Pratt&Whitney has begun ground tests of a derivative F119 engine that will serve as the main powerplant for the conventional takeoff and landing version of Lockheed Martin's Joint Strike Fighter prototype.
Air Afrique expects its new strategic plan to restore profitability and align the carrier for privatization and strategic alliances with non-African partners. Eleven West African states, which pool traffic rights, jointly own 70.4% of Abidjan, Ivory Coast-based Air Afrique. In the last few years, the multinational carrier accumulated losses resulting from a heavy debt burden, devaluation of the CFA franc and weak company organization.
Air traffic controllers and engineers have launched a campaign opposing U.K. government plans to sell off 51% of the National Air Traffic Services (NATS) to the private sector, which they believe would pose a risk to safety.
RADA ELECTRONIC INDUSTRIES and MLM Integrated Systems, a division of Israel Aircraft Industries, have agreed to cooperate on marketing and producing an enhanced, multidimension Integrated Data Center (IDC) for fighter aircraft. IDC includes a data recording, processing and transmitting system for postflight debriefing or real-time monitoring using an advanced data link. The companies' target is the upgrade market.
Tomasso P. Rivellini, cognizant engineer of the Mars Pathfinder Airbag Subsystem, is expected to receive the 1998 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Engineer of the Year Award. Herman Krier, professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is scheduled to receive the 1998 Wyld Propulsion Award. And, Leroy Spearman, a senior technical specialist in the Aeronautics Systems Analysis Div. of the NASA Langley Research Center, has received the 1998 Aerodynamics Award.
Cathay Pacific Airways is planning a trial nonstop polar flight from New York's JFK airport on July 5, which is scheduled to land at Hong Kong's new Chek Lap Kok airport on July 6, its opening day. Although conducted as a test of the FANS-1 satellite navigation system, the flight will be a revenue-bearing journey in a 747-400--a special continuation of the carrier's regular New York-Vancouver-Hong Kong service.
Pratt&Whitney has outlined a series of growth steps that could boost the power generated by baseline engines it has developed for the Joint Strike Fighter program. Three steps have been examined that could allow the engines to generate up to 20% more power. Those include: -- A 5% power boost obtained with an increased airflow and a throttle push. -- A 10% power increase that would be reached by increasing fan airflow and rotor inlet temperatures.
The FAA last week ordered operators of more than 1,400 U.S.-registered Boeing aircraft to verify that rudder pedals are correctly fastened to the aircraft control systems.
Finnair is planning to hush-kit at least 10 of its 12 DC-9-51s to enable them to operate beyond 2002, when new noise restriction limitations come into effect. Two of the 122-seat aircraft are expected to be sold before year-end. The project includes renovations of aircraft cockpits along with new avionics and passenger cabins. Finnair says the $30-million life extension program allows it the option to consider acquiring new 100-seat jet aircraft when they enter the market early next century.
THE INTELSAT 805 COMMUNICATIONS spacecraft, a 7,700-lb. Lockheed Martin Series 7000, was launched into geosynchronous transfer orbit by an International Launch Services Atlas 2AS booster from Cape Canaveral on June 18. The spacecraft and booster are valued at $230 million. The new Intelsat will be parked over Brazil, where it can transmit to the Americas and Europe. The liftoff marked a major Atlas milestone--the 550th launch of the vehicle over 40 years.
SENIOR LOCKHEED MARTIN managers take issue with an Aviation Week&Space Technology article that said the company was ``formulating'' a plan to initiate commercial Titan 4B operations. The article, supported by input from multiple sources, said the plan ``if implemented'' would mark a major shift in company booster planning (AW&ST June 8, p. 25). Lockheed Martin officials said unequivocally that no consideration has been given to reinitiating commercial Titan operations.
Boeing 767 transports have logged more than 1 million ETOPS flights with 57 airlines. According to Boeing statisticians, 767 operators now log more than 13,000 ETOPS flights a month, many of them across the North Atlantic. FAA approved Extended Range Twin-Engine Operations for the 767 in March 1985, setting an initial limit that flightpaths remain within 120 min. of a suitable alternate airport. That restriction later was extended to 180 min. for qualified carriers.
An acrimonious dispute over the need to reform the European Space Agency (ESA) threatens to lead to a crisis in Europe's space program. Claude Allegre, the minister responsible for space activities in France, said that he and his colleagues in Germany and Italy would boycott the ESA council meeting in Brussels this week and instruct their delegates to block all nonessential business there to show their dissatisfaction with the pace and extent of agency reform.
Pentagon studies to determine how best to find and attack mobile air defense and Scud-type ballistic missiles are now about half completed, but the next phase may be the most interesting, as researchers are allowed more innovation. And high on that list of innovations is the use of the USAF's small but growing fleet of long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER Hubert Vedrine and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright and Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater on June 18 signed the U.S.-French bilateral aviation accord reached in April (AW&ST Apr. 13, p. 60). The agreement calls for gradual elimination of air carrier restrictions over five years. As a result of the pact, Air France implemented new code-sharing agreements with Delta Air Lines and Continental Airlines on U.S.-France routes.
AVIDYNE CORP.'S INTEGRATED 5-IN. DIAGONAL flight situation display for general aviation aircraft now can be used for IFR flight, following receipt of two new FAA Technical Standing Order approvals. The approval covers the multifunction display including the system's moving map and GPS navigation modes. The second approval covers the system's ability to display lightning data from a remote-mounted BFGoodrich Stormscope WX-500 sensor.
Private industry must play a key role in helping the Clinton Administration craft a plan to protect America's critical infrastructures from cyber terrorists, Jeffrey Hunker, director of the government's Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office, told a House National Security subcommittee. President Clinton announced a new directive last month that formally made computer and electronic threats a national security issue (AW&ST June 1, p. 31).
William H. Trachsel has become senior vice president/general counsel of the United Technologies Corp., Hartford, Conn. He succeeds Irving B. Yoskowitz, who has become a senior partner in Washington-based Global Technology Partners. Trachsel has been vice president/secretary/deputy general counsel.
Speaking of Wintel, LPA Software Inc. of Rochester, N.Y., which writes forecasting, inventory planning and material allocation software, has introduced a Windows NT-compliant supply chain software upgrade called LPAVision v.1.0. Part of the reason for the upgrade from LPA's original Supply Chain Solutions product was that SAP's R/3 server/client business software, a dominant force in aerospace, is applicable to Windows products, LPA Vice President Ray Shady said. In March, LPA gained R/3 certification as a complementary software program.
The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) has lifted the security wraps on the nation's first ``spy satellite,'' a signal intelligence (sigint) spacecraft orbited in 1960 to determine the type and location of Soviet air defense radars.
H.E. (Tad) Kinne will become president/chief operating officer and Stephen C. Forsyth executive vice president/chief financial officer of the Hexcel Corp., Stamford, Conn., effective July 15. Kinne has been U.S. president of the Additives Div. of the Ciba Specialty Chemicals Corp. Forsyth has been senior vice president-finance and administration/CFO.
Aerotech Engineering and Research Corp., Lawrence, Kan., is seeking commercial applications for ultrasonic motor technology it refined under contract to the U.S. Ballistic Missile Defense Office. The motors, which have potential military applications as lightweight missile actuators, use a piezoceramic material, lead zirconium titanate (PZT), which changes size when stimulated by an electric signal. The small displacements translate motion to a rotor connected to an output shaft, according to Suman Saripalli, Aerotech research and development engineer.
BOMBARDIER SERVICES' subsidiary in Bournemouth, England, has been tapped to provide elementary flying training support services for the British Royal Air Force. The contractor, formerly known as Shorts Support Services, will provide Grob 115D trainer aircraft and a package of support services for the RAF's University Air Squadrons and Air Cadet Flights at 13 locations.
EUROPEAN UNION TRANSPORT ministers agreed last week to create the European Aviation Safety Agency to certify aircraft, equipment and procedures based on international safety standards and ensure these standards are applied by all 15 EU members. The ministers agreed to authorize the European Commission to negotiate a treaty to establish the agency.
