Consolidation pressures, depressed Asian demand and uncertainties about how global alliances will be regulated are likely to be troublesome for Europe's major airlines this year, preventing most of them from matching their record 1997 financial performances, according to some British and German market analysts.
George Robertson, the U.K. secretary of state for defense, for the manner in which he has structured the country's strategic defense review, emphasizing openness and wide-ranging consultation to reach a national consensus on Britain's defense roles and requirements for the 21st century. During the review, launched last May, Robertson has sought inputs from a wide variety of disciplines--including academics, industrialists, politicians, journalists and the general public--in a series of seminars.
Denis Ranque (see photo) has been appointed chairman/CEO of Thomson-CSF. He succeeds Marcel Roulet, who has retired. Ranque was managing director of Thomson Marconi Sonar.
Steven V. W. Beckwith (see photo) has been appointed director of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, effective Sept. 1. He is managing director of the Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany. Beckwith will succeed Robert Williams.
The Clinton Administration's Fiscal 1999 budget proposal calls for NASA to start setting aside money to help pay for a next-generation reusable launcher and begin building a new spacecraft to study Jupiter's moon Europa, but the space agency should expect tight budgets to continue for the foreseeable future. While NASA has contributed mightily to the reduction of the federal deficit, absorbing a budget cut of more than 20% in the last five years, the agency found little thanks when President Clinton unveiled the first balanced U.S. budget in 30 years.
Clay Moyle has been appointed director of SkyTrack operations and Dorene Kolb marketing manager for Lynden Air Freight of Seattle. Robert Hughes has been named director of sales at British Aerospace Systems and Equipment.
John Stobie has been named president and Robert Meyer director of marketing, sales and customer support of Whittaker Safety Systems, Simi Valley, Calif. John Mergenthaler (see photos) has become director of sales and marketing and Victor Hillyard manager of business development for the Aerospace Group of Greene, Tweed and Co., Towamencin, Pa.
High-resolution, 3D underwater images now can be obtained at high search rates using streak-tube imaging lidar. The technology, developed with the support of the U.S. Office of Naval Research, has potential applications in airborne antisubmarine warfare, mine countermeasures and oceanic research. A prototype STIL has conducted flight tests and a static installation has imaged 8- and 12-in.-wide mines in 30 ft. of calm water. Candidate systems for airborne bathymetry have search rates estimated at 60 sq. km. (23 sq. mi.) an hour with 5-meter (16.4-ft.) sampling.
The FAA lags in its effort to reprogram critical computer systems to recognize what year it is once 2000 rolls around. Still, members of two House committees seem impressed with Administrator Jane Garvey's commitment to get moving. Garvey had the FAA rush to complete reviews of its systems' Year 2000 compliance in time for a Hill hearing last week. She also named Ray Long, a veteran of the agency's battle to make sure air traffic control computers will work after Dec. 31, 1999, to lead a similar effort agency-wide.
Britain's GKN Westland is to build new airframe structures for the Royal Danish Air Force under a novel upgrade program to convert its eight Lynx helicopters to the Super Lynx standard. Under the contract, the engines, flight controls, avionics and hydraulic and electrical systems from the original helicopters will be transferred to the new airframes. The program also involves modifications to the helicopter's main and tail rotor blades and fuel system. Work on the first aircraft will take place at Westland's Yeovil, England, facility.
The Sunburgh Search and Rescue Crew of Bristow Helicopters for the rescue of 10 crewmembers from the freighter Green Lily in 60-kt. winds and 30-ft. seas off northern Scotland on Nov. 19. Capt. Norman Leask, copilot David Gribben, winch operator Paul Mansell and winch crewman Bill Deacon were fighting the gale in their Sikorsky S-61N helicopter. Deacon was washed overboard from the freighter and drowned as it crashed against rocks, after helping its crewembers to safety.
China Great Wall Industries, for taking important first steps to reestablish the Long March booster, especially the LM-3B, as a commercial alternative to U.S., European and Russian launch vehicles. The LM program had six straight successes in 1997 after a disasterous 1995-96 string of failures.
Vic Riley, a senior scientist at the Honeywell Technology Center, and his colleagues, for developing a simple ``plain English'' language for pilot programming of aircraft flight management (FMS) and other systems. This language, which essentially follows the syntax of air traffic control instructions, may help eliminate the tedious programming of information into FMS. The language also may be key to allowing the simple transfer of data-linked instructions into FMS, requiring only quick review and confirmation by flight crews.
The Gulfstream 5 development team lead by Preston Henne, senior vice president for the G5, Charles Coppi, vice president of engineering (now retired), Dick Johnson, chief engineer, and John O'Meara, chief pilot for the G5, for certifying and putting into service the long-range corporate jet.
President John Desmond, Marketing Manager Philip A. Moylan, Flight Operations Manager Richard C. Hansen, and Marketing and Sales Director Marc McGowan of Flight Dynamics. After more than a decade of development, FD's head-up displays are operating in aircraft of several major airlines. In addition, Delta Air Lines will use the HUDs in Boeing 737s that it has ordered. HUDs offer increased safety and operational benefits, including reduced takeoff and landing minimums.
The Airline Medical Emergency Act (AMEA), which would require FAA reevaluation of requirements for emergency medical equipment on board domestic flights to include defibrillators, has been introduced by Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Rep. John Duncan (R-Tenn.). The AMEA asks for a decision by the FAA within a year regarding the inclusion of defibrillators in emergency medical equipment available both at airports and on board aircraft. In addition, the bill asks the agency to examine the adequacy of current defibrillator training for flight attendants.
The U.S. Navy plans to field a new, land-based aircraft starting in 2015 and is beginning, this year, a requirements study to determine how it can accomplish the missions currently performed by the P-3C patrol, EP-3 intelligence gathering, E-6 command and control and C-130 transport aircraft with a single, basic airframe.
French and Russian space officials are skeptical that a scheduled four-month Franco-Russian mission to Mir in the second half of 1999 will be approved by the French government, even though it is covered by a 1996 memorandum of understanding. The Mir 99 mission--the seventh and last involving the two countries--would mark an important waypoint for utilization of the International Space Station (ISS).
New transport aircraft orders reached an all-time annual high of 1,348 in 1997, boosted by 558 orders in the fourth quarter. Of the total aircraft orders, 279 were for regional jets. The record year is almost certainly the peak year for the current cycle, according to Edmund S. Greenslet, president of ESG Aviation Services, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. He expects 1998 orders to decline sharply to no more than 600. His reasoning: Asian airlines will not be ordering new aircraft for a few years. U.S.
A piloted QF-106 is towed by a C-141A during takeoff at Edwards AFB, Calif., as part of a flight test program aimed at evaluating a concept for a reusable launch vehicle that would be towed to altitude prior to propulsion system ignition. The Kelly Space&Technology/U.S. Air Force program is being conducted with support from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center. The fourth of a planned series of six towed flights was completed successfully on Jan. 28. The QF-106 missions have been flown by Dryden research pilot Mark Stucky.
A GEC MARCONI AEROSPACE fiber-optic-controlled electric aileron trim system has been flown on a Boeing MD-90 flight-test aircraft. The system, which used AlliedSignal optical sensors, replaced the aircraft's conventional pulley and cable trim system. Two flights, totaling about seven hours, were uneventful and the fiber-optic trim system has been cleared for use without restriction.
PRATT&WHITNEY'S 98,000-lb.-thrust version of the PW4000 made its first flight on Feb. 4, mounted on a Boeing 777-300. The 3-hr. 45-min. first flight was staged from Paine Field in Everett, Wash. The PW4098 made two inflight starts during the flight and was subjected to stability tests. The engine/aircraft combination is expected to enter service later this year.
Eugene Hinman, assistant director for programs of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md., was one of three staff members to receive U.S. Navy Surface Missile Systems Awards. Hinman, Alexander Hughes and Donald C. Mitchell were honored for contributions to the success of the Talos, Terrier and Tartar systems.
Japan's NASDA space agency, for being the only major partner in the International Space Station program to stick to its original 1989 design and funding commitments. The Japanese Experiments Module--a pressurized module, exposed facility, manipulator arm and logistics carrier--has been fully funded and is on schedule to be orbited in 2000, 2001 and 2002.
Stephen M. Wolf, chairman and CEO of US Airways, for his success in turning this airline around financially and operationally. Financially, there is no question that US Airways is a very different airline than it was a year ago. And investors have recognized the airline's enhanced prospects; its stock price has more than tripled in the last 12 months.
