Heads of state and civilian leaders from 46 countries have signed a declaration calling for urgent steps to head off the threat of weapons of mass destruction falling into the hands of terrorists, loosely knit rogue groups and outlaw states.
Pierre Lortie, president of Bombardier Regional Aircraft, and Robert E. Brown, president and chief operating officer of Bombardier Aerospace, for continuing to support the development of new products for the regional airlines. The pioneer of the 50-seat Canadair Regional Jet, the company also has committed to developing a 70-seat CRJ-700 and another turboprop in the successful Dash 8 family--the 70-seat Dash 8Q-400.
Instead of relying on bombs, missiles and traditional warplanes to intimidate potential foes, the U.S. Air Force is opting for finesse by making plans for its first, fast-deploying, information warfare force made up entirely of battle management, reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering aircraft.
The deployment in space of the $2.5-billion Globalstar mobile wireless communications network was to get underway late last week pending the successful launch of the first four Globalstar spacecraft on a specialized version of the Boeing Delta 2. The flight was scheduled for early Feb. 6.
Capt. John Jones, who piloted a British Regional Airlines ATP to a remarkably smooth emergency landing at Manchester on Aug. 3 after the left landing gear failed to extend. Touching down on the nose and right undercarriage wheels almost simultaneously, Jones kept the left wing up and level for a runway roll on two wheels before it settled to the ground. None of the 66 people on board was injured seriously.
Darpa and USAF will move a step closer to an unmanned bombing aircraft when they finally hold an ``industry day,'' possibly this week, to kick off an Uninhabited Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) technology demonstration. They want an all-new aircraft costing less than $10 million a copy to attack air defense sites. The UCAV would have only a 10-30-deg. field-of-view sensor and would rely on off-board sensing to direct it to target areas. It would be remotely piloted from an E-8 Joint-STARS, the back seat of a fighter or a forward air control team on the ground.
The space shuttle Mission 82 Hubble refurbishment development team and flight crew--Kenneth Bowersox, Scott Horowitz, Mark Lee, Greg Harbaugh, Steve Smith, Joe Tanner and Steve Hawley--who installed major new instruments in the Hubble Space Telescope and devised on-the-spot repairs to fix serious insulation damage found on the telescope orbiting 250 mi. high.
Rodney S. Rougelot, now-retired president and CEO of the Evans and Sutherland Computer Corp., for pioneering contributions to space flight simulation. In the 1960s, while at the General Electric Advanced Electronics Center and Electronics Laboratory, he helped develop the full-color, real-time 3D electronic scene generator. Before retiring in 1994, Rougelot led Evans and Sutherland for 22 years in the development of high-performance visual simulation systems used for pilot and operator training, engineering, design and entertainment.
BOEING HAS BEGUN ASSEMBLY of the first production 717-200 transport at its Douglas Products Div. factory in Long Beach, Calif. The -200, formerly called the MD-95, is scheduled for delivery to launch customer AirTran Airlines in mid-1999. AirTran has 50 717s on order and 50 more on option.
The U.S. Air Force's F-16 fleet ended 1997 with an accident rate of 2.7 losses per 100,000 flight hours despite such strenuous assignments as Bosnia. USAF, which has purchased about 2,200 F-16s and now operates 1,350 including reserve forces, accumulated more than 300,000 F-16 flight hours last year. Since entering service with USAF in 1978, the F-16 has accumulated a loss rate of 4.2 per 100,000. Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems has delivered more than 3,700 F-16s worldwide.
Iberia Lineas Aereas de Espana will acquire up to 76 single-aisle aircraft from Airbus Industrie in a deal valued at $2.6 billion, the largest ever for the consortium with a European airline.
EDITED BY FRANCES FIORINOEDITED BY FRANCES FIORINO
Japan is experimenting with falcons as a way to scare away birds from airports. The Ministry of Transport is running a second series of trials at Tokyo's Haneda Airport, which is Asia's busiest airport, in cooperation with the Japan Falconry Assn. The first trials were held at Kochi Airport on Shikoku Island last November. The falcons, which hunt other birds, didn't kill any during the trials, but they did frighten birds away from the area--so the Ministry sees their use as promising. Japan had a reported 607 bird strikes in 1996, including 64 in Tokyo.
The cosmonauts and astronauts on Russian space station Mir who dealt with two of the most serious emergencies ever to occur in orbit--a fire and depressurization. Cosmonauts Vasili Tsiblev, Alexander Lazutkin, Alexander Kaleri and Valery Korzun, U.S. astronaut Jerry Linenger and German astronaut Reinhold Ewald fought the fire and smoke that threatened their lives and then worked for days to save the station from fire-related systems problems. In the later collision emergency that depressurized the station, Tsiblev, Lazutkin and U.S.
THE U.K., GERMANY, Italy and Spain have signed nine contracts with the Eurofighter and Eurojet consortia covering production and support for 620 of the new fighters, plus options for another 90, and approximately 1,500 EJ200 engines. Valued at more than 55 billion DM ($30 billion), the contracts are for tooling and associated support leading to production. They were signed by the NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Managing Agency (NETMA) which is managing the program on behalf of the four governments.
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is expected to rename its regional affiliates in an effort to establish a unified identity. Air UK will soon be known as ``KLM uk,'' and the two other carriers will be identified as ``KLM cityhopper'' and ``KLM excel.'' They operate 72 aircraft which will display the new livery. KLM's regionals carry about 6 million passengers per year on short-haul routes serving 45 European cities.
David Mueller, chairman and CEO, and Dave Siebenburgen, president and chief operating officer, of Comair Holdings Inc. These two have worked well in developing strategic and tactical plans that have succeeded immensely to the benefit of this small company. Vital to their decisions have been correct aircraft purchases, dating from the early days of the carrier. They were among the first buyers of the Bombardier's Canadair Regional Jet in 1993, implementing a jet strategy devised in 1990.
The FAA has certified FlightSafetyBoeing's 737-300 full flight simulator to level ``D'' at its new Kunming training center in China, which is scheduled to open this spring. The training school is for pilots, maintenance technicians and flight attendants and is the first of its kind to be a joint venture with Chinese commercial investors and foreign partners.
Flat defense budgets haven't meant the end of new technology and futuristic projects for the Pentagon. Tucked in among classified projects in the Fiscal 1999 defense budget is the first major funding for small satellites that would carry a sensor combining synthetic aperture radar and moving target indicator (SAR/MTI).
Five years ago, a forecast prepared by Arianespace projected that the growing size of geosynchronous telecommunications satellites would top out at 3 metric tons. The Ariane 5 booster, with an initial design capacity of 5.9 metric tons, appeared to be uniquely positioned. It could launch two state-of-the-art spacecraft at a time, generating new economies of scale and securing Arianespace's domination of the commercial launch market. But things haven't worked out as planned.
Niv Harizman, of the mergers and acquisitions group at BT Alex. Brown, has been appointed to the board of directors of Kellstrom Industries, Sunrise, Fla.
Most European carriers are not expecting to be significantly hit by Asia's economic crisis and predict strong traffic growth in 1998. Last year, the European Airlines Assn.'s (AEA) 26 member airlines carried 162.7 million passengers, up from 147.9 million in 1996. Seat load factor increased to a record 72.4%, up from about 70%. Traffic increased 10.2% on the European route system, but only 63.4% of seats were filled. ``Scheduling and pricing freedom is obviously delivering what the passengers want,'' said AEA Secretary General Karl-Heinz Neumeister.
Paul Metz, chief test pilot for the Lockheed Martin F-22 program, Thomas Burbage, Lockheed Martin F-22 program vice president, Walter N. Bylciw, Pratt&Whitney senior vice president for F119 programs, and the entire Lockheed Martin/Pratt&Whitney/USAF F-22 team, for the long-awaited, successful first flight of the F-22A Raptor.
Takeo Kanade, Whitaker professor of computer science and robotics and director of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, for contributions to computer vision and robotics with applications including autonomous helicopters. His latest work combines the technologies from computer vision, virtual reality and television to create ``virtualized reality,'' a technology that lets a viewer watch a real-event from any perspective.
The Mitre Corp.'s David J. Lubkowski, for directing the development and validation of the new 7.0 logic software for the airborne Traffic-alert/Collision Avoidance System. The software will enhance TCAS performance and safety by significantly reducing the number of ``unnecessary'' Resolution Advisory maneuvers, to minimize pilot and traffic controller concerns.
