Ted Collins has been appointed senior vice president-law and contracts and Doug Bain vice president/general counsel of the Boeing Co. Bain was vice president-legal for the Boeing Commercial Airplanes Group. He has been succeeded by Eric Mulloy, who was chief counsel.
Using F/A-18G ``Growlers'' temporarily to replace aging EA-6B Prowler jamming aircraft--an idea suggested by the Marine Corps commandant, Gen. James Jones--is not an impractical plan, Lautenbacher says. ``We are working on an analysis of alternatives for the EA-6B,'' he said. ``The F/A-18G is certainly a candidate [and] obviously could be delivered earlier than some other [aircraft]'' like the Joint Strike Fighter, which the Marine Corps would like to use as the airframe for a new electronic-warfare aircraft.
BOEING HAS SELECTED Raytheon to supply a prototype Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) for the F/A-18E/F. AESA will use hundreds of active transmit/receive modules to steer the radar beam and give it increased agility and resolution and multiple simultaneous radar modes. The technology has been under development for years in Europe and in the U.S., primarily for the F-22, initially under a Westinghouse/Texas Instruments team. The F-22 radar is now made by Northrop Grumman, the other competitor for the F/A-18E/F AESA.
Look for more military training programs to switch to public-private partnerships, also called private finance initiatives. Under such an arrangement, the training system supplier provides the up-front funding for facility construction and training device purchase as well as hires the instructors and sometimes creates courseware. In return, the supplier receives long-term training contracts from the military. Reflectone Inc.
The trade accord that sets the groundwork to bring China into the World Trade Organization is unlikely to have immediate impact for aerospace, but it is viewed positively by manufacturers, who believe any effort that opens the Chinese economy to increased trade will rebound in their favor.
Lack of high-resolution imagery hampered India's military operations during last summer's border fighting with Pakistan in the Kargil region of Kashmir, according to the Delhi-based Defense Image Processing and Analysis Center (Dipac). To get ``continuous coverage,'' Dipac said India should develop a constellation of 1-meter imaging satellites, synthetic aperture radar and unmanned aerial vehicles.
CONCEPTS FOR MAKING smaller transistors and squeezing more transistors and other circuit elements on a single chip will be described by researchers at the 1999 IEEE international electron devices meeting on Dec. 5-8 in Washington. Bell Laboratories' researchers have built complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) transistors with gate sizes as small as 50 nanometers (nm.) without using lithography, etching or exotic tools.
Sabena Belgian World Airlines, Swissair and American Airlines will jointly apply to the U.S. Transportation Dept. for antitrust immunity. The three carriers concluded a 10-year agreement to operate code-share flights between Europe, Chicago, Boston, Miami and Washington.
In the absence of notable objections, the European Commission's (EC) competition directorate has approved the SAirGroup's initiative to acquire a 20% stake in South African Airways (SAA). According to the EC, the proposed Swissair/SAA partnership, which is expected to boost the Qualiflyer Group's market share between Europe and South Africa, will not create a dominant position in a highly competitive environment.
Airlines pushing for the manufacture of lower cost, standardized air transports plan to accelerate their campaign in a two-day meeting in Seattle at the end of this month. The group is working with the Air Transport Assn.'s Aircraft Interior Engineering Subcommittee and will use the forum to designate experienced airline executives to head various avenues of investigation. The initial focus will be on aircraft interiors, as these offer the greatest opportunity for costs savings, the group said.
American Blimp Corp. is exploring the potential for airship sales in the gulf region in cooperation with Gulf Aviation Manufacturing Co. Company officials said there appeared to be a potential market for 20-30 airships primarily for maritime patrol and border surveillance applications.
Honeywell Defense Avionics Systems has selected Belgium's Barco Display Systems to install multipurpose control display units in upgraded Lockheed Martin C-5 military transports.
The restructuring of Canada's airlines has taken a new turn with last week's unveiling of an ambitious plan to acquire regional affiliates of the surviving major carrier and develop them into a strong second-tier traffic feed operation.
Relief could be on the way for U.S. satellite exporters complaining of overly cautious State Dept. regulators. A compromise between the White House and Congress on a dispute about abortion cleared the way last week for passage of State Dept. spending authorizations. That bill contains language by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) directing the secretary of State to expedite the export of satellite hardware and technologies to traditionally friendly nations.
The Russian government is planning to regroup the country's helicopter design bureaus and factories into a single company. Kamov general designer Sergei Mikheev has been angling to set up a unified helicopter corporation with full development, production and marketing capabilities. MiG-MAPO Deputy Director General Vladimir Vypryazhkin said Kamov would probably leave the group to form the new company.
Despite recent crashes involving suspected suicidal behavior, the existing system of checks and balances within the airline community argues against implementing special testing of airline pilots to detect mental or emotional abnormalities, according to industry experts.
Anthony Rubinich has been appointed vice president/program director of Electro-Radiation Inc., Fairfield, N.J. He was director of program management at Curtiss-Wright Flight Systems.
Former astronaut Michael J. McCulley has been appointed chief operating officer of NASA's space shuttle program prime contractor, United Space Alliance (USA) of Houston. He succeeds Jim Adamson, who has become president of the AlliedSignal Technical Services Corp. McCulley has been vice president/deputy program manager for the space flight operations contract at USA.
A University of California task force appointed to investigate alleged ultrawideband radar patent infringements by Lawrence Livermore Laboratory concluded that no regulations were violated, but was critical of the lab's technology transfer business practices.
Dassault Aviation Chairman/CEO Serge Dassault confirmed he has every intention of exercising a right of preemption that will allow him to withdraw from a shareholder pact with Aerospatiale Matra, which owns nearly 50% of Dassault shares, once the planned merger with DaimlerChrysler Aerospace merger is finalized. Dissolving the pact would allow Dassault to determine corporate strategy independently of Aerospatiale Matra, he said.
France has ordered $100 million worth of Paveway 2 and 3 laser-guided bomb kits, test equipment and spares from Raytheon. Deliveries are expected to begin early next year and continue through October 2001. The laser-guided bombs would be employed by French air force Mirage F1, Jaguar and Mirage 2000 aircraft, as well as navy Super Etendards.
An Ariane 44LP booster on Nov. 14 launched GE American Communications' GE-4 hybrid C/Ku-band direct television satellite built by Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems. Its final orbital location will be at 101 deg. W. Long.
Susan Stahl has been promoted to vice president-marketing for all programs from director of Boeing 727 Stage 3 market support of Raisbeck Engineering and Raisbeck Commercial Air Group of Seattle.
Alenia Marconi Systems has received a $26-million contract to modernize Algeria's air traffic control system. The contract includes the supply of an ATCR 33/S primary radar and five secondary SIR-M radars. The Anglo-Italian joint venture has also been awarded an $11-million contract from Saudi Arabia for an ATCR 33/S radar and two SIR-M radars for King Adbul Aziz airport in Jeddah and King Khalid airport in Riyadh.
