Bohdan Bejmuk, vice president/general manager of the Sea Launch HomePort facility, Long Beach, Calif., has won the 1999 Lloyd V. Berkner Award. The award is given annually by the American Astronautical Society for contributions to the commercial use of space technology.
HOLIDAY SALES ON THE INTERNET took on a new twist last month when Mark Cuban, chairman of Yahoo Broadcast, placed a $40-million order on-line for a Gulfstream V long-range business jet. According to Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., the transaction was the first for a new Gulfstream, but the company already had sold a pre-owned Gulfstream IV through the Internet in October. Both Cuban and the G-IV buyer viewed interior/exterior details of the airplanes using IPIX images, which also allow prospects to obtain technical information.
The FAA has agreed to support other U.S. federal agencies in developing a national policy governing the use of devices that radiate ultrawideband signals. It also will support electromagnetic compatibility testing planned by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Until now, the FAA had been opposed to any use of UWB systems, which spread very small amounts of energy across a wide-frequency spectrum.
Boeing is refining long-range versions of its 777-200 and 777-300 transports and plans to launch the first upgraded model within 3-6 months, according to Alan Mulally, president of Boeing Commercial Airplane Group.
Nick Montanarelli has become CEO of the DHB Capital Group Inc., Old Westbury, N.Y. He was a special consultant to the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
There is an irresistible excitement and anticipation when we consider the potential for technological advance in the aerospace industry of the 21st century. Equally inescapable, however, is the fact that technical progress will be very much influenced by economic, political and environmental factors--with a changing emphasis toward affordable and ``green.''
The first new Hughes HS 702 spacecraft has reached orbit. PanAmSat's Galaxy XI was successfully launched on Dec. 21 on board an Ariane 44L booster from Kourou, French Guiana. The 4,500-kg. (9,000-lb.) satellite will deliver cable television, Internet and other telecommunications services to North America and Brazil via 40 Ku-band and 24 C-band transponders. Galaxy XI will initially operate at 99 deg. W. Long. and later move to 91 deg. W. Long.
Katrina Roche has been named senior vice president/chief marketing officer of the Baan Co. and Charlie Callahan senior vice president of Baan Consulting, Barneveld, Netherlands. Roche was general manager of Baan Supply Chain Solutions, while Callahan was a vice president with Booz Allen and Hamilton.
Smiths Industries will provide logistics and engineering support for stores management systems for U.S. Navy F/A-18C/D, F-14 and AV-8B aircraft in three service contracts totaling $110 million.
Henry M. David has been promoted to vice president/general manager from vice president-contracts of Ellanef Manufacturing of New York, a division of the Magellan Aerospace Corp. of Toronto.
Taking a page from a recent dispute with Societe Europeenne des Satellites, Eutelsat has reached an amicable settlement with Loral Skynet that ends a long squabble over possible interference between orbital slots at 12.5, 14.8 and 15 deg. W. Long.
Hindsight, they say, is 20/20 vision. Our view of the future is not quite so clear. Trying to catch a glimpse of what lies ahead is frustrating at the moment, because the pace of change in the field of air transport is accelerating so rapidly: Issues that daunt us now may no longer have the same impact in a decade or two--and others could easily arise.
An instrument dropped from early designs of NASA's Terra Earth-observing spacecraft (formerly EOS AM) reached orbit just two days behind Terra. Acrimsat, a 110-kg. (242-lb.) satellite for measuring total solar irradiance, was launched from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., on Dec. 20 on board an Orbital Sciences Corp. Taurus booster (see photo) into a 590-km. (367-mi.) Sun-synchronous polar orbit inclined at 98.2 deg. The satellite carries a single instrument, the Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor, which was initially bumped off Terra and its sister spacecraft, EOS PM.
You only need look at the excerpts from the TV science programs of the 1950s and 1960s to realize that predicting the future is perilous. By now, we should all be wearing Star Trek suits, living in houses cleaned by robots and taking our family holidays on Mars. I am also reminded that previous predictions by so-called experts in their fields have included: ``Everything that can be invented has been invented.'' ``There is a world market for, at most, five computers.''
Communications between the FAA control tower at Little Rock's Adams Field and an American Airlines MD-82 that crashed there early on June 1 indicate the pilots were concerned about severe weather during the approach and received repeated warnings of wind shear from controllers.
Thomson-CSF has agreed to acquire the half-share in Shorts Missile Systems held by Bombardier, adding a new twist to Europe's ongoing defense consolidation process.
Look for Boeing to shake up the airline support industry by expanding its Global Airline Inventory Network, or GAIN, to several leading carriers, including Lufthansa, Delta and Singapore Airlines. British Airways signed up in September, and KLM is considering a similar pact. As structured in the BA deal, the Seattle aerospace manufacturer will establish and stock regional or on-premises support centers and manage the supply pipeline for expendable spares for each airline's Boeing fleet, removing the inventory from their books.
The fifth and final prototype in Europe's NH-90 naval/tactical transport helicopter has begun its flight test campaign. Powered by Rolls-Royce Turbomeca RTM322-01/9 engines, this aircraft is intended to qualify the naval version of the NH-90. The four previous prototypes have logged more than 580 hr. in the air.
Raymond Russell has been named director of flight crew training for Frontier Airlines. He was an L-1011 line captain for American Trans Air and its former director of flight operations.
Having promised first flight of the MiG-1.42 technology demonstrator for years, Russian officials now say the aircraft is ready and could be flying later this month.
The space shuttle and International Space Station (ISS) programs are eyeing the possible back-to-back launch of the orbiter Atlantis, using the same astronaut crew and Spacehab configuration, to send critical logistics to the station on two missions this spring. The idea would be to launch the STS-101 crew commanded by astronaut Jim Halsell on the currently planned ISS 2A.2 logistics mission to the ISS in April before launch of the Russian Service Module.
AAI Corp. of Hunt Valley, Md., has successfully completed ground and flight testing of a fully autonomous landing system for Pioneer unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Called the Common Automatic Recovery System, it was designed and developed by Sierra Nevada Corp. of Reno. The completely ``hands-off'' landing system extends airframe lifetime and allows UAV operators quick mission turnarounds without repair or parts replacement resulting from crash or hard landing damage.
