The AAR-44, an early passive-type MWS developed by Cincinnati Electronics in the mid-1980s, used a scanning-type IR sensor. The AAR-44 was installed in the belly of Air Force Special Operations Forces' MC-130H (Combat Talon) transports to provide lower hemispheric warning of surface-to-air missiles. But the system weighed 62 lb., making it too heavy for helicopters.
THE CASSINI SPACECRAFT, in the initial stages of its nearly seven-year journey to Saturn, automatically entered a safing mode last week for the first time in its cruise phase. The event did not impact the overall mission, nor the planned fly-by of Venus in about one month, according to program officials. The safing occurred shortly before noon at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Mar. 24 as flight controllers, in a planned spacecraft maintenance activity, were switching between the two stellar reference units on the spacecraft, launched last October.
NASA may have found a way to top Al Gore's proposal to please the populous with a new spacecraft to stare at Earth and offer a constant Apollo-style view of our fragile blue planet. NASA says it will train Mars Global Surveyor's camera in high-resolution mode on the Cydonia region of the red planet. The goal is to pick up details of the so-called ``face on Mars.'' Twenty years ago, Viking snapped a picture of a big rock lighted so that it looked like a human head, and the tabloids have been having a field day ever since.
ANALOG DEVICES, APPLYING ITS INTEGRATED CIRCUIT technology to produce micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), has created a complete two-axis accelerometer with digital output on a single monolithic chip. The device is low powered (3 volts, 250 micro amps per axis), does not require an analog-to-digital converter or glue logic, and comes in a surface-mount package. In quantities of 10,000 it sells for $9.95. The low cost results from high-volume production using standard IC wafer fabrication. The 2g ADXL202 is a fourth-generation accelerometer.
FAA inspectors and industry officials are struggling to iron out how the agency's new guidelines for oversight of airline maintenance will affect repair stations in the U.S. and abroad. The impact of the guidelines has been limited largely to repair stations that focus on airline overhaul contracts and which now must work more closely with their customers to document, inspect and audit the work. Repair stations that overhaul smaller airline components or focus on business and general aviation aircraft were excluded from those guidelines.
FIDAE is coming of age. This year's events in Santiago make it clear that the air show has transitioned from a regional military exhibition to a much more international experience with significant commercial content. However, lest there be some confusion, while FIDAE '98 was more than half commercial in content, the show still has a strong military flavor--on the flight line, in the stalls and in the topics under discussion.
JONATHAN ORNSTEIN, PRESIDENT and CEO of Brussels-based Virgin Express, will become CEO of Mesa Air Group on May 1, succeeding Mesa founder Larry L. Risley. Ornstein, a former executive vice president of Mesa and former president and CEO of Continental Express, joined Virgin Group in 1996 to help develop the low-cost, low-fare Virgin Express. In May, Ornstein will become chairman of Virgin Express Holdings; Jim Swigart, formerly chief financial officer, will become president and CEO. Mesa has annual revenues of more than $500 million.
FAA OFFICIALS ARE INVESTIGATING what they said was an air traffic controller's operational error on Mar. 20 which allowed a DC-10 and a 737 departing Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport to pass within 100 ft. vertically and 300 ft. horizontally of each other during their climbouts. The Hawaiian Airlines DC-10 and the 737, operated as a charter for the U.S. Interior Dept., had taken off on Runways 19 Right and 25 Right at McCarran. FAA officials said neither flight crew filed a near-midair collision report on the incident.
NTSB OFFICIALS ARE LOOKING into the mid-March icing incident and in-flight upset of a WestAir Embraer EMB-120 near Sacramento, Calif., as part of the board's ongoing investigation into the Jan. 9, 1997, crash of a Comair EMB-120 near Monroe, Mich. That crash, as Comair Flight 3272 was being vectored for approach to Detroit Wayne County Metro Airport, killed all 29 people on board. Investigators are assessing whether the flight crew's failure to respond to icing led to the crash.
Russian President Boris Yeltsin's decision last week to fire prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin could mean more bad news for the International Space Station. Chernomyrdin worked closely with Vice President Al Gore to promote U.S.-Russian aerospace cooperation. He was instrumental in helping free up funds for Russia's long-delayed station hardware. Members of Congress note that Russia hasn't met a single station program milestone promised to Gore.
FAA officials, manufacturers and aircraft operators are working to define the problems they may encounter with aging systems and the best means of managing them to keep their fleet's flying economically. In a related effort, industry officials are reviewing precautions against uncontained engine failures and assessing new inspection regimes and techniques with the potential for further reducing those rare causes of aircraft accidents.
U.S. anti-missile programs will get a full-scale review in response to an independent report bluntly critical of ballistic missile defense (BMD) management and flight test programs. A report by a score of military experts found that BMD programs are being jeopardized by too few tests, unnecessarily tight schedules, a lack of aggressive management and other failings.
Carson Morris has been promoted to executive vice president/director of the Engineering and Applied Technology Group from senior vice president/director of engineering and integration of CACI International Inc., Arlington, Va.
The FAA and NASA are developing and deploying a host of advanced, highly accurate non-destructive evaluation systems (NDE) that will allow airlines to achieve new levels of confidence in maintaining aging aircraft.
Fairchild Dornier's 728JET is attracting the interest of Swissair's regional subsidiary Crossair and Lufthansa CityLine. Crossair has a need for as many as sixty 70-seat aircraft. That requirement is also the target for Aero International Regional, which is looking to interest Crossair in the improved Avro RJ70. Crossair already operates the RJ85 and RJ100.
Hong Kong, the key air cargo hub for goods coming out of China, could suffer if the Asian currency squeeze hits the mainland at the same time shippers look to Southeast Asia for new sources of cheap goods. As a result, a portion of the more than 901,000 metric tons of air cargo that moved through Hong Kong's Kai Tak airport last year could find alternative routes this year.
Henry Hartsfield has been named managing director of Raytheon Systems' NASA Training Operation in Houston. He was director of NASA's Human Exploration and Development of Space Independent Assurance Organization.
Space Access LLC, one of several U.S. companies developing reusable commercial space launch vehicles, is using an innovative ``ejector ramjet'' propulsion system to power a hybrid airbreathing first stage. With two additional rocket-powered stages--nested inside the first--the system will deliver a full range of payloads to low- or geosynchronous-transfer-Earth orbits (LEO or GTO), according to company officials.
Northwest Airlines and United Airlines, the U.S. carriers with the highest stakes in the troubled Pacific Rim, have adjusted to weaknesses brought by the Asian financial flu.
Current operating conditions for airlines are so favorable--healthy bookings, firm pricing, low interest rates, falling fuel prices--one might almost forget that commercial air transport remains a cyclical industry.
Robert J. Jacklin has been promoted to vice president/general manager from vice president-finance and materials of Teledyne Continental Motors, Mobile, Ala. John Oakley has been appointed director of manufacturing operations. Walter Heerdt (see photo) has been appointed director of Lufthansa Technik Engine Div. He succeeds Wolfgang Zeitzer.
Kathy Tyler has been appointed vice president and Elisha Bizzaro manager of business development, respectively, and David Sadelfeld marketing manager, of Executive Jet Management of Cincinnati.
