Michel Abella has been appointed vice president-programs and cooperation, Charles Thoyer-Rozat vice president-customer relations and Gilles Brechet secretary-general, all of Hurel-Dubois, Meudon-La-Foret, France.
Integral Systems Inc. has received a $2.4-million contract from Raytheon Electronic Technologies Inc. for use of its Epoch 2000 satellite control center technology to support NOAA's satellite control workstation replacement effort.
Ames Research Center has devised software tools for managing air traffic, and the FAA plans to implement them at major airports. The Traffic Management Advisor program matches the flow of aircraft to the airport capacity, and the Final Approach Spacing Tool suggests landing sequences and runway assignments to minimize delays. It can increase landing rate by up to 10%, and both programs save an average of 2 min. per flight, NASA said.
The failure of a Ukrainian/Russian Zenit booster carrying 12 Loral Globalstar spacecraft shortly after launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Sept. 10 ranks as an unprecedented commercial space launch accident that will have a profound impact on Globalstar's initial plan to compete with Motorola's Iridium program.
With little hope for resolving a bitter dispute between Dallas and Fort Worth over expanded service from Love Field, the Transportation Dept. plans to issue a declaratory ruling next month that centers on issues of federal law raised in litigation between the two cities.
Precision Guided Systems U.S., a joint venture of Rafael and Lockheed Martin, has won a $67.8-million contract from the U.S. Air Force to provide 90 AGM-142 Have Nap standoff attack missiles, two data link pods, three captive air training missiles, and associated data, contractor support and transportation.
THE FAA PLANS TO GIVE CONTINENTAL AIRLINES the first operational approval in the U.S. to use a differential GPS landing system for precision instrument approaches on revenue service flights. The system--Honeywell/Pelorus Navigation Satellite Landing System (SLS-2000)--will be certified for Category 1 precision approaches. SLS-2000 will be the first GLS to receive FAA-type acceptance for its ground-based system and supplemental-type certification for the aircraft avionics. The initial revenue flights by Continental using the system are scheduled for Sept.
Lynne A. Osmus will succeed Patrick N. Poe as director of the FAA's Europe, Africa and Middle East Office. Poe will be administrator for the agency's Alaska Region. Marie Therese Dominguez has been named deputy chief of staff and counselor to the FAA administrator. Dominguez was special assistant to the President and associate director of presidential personnel at the White House.
Atlas Air took delivery of its first 747-400F freighter in midsummer. The carrier has nine more on firm order and 10 on option. The Golden, Colo.-based carrier plans to take up to five 747-400s this year and four in 1999, with a final delivery in the year 2000. Atlas is accelerating some of its -400F deliveries in preparation for a projected worldwide shortfall of freight lift as older freighters are retired due to upcoming Stage 3 noise rules. Boeing is increasing the mix of freighters produced on its -400 line, offsetting postponed Asian passenger transport orders.
Salvage teams are working to recover Swissair Flight 111's cockpit and the electronics bay below it for investigators seeking to determine why the MD-11 crashed into the Atlantic off Nova Scotia two weeks ago. Investigators for the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) are considering reconstructing those sections of the aircraft so they can better determine the source and location of smoke that infiltrated the flight deck moments before the Sept. 2 crash.
An expanded code-sharing agreement with Delta Air Lines will give Korean Air access to an array of new flights from the U.S. beginning Sept. 15. Using KE 7000-series tickets, Korean Air passengers will get new daily services to Seoul from Las Vegas, Portland, Orlando, Fla., Philadelphia and New York, and added flights from New York, San Francisco, Dallas, Boston and Atlanta. The services will operate through existing Korean Air gateways such as Los Angeles or New York. Earlier this month, Delta said it would use Korean flights to reach into China and Southeast Asia.
Steven Kennerknecht (see photos) has been named group vice president-technology and marketing of the Howmet Corp., Greenwich, Conn. He was general manager of the Howmet-Cercast in Montreal. Kennerknecht has been succeeded by Hermann Pawelka, who was general manager of the Cercast Group's Ceramet facility in Bethlehem, Pa.
Airbus Industrie intends to launch by the end of the year the 107-seat A318 twinjet, which will be powered by Pratt&Whitney engines. The European consortium's counterattack against the Boeing 717 signals the first application for Pratt's 16,000-23,000 lb.-thrust PW6000 in a market long-dominated by CFM International and International Aero Engines.
Orders across their product ranges flowed in for Airbus and Boeing at the Farnborough air show--nearly $17 billion in total--to add to their already record-setting backlogs. How long these good times might roll on, however, was a matter of opinion.
To reduce the jitter of head trackers used in simulations, InterSense Inc. of Burlington, Mass., is offering trackers that use micromachined gyroscopes as primary sensors and high output rates of up to 500 samples per second. The ``InertiaCube'' sensor is 1.1 X 1.3 X 1.3 in., about the size of an ice cube, and weighs 2.1 oz. It is connected by a cable to a 15-oz. signal processor and needs no external reference other than the Earth's gravity and magnetic field.
The first air show at the Farnborough Aerodrome was held in 1948. At that time, there were 187 exhibiting companies with 70 aircraft on display. During 50 years of Farnborough, the show's character, size and emphasis have changed almost every two years.
Boeing's Phantom Works beat out rival Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in signing retired Air Force Lt. Gen. George K. Muellner, who was the service's top uniformed acquisition official until Aug. 1. Muellner gets the No. 2 slot at Phantom Works. Boeing's and LockMart's advanced technology shops were dueling for Muellner because of his experience with ``black'' programs, as well as Joint-STARS, F-22 and Joint Strike Fighter. Phantom Works' multidisciplinary approach that cuts across military, commercial and space activities attracted Muellner.
Shorts Missile System's Starstreak air defense missile system has been cleared for export by the U.K. government. The mobile system can be mounted on an armored vehicle or in a lighter-weight version for light-wheeled vehicles. The U.K. is also discussing the purchase of additional Starstreak systems for the British army.
For travelers in need of cyber access, 100 get2net CyberFlyer NetStations are scheduled to be installed at various U.S. sites over a 45-day period. This month, 10 units will be set up in the main concourse at New York LaGuardia, with other units to be added to those already in place at Newark (N.J.) International Airport, Chicago O'Hare International, Boston Logan International Airport, Charlotte (N.C.) Douglas International Airport, as well as Maryland House Travel Plaza on Interstate Route 95 and the Molly Pitcher Travel Plaza on the New Jersey Turnpike.
The number of registered Internet users in China doubled in the first half of 1998, going from 620,000 at the end of 1997 to 1.175 million at the end of June, according to the China National Network Information Center. The aggregate bandwidth connecting China with the global Internet is 85 Mbps. . . . . BittWare has brought out a powerful and compact digital signal processor for the industry-standard PC/104 interface and form factor. The Silvertip Quad PC/104 has four 40-MHz. ADSP-2106x SHARC processors and 1 MB of flash memory on a 3.6 X 3.8-in. board.
Cathay Pacific has lodged a complaint with Russia's Air Traffic Control authority and reminded its flight crews to be particularly vigilant in Russian airspace following an encounter between a Cathay Pacific A340-300 and an unidentified Tupolev 154. The A340 with 243 passengers and 16 crew on board was flying from Zurich to Hong Kong when it passed within 2 naut. mi. of the Tupolev over Russia's Samara region hundreds of miles north of the Caspian Sea.
U.S. Air Force crews are evaluating the ability of three sensors to ``see'' through fog as an aid to improving landing safety. The tests will not only compare the capabilities of a passive millimeter wave sensor with mid- and long-wave Flirs, but also will assess the potential cost and benefit to the airlines.
L3 Communications has received an $11-million contract from the U.S. Navy for the manufacture of pilot/copilot display panels for the ASA-82 system on the S-3B aircraft.
In the wake of increased airline service from Love Field near downtown Dallas, BAE Automated Systems Inc. is installing conventional baggage handling conveyor systems for American Airlines and start-up carrier Legend Airlines. American's system began operating when the airline inaugurated flights to Austin on Aug. 31. Legend's system is scheduled to be operational on Jan. 15, 1999. Legend officials have applied for, but have not yet received, federal approval to begin operations.
Republican fans of missile defenses aren't disheartened by the Senate's second rejection in five months of an antimissile deployment. They think they might yet prevail if November's congressional elections go their way. By the same margin as last spring, 51-49, the Senate failed last week to clear the way for floor consideration of the ``American Missile Protection Act,'' which called for deployment of a national missile defense system ``as soon as technology permits.'' The objective is to protect U.S. territory from a limited attack of roughly 3-20 nuclear warheads.
