Boeing is sending a wooden mock-up of the fuselage for its stretched 737-900 transport on a railcar from its Wichita factory to both its Renton, Wash., and Long Beach, Calif., final assembly plants. The tests, to establish trip timing and uncover any transit-related problems with the record 125-ft.-long fuselage, also will clear the way for Boeing to open a second 737 final assembly location at Long Beach. This would offload Renton, which is at peak capacity and has been plagued by production bottlenecks.
Former U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Marion Eugene Carl was shot and killed June 29 at his home in Roseburg, Ore. He was 82. Carl was one of the USMC's highest scoring aces in World War 2, having shot down 18.5 aircraft while flying Grumman F4F-3/-4 and Chance Vought F4U-1 fighters in the Pacific Theater. After the war, Carl was a test pilot and became the USMC's second helicopter pilot. In August 1947, he set a speed record of 650.6 mph. in a Douglas D-558-1 ``Skystreak,'' and in September 1953 set another record of 1,143 mph.
LONGBOW INTERNATIONAL HAS DELIVERED the first fire control radar to GKN Westland Helicopters for the British army's new Apache attack helicopter, the first international delivery of the Longbow radar by the Lockheed Martin/Northrop Grumman joint venture. Eight British companies will supply components for the 68 millimeter-wave radar systems under contract.
DASSAULT ELECTRONIQUE WILL SUPPLY French air force helicopters with the Damien/MWS-20 missile approach warning system. The 10-kg. (22-lb.) system uses four conformal antennas for spherical detection, using active millimeter-wave radar. It was designed for wide-body and tactical aircraft as well as helicopters. Missile detection triggers countermeasures, using a time-to-impact computation to conserve decoys. The MWS-20 is in full production and has been ordered for French Special Forces helicopters.
The wildfires raging through Florida last week, the worst in 50 years, may help Bombardier sell more of its $21.5-million CL-415 waterbombers. The rapid control and containment of wildfires to protect lives and property is becoming increasingly critical as the U.S. population continues its shift to ``rural-urban interface'' areas, according to Tom Appleton, president of Bombardier Aerospace's amphibious aircraft group. The demographic shift is being accelerated by the increasing number of workers telecommuting.
Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Co. Ltd. (HAECO), Cathay Pacific Airways' maintenance affiliate, has faced its share of challenges in the past five years. Cathay Pacific, its main customer, added the Boeing 777 and Airbus A330/A340 families to its fleet, its costs in Hong Kong keep rising, and it had to move out of Kai Tak airport.
Officials of the Independent Assn. of Continental Pilots (IACP) and regional airline Continental Express plan to resume contract negotiations this month amid the growing threat of a strike.
China signed a letter of intent for 10 Boeing next-generation 737 transports last week during ceremonies associated with U.S. President Clinton's visit there. The purchase, valued at about $400 million, signals continuing improvement in trade relations between the two countries. It also opened the door for further Boeing sales in China, which in past years have been frustrated by a Chinese government unhappy with U.S. policy.
ALLIEDSIGNAL HAS RECEIVED THE FAA'S first type certification for a commercial-production high-frequency radio capable of both voice and data transmissions. The XK516 radio, developed with the German company Rhode&Schwarz, uses digital signal processing to provide analog voice quality superior to that of existing HF radios with mechanical filters, according to the company. The certification was performed on a Lufthansa MD-11. Twenty airlines have ordered the radio.
Energyia President Yuri Semyonov says funding problems that had threatened to end further manned missions to Mir appeared to be solved, following a July 2 meeting between Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov and Russian Space Agency Director Yuri Koptev. CNES Director General Gerard Brachet said France would pay $20 million for an astronaut's five-week mission, scheduled for mid-1999.
Messier-Dowty and Messier-Bugatti, which are both Snecma group subsidiaries, jointly formed Messier Services, a maintenance, repair and overhaul affiliate. It will focus on landing gears, brakes, braking systems and hydraulics.
Stanley P. Felix has been named manager of the Gulfstream program for SimuFlite Training International, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. He has been an instructor pilot.
Guilford Transportation Industries Inc., a New England railroad operator, became the new owner of Pan American Airlines Inc., after a U.S. Bankruptcy Court approved the reorganization of Pan Am Corp. The new Pan Am--the third Pan Am--will continue to operate as a charter carrier from a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., base but will evaluate a resumption of scheduled air services in the coming months. The carrier has 125 employees and operates three Boeing 727-200s.
Photograph: Chek Lap Kok will give Cathay a better chance to exploit its home field advantage by increasing services to key Asian destinations, the airline's managers say. MICHAEL MECHAM/AW&ST Cathay Pacific Airways and Kai Tak airport grew up together. After World War 2, the airline's surplus C-47 was an early customer, and in the years since, the two have become Asian leaders. But nostalgia by Cathay's management will be tempered as the airport gives way to the new Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok.
Photograph: Lockheed Martin is now pushing for the elimination of launch quotas for Russia's Proton booster (shown here). U.S. companies have had significant leverage in shaping the Clinton Administration's policies on launch quotas and satellite export controls, and the wave of aerospace mergers in the 1990s has greatly eroded any industry opposition to liberalization, government officials say.
Charges are flying over a report by George Washington University's Darryl Jenkins which concludes that new-entrant airlines fail primarily because of poor management, not anticompetitive practices of incumbent carriers. The study compares recent new entrants to Southwest Airlines and finds they do not follow the Southwest model. Instead, Jenkins contends, they hire executives who have led other carriers to bankruptcy, choose routes poorly and price flights below their costs. Predation is not a factor, he says. Wrong, counters Kevin P.
James Wimberly has been appointed executive vice president-chief operations officer of Southwest Airlines, effective Dec. 31. He will succeed Gary A. Barron, who will remain executive vice president for two years. Wimberly has been vice president-ground operations and will be succeeded by Dave Ridley, who has been vice president-marketing and sales. He will be succeeded by Joyce C. Rogge, who has been vice president-advertising and promotions. Donna Conover has become vice president-inflight servicing and provisioning, succeeding William Q. Miller, who has retired.
Even in an off year, and 1997 was a very off year, this city still ranked as the world's busiest international air freight center. Growth is at a snail's pace as the new Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok opens, but investors in its billion-dollar cargo processing facilities remain optimistic that they will make money eventually.
The U.S. Army is breaking ground on a $27-million annex for its software engineering center in Huntsville, Ala. The facility, which is part of the Aviation and Missile Command, is expected to satisfy Army software needs from setting acquisition requirements through verification and in-service support and upgrades. The building, scheduled for completion in 2000, will add 182,000 sq. ft. of engineering, laboratory and high-bay space to an existing 112,000-sq.-ft. facility.
In a move that is expected to play a key role in selecting future space missions, NASA has created an Astrobiology Institute to bring an interdisciplinary approach to fundamental research on life in the universe.
Photograph: The U.S. Defense Dept. did not supervise the Hughes-built ChinaSat 7 spacecraft while it was in China. But Hughes says its safeguards were adequate. Hughes Space&Communications Co. officials say they have strong security procedures in place to guard their satellites 24 hr. a day when they are in China, and maintain that their safeguards are adequate to protect against technology transfer--even when Defense Dept. monitors are absent.
The Cold War is seven years gone, but taxpayers are still paying for nuclear weapons and related programs, some $35 billion annually, according to a detailed analysis by the Brookings Institution. That is a sizable share of the total military budget each year, currently about $270 billion. The Brookings analysis, titled ``Atomic Audit,'' shows that $5 trillion was spent on such weapons during 1940-96. In comparison, Social Security absorbed nearly $8 trillion. Even so, national defense spending as a whole took up $13 trillion in the period, excluding nuclear expenditures.
Boeing is consolidating its special operations support into a single location at Fort Walton Beach, Fla. The company will expand an existing facility, near USAF's Special Operations Command headquarters at Hurlburt Field, to approximately 600,000 sq. ft. of office, engineering and laboratory space. Boeing has produced and delivered 13 AC-130U Spectre gunship conversions to the command, and manufactures U.S. Army MH-47E Chinook and MH-6 helicopters.
