An advanced 6-ton National Reconnaissance Office signal intelligence spacecraft launched over the Western Pacific Ocean on May 8 will help the U.S. secretly monitor government and military communications in India and Pakistan where tensions are growing following the Indian nuclear weapons tests on May 11 and 13. The National Security Agency will be the primary user of the new Orion spacecraft. The NSA along with the CIA and State Dept. will lead the interpretation of communication intercepts obtained over the region from the new satellite.
Good economic times are driving new regional airline services at the nation's airports. As demand continues strong and regional jets enter markets, competition among the carriers is growing keener. In a robust growth mode, regional carriers are expanding services as feeders to the major hubs, adding flights to previously unserved areas and upgrading services. Confident that the regionals' growth will continue, the FAA has forecast a 10% annual growth rate for revenue passenger miles this year, followed by a 7% increase in 1999.
Roger Wilson (see photo) has been appointed vice president-engineering of the Sino Swearingen Aircraft Co., San Antonio, Tex. He was director of Lear 45 development for Learjet Inc.
The FAA is committed to scrapping its current, broken system for checking the safety of major airlines and replacing it with one that would swiftly identify and head off potential problems, top agency officials said last week. ``In the past, we have focused on the symptoms,'' FAA Administrator Jane Garvey said, as she unveiled the Air Transportation Oversight System (ATOS) inspection regime. ``Now we will focus on root causes.''
FRENCH TRANSPORT MINISTER Jean-Claude Gayssot said the French government would provide research and development funding for an all-new engine to replace the CFM 56 if and when CFMI partners General Electric and Snecma agreed to launch such a project. Financing for the engine, whose development would cost an estimated $1.5 billion, would be in the form of reimbursable loans. The two companies are discussing creation of a replacement powerplant in the CFM-6's 18,500-34,000-lb.
AIR NEW ZEALAND has sold its five 747-200s to Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. for $130 million. Air New Zealand will refurbish the aircraft to Virgin Atlantic specifications; they are to be delivered from March 1999-January 2000. Air New Zealand has not announced a replacement order, but observers said it has been made an ``offer too good to refuse'' on five 747-400s whose delivery has been deferred by Asian carriers.
To increase survivability in the event of an accident involving fire, a European Transport Safety Council study recommends that smoke hoods be provided in all commercial aircraft and that water-mist systems be installed in new commercial aircraft types.
Airbus Industrie and the British Defense Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) have completed wake vortex tests that should help determine the final aerodynamic design of the proposed A3XX high-capacity transport. The program's primary goal was to ensure that the A3XX wing design could be optimized to minimize wakes. Wake vortices help determine aircraft horizontal separation during final approach. Their strength is linked to aircraft size. DERA provided a Light Detection and Ranging system (left) that uses a carbon dioxide laser.
Blaine Jones has been appointed chief financial officer of the Mesa Air Group, Farmington, N.M. He had been president of the Mesa Airlines Div. Jones succeeds W. Stephen Jackson, who has resigned.
Brian W. Simpson has become vice president-strategic consulting of the Boyd Group/ASRC Inc., Evergreen, Colo. He was manager of business development for Delta Air Lines.
Jon C. Leverette, an aerospace engineer at the Naval Aviation Depot, Jacksonville, Fla., has received the Claud A. Jones Award from the American Society of Naval Engineers. Leverette was cited for his role in the development of the T-45 Integrated Maintenance Program.
NORTHWEST, CONTINENTAL, America West and Alaska Airlines reached agreement with Air China last week to share frequent-flier programs and cooperate in other areas. The similar agreements between Air China and the four airlines includes code-sharing of flights, linked computer reservation systems and joint marketing, sales and promotion programs.
FAA, Boeing and airline officials are gauging the extent of severe fuel-tank wiring damage on older 737s as a result of new inspections ordered by the aviation agency last week.
The global non-proliferation regime hit a nuclear iceberg last week. We didn't see it coming, and the damage is more severe than it might look from the upper decks. India's nuclear tests burst a gaping hole in the interlocking network of treaties and agreements the U.S. has painstakingly constructed during the past 30 years.
Agreeing on the configuration for the 90 A319/A320 aircraft they are acquiring jointly is the next task for the TACA Group, TAM of Brazil and LanChile (AW&ST Mar. 30, p. 58). A common layout would permit carriers to bargain for better prices on spares and training, according to the companies, and allow them to swap aircraft to match an individual carrier's traffic levels. The trio agreed last fall to collaborate on the medium-range, standard-body aircraft acquisition based solely on handshakes by top executives.
Scientists are studying the temperature of the fireball that results when an interceptor missile hits an incoming theater ballistic missile. If successful, the technology would help determine if a warhead was disabled or still active among a field of falling debris. This could give U.S. missile defense forces a useful tool for making rapid decisions on whether to launch a second interceptor, especially if the supply of defensive weapons is limited.
Lockheed Martin Astronautics has reconfigured its Centaur upper stage to accept either one or two engines, enabling low-Earth or geosynchronous missions to be accommodated quickly. Called the ``common Centaur,'' the modified stage has one set of plumbing and connection points, and can be fitted with a ``universal aft-end'' structure that permits a single or dual rocket-engine setup. This and factory-floor process changes have cut final assembly time from a 40-day average to under 30. A recent Centaur was on-track to make a 21-day final assembly target.
Go, British Airways' new, no-frills subsidiary, has picked FLS Aerospace to provide total maintenance for its aircraft. The five-year contract covers up to 17 737-300s the carrier expects to operate. Go is set to start operations on May 22 with three 737s from London Stansted Airport, where FLS is also based. A U.K. high court last week denied a request from rival carrier EasyJet for an immediate injunction to prevent BA from guaranteeing leases on further aircraft for Go.
NOAA-K, THE LATEST MODEL of four generations of TIROS weather satellites, was launched on May 13 into a 450-naut.-mi. orbit from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., by a Titan 2. Built by Lockheed Martin Missiles&Space in East Windsor, N.J., NOAA-K is an advanced television infrared observation satellite. LMMS also is contracted to build the NOAA-L, M, N and N-prime weather satellites for NASA/NOAA.
Europe's regional airlines continue to experience healthy growth despite operational constraints at major hubs and difficulties in hiring additional pilots. In 1997, the 65 members of the European Regions Airline Assn. (ERA) carried an estimated 56.5 million passengers, a 13% increase over the previous year. Airline executives predict similar growth in 1998.
China Southern Airlines of Guangzhou has placed an order valued at $15 million for an Airbus A320 full flight simulator (FFS) and two Maxvue Plus Visual Systems with Montreal-based Commercial Simulation Div. of CAE Electronics. The simulator is scheduled to be installed at CSA's new Zhuai Training Center and become operational by February 1999. One of the visual systems is to be installed in the 320 simulator and the other is to be retrofitted in the airline's existing Boeing 757 FFS, also made by CAE.
Congressional military panels are united on next year's funding for a national defense against a small number of intercontinental ballistic missiles, but at odds about counterpart theater defenses against shorter-range missiles.
The fourth launch for EchoStar from Baikonur last week on an ILS Proton booster will allow EchoStar Communications to begin providing local direct-to-home programming in competition with cable operators. The spacecraft, a Lockheed Martin A2100X, will be positioned at 119 deg. W. Long. and signals a shift in orbit of EchoStar 1 from that position to 148 deg. W. Long. With the repositioned constellation for North American services, EchoStar will begin its local programming initiative in 20 of the largest metropolitan areas.
An ambitious new $750-million plan to overhaul Russia's civil aviation industry by 2005 faces an uncertain future owing to political and budgetary obstacles. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and breakup of Aeroflot in 1992, the volume of Russian domestic airline traffic has fallen by 50%, to 58 billion passenger kilometers. The country's aging and fuel-inefficient fleet has not been renewed, and the flight safety of regional airlines has reached critical levels. Ticket prices also have become unaffordable for many Russians.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge are exploring advanced information technology applications that could soon benefit aerospace and defense users. A prototype ``intelligent room'' responds to verbal commands, displaying and moving information on various screens upon command and answering verbal requests for database information. Potential applications include a high-efficiency ``command center'' for hurricane disaster relief, according to Howard Shrobe, associate director of MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
