TURKEY AND ISRAEL are to discuss details of a new medium-range missile project during biennial talks scheduled to be held in late May, during which officials from the two countries also are expected to evaluate rising regional threats. With Washington's negative reaction to Turkey's bid to join the U.S.-Israeli Arrow anti-ballistic missile program, Turkish and Israeli officials signed a memorandum of understanding earlier this month to cooperate on the new project for an air defense missile with a range of 150 km. (93 mi.).
TWO RUSSIAN COSMONAUTS on board the Mir space station completed the installation of a new 1,400-lb. roll control propulsion unit atop the station's 46-ft. Sofora mast during two extravehicular activities Apr. 17 and 22 (AW&ST Apr. 20, p. 28). U.S. astronaut Andy Thomas helped coordinate the EVAs from inside Mir.
The proposed alliance between GKN Westland Helicopters and Finmeccanica/Agusta represents another vote of confidence in the Italian government's drive to revitalize and privatize its aerospace and defense businesses. The memorandum of understanding signed by the two helicopter manufacturers to create an ``alliance of equals'' could lead to a merger by early 1999. It is the second such Anglo-Italian agreement this month.
Airbus Industrie forecasts that the current Asian financial crisis will have little impact on the long-term demand for air travel worldwide, which the consortium expects to triple in the next 20 years.
Sir Richard Evans has been named chairman of British Aerospace Plc., effective May 1. He was chief executive and will be succeeded by Group Managing Director John Weston. Richard Lapthorne has been appointed vice chairman and George Rose finance director.
Aseries of uncontained engine failures has prodded the FAA, manufacturers and airlines to revamp their systems for detecting flaws in critical, high-energy rotating engine parts.
EUROFIX, A DELFT UNIVERSITY CONCEPT to integrate GPS and Loran-C, is being installed at Bo and Vaerlandet in Norway and Lessay in France. Eurofix time-modulates the Loran-C pulses, producing a reliable data link out to a range of about 1,000 km. (540 naut. mi.). Data link bandwidth is ``rather modest'' but time to an integrity alarm will not exceed 6 sec., according to the university, and differential-GPS performance is very good.
NASA has delayed launch of Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Deep Space 1 technology testbed spacecraft for three months to October due to slips in software and hardware development.
Donald Schwanz (see photo)has been elected to the board of governors of the Aerospace Industries Assn. for 1998. He is president of Honeywell Space&Aviation Control in Phoenix.
Lynn Cunningham Brown (see photo) has been promoted to Washington-based vice president-communications of the Raytheon Systems Co. from director of communications for Raytheon TI Systems Inc., Lewisville, Tex.
The International Air Transport Assn. has rebuked the FAA again for failing to live up to schedules it promised for implementing automatic dependent surveillance (ADS) at Oakland and Anchorage centers. Oakland's Flight Information Region covers the lion's share of the Pacific, but the Anchorage FIR also has a fairly large section.
Airbus will become the first large transport manufacturer to install AlliedSignal's enhanced ground proximity warning system (EGPWS) avionics as standard equipment on all its new aircraft. The Toulouse-based European consortium, which now builds about 300 aircraft a year, will make the terrain avoidance system integral to every aircraft coming off its production lines beginning in 1999. Several airlines with earlier deliveries also have specified EGPWS as an option.
Boeing's T-33 chase jet is shown suspended in the indoor Boeing Radar Range in Seattle during radar cross section testing. The evaluation will establish baseline data on the T-33's radar profile. Boeing plans to fly the same jet against the Northrop Grumman-built F-22 radar as a calibrated target. That testing is scheduled to begin in July using a developmental, ground-based F-22 radar. The trials are intended to identify potential system problems prior to first flight in the new Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 fighter. c
LUFTHANSA GERMAN AIRLINES concluded an order for 10 330-seat Airbus A340-600 long-range transports powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 500 engines. First delivery is scheduled for the first quarter of 2003.
There are profits to be made in China, or so say the Koreans and Japanese, whose own economies are in a slump. Asiana Airlines has added flights to Changchun, Harbin and Guangzhou and is awaiting approval for a new service to Tantai. Korean Air is talking with China Eastern and Air China about a joint agreement to begin new freighter services to Tianjin from Seoul and Shanghai. Korean Air also wants to expand its passenger routes from Seoul to Quirin, Wuhan, Kunming and Urumqi.
The new Change 7.0 software, developed by Mitre Corp., is expected to significantly reduce the number of TCAS-generated resolution advisories (RA) which require the pilot to take evasive action (AW&ST Jan. 27, 1997, p. 57). When an RA calls for the pilot to deviate from an assigned altitude, it creates understandable concern for traffic controllers as well as the flight crew. (Some RAs only instruct the pilot to increase or decrease rate of climb or descent.)
Increasing numbers of applications for lower-cost uncooled focal plane arrays will push the value of the U.S. infrared imaging and thermometry market to more than $1.2 billion by 2002, according to Maxtech International, a high-technology research and consulting firm in Valley Forge, Pa. Military IR products, which accounted for most of the $790 million spent on infrared imaging and thermometry last year, are expected to slide to only a 50% market share over the next five years.
Hispano Suiza and Messier-Bugatti, French engine manufacturer Snecma affiliates, are seeking to acquire new businesses and to expand in the export market. Hispano-Suiza Aerostructures and Airbus Industrie jointly formed Aircelle, a joint subsidiary that will develop and manufacture engine nacelles for the newly launched A340-500/600 transports. Aircelle will produce nacelles for the Trent-equipped A340s under an exclusivity agreement that extends to 2012, according to Hispano-Suiza Chairman/CEO Yves Imbert.
Accudyne of Palm Bay, Fla., has delivered two trial versions of its new laser-based zero-width cutting system to industrial users. The technique, also called laser-based separation, has been known for years but never successfully commercialized. In Accudyne's application, a 10.6-micron carbon dioxide laser beam excites and subsequently breaks the intermolecular bonds in a material, resulting in a ``zero-width'' cut, according to Brian Hoekstra, vice president for technology.
Mark J. Niehaus (see photo) has been named director of engine programs for K-C Aviation of Dallas. He was director of technical operations at Superior Air Parts.
The Clinton Administration has unveiled draft legislation that would transform the FAA's air traffic control services into a separate management unit within the agency and fund it directly through cost-based user fees. Although the concept has wide support within the aviation industry, representatives last week were raising questions about the particulars in suggesting the legislation might be premature. It also is not clear how easily the measure will get through Congress, or when.
Aviation Week&Space Technology presented its 1997 Laureate and Laurel Legends awards at a dinner at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington on Apr. 8. The 1997 winners also were inducted into the Laureates Hall of Fame. A permanent Hall of Fame display is now located in the museum. The following photos are of the Laureates, Laurel Legends, Outstanding Cadets and Top High School Student who attended the dinner. Photography by Tracey Attlee.
National Express Group Plc. was named the preferred bidder to lease Stewart International Airport at Newburgh, N.Y., the first airport set to participate in the FAA's Pilot Privatization Program. The British company, which operates scheduled bus services, trains and airports in the U.K., hopes to establish intermodal transportation links between Stewart and the New York metropolitan area in order to increase domestic and international passenger and cargo traffic at the underutilized airport, a former military base now owned by the State of New York.
