Raytheon Aircraft Co. has completed mating the fuselage and wing of the first Premier 1 lightweight business jet. Two other production aircraft are shown on the company's assembly line at Wichita, Kan. The wing mate process required less than 30 min. to accomplish, chiefly because of Raytheon's ``investment in technologies for design, composite construction and automated metal machining,'' said Duncan Koerbel, director of the Premier 1 program. The fuselage is fabricated using a Cincinnati Milacron ``Viper'' machine that places composite fibers around a honeycomb core.
Robert H. Harvey has been named vice president-operations of Pratt&Whitney, East Hartford, Conn. He was executive director of the European powertrain and chassis business of General Motors.
A non-profit, independent Asian Air Safety Institute is being established to improve air transportation systems. AASI would help Asian nations develop a strategic, integrated approach to air traffic control and management. It would also accelerate the transfer of technology and Western operational know-how through world-class institutions and training centers located in Asia, according to Joseph W. Lee, president of Alexandria, Va.-based International Consulting Services. Industry, governments and academic institutions would be AASI participants.
Amy B. Koranda has become manager of education and training for the Alexandria, Va.-based National Air Transportation Assn. She held a similar post with the National Assn. of State Aviation Officials Center for Aviation Research and Education.
A month after a massive failure of its automated box storage system caused Asia's busiest cargo hub to virtually shut down, Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminal Ltd. (HACTL) is ahead of schedule in recovering the ability to process the majority of Hong Kong's total air freight.
Six people were killed and nine others presumed dead July 30 after the midair collision of a Proteus Airlines Beech 1900D and a general aviation aircraft over the Atlantic Ocean just off France's Brittany coast. Two crewmembers and 12 passengers were reported to have been on board the French airline's scheduled Lyon-Lorient flight when it collided with an aircraft owned by a local flying club. Proteus serves 12 cities in France with about 20 aircraft. It is partly owned by the U.S. carrier Delta Air Lines.
Richard Ludlow and Ian Stone have been named London-based heads of international sales and inter- national field service and customer support, respectively, for Microwave Instrumentation Technologies.
Offensive computer attacks and the other esoteric elements of information operations should probably be run by Space Command, says its chief, Gen. Howell Estes. ``Offensive capabilities [that] might act as a deterrent, or be able to respond in kind to an attack on our system . . . [are] a military mission of the future,'' he said. To that end, the Air Force formed an information operations squadron at Shaw AFB, S.C. But Estes believes that effort is inadequate, so he is supporting formation of a second squadron within the California Air National Guard.
This would be a great time to be a fighter/attack pilot in squadron service. Reading the reports in this issue of the magazine on the international fighters, either operational or on the way, I can but marvel at the combat capabilities displayed in these aircraft. I also do not think these squadron pilots will be replaced by unmanned combat air vehicles soon.
Scientists and engineers at the Air Force Research Laboratory's Material and Manufacturing Directorate near Dayton, Ohio, have developed a hybrid part-cleaning chamber that virtually eliminates hazardous waste. Two existing cleaning techniques are combined--starting with a dry ice pellet ``pre-clean''--to remove the bulk of the contaminants, followed by illumination from a strong ultraviolet light. Contaminants on the part surface absorb and are broken down by the UV light.
A new NASA software package designed to reduce the time between aircraft landings and takeoffs has been chosen by the FAA for installation at all major U.S. airports. The Center Tracon Automation System Software package is a set of three tools developed by a 38-member team at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif. Designed to optimize flight operations, the software analyzes and predicts aircraft flight paths, creating visual representations of the flow of arriving traffic.
Sukhoi is continuing development of the Su-30MK, an advanced version of Su-30K fighters delivered to India in 1997, and demonstrated the two prototypes to India's deputy defense minister on June 15 at the Zhukovsky flight test center.
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Systems and United Technologies Corp.'s Pratt&Whitney will use R/3 business enterprise software from SAP Aerospace&Defense to integrate their finance, manufacturing, logistics and human resources operations. The two companies want to cut operational expenses, reduce cycle times and improve efficiency across their organizations. Pratt&Whitney Canada is already an R/3 customer, as are three other Lockheed Martin divisions.
United Airlines has placed firm orders for 22 Airbus aircraft--12 A320s and 10 A319s. The transports, with a list price of about $1 billion, will be delivered in 2000-01. When deliveries are complete, the new orders will bring United's fleet of Airbus narrow-body aircraft to 133. It currently operates 50 150-seat A320s and 10 124-seat A319s.
John T. Werle has been named vice president of Motorola Space and Electronics Inc., Scottsdale, Ariz. He was corporate vice president/president of Arizona operations of the Signal Technology Corp.
Fabrication of major components for the first production Mitsubishi Japanese F-2 support fighter is underway and main U.S. supplier Lockheed Martin plans to be shipping sets of parts at about a one-a-month rate starting this fall.
Jet Propulsion Lab of Pasadena, Calif., has set up three atmospheric visibility monitoring stations at different locations in the U.S. Southwest. The stations are part of a long-term project to experimentally determine atmospheric attenuation that could effect future satellite-to-ground laser communications. The autonomous, van-sized stations, which contain no lasers, each are programmed to continuously track a series of known stellar objects with a calibrated telescope. Six different filters are used during each 15-min.
Two F-14s collided over the eastern Mediterranean last week during operations from the U.S. carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower. One aircraft crashed into the sea after both crewmen ejected. They were attempting to reach an emergency landing airfield in Anatalya, Turkey. Both were recovered by a search-and-rescue helicopter. One was unconscious and later died. The other suffered a serious injury to the leg and was flown to a hospital in Turkey. The other aircraft landed safely on the carrier. Both aircraft were from VF-103, which is home-ported at Oceana, Va.
The Johnson Space Center is using a Silicon Graphics workstation and software similar to what it uses for simulations of systems engineering for the space station to provide an initial verification of the flight control system for the X-38. The X-38 is NASA's prototype for a space station crew rescue vehicle. The No. 2 prototype, the first equipped with a flight control system and control surfaces, is being used for the tests. The goal is to test subsonic flight maneuvers before deployment of the X-38's parafoil for landing.
The FAA plans to set tougher inspection requirements by the end of the year for more than 27,000 engines in the world's commercial transport fleet in the first of what the agency said will be a series of orders aimed at reducing the risk of their uncontained failure.
Proving again that solidarity is not their strong suit, leaders of the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. have decided to drop longstanding (and some would say well-documented) complaints about the $1-billion-plus FAA/Raytheon Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System, or STARS.
A consortium led by the Montreal Airport Authority has won a 20-year contract to develop and operate the new Europort Vatry multimodal international freight hub in the Champagne region of France. Located 90 mi. east of Paris, the all-cargo airport complex is being built on former NATO base Chalons-Vatry, with a 12,664-ft. runway, and will provide direct links to roads and railroads throughout Europe.
Pilatus Aircraft, the aviation division of Swiss Oerlikon Buhrle, is selling subsidiary Pilatus Britten-Norman to the private U.K. investment company Litchfield Continental Ltd. for an undisclosed sum. The Isle of Wight-based subsidiary, which will revert to its original name of Britten-Norman, will continue to manufacture and support its BN-2 Islander range of light utility aircraft.
A Russian rocket engine and its prototype Lockheed Martin Atlas 3A booster have begun static firing tests at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. The 860,000-lb.-thrust RD-180, being developed by Energomash and Pratt&Whitney, was fired for 10 sec. July 29. Two more tests, each 70 sec. in duration, are planned at Marshall over the next two months. Other RD-180s have already totaled 10,000 sec. of firing time in Russia. The first Atlas 3A launch from Cape Canaveral is set for early 1999. During launches, the RD-180 will fire for about 186 sec.
