Thai Airways International has obtained financing for a $577-million package of jumbo aircraft, including four Boeing 777-300s and one Boeing 747-400, with the assistance of two of the world's major export finance agencies: the Export-Import Bank of the U.S. and ECGD of Great Britain. The event has enormous significance not just for the airline and Thailand, but more importantly, for jumbo commercial passenger aircraft programs worldwide, according to Tom Gallagher, managing director for defense, aerospace and technical services for First Union Capital Markets Corp.
The U.S. Air Force is tripling its investment in spacecraft vibration isolation systems after two successful tests last year. The system, built for the Air Force by CSA Engineering, was able to reduce vibration on a satellite by as much as 75%, Air Force officials said. Encouraged by those results, the Air Force Research Laboratory plans to increase the program's $5-million budget to $15 million. The service's next goal is to develop a vibration reduction system that could be used on Boeing's and Lockheed Martin's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle programs.
Airlines clamoring for drastic changes in the air traffic system bolster their arguments with warnings that worsening flight delays will throttle the U.S.' robust economy. Former American Airlines Chairman Robert L. Crandall, for instance, argues that delays inevitably will discourage people from flying, which would ``have a substantial adverse impact'' on the economy. He said in a recent speech, ``The unmeasured rub-off effects of less travel--deals not made, products not manufactured, services and products not sold--will be substantial as well.''
Shifting routine transmissions from voice to data link would provide the biggest near-term boon to relieving air traffic congestion. Controller-to-pilot data link communications (CPDLC) could handle more efficiently nearly half of all ATC transmissions, which involve routine frequency changes--acknowledging and checking in--and altimeter settings. However, voice would still be used for messages with an immediate potential impact, such as ``traffic at 12 o'clock is closing.''
Airline pilots say the U.S. and European air traffic systems are under stress, and the pressure to handle ever increasing numbers of aircraft is reducing the margin for error even though flight operations are still considered safe. Capt. Ted Murphy, president of the International Federation of Air Line Pilots Assns. (IFALPA) which represents groups with 100,000 pilot members, said congestion is as bad as it has been in many years in Europe and things are clearly busier in North America where the pressure is now coming on.
C.O. Miller has warned that safety recommendations from airline accident and incident investigations must be carried out if we are to lower accident rates (AW&ST Sept. 13, p. 94). Lowering those rates is possible only with a change in mindset that is just beginning to take place. The word safety must become synonymous with accident prevention.
The cockpit crew of a FedEx MD-11 suffered minor injuries Oct. 17 when the freighter overshot Runway 07 at Subic Bay Freeport in the Philippines while landing on a flight from Shanghai. The aircraft sank 30 ft. from the shoreline. It landed in light rain and hit a concrete post and wire fence before sinking nearly out of sight. Its cargo of garments and electronic goods was considered lost.
Rotary Rocket made the first translational flight of its Roton Atmospheric Test Vehicle on Oct. 12, reaching speeds of 53 mph. while traveling 4,300 ft. along a runway. It was the vehicle's third flight (AW&ST Oct. 11, p. 21). The test lasted 3 min. 47 sec., comprising 1:50 in forward flight and 1:57 in hover. The longitudinal stability and other data appears to have good correlation with the craft's integral simulator, a company official said.
Rohrabacher made it clear last week that he hasn't changed his harsh views on China. With China becoming ``enormously powerful,'' expansionists in Beijing are eyeing land in Russia, he claims. ``They're going to go up to Siberia, or they're going to try to take over Central Asia,'' he told an Aerospace States Assn. audience. But Rohrabacher sees a silver lining in such a scenario. A threatened Russia, he says, will seek closer ties with the West and become more democratic. ``I'm optimistic about Russia because I'm pessimistic about Communist China,'' he says.
Air traffic congestion, a narrowing safety margin, increasing ground and air delays. These are immediate and grave matters facing the U.S. and European air transport systems. They have led to widespread passenger frustrations, and perhaps even a few instances of what is now voguishly called ``air rage.''
Kenneth F. Wiegand, director of the Virginia Aviation Dept., has been elected chairman of the National Assn. of State Aviation Officials. Other officers elected to serve through next Sept. 30 are: vice chairman, Harold E. Miller, statewide manager of the Iowa Aviation Staff; secretary, John C. Eagerton, 4th, director of the Alabama Aeronautics Dept.; and treasurer, Jack Ferns, director of the New Hampshire Aviation Div.
As another wave of merger agreements broke in Europe last week, the stage is now virtually set for the next major challenge--whether further consolidation can be forged across the Atlantic, or Europe and the U.S. remain separate and competing fortresses.
Philip Hinz and Erin Sabatke, graduate students at the University of Arizona-Tucson, and Benjamin Lane, a graduate student at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, have been selected to receive Michelson fellowships offered by NASA's Origins Program and its Space Interferometry Mission. Hinz was selected for work on building a new type of nulling interferometer, which will block the glare from nearby stars so scientists can observe, in infrared wavelengths, the dust and giant planets that may orbit those stars.
At least one U.S. airline is planning to work closely with the air traffic controllers union in trying to come up with ways to avoid record delays like those experienced this summer.
The SAirGroup, Swissair's parent company, will acquire a 37.6% stake in state-owned LOT Polish Airlines. According to the terms of the agreement, which is scheduled to be implemented by the end of the year, LOT will join the Qualiflyer Group as a full-fledged member. ``LOT's Warsaw hub ideally enhances the Quali-flyer Group's position in Eastern Europe,'' SAirGroup Chief Executive Philippe Bruggisser said. In 1998, LOT carried 2.6 million passengers with a 28-aircraft fleet.
A last-minute attempt by the European Space Agency to rescue the Vega light launcher project has floundered, virtually ensuring that the project, if it goes ahead at all, will be relegated to a purely Italian national effort.
Greece's Aegean Airlines has ordered an additional Avro RJ100 four-engine regional transport. CityFlyer Express, a British Airways franchisee, has ordered two RJ100s.
Commercialization of air traffic control in the U.S. could help reduce airline congestion by taking politics out of decision-making processes and providing a relatively steady stream of funding for development of ATC systems. Some two dozen countries have taken at least initial steps toward moving their ATC organizations away from government control, officials said at the 44th annual international technical conference of the Air Traffic Control Assn.
The introduction of regional jets at O'Hare International Airport and the reluctance of many commercial pilots to accept land-and-hold-short clearances are major contributors to the decline of capacity at the nation's number two airport. The two factors have voided the full-time operation of three runways--27L, 27R and 22R--and have reduced the airport arrival rate in optimum weather conditions to 80 aircraft per hour and below, from 100. In poor weather, the decline is much steeper.
Congress once criticized the F-22 program for lagging in software development, but Northrop Grumman and Boeing avionics specialists say 1 million of the total 1.4-million lines of computer code has been designed, written and tested. The remaining 400,000 lines of code are well along in the development process. Much of the analysis needed to design the remaining code has been completed and actually writing the code is considered a minor task. The total package is to be completed by Oct. 20, 2000.
Systems Management Inc. and Systems Atlanta Inc. have won a three-year $10-million contract from the FAA, to design, produce and install ASOS Controller Equipment-Integrated Display Systems for Terminal Radar Approach Control towers in Atlanta, Northern California, Washington and Honolulu.
Jeffrey G. Roberts (see photos) has been named senior vice president-marketing and business development of GE Capital Aviation Training, Stamford, Conn. He will remain president of SimuFlite Training International. Allison K. Blank- enship has been appointed managing director of communications and special projects and Thomas M. Ferranti managing director of technical services. He held the same position, and Blankenship was managing director of project management, at SimuFlite.
Jim Ritchie (see photo) has become general manager of fixed-base operations for the Mercury Air Group Inc. at Los Angeles International Airport. He was a consultant of El Toro Base Asset Management for Orange County, Calif.
