A Boeing Vertol 107 operated by Columbia Helicopters has passed the 50,000-hr. flight time mark. A second BV107 operated by the Aurora, Ore., heavy-lift services company should reach the same point by mid-year. The milestone helicopter, built in 1962, began operations as one of four BV107s purchased by New York Airways. It had about 8,600 hr. when acquired by Columbia in 1972. Overall, Columbia has more than 410,000 hr. experience with Boeing- and Kawasaki-built BV107s. Much of the flight time has been accumulated in helo-logging operations.
Bell Helicopter Textron has entered the initial stages of a 12-month, 1,000-hr. flight test program for its Bell 427 lightweight, twin-engine rotorcraft aimed at achieving certification by Transport Canada at the end of this year. FAA approval is scheduled for the first quarter of 1999.
Pratt&Whitney is conducting cyclic endurance tests with a modified F119 to examine technologies that could be transitioned into engines for production versions of the Joint Strike Fighter and F-22A. The tests are being run under the Caesar (component and engine structural assessment research) program, which is funded by the U.S. Air Force's Wright Laboratory, the F-22 Systems Program Office, the Joint Strike Fighter Joint Program Office and Pratt&Whitney.
The FAA should delay full-scale development of some major air traffic control modernization programs and speed up others to benefit users earlier than planned, according to recommendations from high-level experts.
Webb Joiner, chairman of Bell Helicopter Textron, John Magee, director of Model 609 integrated product development for Bell, and Anthony M. Parasida, manager of the 609 program for Boeing Aircraft and Missile Systems, for development of the 609 and the foresight to launch a unique mode of civil transportation using tilt-rotor technology and building upon experience manufacturing the military V-22 Osprey. The 609 already has garnered more than 50 orders.
Padet Limpisvasti, president and CEO of AeroThai, for developing an advanced, integrated CNS/ATM system, which combines surveillance information from radar and data links.
The aircrews of Helicopter Combat Support Sqdn. 5 on Guam, who landed their Sea Knights several times on the night of Aug. 6 on a small, cliffside clearing swept by heavy winds and rain, to pluck survivors from the burning wreckage of Korean Air Flight 801. The efforts of the Sea Knight crews were credited with saving the lives of 17 KAL passengers and crewmembers, who were airlifted to a hospital at the nearby air station.
Jean-Pierre Brillant has been promoted to chairman/CEO of France's ECE. He was managing director of the Intertechnique Aviation Div., ECE's parent company. Brillant has been succeeded by Dominique Schmauch.
The U.S. direct-to-home (DTH) satellite industry has added about 2 million subscribers during each of the last two years, but profits remain elusive. Hughes announced that its DirecTV business lost $254 million in 1997 despite a doubling in revenues to $1.26 billion. Competitor EchoStar also operated in the red despite a surging subscriber base. Mickey Alpert, a veteran DTH consultant, said the losses are due in part to aggressive price wars in which companies are substantially discounting satellite receiver dishes to attract new subscribers.
Bruce Murray, president and a founder of the Pasadena, Calif.-based Planetary Society, is the first recipient of the Carl Sagan Memorial Medal from the American Astronautical Society and Planetary Society. Murray was cited for his work as a researcher, explorer, teacher, policymaker and administrator.
The planning and execution of any U.S. attack on Iraq will benefit substantially from a new National Reconnaissance Office initiative aimed at increasing and streamlining the flow of prestrike intelligence data and post-strike bomb damage assessments to the Air Force, Navy and Army. The NRO is the lead U.S. agency for gathering secret radio intercept data and intelligence images from space over sensitive areas such as Iraq.
Charles Schuck, senior Washington representative for the Experimental Aircraft Assn., has been appointed to the FAA's International Certification Task Force.
The U.S. Air Force, which led the Pentagon charge in making drastic force structure cuts in the early 1990s, now plans to get out in front again with substantial reductions in the number of bases. It intends to keep fewer open even if Congress doesn't approve two new rounds of base closings.
TH-53A crewmembers Maj. Mark Ward, Capt. Gregory Meek, TSgts. Dean Leonard and Tom Waters, and SSgts. Doug Kearney and Steve Lemmon of the USAF 58th Special Operations Wing, 551st Special Operations Sqdn., for flying numerous hazardous missions Apr. 21-26 to locate and recover remains and debris following the crash of a USAF A-10 on a Colorado mountain. Others who participated were: Flight Surgeon Lt. Col. Phil Duchamp and pararescuemen MSgts. Steve Mitchell and Scott Copper, TSgts. Wayne Jones and Ishmael Antonio, and SSgt.
Frank Colson, USAF associate director for civil aviation, for statemanship and outstanding leadership as the Defense Dept.'s authority on national security policy relating to worldwide air traffic control. He worked to promote worldwide use of GPS by civil aviation, assured that the military is a major contributor to the modernization of the National Airspace System and strongly supported the concept of Free Flight.
Sidney P. Saucier, 3rd, has been named associate director of the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. Saucier, who was director of the propulsion laboratory, succeeds Susan McGuire Smith, who has retired. William E. Taylor has been promoted to director from deputy director of science and engineering, and Charles H. Scales to director from deputy director of equal opportunity. Taylor succeeds Grady Sherman Jobe, who has retired.
NTSB materials specialist James Wildey, who led the safety board/industry investigation team that analyzed and reconstructed the inflight breakup of TWA Flight 800. Wildey made the analysis a collaborative effort among the parties to the investigation--Boeing, TWA, the Air Line Pilots Assn. and International Assn. of Machinists. The result was a ``sequencing'' report that all parties agreed represented the best analysis possible of how the 747 broke up in flight.
Russian legislator Alexei G. Arbatov, for his pioneering work on national military reform and his support of the SS-27 missile in furtherance of the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
Charles Bigot, now chairman and CEO of Aerospatiale. As chief executive of Arianespace, in which Aerospatiale is a major shareholder, Bigot oversaw the growth of the European company into the world's leading commercial launch enterprise, with half of the global market.
NASA's Ames Research Center for its support of the Mars Pathfinder mission. Principal investigator Carol Stoker of the Intelligent Mechanism Group and a support team of Paul Henning, Kurt Schwehr, Bob Kanefsky and Eric Zbinden of Caelum Research Corp., developed 3D virtual reality software for the JPL science team. G. Scott Hubbard, Ames' deputy director for science, led the Mars Environmental Survey program that developed the airbag lander concept.
Making the case for the eventual abolition of nuclear weapons, U.S. Air Force Gen. Lee Butler (ret.), former head of the Strategic Command, argues that the logic of nuclear deterrence has always been fatally flawed. Excerpts follow from a speech he delivered on Feb. 2 at the National Press Club in Washington (see p. 29).
Tony Spear of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), for being the original driving force behind the successful Mars Pathfinder mission. Brian Muirhead, Rob Manning and Richard Cook, for major contributions to the success of the lander mission, and Jake Matijevic, for his role in design and development of the history-making Mars rover.
After a five-year dry spell, American Airlines last week began training its first class of new pilots since February 1993. The majority of trainees will fill first officer positions for the additional flights the airline plans to add, as well as replace 100 pilots scheduled to retire this year. Twelve pilots are currently in training. Beginning in March, monthly classes of 30 pilots each will be held through December. The nation's second-largest carrier is planning to hire up to 270 pilots this year.
Dieter Kaden of Germany, who changed perspectives in the international air traffic control community with his notion that traffic management systems should be developed to serve the requirements of aircraft customers. Kaden is CEO of Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH.
THE ASIAN ECONOMIC MALAISE has forced the Thai air force into negotiations to defer or cancel orders for Boeing F/A-18C/D fighters worth $392 million. Thailand has been scheduled to receive four of each model through the U.S. Navy in 1999, but it has been seeking relief from that schedule (AW&ST Jan. 19, p. 22). The Royal Thai Air Force has asked that delivery and payments be stretched out at least an additional three years. Preferably, it would like U.S. approval to seek a buyer for the fighters. The currency crisis has devalued the Thai baht by 30%.
