Spangler has been named editor-in-chief of publications for the Experimental Aircraft Assn., Oshkosh, Wis. He was editor of Flight Training magazine and succeeds Jack Cox, who has retired.
Ralph Meoni has been appointed president of the ITT Industries Advanced Engineering and Sciences Div., McLean, Va. He was vice president-corporate development and operation support.
The last time it happened, Moscow canceled a summit meeting with President Dwight D. Eisenhower. U-2s are flying missions over Russia again with Lockheed Martin contract pilots. This time, it's a NASA ER-2, the agency's version of the venerable Lockheed spy plane, flown by contract pilot Dee Porter. His Jan. 27 ozone sampling mission took the plane over St. Petersburg and southward to the Moscow region. A flight plan was filed with Russian authorities and as far as it is known the ER-2 wasn't trailed by fighters.
General Atomics will build jet- and turboprop-powered high-altitude drones for NASA's Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology program, based on growth of the company's piston-powered Predator aircraft. The project is to meet the requirements for a science drone specified by the agency's Earth Science Enterprise (Code Y), which are greater than the current ERAST aircraft can provide (AW&ST July 12, 1999, p. 42). The final version of the new aircraft is to carry 400 kg. (880 lb.) of payload at 52,000 ft. with 32-hr. endurance.
While the economic crisis caused widespread political and economic disruptions in Asia, it has had a surprisingly light effect on satellite services. Satellite launches were curtailed and some satellite programs died, but the long-term effects are expected to be slight. Lockheed Martin Missiles&Space President Peter J. Kujawski called the two-year crisis ``a slight setback'' to the region's fundamental potential for growth in satellites and their services.
The star tracker failed on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Deep Space 1 on Nov. 11, making it difficult to determine spacecraft attitude and point it toward Earth, away from its Sun-point safe mode. But engineers were able to repoint the high-gain antenna at Earth on Jan. 14 and 21 by slewing DS1 and listening for peak radio signal strength. By seeing the strength vary, they were able to command slight attitude changes to keep it aimed for a 5.5-hr. high-speed communications session.
The FAA has approved a 15%, case-by-case increase in ETOPS flying time, to 207 min., from the nearest suitable alternate airport for qualified airlines operating Boeing 777s on North Pacific routes.
