Gerhard Schulz (see photo) has become vice president-finance and administration of Arianespace. He was director of finance and control for the Aerospatiale/DASA joint venture Euromissile.
Four decades into what was once quaintly called ``the space age,'' spacecraft and launchers still cost too much and aren't reliable enough. The combination of high costs and huge risks remains a virtual law of nature in space, despite the world's 42 years of experience in building and launching literally thousands of satellites.
Although Airbus Industrie intends to launch the $11-12 billion A3XX Very Large Transport Airplane or VLTA by the end of 2000, its supervisory board last week failed to authorize commercial proposals to potential launch customers.
Delta Air Lines is using Fast Engines' Fast.Serv software to improve the performance of its server for retail online customers. Fast.Serv balances server load and keeps data readily available for a customer's multiple requests, eliminating server overhead, relieving the strain on databases and accelerating server requests, shortening user response time dramatically. ``During a recent discount promotion, volume tripled overnight.
Cathay Pacific Airways and DHL Worldwide Express have formed a partnership to boost air cargo at Hong Kong International Airport. Hong Kong has long been a major freight hub, but lost some of its luster because of bottlenecks at its freight facility when the airport opened 18 months ago. So DHL's shift of its Central Asia hub out of Manila is a vote of confidence for the airport. Cathay Pacific will provide 32 overnight freighter and passenger flights a week between Hong Kong and four major destinations in DHL's Asian Air Network.
The Air Transport Rack enclosure has been designed to comply with ARINC specification 404A and is available in 190.5 mm. X 498.3 mm. X 26.7 mm. form factor. Hold-down hooks at the front panel and rear dowel receptacle provide the means to mount the enclosure to a standard 404A tray. The hard-mounted top-loading card frame holds up to five convection-cooled 6U VME Eurocards and an integral rugged backplane interfaces directly with rear panel mounted I/O connectors. All PCBs are conformally coated. Primagraphics Ltd., New Cambridge House, Litlington, Nr. Royston, Herts.
Lockheed Martin and its Joint Strike Fighter teammates Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems say they have devised a virtual development environment for themselves and their suppliers, to be used if they win the engineering and manufacturing development contract. ``Having this type of capability up and running prior to an EMD contract is a first,'' said Henry J. Levine, JSF deputy for program operations. The Defense Dept. is to select the EMD contractor in early 2001.
Companies developing reusable launch vehicles (RLV) for commercial space operations are refining designs and preparing to build and test operational systems but are stymied by a lack of investment. Space Access LLC, Pioneer Rocketplane, Bristol Spaceplanes, Kelly Space&Technology, Rotary Rocket and other newcomers have seen venture capital tighten severely this year as a result of two factors: -- Iridium's bankruptcy after failing to attract large numbers of early subscribers.
The F-22 has won an important victory inside the Pentagon. In a study to find alternatives to the next-generation stealthy fighter, the F-22 has come out the winner. ``The analysis indicates very strongly we need the F-22,'' says George Schneiter, who monitors tactical aircraft for the secretary of Defense. The Pentagon undertook the study in case the F-22 proved too difficult to bring to fruition.
Space shuttle program managers late last week were assessing the replacement of a dented hydrogen line sleeve on the orbiter Discovery to determine whether its launch to the Hubble space telescope could proceed in mid-December or would be postponed until mid-January.
Daniel Fernandez has been appointed secretary general of the Miami-based International Air Cargo Assn. He succeeds the late Garth H. Davies, who was the founding secretary general. Fernandez was vice president-promotions for the Tigers of Asia Show and Expo in Miami.
J.K. (Ken) Thompson has been named to the board of directors of the Alaska Air Group Inc. and Alaska Airlines. He is executive vice president of ARCO and chairman of ARCO Alaska Inc. William F. Weaver has been promoted to vice president from staff vice president/maintenance and engineering.
Capt. Robert P. Kudwa has been appointed vice president-flight/chief pilot of American Airlines, succeeding Capt. C.D. Ewell, who is scheduled to retire this month. Kudwa was manager of flight training and standards at American's Flight Academy.
Inmarsat plans to considerably expand and reinforce its personal multimedia communications network with a 144-432-Kbps. service offering significantly higher data rates than the 64-kbps. capability now available.
This system utilizes an affordable high-precision eddy current balanced bridge technology. It offers extremely high-resolution, low nonlinearity, thermal stability and subnanometer resolution. The compact DIT-5200 is capable of subnanometer resolution allowing precise positioning. Available in single- and dual-channel configurations, it renders true differential for common mode rejection.
David Assemat has been appointed technical director of CNES French space agency. He succeeds Pierre Moskwa, who is now head of the agency's launch facilities at Kourou, French Guiana.
United Airlines bought Hewlett Packard HP 9000-series servers for its worldwide flight crew scheduling, cargo scheduling and pricing, and speech recognition systems, as well as for its Web site and intranet systems. The previous device took a day to process a day's schedule of more than 2,400 flights, but the new 32-processor V2500 server will do the job in 2 hr., allowing changes to be made as the day progresses. Voice recognition buffs should try United's automated flight information line--it actually works!
Philip A. Odeen (see photo), who has been executive vice president/general manager of TRW Systems and Information Technology, Reston, Va., has become executive vice president of TRW Washington Operations. He has been succeeded by Donald C. Winter (see photo), who was vice president/deputy general manager for group development of TRW Space and Electronics, Redondo Beach, Calif. H. Edward Cypert, Jr., has become vice president/deputy general manager for operations of TRW Systems.
While European Union officials are backing a bold plan for an open transatlantic aviation market, a survey of deregulation in Europe shows the effort has produced mixed results since its implementation nearly two years ago. High production costs, inefficient air traffic management, scarce runway capacity and the airlines' nonaggressive marketing are impeding the benefits of the European route system's deregulation, according to European Commission officials.
Given the dismal showing in 1999 of some of the most highly touted names in the satellite services business, it's understandable why some investors may have retired to the sidelines earlier this year because of the sector's relatively high risk.
The Model ST1 battery operated portable solder tip cleaner has two rotating ``fybRglass'' wheels that quickly clean oxidation and hardened flux residue from solder tips. Tip configurations including chisel, cone, spade and bevel may be cleaned. The wheels are fully adjustable to accommodate solder tips in a variety of sizes and shapes and wheel pressure is adjustable using the spring tension screw. The ST1 is powered by a rechargeable Ni-Cad battery and can clean tips while attached to the soldering iron at the workstation. It weighs 2 lb.
MICHAEL MECHAMEiichiro Sekigawa contributed to this story from Tokyo.
Japan's National Space Development Agency has decided to take its losses by killing the H-2 launch program in favor of a newer design it hopes will prove less costly and risky. As a practical matter, NASDA's decision will have little effect on its launch programs because there was only one H-2 launch still scheduled. It was for a pair of experimental satellites that were behind schedule.
Beal Aerospace Technologies Inc. plans the first flight of its BA-2 heavy-lift booster from Cape Canaveral in 24 months and has entered preliminary negotiations with a potential customer.
