The Israeli carrier Arkia Airlines has contracted with Rolls-Royce to supply RB211-535E4B engines to power two firm and two optional 757-300 aircraft on order with Boeing. The first two 757s are to be delivered in early 2000. The total contract, including options, would be worth $60 million to Rolls-Royce. Arkia, which operates charter flights to Europe as well as scheduled regional and domestic services, is acquiring the 757s for its longer routes.
Casino and hotel interests are set to back National Airlines Inc., a startup carrier to be based in Las Vegas. Rio Hotel&Casino Inc. said it has made a $15-million investment in the airline, which will give it 19% of the common voting stock. The CEO of the new airline is Michael Conway, former chief executive of America West Airlines.
Mercury Scheduling Systems Inc., a Vancouver-based supplier of airline operations software systems specializing in crew management systems, has signed a letter of intent to purchase the assets of Airline Software Inc., of Pomona, N.Y., for $3.5 million. The addition of ASI will expand the company's product offerings to include airline flight control, airline management, revenue accounting and reservations, and will double the number of Mercury customers to 60.
In terms of warfighting capabilities in the decade ahead, the F-16 will remain a potent adversary. Despite its stealth handicap, the fighter's highly adaptive airframe, coupled with maneuverability, supersonic speed and long range, will keep it competitive with next-generation fighters until the Joint Strike Fighter enters service.
The U.S. Navy's choice of the Boeing F/A-18E/F as its highest aviation priority since the early 1990s will result in an improved warfighting aircraft when it enters operational service just beyond the turn of the century.
The dawn of a new millennium will be greeted by a generation of fighter aircraft that has somewhat better aerodynamic performance, is more lethal and less observable, and depends more on a wealth of sensor- and offboard-derived information than its predecessors.
The design of unmanned combat aircraft that are expected to one day supplement and perhaps replace manned fighters is taking some unexpected turns. Planners are realizing that their initial goals of greater maneuverability and high speed are proving to be less important than being able to carry larger numbers of improved weapons greater distances.
Regulatory approval of Ansett Australia and Air New Zealand's tripartite alliance with Singapore Airlines has prompted Ansett to move quickly to implement a range of operational and marketing strategies, including the layoff of about 2,000 employees. Last week's green light by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is considered vital to underpinning Ansett's drive to cut costs and increase market share. It is expected to announce layoffs in August.
The failure of two more Iridium mobile communications satellites has prompted Motorola to juggle two planned launches, but company officials insist the $5.5-billion system is still on track to begin commercial service on Sept. 23.
India and Pakistan have achieved the means to deploy aircraft-deliverable nuclear weapons, and developed the raw makings of a nuclear triad and dyad, respectively, security experts say. But both countries are extremely poor, and their nuclear ambitions are apt to be blunted by the tens of billions of dollars needed to deploy and operate nuclear arsenals on any significant scale. It appears the cost factors are not well understood as yet, analysts say.
OAO Corp. has been selected for the third time by the U.S. Air Force Space Command for its NORAD/U.S. Space Command Mission and Architecture Support contract. The nine-year contract is worth $180 million.
Bernhard Conrad has become head of engineering projects and development for Lufthansa Technik, Hamburg, Germany. He had been head of Lufthansa Bombardier Aviation Services in Berlin and will be succeeded by Andreas Kaden who has been manager of engineering for the Lufthansa fleet at Frankfurt. Conrad succeeds Gerwin Dienger, who has retired.
Boeing will pour $250 million into development of a 130-acre launch pad facility at Cape Canaveral for its Delta 4 evolved expendable launch vehicle (EELV) set for first launch in 2001. The facility at Launch Complex 37 was originally used 30 years ago for Saturn 1 vehicles. The company will spend another $20-30 million for construction of a horizontal processing facility close by to allow for nearly complete assembly of the launch vehicle before transport to the pad (AW&ST July 20, p. 58).
Tracor Systems Technologies Inc. has won a $5.1-million contract from the U.S. Navy for engineering and technical support services for mobile tactical systems, joint combat systems, ground theater air control systems and related special programs. With options, the contract is worth $25.9 million.
Photograph: The Goldstone 70-meter Deep Space Network antenna in California has detected Soho twice in monostatic and bistatic radar modes. GEORGE STEPHEN, CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Scientists have managed to find the incommunicado Soho spacecraft by radar 1.5 million km. (930,000 mi.) from Earth, believed to be the farthest detection of a man-made object.
United Airlines will equip 473 transports with an advanced version of AlliedSignal's RDR4-B weather radar that links the radar's predictive wind shear capability with on-board Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System terrain data. The sale, valued at $40 million, is a key step in AlliedSignal's plan to develop comprehensive cockpit safety systems that share and cross-feed data. As envisioned, the RDR-4B's Doppler-based forward-looking wind shear detection capability would work with the EGPWS to coordinate alerts and displays of weather and dangerous terrain.
Flight Visions of Sugar Grove, Ill., is doubling its production floor space to 6,000 sq. ft. to meet increasing demand for cockpit head-up display (HUD) systems. Driving the growth is a $9-million order from the U.S. Navy to retrofit the F-14B fighter with Flight Vision's Sparrow Hawk HUD and FV-3000 Modular Mission Display Processor System. The contract calls for delivery of 82 units beginning in mid-1999. When completed, the factory expansion will give Flight Visions the capacity to triple production, according to Dawn Zeilmann, marketing manager.
Data links will provide the biggest gains for fighter effectiveness early in the next century. U.S. Air Force planners envision aircraft closing silently on the enemy, while receiving real-time intelligence and targeting information from off-board sensors over the links.
Sukhoi's S-37 experimental forward-swept-wing fighter has flown 10 hr. in 15 sorties since it first flew on Sept. 25, enough time to confirm basic characteristics and to realize that the original vertical tail was too small. Sukhoi has enlarged the tail for better maneuverability at high angles of attack. The aircraft may become a basis for development of a fifth-generation multirole heavy fighter.
Bill O'Neil, project manager for the NASA Galileo mission, has received the first Lunar Gateway Award from the Lunar Reclamation Society, a chapter of the National Space Society, for ``service to all mankind for taking us along to Jupiter and its moons.''
Unmanned combat aircraft that can operate autonomously are still ``far out in the future,'' contends John Entzminger, an authority on advanced technology for reconnaissance and surveillance systems. Entzminger battled issues involving unmanned aircraft for years as an advisor to the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office and National Reconnaissance Office and as the chief of high-altitude, long-endurance UAV programs for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa).
Rolls-Royce has received a 50-million- pound ($83-million), five-year contract from the U.K. Ministry of Defense for the repair and overhaul of RB199 engine modules for RAF Tornado aircraft.
