MEGGITT AVIONICS HAS BEEN SELECTED by Rockwell Collins to supply standby air data and inertial sensing devices, based on the U.K. company's Secondary Flight Display System, for the UH-1Y and AH-1Z helicopter upgrade programs, initially involving 180 aircraft. Meggitt's secondary flight display system has also been chosen by Boeing's Helicopters Div. for the C11-47SD Chinook upgrade for export customers, including the U.K. and Singapore.
A new president has been unable to renegotiate aircraft leases at Garuda Indonesia and says he will initiate major staff layoffs, the sale of subsidiaries and an anticorruption drive. As Garuda tries to right itself in the wake of Indonesia's worst economic crisis in three decades, the nation's regional carriers have abandoned efforts to offer joint domestic services as a way to stave off bankruptcy.
Engineers at Rocketdyne's Canoga Park, Calif., Rapid Prototyping Center are successfully employing a laser sintering process to quickly create parts and parts models. A delivery truck-sized machine called a Sinterstation uses computer-aided design and manufacturing data and a carbon dioxide laser to sketch an initial cross section of the desired object on a thin layer of heat-fusible powder spread over a small platform.
Frasca International Inc. is offering a textured visual system called the FVS-200TX that enhances the realism for pilots using its flight training devices and simulators. The textured graphics allow Frasca, which has focused much of its efforts on less expensive flight training devices and low-end simulators, to compete more effectively with manufacturers of high-end simulators, said John Frasca, the company's vice president of operations.
The European Commission (EC) has decided to reiterate--with a more detailed justification--its 1994 approval of the French government's $3.3-billion capital injection in then-ailing Air France. The EC's decision was annulled on June 25 by the European Court of Justice after being opposed intensely by rival European airlines (AW&ST July 6, p. 36).
Debate rages over how the National Transportation Safety Board will wrap up its investigation into the September 1994 crash of USAir Flight 427 and other cases in which a rudder hardover is suspected of causing inflight upsets. Looking to trumpet its own kinematic studies that point toward pilot error rather than a rudder-system failure as the cause of that 737-300's crash, Boeing has been pushing for a third public hearing on the investigation (AW&ST Oct. 6, 1997, p. 21). But the manufacturer reportedly has garnered support only from NTSB Vice Chairman Robert T.
Non-weapons-class lasers and laser radars for sensing, measuring and imaging from aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and satellites are all on the agenda at Kirtland AFB, N.M. Two platforms getting special attention will be the Air Force's Argus and RC-135 Cobra Ball aircraft. The latter analyzes foreign missile shots from hundreds of miles away.
Maj. Gen. Harry G. Armstrong, founder of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, has been inducted posthumously into the National Aviation Hall of Fame.
The Flightcom 4GX family of headsets is designed for ground crew use during communications with cockpit crew members and other personnel on the ground. It uses technologies previously found in cockpit headsets. Features include a proprietary noise-canceling electret microphone, an articulated boom and individual volume control. They have a 24 dB. noise reduction rating and are field repairable. The unit weighs 16.4 oz., not including the 30-ft. coiled cord. Flightcom Corp., 7340 S.W. Durham Road, Portland, Ore. 97224.
Top Romanian lawmakers have backed calls from the country's finance minister to scrap the government's program to buy 96 AH-1RO attack helicopters from Bell Helicopter Textron. Under the deal the U.S. company would buy 70% of state-owned I.A.R., located in Brasov, which would coproduce the AH-1RO, a derivative of the AH-1W Supercobra. Romania's finance minister has refused to approve state guarantees for $1.5 billion in credits to finance the deal, saying it is too expensive.
Aviation-related fatalities in the U.S. declined from 1996 to 1997 and continued to be far outnumbered by deaths as a result of incidents in other transportation modes, according to preliminary information released by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Look for Boeing to expand its parts and assembly delivery base in China now that the MD-90 Trunkliner program is dead. Chinese officials have not formally notified Boeing of their decision to kill the program, but Boeing Chairman Philip Condit said he ``understands'' it is dead.
Lt. Gen. Robert F. Raggio has become commander of the Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. He has been USAF executive officer for fighter and bomber programs at the Pentagon. Raggio succeeds Lt. Gen. Kenneth E. Eickmann, who has retired.
FLS Aerospace's attempt to acquire the maintenance arm of Irish carrier Aer Lingus is back on track. A deal is expected to be concluded by next month. U.K.-based FLS believes a large enough majority of TEAM Aer Lingus' workforce now is willing to accept buyouts of job guarantees and transfer to FLS to make the operation viable. Negotiations halted in May when workers rejected an offer to buy out their ``letters of comfort,'' which guaranteed them jobs for life with the state-owned carrier.
The first Galaxy business jet flight test aircraft has flown at Mach 0.93, and a second Galaxy has reached a maximum altitude of 46,000 ft. The two jets have accumulated more than 300 hr. in 100 flights in Israel. Galaxy is expected to gain Israeli and U.S. FAA certification late this year, according to an official of the Texas-based Galaxy Aerospace Corp. Gap seals and fairings have been installed on the second aircraft, which is dedicated to performance testing.
Rockwell Collins, which pioneered the application of quartz tuning-fork gyros for civil aviation in the early 1980s, is introducing a new, miniaturized model. The new AHS-3000 is approximately one-third the size and weight of attitude-heading reference systems (AHRS) that use conventional rotating-mass type gyros. Because vibrating quartz gyros are expected to be more reliable than spinning-mass types, the company projects its AHS-3000 should have a mean-time-between-failure (MTBF) of 10,000 hr.--many times that of more conventional types of AHRS.
Researchers at Ohio State University in Columbus have developed a technique that creates near net-shape complex ceramic parts. The material could be used to build improved radomes and high-heat-resistant rocket nozzle parts. The process mixes ceramic powders with both non-alkaline and alkaline earth metal powders and avoids the traditional step of sintering--baking freshly molded ceramic parts at extremely high temperatures to reduce porosity.
The midair collision of a twin-turboprop regional transport and a light aircraft off Brittany's coast is raising questions about commercial flights operating in uncontrolled airspace. A Proteus Airlines Beech 1900D collided on July 30 with a Cessna 177 Cardinal at 2,000 ft. Fourteen crewmembers and passengers on the French carrier's aircraft and the Cardinal's pilot were killed. Both airframes sunk 30-50 ft. below sea level, close to the coastline.
Fast-growing Continental Airlines expects capacity to grow by 10.9% in the current quarter--up 15.7% in its international system and 8.5% domestically. Its U.S. growth is higher than originally planned because of this year's redeployment of narrow-body aircraft from its Asia/Pacific operations to domestic routes, where the seats had more chance of being filled. So far, traffic growth has outpaced Continental's aggressive capacity expansion.
FlightSafety Boeing Training International will establish an $85-million European training hub in London that is to be up and running by the first quarter of 2000. Heathrow and Gatwick airports have been selected as the two finalists with a decision expected next month. It will be the first such training center hub established outside of the U.S. by the FlightSafety/Boeing joint venture which plans to set-up a global network of such centers.
Boeing is staffing up its management team for Aero Vodochody, its joint venture in the Czech Republic. Three top executives already have been assigned and Boeing is advertising a wide range of Czech-based job openings, from industrial engineering to cost accounting, in internal publications. Boeing is acquiring a 35% share in Aero Vodochody, located near Prague, in partnership with CSA Czech Airlines. The aerospace manufacturer is under contract to deliver 72 L-159 trainer and light attack jets to the Czech air force.
Robert Nazarian has become treasurer of Northwest Airlines. He was chief financial officer of Air New Zealand and succeeds Joe Francht, who has resigned. Mark Powers has been named vice president-finance and president of Northwest Aircraft. Neal Cohen has been appointed vice president-finance/controller, succeeding Rolf Andresen, who is now vice president-finance/chief operating officer. Cohen was vice president-financial planning and analysis.
Congressional auditors are challenging FAA claims that the agency will meet a Sept. 30 Office of Management and Budget deadline for modifying software in all of its mission-critical computer systems to recognize dates in the year 2000 and beyond. FAA Administrator Jane F. Garvey said the agency had exceeded its target of cleansing the code in 60% of 159 critical systems of so-called Year 2000, or Y2K, bugs, having completed that work on 106, or 67%, of the systems by July 31. But a General Accounting Office director, Joel C.
