Arianespace has successfully lofted a PanAmSat communications spacecraft into a geostationary transfer orbit following liftoff here of an Ariane 44LP at 3:31 a.m. local time on Sept. 16. The 3,838-kg. (8,444-lb.) PAS 7 satellite, built by Space Systems/Loral, will be located over the Indian Ocean at 68.5 deg. E. Long. Once it becomes operational in about six weeks, it will be capable of providing communications services to Africa, the Middle East, Asia and eastern Europe.
Loral Orion and Natelco, an Indian telecommunications provider, have formed a joint venture to provide high-speed Internet access and private network services to business customers in India. Dubbed Loral Orion-India Ltd., the venture will focus particularly on providing advanced Internet transmission services to India's software development companies to enable them to send software and technology products within India and abroad. India exported $1.8 billion in software to the U.S. in 1997. Natelco will hold a 51% stake in the new company and Loral Orion a 49% share.
Boeing sales logged at the close of the Farnborough air show earlier this month included five more next-generation 737-800 transports to German tour operator Hapag-Lloyd. The carrier, launch customer for the -800 version, already has taken delivery of five 737-800s from an initial firm order for 16. Last week, Chicago-based Heller Financial acquired two 737-300s. They are scheduled for delivery by the end of the year and likely are deliveries canceled or deferred by a troubled Asian carrier.
Lt. Gen. Thomas Case has been nominated by the White House as the new chief of Alaskan Command and 11th Air Force (see p. 54). He replaces Lt. Gen. Dave McCloud who was killed in the crash of an aerobatic aircraft in July. Case served in Alaska during 1993-95 as commander of the 3rd Fighter Wing at Elmendorf AFB. Case leaves the post of deputy commander-in-chief and chief of staff for U.S. Central Command.
Israel Aircraft Industries continued its return to profitability, posting a net profit of $19.7 million in the first half of 1998, an increase of $6.9 million over the same period last year. Sales were up by $158 million to $929 million. Export sales were up $143 million to $725 million and new orders during the first half of 1998 totaled $934 million.
Business jet manufacturers are closely monitoring the worsening financial Asia-Pacific crisis for signs of a possible impact on booming aircraft sales. Gulfstream Aerospace is discussing possible deferrals of G5 deliveries to some customers in the Far East, while Raytheon Aircraft has seen a 60-70% slowdown in sales in Australia in the last 12 months.
The U.K. and France are seeking a global ban on Yugoslavian airlines, including national carrier JAT, as part of a draft U.N. resolution aimed at pressuring an end to repressive activities by Serb forces in Kosovo. The European Union recently imposed such a ban, which the U.K. belatedly joined last week, waiving a 1959 agreement with JAT calling for 12 months' notice.
Lucas Aerospace has received a contract worth 600 million pounds ($960 million) to provide the complete fly-by-wire flight control system for Fairchild Aerospace's 728Jet. Lucas also won contracts worth $520 million to provide a portion of the thrust reverser actuation and primary and secondary flight controls on the Airbus A340-500/600.
Airbus Industrie will acquire two additional A320 full-flight simulators from Thomson Training&Simulation, to be delivered during the second half of 1999. Thomson also launched a Boeing 737-700/900 full-flight simulator that will become available next year. The first customer is Alaska Airlines.
Top officials of six carriers--US Airways, United, TWA, Tower, Delta and Continental--jointly urged Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater to disapprove the proposed alliance between American Airlines and British Airways unless a number of ``competitive guarantees'' are in place. These include obtaining written guarantees from the U.K.
The National Institute of Justice, the Washington-based research arm of the U.S. Justice Dept., is evaluating novel electromagnetic devices to help law enforcement agencies curtail high-speed vehicle chases. The technologies, which also have military and antiterrorism applications, include electrostatic discharge (ESD), nonnuclear electromagnetic pulse (EMP) and high-power microwave (HPM) or radio energy (RF). Initial laboratory results have shown promise, according to Amon Young, NIJ program manager. Planned tests include stopping vehicles traveling at 60 mph.
British startup Debonair's imminent plan to inaugurate a low-fare route to Paris-Pontoise is expected to revive a proposal to promote the small airport as the third Paris gateway. Pontoise is located 25 mi. northwest of Paris, near Cergy-Pontoise, a rapidly expanding business-oriented town. The general aviation airfield is equipped with minimal facilities, but could be expanded easily. Last year, Pontoise handled 110,000 aircraft movements.
For years, Alaska has been touted for its unique position as a jumping-off point for military and humanitarian emergencies in Asia and Europe. Moreover, it has matchless, unoccupied space that could make it the nation's largest-scale training center. Now yet another inducement is being added as the result of a determined effort to make the state an epicenter of experimentation for new military tactics, communications, sensors and weaponry.
Contracting out for services will continue to grow, even though U.S. government spending on information technology will remain reasonably flat over the next five years, according to a new forecast by the Electronic Industries Alliance. The EIA team predicts government spending on information technology (IT) on the civil and defense side will remain essentially level at $28.6 million in constant-year dollars. Hardware and software sales are expected to decline, while services will grow by 2.3% annually, with 1.6% of that contracted out.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORP.'S Electronic Sensors and Systems sector in Baltimore developed the Reconnaissance Infrared Surveillance and Target Acquisition (Rista 2) system described in this column on Sept. 14 (p. 80). The capabilities of the passive airborne IR imaging system were recently demonstrated in UAV flights over Camp Roberts, Calif.
John C. Brizendine, former president of Douglas Aircraft Co. and director of development for the DC-10, is scheduled to receive the 1998 Aircraft Design Award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Nikolaos Caravasos the AIAA Survivability Award, on Sept. 30. He is manager of military systems for Boeing Helicopters in Philadelphia.
John Glenn's presence on board the shuttle will unnecessarily introduce risk to next month's mission and crew. It's in the numbers--77 to be specific--Glenn's age. While I doubt there is anything about a shuttle flight that might induce a stroke or heart attack or other serious health problem, Glenn's age naturally endows him with an increased exposure to such problems. That's not ``geezer'' bashing. It's an incontrovertible fact of life. Imagine the outrage if Glenn has chest pains early in the flight and a $400-million mission has to be cut short.
Herbert L. Buchanan, 3rd, deputy director of the U.S. Defense Advance Research Projects Agency, is slated to be nominated by President Clinton as assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition.
The U.S. Air Force has decided to contract with civilian flight schools to screen prospective USAF pilots until the Slingsby T-3A Firefly is returned to service. Flight schools throughout the U.S. will provide about 40 hr. of private pilot-type instruction to 2,000 pilot candidates a year, according to Air Education and Training Command (AETC) officials. Delays in FAA supplemental type certification of T-3A fuel system modifications also prompted AETC to place the trainer in ``minimal maintenance status'' recently.
AWACS of the future could end up installed on one or all of the following vehicles--a low- or high-orbit satellite, a new generation of larger, multi-engine unmanned aerial vehicles, or on a dozen or fewer refurbished E-3 aircraft. In the long term, perhaps by 2025, the Pentagon wants to have most of its AWACS sensors on board satellites. That presents a quandary to those who are planning just how to move radar capabilities to space.
Shortly before his death in a July flying accident, Lt. Gen. Dave McCloud, perhaps the U.S. Air Force's fasting rising star, gave voice to the Pentagon planning for Alaska's military future.
Bill Kershner of Sewanee, Tenn., Marvin Easter of Columbus, Ohio, and the late Joe Vorbeck, who was also a professor of aviation, are scheduled to be inducted into the National Assn. of Flight Instructors' Hall of Fame at the Experimental Aircraft Assn. Aviation Center, Oshkosh, Wis., on Oct. 10. Harry W. Orlady of Los Gatos, Calif., will be inducted that day into the Wisconsin Aviation Hall of Fame, also at the EAA Aviation Center.
CSA Czech Airlines, which received its JAR-145 maintenance approval in June, has signed up its first Western European maintenance customer. CSA will perform C checks on five Boeing 737-400 aircraft operated by German charter carrier Hapag-Lloyd Flug by year-end.
Israeli legislators of all political stripes are pressing for faster deployment of antimissile defenses, warning that democracies everywhere face a ``new world order'' of dictatorships increasingly equipped with mass destruction warheads and the missiles to deliver them. In an impassioned plea last week to their counterparts on Capitol Hill, four members of the Israeli Knesset called for a rethinking of strategic preparedness in light of the accelerating spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
Zenit booster technicians believe a malfunction of the vehicle's flight computers or software--or a combination of both--resulted in the failure of a Zenit carrying 12 Globalstar spacecraft following launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Sept. 10. The booster's Russian Energomash second-stage engine was shut down prematurely, causing the commercial payload to impact in Siberia (AW&ST Sept. 14, p. 59).
