AMERICAN EAGLE HAS TAKEN delivery of the first of 42 Embraer RJ145 twin- jets that it has on order, and plans to begin revenue service with the 50-seat transport in May from its hub at Chicago O'Hare International Airport.
GERMANY'S ANTITRUST OFFICE has cleared a consolidation of the German leisure travel industry that will ensure the continued independence of its three major charter carriers. The office approved the purchase of charter carrier Hapag-Lloyd by Preussag, which is controlled by the bank WestLB, provided WestLB sells its 34% share in charter airline LTU. The move will allow WestLB/Preussag to merge Hapag-Lloyd with tour operator TUI.
Brian K. Muirhead has been named project manager for the Deep Space 4/Champollion mission at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. He was project manager for the Mars Pathfinder mission.
Initial field tests of a prototype walk-through trace explosives detection portal at Albuquerque International Airport found high passenger acceptance and a less than 12-sec. transit rate. Nearly 2,400 volunteers passed through the detector, which was developed by Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) in Albuquerque, N.M. It rapidly collects air from around the body, concentrates certain organic molecules and spectrally analyzes them.
MISSILE DEFENSE TARGETS WORTH $1 billion will be competed by the U.S. Army between Coleman Research Corp., Lockheed Martin and Orbital Science Corp. in the next 10 years. The companies will fight for contracts to provide up to 300 target missiles scheduled to be used by the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization to test missile defense systems. The competing targets are Coleman's Hera, Lockheed Martin's MultiService Launch System (MSLS) and Orbital's Storm. Near-term plans call for the Army to buy five targets this year, 35 in FY '99 and 44 in FY 2000.
The U.S. Air Force is taking another stab at reducing spending on munitions. A new study could lead to the cancellation of either the Sensor Fuzed Weapon or end USAF's involvement in the Navy-led AGM-154B Joint Standoff Weapon. SFW and AGM-154B are considered highly similar because they both use the BLU-108 smart antiarmor submunition. Last year, the Pentagon-wide Deep Attack Weapons Mix Study failed to achieve its goal of eliminating weapon programs, much to the frustration of USAF officials.
Officials of Legend Airlines are scheduled to submit an application for financial fitness to the U.S. Transportation Dept. this week, and plan to inaugurate long-distance service from Love Field in the third or fourth quarter if government approval is granted.
British Airways is rejecting claims from domestic rival EasyJet that it is abusing its dominant market position by cross-subsidizing Go, BA's new, no-frills subsidiary. EasyJet is seeking a court injunction against BA's providing Go with equipment, capital, personnel and/or services. EasyJet specifically pointed to BA's move to guarantee the leases on eight Boeing 737s, which Go will use to start operations from London Stansted airport in May. EasyJet argues the move will allow Go to obtain the aircraft at below market rates, in contravention of European Union law.
As part of a quest to expand its Asian presence, AMR Corp.'s Sabre Group plans to invest $239 million to form a joint venture with Abacus International Holdings Ltd., an Asian-based travel company owned chiefly by a group of Asian airlines. Under terms of the agreement, Sabre will control 35% of Singapore-based Abacus International, which will be responsible for reserving airline flights and booking reservations for hotels and rental cars in Asia. Worldspan, which owns 5% of Abacus International Holdings, will hold 3.25% of the new company.
Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical's Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle made a good first flight on Feb. 28, with just enough glitches to give confidence that the autonomous aircraft could easily handle minor difficulties.
Skymark Airlines is to become Japan's first new airline in 35 years, challenging the three majors and their subsidiaries as a cut-rate competitor on domestic routes starting next September. The carrier, backed by a travel agent with initial capitalization of 1.3 billion yen ($10.6 million), expects to begin operations with three daily Tokyo-Fukuoka runs using a leased Boeing 767-300 in a 309-seat configuration.
The new Russian-U.S. crew on board Mir is accelerating the pace of science operations, while other Mir crewmembers who have just returned to Earth are relating ``lessons learned'' for future flights to the International Space Station.
Iran's Shahab-3 missile with its 1,300-km. range should achieve ``limited capability'' by 2000. So USAF Lt. Gen. Lester L. Lyles, director of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO), asked the House Appropriations Committee's national security panel last week to spend $50 million to deal with the threat to U.S. troops in the Middle East and to Israel. The Arrow missile undergoing tests in Israel could provide some protection, but the Shahab-4 under development as a follow-on weapon for Iran could reach Europe, Lyles said.
The introduction of the A330-200 provides Airbus Industrie yet another transport family member with a different capacity and range to more effectively compete with Boeing. The European aircraft manufacturer is directly targeting the Boeing 767-300ER with the new variant of its wide-body, twin-engine A330 transport. Airbus also sees the A330-200 as a replacement for aging Boeing DC-10s and Lockheed Martin L-1011s, as well as the newer Boeing MD-11 and its earlier line of A300 and A310 aircraft.
Test firing of a new cryogenic upper stage for the upcoming Delta 3 booster was slated to commence last week at NASA Lewis' Plum Brook propulsion research facility in Sandusky, Ohio. The new stage, which will be powered by a single Pratt&Whitney RL10B-2 engine, was installed last month in a vacuum chamber at the NASA facility (photo). The stainless steel chamber, 38 ft. in dia. and 55 ft. high, will allow the upper stage to be fired in simulated space conditions. The firings, funded by Boeing, are expected to run for 6-8 weeks.
THE ASSN. OF FLIGHT ATTENDANTS for American Eagle last week ratified a tentative agreement reached by negotiators on Jan. 14. The pact will consolidate all 1,275 attendants from Eagle's four regional carriers under one contract, and creates a single seniority list. Pilots for American Eagle ratified a similar agreement last year. The airline plans to merge its four carriers into a single entity by 1999.
Work on Japan's new Chubu International offshore airport, shown right in an artist's concept, is scheduled to begin next year. Initial flight operations are forecast for 2005. The new facility, which will serve central Japan, is one of three major projects that represent 60% of the spending in Japan's latest five-year airports and airways plan. Funding for the 3.6-trillion-yen ($29-billion) plan has been appropriated by Japan's Diet, or national legislature. Local governments also will contribute to the cost of the new airport.
A Kaman Light Detection and Ranging (Lidar) system that was first used as a prototype in the Persian Gulf war to protect ships from mines made its public debut as a production item at the Asian Aerospace air show. Developed by Kaman as the Magic Lantern, the system was mounted on a U.S. Navy Kaman SH-2G helicopter (lower left above wheel). The pod measures about 3.5 ft. long, 2 ft. wide and 2 ft. high.
UNITED AIRLINES HAS ORDERED an additional 30 Airbus narrow-body aircraft which will bring its Airbus fleet to 111 when deliveries are completed. The new order is for 20 144-seat A320s and 10 126-seat A319s to be delivered in 2000-01. United has now ordered a total of 73 A320s and 38 A319s; it operates 48 Airbuses.
Robert Prescott, founder of Flying Tigers, was among the first 11 air cargo industry pioneers named recently to the Miami-based International Air Cargo Assn.'s International Hall of Fame. Others named to the Hall of Fame were: Chester Mayer, founder of Air Express International; John Emery, Jr., former chairman/CEO of Emery Air Freight; and Albert Plessman, founder/former chairman of KLM Cargo.
U.S. Navy aviators are being squeezed between expanding training needs and diminishing flight hours, service officials say. Navy aircrews believe they need additional flight hours as an increasing number of strike-fighters replaces traditional fighter and attack aircraft. Yet flight hours and training diminish considerably when a carrier air wing returns from a six-month deployment and embarks on an 18-month turnaround training cycle.
When asked what an expeditionary information warfare squadron emblem might look like, the top air boss in Europe, USAF Gen. John Jumper, said ``a satellite with teeth.'' He added, ``You deploy that (unit) forward and employ it like you would a fighter squadron.'' U.S. officials laying the groundwork for information warfare must be allowed to simultaneously develop strategic- and tactical/operational-level combat plans, according to Jumper, who was in town last week.
Lufthansa Cargo is introducing a line of time-definite services aimed at providing the same kind of quick, reliable and traceable delivery for general cargo that was pioneered by FedEx and others in the courier sector. The new services, an outgrowth of Lufthansa's ``Flash'' express service introduced earlier, are meant to meet challenges from other cargo carriers as well as courier integrators, which are gradually moving into standard cargo, officials said.
