American Eagle plans to inaugurate regional service with Embraer RJ145 jets on May 15 from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport to Cleveland, Cincinnati and Milwaukee. The 50-seat airplanes will replace ATR 42/72 turboprop transports. American Eagle took delivery of the first RJ145 on Feb. 28 (AW&ST Mar. 9, p. 19). Two of the twinjets are being used for pilot training and FAA approval of initial routes. An Eagle official said the carrier is scheduled to receive 20 RJ145s this year and will base them at O'Hare.
HONEYWELL WILL HAVE UPGRADE KITS AVAILABLE in May to give its Primus 2 digital radio systems the new 8.33 kHz. communication bandwidth that will be required in Europe. Because of congestion at VHF frequencies, ICAO/Eurocontrol mandated all aircraft flying above 19,500 ft. to use radios with 8.33 kHz. spacing after Jan. 1, 1999. To modify an existing Primus 2 radio with 25 kHz. spacing, the owner will have to send six boxes (for a typical dual radio installation) to a service center for hardware and software modification. The cost per aircraft will be about $36,000.
Airborne missile warning systems that use infrared sensors are challenging ultraviolet-sensor type MWS for some military aircraft applications. Systems using IR sensors offer greater sensitivity to enable earlier detection of air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles, but they are more costly and potentially more susceptible to false alarms.
Toshiba is being criticized by Japan's National Space Development Agency (NASDA) for incorrectly installing a robotic arm on the ETS-7 engineering test satellite now in orbit. The arm was installed 30 deg. off-center from its correct position. NASDA officials said this placement will not affect the satellites' rendezvous and docking tests. ETS-7 is actually two satellites--a chaser and a target--that are to separate and perform automatic docking tests. The arm is located atop the 4,840-lb. chaser satellite and is to grasp the 880-lb. target.
The European Space Agency is proposing a new strategic plan for the next five years that would reinforce Europe's position in launch systems, Earth observation and space telecommunications, and pave the way for its entry into the field of satellite navigation.The plan would be carried out in close cooperation with industry (AW&ST, Feb. 2, p. 25).
THE GOVERNMENT OF TURKEY has concluded a preliminary agreement with Aerospatiale to coproduce the French Eryx portable antitank missile, according to Turkish sources. The 10-year $441-million agreement would be handled through a joint venture involving Aerospatiale and two unnamed Turkish companies.
BRITISH AIRWAYS IS SPENDING 20 MILLION POUNDS ($33.4 million) to install AlliedSignal's enhanced proximity ground warning system (EPGWS) on all its aircraft. Following successful trials last year on a British Airways Boeing 747-400, the carrier will acquire 279 EPGWS computers from AlliedSignal Electronic and Avionics Systems, valued at slightly more than $10 million. The first new aircraft with the system, a Boeing 777, is to be delivered this week. Up to 70 new aircraft will be delivered with EGPWS and 150 existing aircraft will be retrofitted by 2002.
Delta Air Lines will base its first ``satellite'' passenger reservation center in the Huntsville, Ala., area. The center, with 125 reservation stations, is scheduled to open this fall and employ approximately 220. The remote center is the first to build on Delta's new Automatic Call Distributor technology. It enables the establishment of satellite call centers within a 200-mi. radius of an existing Delta reservations center, at half the cost of building a separate call center. Delta plans to open two more centers in the next year.
Boeing will streamline its scattered manufacturing and lab facilities while focusing on assembly operations as part of a three-year plan to consolidate following its recent mergers with McDonnell Douglas and Rockwell. The plan calls for cutting about 8,200 jobs while reducing Boeing's total floor space by 15%, or about 18-million sq. ft. The company said the plan would bring lower costs and help keep Boeing competitive. No charge against earnings is planned, as there will be offsetting increases in property values, according to Phil Condit, chairman.
Keith Mans will become the director of the Royal Aeronautical Society in London, succeeding Ron Kennett, who is scheduled to retire on July 31. Mans was a member of Parliament until 1997 and a Royal Air Force Reserve pilot.
Alarms installed as a last-ditch safeguard against controlled-flight-into-terrain accidents at major airports in Chicago, Dallas and New York were programmed with wrong altitude limits, FAA officials said last week, and personnel at air traffic control facilities did not know how the safety devices worked.
THE NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE OFFICE has released a more detailed full-span view of a secret Lacrosse imaging radar spacecraft under assembly at Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Denver. The new view better shows the overall scale of the 15-ton vehicle compared with earlier photos (AW&ST Mar. 23, p. 26). The satellite is shown minus its large folded rectangular imaging radar antenna and solar array. Note the clustering of subsystem boxes. This helps maintain a center of mass enhancing spacecraft stability for radar imaging at resolutions of about 1 meter.
Air Liberte, one of British Airways' affiliates, will be focusing more of its efforts on the French domestic market, with the goal of becoming a major player in the French airline industry. The French independent carrier recently terminated international services to concentrate on its domestic route system and destinations in French overseas territories. However, it will continue to operate three routes to the U.K. British Airways owns a 70% stake in Air Liberte.
Trevor Findlay, formerly with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institution, has become executive director of the London-based Verification Technology Information Centre. He succeeds Patricia Lewis, who has become the director of the U.N. Institute for Disarmament Research in Geneva.
Getting good data exchange between different CAD/CAM programs--CATIA to Pro-E, Pro-E to Unigraphics, Unigraphics to Computervision, etc.--has been a long-standing concern for the industry. Data exchange bottlenecks are most likely to arise between prime contractors and their subcontractors, or between the subs and third-tier vendors using different CAD/CAM programs. But they also can arise among divisions within a company, especially a merged giant like Lockheed Martin. Ten years ago, 24 manufacturers and government agencies formed a consortium called PDES Inc.
Sikorsky is studying a menu of upgrades to the Black Hawk that could double the aircraft's productivity, cut its operational and support costs by one-third and extend the life of the UH-60 fleet by 20-30 years. The studies are being performed to support published U.S. Army plans that call for keeping Black Hawks in service until at least 2025. Upgrades are necessary to meet this goal because the oldest UH-60s will turn 20 this year.
Japan Airlines dipped into its reserve fund for nearly $1.2 billion to cover money-losing investments in hotels, a helicopter operation and cruise business in 1997, but it expects a rebound in profits in fiscal 1998.
THE FAA HAS FINED BOEING $140,000 for failing to properly inspect 140 shipments of fasteners on Dec. 17-18 at its Renton, Wash., narrow-body factory. Boeing is appealing, saying it was using an FAA-approved supplier acceptance process. The case is unrelated to a special inspection of 737 production lines in Renton and Wichita, Kan., last January after the crash of a SilkAir 737 in Indonesia. That inspection found several, non-safety related quality-control process deficiencies.
Australia Pacific Airports Corp. (APAC), a consortium led by U.K. airport operator BAA with a 15.1% share, has won the competition to operate Launceston airport in Tasmania, Australia. APAC agreed to pay A$17 million ($11.6 million) for a 50-year lease on the airport, which posted total revenues of A$4 million ($2.7 million) in 1996-97 and 592,000 passenger movements. BAA, which also has an equity stake in Melbourne airport, hopes to use its foothold in Australia to expand its airport ownership and management into the Asia-Pacific region.
Macau's East Asia Airlines upgraded its fleet to three Sikorsky S-76C+ helicopters, increasing passenger capacity by 50%. The 12-passenger S-76s replace Bell 222s. During 1997, EAA carried more than 40,000 passengers on 26 daily flights between the Portuguese enclave and the central business district of Hong Kong. The rotary-wing journey across the mouth of the Pearl River Delta takes 18 min. compared with a 45-min. commute on ferries. Flights originate from Macau's Maritime Terminal, located hard by Macau's most popular tourist attraction--its casinos.
The fighter competition in Chile is not really about the purchase of 16-20 new aircraft. The real prize is an inside track for a decade-long fighter modernization program that could mean sales of 60 or more fighters as the Chilean air force works through a highly integrated plan to replace three old fighter types--35 Cessna A-37Bs, 40 Dassault Mirage 5/50s and 15 Northrop Grumman F-5E/Fs--with a single, easier-to-support aircraft.
THE FAA WILL GRANT an exemption to FAR Part 23 and allow Sino Swearingen Aircraft Co. to certify its SJ30-2 business jet under Commuter Category rules that permit a maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) above the 12,500-lb. limitation. The SJ30-2's MTOW will be 13,200 lb., providing an additional 700 lb. of useful load. Company officials expect FAA certification late in 1999.
Michael Kluse has been named associate laboratory director for national security for the U.S. Energey Dept.'s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Wash.
A joint venture between a Malaysian freight forwarder and the Cambodian government is testing the theory that low-cost express transshipment hubs can be successful in unlikely settings in the Southeast Asian jungle.
