The Soho spacecraft spun out of control after ground controllers apparently ignored standard procedures and implemented an improper ``fix'' to an easily correctable problem, according to a NASA official who is cochairing the investigation into last month's mishap of the solar observatory.
According to the General Aviation Manufacturers Assn. (GAMA), shipments of new piston- and turbine-powered airplanes produced in the U.S. increased 61.8% to 956 in the first six months of this year, compared with 591 aircraft during the same period in 1997. Billings rose 20.8% to $2.4 billion from $2 billion. GAMA officials said 672 piston airplanes, 173 business jets and 111 turboprops were delivered to customers.
The airline industry has awakened to the serious consequences that can arise when an aircraft flies through turbulent air. An encounter may injure passengers and crew; the aircraft could sustain heavy damage and the airline is likely to be exposed to a strong dose of bad publicity. In the U.S. especially, the airline could get hit with a batch of costly law suits.
BRUCE A. SMITHBOULDER, COLO., and MONTEREY, CALIF.
The U.S. aviation community is moving toward ultimately using hundreds of commercial aircraft in flight to gather detailed turbulence data that can be quickly turned around to warn flight crews of hazardous conditions and improve current forecast models. The turbulence data from an anticipated 350 commercial transports within about two years will augment the datastream for wind and temperature conditions already downlinked by some aircraft on ACARS (Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System).
Carol Zuniga has been appointed controller of the Sino Swearingen Aircraft Co., San Antonio, Tex. She was controller of two divisions of Kaufman and Broad.
Dave Morss of Redwood City, Calif., will receive the Spirit of Flight Award for 1998 from the Society of Experimental Test Pilots at the Experimental Aircraft Assn.'s AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wis. The award is presented to the EAA member who best exemplifies the spirit of research, development or flight test.
Senior airline pilots and flying safety specialists see turbulence and the injuries it causes as a significant problem that underscores the need for improved weather training, forecasting and possibly onboard detectors.
President Bill Clinton praised the House of Representatives for a bipartisan vote last week to extend normal trade relations with China for another year, known as Most Favored Nation trading status. It accords China the same low tariffs enjoyed by most U.S. trading partners.
The Northrop Grumman B-2 bomber arguably has the most advanced gust suppression system, and is an interesting comparison point for airliner design. The B-2 design and mission are considerably different from a civil transport and make the stealth bomber more sensitive to gusts. This may limit the applicability to airliners, but the issues treated in B-2 development could be important if civil designers become more aggressive in turbulence compensation and want to cut the gust loads in half, as the B-2 does.
GENERAL SPECIFICATIONS - CESSNA MODEL 172S SKYHAWK Certified under U.S. FAA/FAR Part 23 regulations for day/night VFR/IFR flight. Price: (standard equipment) $149,900; equipped for IFR flight: $169,200. GENERAL DIMENSIONS Length 26 ft. 11 in. (8.2 m.) Span 36 ft. 1 in. (11 m.) Height 8 ft. 11 in. (2.7 m.) Cabin length 142 in. (360.7 cm.) Cabin height 48 in. (121.9 cm.) Cabin width 39.5 in. (100.3 cm.) WEIGHTS
Robin Southwell has become managing director of British Aerospace Defense Systems following the departure of Michael Donovan for an unspecified job at General Electric Co. Plc. Southwell was chief executive of British Aerospace Australia.
Dr. Stanley R. Mohler has won the Louis H. Bauer Founders Award from the Aerospace Medical Assn. for his activities toward furthering human activity in space and aviation. Other winners of awards at the association's annual meeting in Seattle were: USAF Lt. Col. Kirk Nailling, for contributions to aerospace nursing by providing the Defense Dept. with a contingency air evacuation system capable of supporting the Military Health Service System; William Collins, for achievements as an aviation scientist for 36 years; Dr.
Guy Rupied (see photo) has been named managing director of the GIFAS French aerospace industries assn. He succeeds retired Gen. Bernard Nicolas. Rupied was president of Sofema.
Jen McSkimming has become marketing manager of Helicopter Adventures Inc., Concord, Calif. She was founder/executive director of Vertical Flight Assn. Northwest in Seattle.
Camber Corp., Intelx Corp., Lockheed Martin Corp., McDonnell Douglas Corp. and Raytheon Training Inc. will receive $486 million from the U.S. Air Force to develop, produce and sustain complex aircrew, maintenance and system-specific training systems through June 2006.
Rodney A. Coleman, a former assistant U.S. Air Force secretary, has become executive vice president-corporate planning and public affairs of ICF Kaiser International Inc., Fairfax, Va.
Raytheon Systems of Arlington, Tex., is marketing a self-paced, multilingual interactive training system for critical tasks such as air traffic control. Called Rave, for Reactive Acquisition of Vocabulary Elements, the PC-based system uses conventional self-paced training strategies combined with digitized speech recognition and synthesis software. The aim is to motivate students to master key words and phrases in a foreign language while building recall. The student can revert to his native language at any time during the instruction.
The Type 86 Series of Electroid permanent magnet ``failsafe'' brakes are capable of supplying up to five times the torque-to-weight ratio of conventional, spring set units. The new series of brakes is designed for use in applications where high torque is needed in a small area. The brake, which can be enclosed within a servo motor, is engaged by the permanent magnetic field when power is off. When power is on, the permanent magnetic field is offset by an electromagnetic field, and the brake is released by leaf springs. Electroid Co., 45 Fadem Road, Springfield, N.J.
Computer models and simulations used during the last Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) to assess the relative values of military land, sea and air forces in combat were out of date and did not adequately represent the contributions of modern airpower to joint warfighting, according to air advocates. As a result, acquisition dollars are going to systems that are outmoded, or far less effective on the battlefield than others that would capitalize on the capabilities of air assets.
Aviation Industries of China could be a supplier of parts of the airframe for Airbus Industrie's A3XX program, an official said following the collapse of the Airbus-AVIC A316/7 program. AVIC's participation as a supplier for the 100-seat version of the A319 is also likely.
The joint Aerial Images/Microsoft project to place a 1-2 meter imagery atlas of the world on the Internet is receiving up to 10 million computer hits per day now that the project's Web site is operational. The database currently uses 2-meter resolution images from Russian mapping missions as far back as 1988. One-meter, film-based images from the project's initial Spin-2 satellite mission are slated to be posted on the Web by fall. The image on the left shows Yankee Stadium in New York. Viewers can use the Russian satellite imagery to zoom in on their home or workplace.
