In a step toward stabilizing her command of the agency, FAA Administrator Jane F. Garvey named Thomas E. McSweeny to take over as associate administrator for regulation and certification. McSweeny, until last week the director of the FAA's Aircraft Certification Service, succeeds Guy S. Gardner who left the agency last month after two years in the associate administrator's post.
A Sept. 24 flight test at the White Sands Missile Range demonstrated that position-correction signals transmitted to a GPS/inertial navigation system (INS) package on a Pershing 2 reentry vehicle can significantly improve RV accuracy. The technique could give long-range ballistic and cruise missiles a precision targeting capability.
Additional U.S. Air Force F-15E and F-16 units were being moved to Aviano, Italy, late last week to join aircraft already there in preparation for precision bombing strikes on Yugoslavia that could begin this week. The threat comes in response to Serbian attacks on ethnic Albanians in the province of Kosovo.
Al Archuleta has been appointed general manager of the Houston facility of the Atlantic Aviation Corp. He was general manager of the Mercury Air Center facility in Dallas.
The NASA award of a $3.4-billion Consolidated Space Operations Contract to a Lockheed Martin team is paving the way for significant cost reductions at five major facilities and a radical shift at the agency from traditional to commercial business practices. Under terms of the Consolidated Space Operations Contract (CSOC), Lockheed Martin Space Operations Co. will be responsible for management of NASA's data collection, telemetry and communications operations, as well as activities associated with planetary exploration and human flight in space.
Susan Janes has been named marketing manager for sensors and Kristin Watson controller of the Eaton Corp.Pressure Sensors Div., Bethel, Conn. Janes was market development manager for United Electric Controls, Watertown, Mass., and Watson was senior vice president-finance and administration of the Eastern Fairfield County (Conn.) United Way.
The Asian economic crisis is sweeping like a storm across once-vibrant Asia-Pacific commercial satcom and government space programs. The downturn has been more severe than initially expected and therefore will take longer to overcome, analysts here believe. But the enormous size of the Pacific market and the momentum of existing large government programs here indicate Asia-Pacific space efforts should emerge from the crisis as early as 2000-01 toward more solid growth, according to international space managers.
Readiness funding will be short by nearly $20 billion next year, largely because the Republican-controlled Congress has not closed enough military bases and has indulged in billions of dollars of pork barrel projects the Pentagon does not want, the Joint Chiefs of Staff charged last week. In fact, the readiness shortfall probably exceeds $20 billion because it does not reflect needed pay and retirement increases for Fiscal 2000, which starts next Oct. 1, the JCS told Congress.
Two problems encountered early in the Boeing 717 flight test program could be resolved by mid-October and probably will not push back the planned certification date for the 100-passenger twinjet, according to Boeing officials. The problems involve brakes and fly-by-wire spoilers on the initial test aircraft which flew for the first time on Sept. 2.
THE U.S. FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION is investigating whether to allow the operation of unlicensed ultra-wideband (UWB) radio systems. UWB systems generally use either extremely narrow pulse (impulse) modulation or swept frequency modulation over a large bandwidth, which usually exceeds 1 GHz. and can exceed 10 GHz. Applications include ground penetrating radar and covert voice or data communications.
A new, low-cost launcher effort for the U.S. Air Force won't begin for at least a year. Officials at Kirtland AFB, N.M., had asked industry what systems may be available to place a payload up to 3,000 lb. into a 400-naut.-mi. Sun-synchronous orbit. The responses show the Air Force is better off waiting a year or two to allow developing commercial launch technologies to mature, said Maj. Steve Buckley, chief of USAF's Small Launch Vehicle Div. at Kirtland. A USAF agreement with Orbital Sciences Corp. for Pegasus and Taurus launches expires at the end of the year.
Singapore Airlines' wholly owned subsidiary, Silk Air, took delivery of an Airbus A320 last week, the first of eight A319/A320s on order. But General Manager Mak Swee Wah said it will stretch delivery of its remaining aircraft to 2002 because of the Asian airline recession. The original plan was to take delivery of all the aircraft by 2000. The initial five aircraft will replace the airline's fleet of Boeing 737-300s, and the remainder will extend its fleet.
The trend toward privatizing German airports is gathering speed, and the recent decision of Lufthansa German Airlines to become a strategic airport investor could quicken the pace.
Dr. Irene D. Long, director of the Biomedical Office at the Kennedy Space Center, has received the 1998 Outstanding Achievement Award from Women in Aerospace for her contributions to aerospace and occupational medicine, life sciences research, environmental health and operational management of life sciences support facilities. Marjorie Sparks, director of management integration for the United Space Alliance, received the Lifetime Achievement Award. She was recognized for her work over 27 years on the Apollo, Skylab and space shuttle programs.
Graham H. Smith has been appointed general manager of the Toronto office of ICO Global Communications. He was a consultant and executive vice president/ chief operating officer of Telular Canada.
GKN Westland has taken delivery from Boeing of the first production WAH-64 Apache destined for the British Army, three days after it made its maiden flight. The flight was conducted on Sept. 25 at Boeing's Mesa, Ariz., facility. The 30-min. test flight included hover tests, forward flight to 60 kt., with rearward and lateral flight to 45 kt.
George Edward Haddaway, a noted aviation journalist and strong proponent of regional, business and general aviation, died on Sept. 26 in Durango, Colo. He was 89 and was a victim of leukemia. Haddaway founded Flight magazine in 1934 and for more than a half-century he was editor and publisher. Haddaway strongly advocated the beginning of what is now the regional airline network. He helped found the forerunner of the Civil Air Patrol and began Wings of Hope, a medical missionary organization.
Intelligence officials have told Congress in classified briefings that nations aspiring to be ballistic and cruise missile powers are sharing technology right and left. It was a factor in the recent, somewhat surprising tests of Pakistan's Ghauri, Iran's Shahab 3 and North Korea's Taepo Dong 1 rockets. Meanwhile, missile tests are getting harder to track because nations are learning from each other how to conceal preparations and how U.S. intelligence-gathering works. The intel types say to expect North Korea to test the 4,000-6,000-km.-range Taepo Dong 2 this year.
Boeing will pay fines totaling $10 million for violations of U.S. arms control laws in connection with its Sea Launch program. The State Dept. charged that Boeing committed more than 200 violations as it worked with Russia's RSC-Energia and Ukraine's KB Yuzhnoye and PO Yuzhmash on the program, which plans to use a converted oil drilling platform to launch rockets from the mid-Pacific. Norway's Kvaerner Maritime also is a partner (AW&ST June 16, 1997, p. 216).
Virgin Express Holdings, struggling with the high costs of operating from its Brussels hub, has formed a new Irish subsidiary to be based at the Shannon airport. Virgin Express (Ireland) is set to start a twice-daily service between Shannon and London Stansted airport in mid-December. Charter services from Shannon to other European destinations are also planned as part of the low-fare carrier's future growth strategy.
NASA knows that crew time, power and data transmission on the International Space Station will be severely limited during its construction. And the agency acknowledges that its own red tape ``might require reevaluation'' if the private sector is to feel at home on the station. Still, NASA has promised a strategic commercialization plan by the end of the year incorporating the views of potential private users. Meanwhile, it's kicking around some ideas.
Richard Heideker has become executive vice president/general manager of product management and Marcus Herren vice president/corporate controller for Crossair. Heideker succeeds Josef Felder, who has resigned. Herren was assistant vice president and succeeds Jurgen Termin, who is now chief financial officer of the Atraxis division of the SAirGroup.
Thai International is set to review planned aircraft deliveries of Boeing 777-300s and Airbus A330 and A300-600R aircraft, according to Transport and Communications Minister Suthep Thaugsuban. Like other carriers in Asia, the Thai flagship's short-haul services have been badly affected by the Asian economic crisis. Thai has no long-haul aircraft on order and may try to swap some of its regional aircraft orders for longer-range variants for later deliveries.
