Officials of the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. resurrected the story last week that a spilled cup of coffee was to blame for an Apr. 3 near-collision of two airliners over the runways of LaGuardia Airport. The union's officials claim a supervisor in the tower spilled coffee on a workstation, distracting the controller just as he cleared a US Airways DC-9 to land and an Air Canada A319 to take off on intersecting runways. When he refocused, NATCA officials said, the controller realized the aircraft might collide and ordered the DC-9 to go around.
Boeing has successfully developed and demonstrated a pneumatic bomb rack that is more affordable and efficient than current pyrotechnic-activated racks. Pneumatic racks have twice the lifespan of cartridge-activated systems and weigh 33% less, according to Ted Jakubowski, weapons carriage system team leader at Boeing Phantom Works in St. Louis. The new rack also can eject more types of weapons more reliably over a wider range of flight conditions, he said.
US Airways will acquire up to 30 278-seat Airbus Industrie A330-300 twinjets to replace Boeing 767-200s and boost growth capacity in the transatlantic market. Late last week, the U.S. carrier concluded a firm order for seven A330s, ordered seven additional aircraft to be reconfirmed, and optioned 16 additional delivery positions.
The Allied Pilots Assn. is advising pilots at American Airlines to decline overtime flying as the union and American management struggle to resolve code-share issues with Canadian Airlines International.
NASA is planning to eliminate the rover vehicle Athena from the Mars 2001 mission because of funding constraints resulting from the addition of three other instruments to the mission. NASA officials said the development cost and weight of the rover also were exceeding expecta- tions. Athena could be launched on a later Mars mission. On the 2001 mission, Athena was to look for rocks that might show evidence of life on Mars and collect rocks that could be picked up and returned to Earth during a later mission.
THE DOUBLE-DIGIT WORLD-MARKET GROWTH in civil avionics during the last three years will peak within two years and slow, according to a recent study by Frost&Sullivan. The change will not be a decline in market, but in growth rate, which is forecast at 7.5% for the period 1998 through 2004. Still, the decline in growth rate will concern market competitors and cause a further trend toward consolidation, according to the study.
Chuck Becker has become president/chief operating officer of DeCrane Aircraft Holdings Inc., El Segundo, Calif. He was president of subsidiary Tri-Star Electronics International Inc. Becker has been succeeded by Terry Jarnigan, who was Tri-Star vice president-sales and marketing. Christina Shiley-Kukuruda has been named president of subsidiary Cory Components Inc. She was general manager. And John Hinson has been appointed vice president-planning and business development of DeCrane. He was vice president/chief financial officer of Tri-Star.
Marwan Lahoud has been named corporate vice president-development for Aerospatiale and Marc Paganini corporate vice president-investor relations. Lahoud was human resources manager of the DGA French armaments agency. Paganini was president of Florida-based Barfield Inc., a Sogerma subsidiary.
A Texas state court judge plans to issue a ruling by July 9 regarding the legality of proposed long-haul flights from Dallas' Love Field. Continental Express was scheduled to launch nonstop flights to Cleveland July 1, but Judge Robert McCoy issued a temporary restraining order delaying the service. The City of Fort Worth, the Dallas/ Fort Worth Airport Board, and American Airlines asked for the order, claiming the Cleveland service would violate a 1974 agreement calling for all long-distance flights to and from the area to operate from DFW Airport.
Few airports mean as much to a city, or are as colorful, as Kai Tak. Pilots see an orange-and-white hillside warning sign as they prepare to bank right for the final descent into the city, and passengers, although they aren't really that close, often describe the approach as being at eye-level with the laundry hanging from high-rise apartments. Hong Kong has been the antithesis of Communist China since its 1949 revolution. In the face of China's rigid regime, Hong Kong was a free-wheeling, bustling center of capitalism. And Kai Tak has been its gateway.
Knowledge Technologies International (KTI), a new company registered in Luxembourg, has acquired rights to the Intelligent Computer Aided Design (ICAD) system from the Burlington, Mass.-based Concentra Corp. for $18.7 million. ICAD, a knowledge-based engineering software tool, is employed by automotive and aerospace companies, including Airbus Industrie, Boeing and British Aerospace, for automating product development from concept to production.
Photograph: The No. 2 DarkStar made its first flight at Edwards AFB. The nose gear extends over a 3-sec. period for takeoff rotation. CAROL DODD The Lockheed Martin Skunk Works and Boeing have made major changes to DarkStar since the first aircraft crashed, focusing on ground handling, transition between flight modes, abort techniques and reliability. However, the drone retains its autonomous flight philosophy, with no provision for pilot control of vehicle attitude. ``Over 50 major changes were made on the program,'' said George F.
David Dacquino is now vice president/general manager of logistics services of Lockheed Martin Aircraft and Logistics Centers, Greenville, S.C. He was vice president/general manager of logistics management. He has been succeeded by Geary Wallace, who was vice president-Air Force programs at Lockheed Martin Logistics Management, Arlington, Tex.
Laptop users will be able to connect to secure local area networks (LANs) over commercial telephone lines with a system being developed for the National Security Agency (NSA) by Kasten Chase Applied Research of Reston, Va., with partners Mykotronx and Spyrus. Their system, Optiva Secure Plus, could benefit employees on travel as well as telecommuters who need secure access to classified information on a LAN. The system has four parts. Mykotronx supplies Palladium, a 56-KBps. laptop modem on a PCMCIA card.
Photograph: Designers are working with ESA and NASA specialists to reconstruct the incident scenario. Engineers are optimistic they will get the spacecraft back in operation. Scientists are battling to reestablish contact with the joint European Space Agency/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (Soho), a $1-billion mission that is the keystone of a vast international program to explore the Sun and its surrounding region, the magnetosphere and the solar winds. Contact with Soho was lost at 1:26 p.m.
Howmet Corp. is nearing the use of vacuum die casting to produce complex aerospace components from superalloys and titanium at its Operhall Research Center in Whitehall, Mich. In the process, molten metal is injected into a metal mold at high speed under high vacuum conditions. The single-step procedure has the potential to offer significant cost savings over investment casting, according to Don Larson, business center manager for vacuum die casting. The cycle time between injection and releasing a part from the mold is 7-10 min.
Most people who are familiar with business aviation are well-acquainted with what makes Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. a strong player against rivals such as Bombardier, which hopes to topple Gulfstream from its perch in the high-end segment of the industry. There is Gulfstream's worldwide reputation for producing high-quality aircraft and a brand-name identity that dates back 40 years to when the twin-propeller G1 was introduced. But there's something else: the company's board of directors.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater is to spend a week in Africa, seeking support for efforts to enhance the safety of air travel there. Slater is to depart July 7 for visits with transportation officials from various nations, in Senegal and Zimbabwe, as part of the ``Safe Skies for Africa'' program launched by President Clinton during his tour of Africa in March and April. Slater also is scheduled to discuss safety and airport issues with officials in Angola, Cameroon, Cape Verde and Ethiopia.
FOUR TRIMBLE 4800 D-GPS RECEIVERS WERE USED by Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers to measure motion of the Earth's crust in the Nepal Himalayas. In May, mountaineers planted D-GPS receivers on the South Col and summit of Mount Everest and on adjoining Kala Pattar, and set up a D-GPS reference station at the base camp. Those survey-class receivers and their stored data, retrieved at the end of the expedition, are being analyzed at MIT and will be compared with data from the same locations on future expeditions.
The FAA on July 2 ordered operators of CFM56-7B-powered Boeing 737-700s and -800s to immediately check those engines for signs of internal failure. The telegraphic airworthiness directive followed separate, June 26 inflight shutdowns of one CFM56-7B each on 737s operated by Transaero and Braathens airlines. Investigations determined the accessory gearbox starter gearshaft in each engine suffered fatigue failure that stemmed from a manufacturing process change. A vendor for CFM International eliminated shotpeening of the gearshaft hub in mid-1996.
United Airlines and Delta Air Lines said they will merge their domestic frequent-flier programs on Sept. 1 as a prelude to a larger proposed partnership outlined in April. The two carriers have supplied the U.S. Transportation Dept. with requested documentation about the broad alliance envisioned.
American Airlines and 48 other domestic and international carriers that rely on Sabre Group's passenger reservations systems suffered two failures within seven days.
Tom Cassidy, president/CEO of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., is among the new members of the board of directors of the San Diego Aerospace Museum. Others are: Christine Probett, product support manager for Airbus programs for BFGoodrich Aerostructures; retired American Airlines flight attendant Connie Englert; former U.S. Navy aviator David Anderson; and John and Martha King, who operate the King Schools.
