Delegates from the International Civil Aviation Organization's 185 member nations convened at ICAO's Montreal headquarters on Sept. 22 for the organization's 32nd triennial assembly. ICAO officials hope to win endorsement from the delegates for plans to mandate independent inspections of each member nation's regulations, surveillance and enforcement of aviation safety standards and to set a global agenda for combating the most pressing threats to civil aviation safety. The session is to end on Oct. 2.
Switzerland's Flightlease, SAirGroup's leasing subsidiary, and GATX Capital concluded an agreement to form GATX Flightlease Management. They will be equal partners in the Zurich-based company that is expected to manage a portfolio of about 200 commercial transports valued at $6 billion.
The high sensitivity of Galileo's camera has allowed it to produce much better images of Jupiter's ring structure than made by the Voyager probes two decades ago, leading to the discovery that the outer rings are formed by dust from two small moons.
Virgin Atlantic is appealing a decision by the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority to allow British Airways to add an additional flight per week from London to Capetown, South Africa. Under a U.K.-South Africa bilateral agreement, British carriers will be allowed to operate 26 services per week versus the current 25--7 for Virgin and 18 for BA. Virgin proposed a twice-weekly service and claims South African authorities were ready to grant approval.
NASA is accelerating the use of advanced interactive virtual-reality capabilities for shuttle astronaut training and International Space Station operations planning. The two main flight training facilities here--the Shuttle Mission Simulator (SMS) and Shuttle Engineering Simulator (SES)--are to be equipped with new Silicon Graphics computers and software that will give them a 30-fold increase in the ability to generate and display out-the-window and closed-circuit television scenes of detailed flight operations engineering tasks.
Boeing is broadening the scope of its maintenance support for the 717 transport and exploring new working relationships with some leasing firms as the company takes a harder look at smaller carriers in an effort to bolster orders for the twin-jet.
Rosvoorouzhenie, Russia's state arms trading company, is proposing a package of Su-27s and multirole MiG-29s to Australia to replace its F-111s and F/A-18s.
The CIA's newly released history of its U-2 operations (see p. 29) includes some anecdotes about the largely anonymous pilots. In one incident, also mentioned in Ben Rich's Skunk Works memoir, CIA pilot Carmen Vito, a habitual consumer of lemon drops, reached into a pocket of his flight suit and, without looking, pulled out an ``L-pill'' of liquid potassium cyanide. Such ampules were provided to give pilots an alternative to being tortured. It had been tucked away by a ground crewman who hadn't known about Vito's candy trove.
Thomson-CSF Communications and Racal Radio, a Racal Defence Electronics Group affiliate, concluded an agreement to jointly form a C3I joint venture. They will be equal partners in the yet unnamed U.K.-based company.
ICAO now has a Web site dedicated to the Year 2000 (Y2K) computer problem for civil international aviation. The site describes ICAO's program, lists an action plan, surveys participating countries and describes member countries responsibilities. The address is: www.icao.int/y2k.
A top U.S. Transportation Dept. official has called for a new review of remaining restrictions on international aviation, including limits on foreign investments in airlines and curbs on airline operations within another nation's territory. At the same time, another agency official warned that steps must be taken to promote competition in the domestic arena lest the benefits of 20 years of deregulation be lost.
Kenneth F. Wiegand, director of the Virginia Aviation Dept., has received a special Chairman's Award by the National Association of State Aviation Officials (NASAO), based in Silver Spring, Md., for his efforts to promote state aviation agencies. Gordon B. Hoff, manager of the Minnesota Office of Aeronautics' Aviation Education Section, won the 1998 State Aviation Distinguished Service Award. Hoff was cited for his efforts in the field of aviation education, which have garnered state, national and international attention.
Lon Miller has been appointed associate director of the NASA Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. He was deputy director of the Propulsion Test Directorate there.
Bruce Bishop (see photo) has been promoted to president/CEO from executive vice president/chief operating officer of Tecom Industries, Chatsworth, Calif. He succeeds Vito Minerva, who has retired.
The third Global Analysis and Information Network (GAIN) World Conference is scheduled for Nov. 3-5 at the Long Beach (Calif.) Hilton. The program is aimed at improving flight safety through cooperative analysis and sharing of information between all facets of the aviation industry and governments. Officials from U.S. and international airlines, including Northwest Airlines, Air France, British Airways and Qantas Airways, are set to address the meeting. Representatives from the FAA and the U.K.'s Civil Aviation Authority also will attend.
Hubert Vedrine, the French minister of foreign affairs, has become president d'honneur of NATO's North Atlantic Council, succeeding Danish Foreign Minister Niels Helveg Petersen.
Robert J. Barker of the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Arlington, Va., is one of six scientists and engineers to be selected in the first group of Fellows of the Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. They are scheduled to be inducted on Oct. 21. The others are: William J. Burke of the Space Vehicles Technology Directorate, Hans- com AFB, Mass.; Robert L. Crane, Dennis M. Dimiduk and James C. Malas, all of the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Wright-Patterson AFB; and Johnathan L.
JOHN D. MORROCCO and GEOFFREY THOMASBRUCE DORMINEY
Oneworld, the latest airline alliance grouping to hoist its designer brand logo in the global market, is already moving quickly to expand its reach beyond its five founding members.
Iberia concluded an order for six 249-seat Airbus A340-300 long-range transports and optioned five additional aircraft. First delivery is scheduled for November 1999. The Spanish carrier's A340s will be operated to the U.S., South America and South Africa.
Rekkof Aircraft, a newly formed Dutch company backed by private investors, seeks to relaunch ``in the next 2-3 weeks'' production of the 70-seat Fokker F70 and 100-seat F100 twinjets. Fokker Aircraft filed for bankruptcy and ceased operations in 1996. Rekkof executives claimed they have concluded orders and commitments for 26 aircraft. However, the company's institutional backers still want to further scrutinize the current economic situation before authorizing the program's go-ahead, Rekkof executives acknowledged.
Airports Council International's economists predict ``a vibrant future market for air transport'' despite difficulties resulting from Asia's regional crisis. According to ACI's new forecast, which covers the period ending in 2010, worldwide passenger traffic will increase by an average of 4.65% per year and cargo will grow by 6.43% per year, ``a slightly less aggressive growth [rate] than has been recently forecast by other international organizations.'' In addition to market demand, ACI assessed airport-related capacity constraints.
The recent North Korean missile test raises grave new concerns about the ability of the U.S. to defend its citizens from missile attack. The most notable reason for distress is North Korea's use of a three-stage booster, a technological advancement that places portions of both Hawaii and Alaska at great risk. While the third stage may not be able to support a payload consisting of a large nuclear warhead, it could readily deliver chemical and biological weapons to parts of the U.S.
India has received the first 12KRB cryogenic booster block, developed by Russia's Krunichev Space Center, for its GSLV launcher. Krunichev is to deliver three more such blocks under an agreement between Glavkosmos and ISRO Indian Space Agency which was revised to exclude technology transfer following U.S. objections. The first launch of the GSLV with the 12KRB booster block is expected to take place in the first quarter of 1999.
