Qantas Airways is planning to retrofit its existing 18 Boeing 747-400s with Rolls-Royce's RB211-524GH/T engine upgrade and add three new 747s to its fleet. The upgrade involves use of the Trent 700 high-pressure system that powers the Airbus A330. In addition, Cathay Pacific Airways pioneered polar services from New York to Hong Kong using the -GH/T upgrade. It is being installed in the South African Airways fleet and has been ordered by British Airways and CargoLux.
U.S. airline safety experts expect the loss of Swissair Flight 111 will raise new concerns about pilots surviving fire and smoke in the cockpit environment, the use of Kapton in electrical wiring and the effectiveness of two-pilot crews in emergency situations.
The U.S. helicopter accident rate in 1997 dropped to 7.84 per 100,000 flight hours, the lowest in the past seven years. The 166 rotorcraft accidents logged last year were the lowest of any year in the 1991-97 period except for 1995, when there were 162, according to a Flight Safety Foundation analysis, which used FAA data. Air taxi operators--generally nonscheduled Part 135 flights in aircraft with 30 or fewer passenger seats--achieved an accident rate of 4.14 per 100,000 flight hours, the lowest since 1993.
Royal Air Force Wing Cdr. Dave Best has become commanding officer of the Defense Evaluation and Research Agency's Empire Test Pilot School at Boscombe Down, England. Best succeeds Wing Cdr. Laurie Hilditch, who has joined the Euro- fighter Project team at the NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency in Munich, Germany.
The U.K. Ministry of Defense is expected to issue invitations to industry this week to bid for an interim requirement for up to four ``C-17 equivalent'' strategic airlifters, while at the same time moving ahead with longer-range plans to acquire additional transports and aerial refueling tankers.
The tactical commander's screen on the Royal Air Force E-3D AWACS aircraft showed the outline of Alaska's Cope Thunder exercise range stretching from Fairbanks in central Alaska to 40 mi. east of the Canadian border and north to south from the Arctic Circle to the southern coast near Anchorage. At 180 mi. wide and 300 mi. long, it is roughly five times the size of the Nevada Test Ranges where the most secret flying in the U.S. is conducted, as are the large-scale Red Flag air-to-air and Green Flag electronic warfare exercises.
George H. Ebbs (see photo) has been named president of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Fla. He was president/CEO of The Canaan Group, Park City, Utah. Ebbs succeeds Steven M. Sliwa, who is now president/CEO of the Colt Manufacturing Co., West Hartford, Conn.
The Transportation Dept. reports that 80% of airlines operating in the U.S. this year are flying quieter Stage 2 jets, and that carriers will meet the government's deadline for meeting Stage 3 noise standards by midnight on Dec. 31, 1999. In the past year, 225 of the noisier transports have been phased out of the U.S. fleet, and 554 Stage 3 aircraft entered service. Some airlines, however, are retaining Stage 2 jets but are equipping the engines with hushkits meeting Stage 3 standards.
Boeing Phantom Works is converting nine more Russian-built X-31 supersonic sea-skimming antiship missiles into MA-31 target drones for use by the U.S. Navy. The demilitarized Russian missiles, each measuring 15 ft. long, 14 in. in diameter and weighing 1,300 lb., arrived at Phantom Works' St. Louis facility in early August. Phantom Works engineers will add telemetry, range tracking beacons, ballast and flight termination systems, according to John Reilly, head of the MA-31 conversion project for Boeing.
Lufthansa has become the fourth customer for Bombardier Aerospace's 70-seat Canadair Regional Jet Series 700 aircraft with a firm order for 10. They will be delivered in 2001 and 2002. Lufthansa, whose Lufthansa CityLine subsidiary was the launch customer for the CRJ, also ordered another 10 CRJ Series 100 aircraft, bringing its firm order for the 50-seat jets to 45. Value of the new firm orders is C$712 million ($475 million).
IBM is entering the GPS market in a bid to become the lead supplier of high-volume, low-cost chip sets. Leica will provide the chip designs, which IBM will produce, under a joint development agreement. IBM, which already sells half its chips outside the company, will use its new silicon germanium technology to produce chips with higher speed and lower power consumption than gallium arsenide. The chip sets are expected to be available for test late this year.
BOEING HAS SELECTED ELBIT SYSTEMS' FORT WORTH subsidiary, EFW Inc., to conduct a multifunction display upgrade program for the V-22 Osprey. The work involves providing multifunction display subsystems for 246 V-22s over the next seven years and is estimated to be worth $40 million.
An emphasis on double daily services to Los Angeles, London and Sydney and new connections to North America and the Middle East is having a curious effect on Cathay Pacific Airways' winter schedule, which reflects the continuing weakness of Asian destinations. Most load factors there are below 60%. But loads are only part of the problem--yields have tumbled because of heavy discounting. Cathay is to offer twice-weekly nonstop Airbus A340 services to Istanbul, and plans to begin nonstop A340 services on Dec.
Pilots at Northwest Airlines have returned to work with a new contract after a 15-day strike. The walkout and the four-year contract are casting long shadows over labor-management relations, already tense with dissent and militancy. The Northwest strike demonstrated the strength of the 6,200 pilots who were steadfast in their demand for substantial wage improvements and a payback for concessions dating to 1993. The strike's penalty was high for Northwest--at least $10 million a day in cash and damage to the carrier's reputation with consumers.
President Clinton and Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi are slated to discuss Japan's role in theater missile defense at a New York-area summit this week. But U.S. officials do not expect the two leaders' first meeting to produce a major security declaration, despite the furor touched off in Japan by North Korea's recent long-range missile test (see p. 32). The test is widely viewed as providing Japan with an ironclad rationale for establishing theater missile defenses (TMD).
Suzanne H. Eamigh has been promoted to communications manager from marketing and public relations specialist of Signature Flight Support, Orlando, Fla.
Cathay Pacific's load factors for July and August were 72%, 3% higher than the same period last year, but a Cathay official says the Hong Kong-based airline continues to be unprofitable due to heavy discounting. Yield-per-revenue-passenger km. is down. The carrier now says the Asian crisis has also severely depressed revenue from its business-class market.
Robert H. Trice, Jr., who has been vice president-international business of the Lockheed Martin Corp., Bethesda, Md., has been appointed head of corporate business development, effective Oct. 1. John F. Manuel will be retiring as vice president-domestic business development. James R. Ryan will be vice president-financial strategies and investor relations. He was vice president-investor relations. John E. Montague, who has been vice president-financial strategies, has been named chief financial officer of Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications.
North Korea was sticking with the story that its two-stage Taepo Dong 1 carried a satellite but amended it to say the effort had failed, according to U.S. officials. Even so, Pentagon interest is piqued in an expected additional launch. U.S. satellites spotted some activity at the same launch complex. However, late last week, preparations were not brisk enough to indicate another missile, expected to be single-stage, would be fired ``in the next few days,'' a U.S. official said.
Mark Hopkins (see photos) has been promoted to principal director of The Aerospace Corp.'s support for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland AFB, N.M., from senior project engineer in the company's Space Technology Directorate. Dale E. Wallis has been promoted to general manager of the Finance Div. from senior financial officer.
Executive Jet has purchased three additional Gulfstream 4SP business jets, bringing to 34 the number of airplanes in its Gulfstream Shares fractional ownership program. There are currently 30 G4SPs and two Gulfstream 5s, and Executive Jet has options for another two G4SPs. In addition, Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. and GATX Capital Corp. have formed a joint venture to create a short-term lease program specifically for business aircraft users needing a G4SP or the larger Gulfstream 5.
ON-BOARD DATA SYSTEMS OF MIRABEL, QUEBEC, will supply electronic checklists to Rockwell Collins for its Pro-Line 4 systems. The products are designed to allow the operator to customize checklists, transferring them electronically to the aircraft via the Internet.
Northwest Aerospace Training Corp. (Natco), a subsidiary of Northwest Airlines, is standardizing and upgrading the simulator computers and software at its Eagan, Minn., facility with the help of Opinicus Corp. of Clearwater Fla. Opinicus will standardize the operations of 18 Natco aircraft simulators by installing new Intel processors and Linux operating systems in the units. The project will be worth $30 million to Opinicus. In addition to the 18 simulators covered initially, the contract includes an option for six additional upgrades.
John Stressing has been named vice president-worldwide sales of the Applied Microsystems Corp., Redmond, Wash. He succeeds Douglas Fullaway, who has been promoted to executive vice president.
