Paul Schoellhamer has become a partner in the Washington law firm of Zuckert, Scoutt and Rasenberger and managing director of its affiliate Farragut International. He was vice president-planning and development for Lockheed Martin IMS.
The 95S-1A Direct Conversion Receiver is an all-purpose VHF/UHF communications and surveillance receiver. The receiver uses a homodyne conversion technology that relies on a single mixer with a single oscillator tuned to the desired signal frequency, which converts a signal directly to a zero frequency RF signal. This technology avoids the superheterodyne receiver's technique of converting incoming signals to one or more intermediate frequencies where amplification, band pass filtering and gain control are performed.
New directors at NBAA are: Moe Haupt, airport/ground infrastructure; Paul Smith, air traffic services; and Bill Stine, international issues. New senior managers are: Jay Evans, airmen and commercial issues; Fred Kirby, safety and maintenance; Cassandra Bisco, media relations; Joel Bacon, legislative affairs; Linda Peters, exhibits; and Sandy Wirtz, seminars.
The U.S. would encounter an unprecedented high-tech problem in an Iraq attack--how not to jam its own bombs. Attackers plan to use many precision weapons that rely on GPS navigation satellites to make the bombs accurate to within 20 ft. Unfortunately, the Navy's EA-6B Prowler is, as one senior Navy official put it, the ``best GPS jammer on the battlefield.'' Maj. Gen. Gerald Perryman, Jr., commander of USAF space operations, has one solution: time attacks so the jamming is off when the bombs are falling.
Agusta has turned to Israel Aircraft Industries' Tamam Div. to supply avionics and weapon systems for the A-129 in the Italian company's bid to win the Turkish competition for new attack helicopters. The package includes targeting and EW systems and an Israeli suite of weapon systems which includes the Raphael NT-D antitank missile. IAI's Lahav Div., which specializes in aircraft upgrades, already is teamed with the Russian firm Kamov which is offering Turkey the Ka-50.
Northrop Grumman Corp. and GEC-Marconi Avionics Ltd. of Middlesex, England, have formed an alliance to pursue potential airborne infrared countermeasures business opportunities based on the new AN/AAQ-24(V) Directed Infrared Countermeasures System (DIRCM) and its advanced versions. The two companies are developing the product under contract to the U.K. Ministry of Defense and the USAF Special Operations Command. DIRCM is being tested and produced for the MOD now, with testing for USAF set to begin soon.
THE NEW AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL CENTER in Guangzhou, China, recently passed flight tests administered by the Air Traffic Management Bureau of the Civil Aviation Administration of China. Telephonics Corp. developed the center. Among the center's features are Telephonics' AeroTrac air traffic management system, which fuses radar data from six airports to give controllers a single radar picture, even though the radars were built by different manufacturers and use different formats.
The Russian Military Space Force and Military Intelligence Directorate (GRU) are operating a new advanced 20-ton imaging reconnaissance satellite the size of a school bus and resembling the Hubble Space Telescope.
After 10 months of low load factors and rising losses, Mesa Air Group Inc. last week ceased regional jet service from Fort Worth's Meacham Airport to Houston and San Antonio. The airline had been operating up to 15 daily round-trip flights since last May, using 50-seat Canadair RJ aircraft. But the service failed to draw traffic as projected. Load factors had been hovering at 45-50%--well below the 60-65% Mesa projected it would need to recoup costs.
Rotating components for Turbine Technologies Ltd.'s first TRJ-200 turbojet were recently completed and assembled. The first- and second-stage compressors and monolithically cast axial turbine wheel are shown on a display stand. The 350-lb.-thrust turbojet, which is scheduled for its first run this summer, is designed for use in target decoys, cruise missiles and drones. The TRJ-200, which has an 11:1 compression ratio, also is slated for use as the high-pressure core for an ultra-high-bypass, 700-lb.-thrust turbofan engine design.
MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORP. WILL SUPPLY an S-band klystron Doppler weather radar for the Hong Kong Observatory, serving the new Chek Lap Kok airport. The radar is due to be commissioned in January. The 8.5-meter antenna will be able to determine the intensity of rain to a radius of at least 500 km. (270 naut. mi.) and wind velocity within 250 km. (135 naut. mi.), according to Mitsubishi. The company says it is using the first dual-Doppler radar processing to derive real-time horizontal winds for operational weather forecasting.
Daniel E. Matukewicz has been appointed director of strategy planning and business development for imaging products for Eastman Kodak Commercial and Government Systems, Rochester, N.Y. He was manager of imaging products engineering.
The economic crisis that began sweeping across Asia last July could cost the world's airlines $2 billion in 1998 operating profits and dampen international passenger demand for another five years. Airbus Industrie and Boeing, despite acknowledging some order postponements and delays, remain bullish on the region.
John R. London has been named NASA X-34 program manager at the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. He was technical assistant to the Advanced Space Transportation Program manager. London succeeds Jack Levine, who has retired.
Matra BAe Dynamics' 30% stake in Germany's LFK, a Daimler-Benz Aerospace subsidiary, is expected to add, although symbolically, to the European defense industry's slow consolidation process. The financial arrangement--concluded in May 1997--has been approved by the European Commission's competition directorate and is being implemented, company executives said last week. Matra BAe Dynamics and LFK have a 7,200-employee combined workforce and annual revenues estimated at $2.3 billion.
Asia's financial crisis will likely slow weapon sales in the region for years to come. While adopting a ``wait and see'' attitude to determine the depth and breadth of the current recession, U.S. defense contractors and their customers generally are continuing established delivery programs and ongoing licensed production and manufacturing partnerships.
Robert A. Profusek, senior partner in the law firm of Jones, Day, Reavis and Pogue, has been named to the board of directors of the CTS Corp., Elkhart, Ind. Patrick E. McMahon has been appointed director of contract manufacturer sales.
British Airways will suspend its three weekly flights between London and Seoul at the end of March due to a decrease in demand as a result of the financial crisis in South Korea. BA will continue to serve Seoul via Tokyo and Hong Kong through an arrangement with Asiana Airlines. That relationship could grow; Asiana is seeking a strategic partner, and South Korea recently raised the limit on foreign ownership in the carrier to 49%.
THE NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE OFFICE has issued a ``request for information'' on industry's ability to develop a satellite architecture for the space segment of the FAA'S Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS). The NRO wants industry's ideas about how to provide on-orbit command and control for geostationary satellites to augment the GPS system. The capability could be achieved by adding transponders at GPS L1 frequency (1575.42 MHz.) and one other fixed L-band frequency to currently planned satellites, or by developing new satellites.
Tony Hine, vice president/director of corporate finance of First Marathon Securities Ltd., has been named to the board of directors of Avcorp Industries Inc. of Vancouver.
Mark L. Gerchick has been named senior vice president/director of aviation services of APCO Associates of Washington. He was deputy assistant Transportation secretary.
