Mongolia is setting the pace for the rest of Asia in establishing a country-wide communication, navigation, surveillance/air traffic management (CNS/ATM) system. Economics is the driving force behind Mongolia's decision to acquire a $12-million ground network from Raytheon Electronic Systems. The country's air traffic management officials are not concerned about traffic within their region, which is sparsely populated, but they do want an accurate accounting of trans-Asia overflights because of the revenues they produce.
Dassault Systemes and IBM have taken several joint steps to pursue the integration of design and management software, an area they call ``Product Data Management 2'' (PDM 2). Dassault has created the Enovia Corp. subsidiary in Charlotte, N.C., to develop PDM 2 programs. Its first products are Enovia.VPM for design and manufacturing, and Enovia.PM for managing data flow, helping to enforce corporate processes.
With the U.S. State Dept.'s decision last month to lift trade sanctions against South Africa, U.S. companies have been deciding what to offer as part of an extensive military modernization program. Some are already obtaining export licenses. Marketers will be hard at work during South Africa's Aerospace Africa airshow that begins Apr. 28. South Africa hasn't expressed official interest in the F-16; however, Lockheed Martin expects soon to finalize the package of products they will offer.
THE PENTAGON HAS SELECTED DIFFERENTIAL-GPS for its Joint Precision Approach/Landing System (JPALS) program to meet diverse multiservice needs. Authorization of a 20-month risk reduction program, expected in May, will focus on developing a small manpack system and evaluating vulnerability to hostile jamming. The current timetable calls for the engineering and manufacturing development program to begin in the spring of 2000, with delivery of prototype hardware in 2002.
Gerard Hitt has been named vice president-customer support and services for the Rogerson Aircraft Corp., Irvine, Calif. He was general manager of Aeronetics.
RUSSIA IS PROPOSING TO ASSIST IRAN to deploy a constellation of communications and Earth-monitoring satellites. Under the plan, Russia would develop, assemble and launch a new type of satellite for Iran, which would be placed in a geostationary orbit. The satellites would cover 100% of the country's space com- munications needs. The project would be coordinated by the Spurt Scientific-Industrial Center, which is involved in classified Russian defense projects.
Phillip J. Bekker has become executive vice president-Americas for South African Airways, based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He was the airline's manager in Tokyo.
The Model 2707 Series of space data receivers and test modulators is designed for high-rate space-to-ground links for remote sensing and imaging applications. The Model 2707s are designed for receiving data for Earth Observation System instruments. The first deliveries were to Scientific Atlanta of Atlanta, Ga. Additional units will be placed at ground stations in Poker Flat, Alaska, and Spitsbergen, Norway. Models are available to receive data on the direct broadcast link and the direct downlink. Aydin Telemetry, 47 Friends Lane, Newtown, Pa. 18940-0328.
IN THE INITIAL PHASE OF A System/Safety Enhancement Program, the U.S. Army and Bell Helicopter Textron plan to retrofit 28 OH-58D Kiowa Warrior armed reconnaissance helicopters with systems upgrades, starting this year. The Army intends eventually to modify an additional 311 of the helicopters. Technical improvements are expected to include energy attenuating cockpit seats, digital target identification and tracking systems, and improved communications/navigation equipment.
February was a good month for pilots seeking cockpit jobs with U.S. airlines. According to Atlanta-based AIR Inc., 1,305 new positions were created last month, and the industry may sign up more than 12,500 pilots this year. Last month, 12 of the 14 major airlines hired pilots, as did 29 of the 35 national airlines. AIR officials are predicting that major carriers will have openings for about 4,000 pilots, and national carriers will generate jobs for another 4,800.
Trailing shields such as this one are designed to protect titanium and other highly reactive metals from contamination by oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen during inert gas welding. The shields protect joints and adjacent areas by keeping them under an argon layer to minimize the risk of oxidation and hydrogen embrittlement. Typical applications include welding of gas turbine engine housings and titanium tanks. Huntingdon Fusion Techniques USA Inc., P.O. Box 5653, 209 Irving St., Longview, Tex. 75605.
A new U. S. commercial space project is preparing to launch a load of human hair from as many as 4.5 million people on a trajectory to Jupiter and beyond. The hair-in-space project is the heart of a mission to send a large sample of human DNA beyond the solar system in a bizarre but potentially lucrative business venture. The project's backers hope to make up to $225 million from people who will pay to have their DNA-laden hair launched on a spacecraft to be flung by Jupiter's gravity out of the solar system into interstellar space.
The Series 165 Quartz Ballistics sensors can fit into common mounting ports for drilled cartridge, case mouth and shotshell measurements in small and large-caliber weapons. The new devices rely on a stable internal sensing. A variety of mounting configurations and dynamic pressure ranges are available to accommodate a variety of ballistics applications. PCB Piezotronics, Pressure and Force Sensors Div., 3425 Walden Ave., Depew, N.Y. 14043-2495.
TROIKA, A CONSORTIUM LED by NPO-PM and including Aerospatiale and Alcatel, has been selected by the Russian government to build a new generation of telecommunications satellites. The Express K satellite family will use a 3-axis-stabilized platform and offer 32 C-band channels and 20 Ku-band channels for TV broadcasting and telecom applications. The first three units will be deployed starting in early 2000.
BOEING LAST WEEK UNVEILED a revamped pay and benefits structure for its approximately 100,000 salaried, nonunion employees. The changes are intended to unify the company's various compensation plans, according to its top officials. In the past two years, Boeing has merged with McDonnell Douglas and portions of Rockwell, resulting in employees working side-by-side with vastly different pay and benefits packages. Boeing paid about $2.9 billion in compensation and benefits in 1997, including the payroll for its former Rockwell and McDonnell employees.
The Universal-Lift is a modular system that can be configured as eight different lifting devices with just a screwdriver. It can function as a fork lift, platform lift, crane, cable lift, personnel maintenance lift, coil reel and roll lifter, shovel bucket and extended gooseneck boom crane. The device has a lifting capacity of 2,000 lb. in crane, fork lift and bucket configurations and can reach heights of 12 ft. or more. Air Technical Industries, 7501 Clover Ave., Mentor, Ohio 44060.
Officials of Indian Airlines are planning to expand the carrier's fleet during 1998-2003 using various operating leases and outright purchases to gradually replace Airbus A300 and Boeing 737 transports. The program would result in about 75 new aircraft joining the airline's 30 Airbus A320s, and would reduce the age of the fleet to 6.5 years from 10.5 years.
The GPS 155XO TSO and GNC 300XL TSO combine high-detail moving map technology with approach-certified IFR GPS receivers in a panel-mount configuration. The moving map displays use double super twist nematic yellow and black LCD displays. A photocell automatically adjusts backlight intensity depending on lighting conditions. The unit will reverse the display from black-on-yellow to yellow-on-black for maximum contrast in daylight or nighttime viewing.
Steady growth in Latin American and North Atlantic traffic will sustain a nearly 6% annual increase in passenger loads on U.S. airlines over the next 12 years, according to the latest forecast by the FAA. Agency analysts said that growth will offset the slump in Pacific air markets, which will stagnate for about two years as Asian nations wrestle with the economic crisis gripping the region. The agency still projects those markets to grow consistently through 2009, however. Domestic traffic, likewise, is projected to increase through the FAA's forecast period.
Backing its crackdown on oversized carry-on luggage with technology, United Airlines is preparing for a second round of tests of a prototype, laser-based bag-size checking device, this time at busy San Francisco International Airport. Called the Carry-on Luggage Profiler, the machine resembles a typical hand-luggage X-ray inspection device. Its 3-megawatt average power scanner derives precise bag height and width data using differential phase measurement of signals from top- and side-mounted lasers.
The FAA with industry cooperation has formed a test review team to help settle the issues surrounding the questionable airworthiness of FAA-approved Boeing 727 cargo conversions. FAA certification officials and industry representatives, all from FedEx currently, have agreed to devise a test plan to determine the strength of converted 727 main deck floors--the chief focus of the airworthiness issue. The test team met last week at FedEx headquarters in Memphis, Tenn.
The FDM Quantum rapid prototyping system uses a technology called MagnaDrive that is derived from high-accuracy ``pick and place'' machines used in semiconductor manufacturing. The system can be used to build prototypes from ABS plastic as large as 600 X 500 X 600 mm. (23.6 X 19.7 X 23.6 in.). The resulting models can be used as functional prototypes, tooling patterns and masters. Prototypes are accurate within +/-0.005 in. up to 5 in. and +/-0.0015 in. per inch up to 23.6 in. Stratasys Inc., 14950 Martin Drive, Eden Prairie, Minn. 55344-2020.
Gregory L. Summe has been appointed president/chief operating officer of EG&G, Wellesley, Mass. He was president of the Automotive Products Group of AlliedSignal.
The U.S. Air Force may finally be getting ready to design and build a hypersonic aircraft. The Air Force Science and Technology Board, a part of the National Research Council, has a year-long report currently in peer review that looks into the future applications of hypersonics for the service. The report will be available in June and is being directed by Richard Seebass, director of the aero-engineering department at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The report examines the feasibility of hypersonics in four areas:
