The Australian Defense Force has selected teams led by Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Systems to conduct design work for the Royal Australian Air Force's Wedgetail airborne early warning and control program, and contract award for seven airplanes is scheduled for late in 1999.
THE FAA IS STILL REVIEWING an operational error involving Air Force One, a Boeing 707. The 707 had 2.36 naut. mi. horizontal and 900 ft. vertical separation from a US Airways Boeing 737 on Jan. 28 as it departed Andrews AFB, Md. The aircraft maintained proper separation from a Delta Air Lines MD-88. Later that day, during a stop at Champaign, Ill., one wheel of the aircraft got stuck in mud near a runway. President Bill Clinton then transferred to a backup aircraft.
THE NATIONAL AIRSPACE SYSTEM (NAS) Modernization Task Force is recommending the FAA delay full-scale development of the wide area augmentation system (WAAS), local area augmentation system (LAAS), GPS, NEXCOM, Controller To Pilot Data Link Communications and Extensive Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast until critical risk areas are resolved (see p. 44). John Fearnsides, a Mitre Corp. senior vice president and general manager who is the task force facilitator, said last week at an Air Traffic Control Assn.
Norman Y. Mineta, chairman of the National Civil Aviation Review Commission, believes his panel's recommendations on FAA funding and aviation safety have a better chance for enactment into law than those of previous reviews. Commission members--representing a wide range of aviation interests--were unanimous, he told an Aero Club audience here. In addition, ``even though the commission is out of business, we have 21 members who want to stay together to see this report through.'' Replied a member of a past commission: ``So did ours--for six months.''
Although considered FAA's lead air traffic control center for testing and installing new equipment, software and automation upgrades, progress takes a back seat to a pervasive emphasis on safety at Seattle Center.
After several years of promoting GPS and satellite navigation as the only system that will be needed in the future for all means of aviation navigation, FAA is now retreating from that conviction. It has begun the search for a backup system. The shift in philosophy comes on the heels of a presidential commission report that urges caution before the elimination of the current ground-based radio navigation system and precision approach systems.
Robert O. Rowland (see photo) has been named director of government affairs for the Washington office of Textron Inc. He recently retired from the U.S. Marine Corps, where he oversaw congressional liaison for USMC programs, in the Navy Office of Legislative Affairs. Rowland succeeds Roy C. Buckner, who has retired.
Orion Network Systems will provide an Internet service for its Hughes HS 601HP Orion 3 satcom which a Boeing Delta 3 is to launch later this year. The satellite will serve Asian customers, who will be connected to it via Orion gateways in Australia, China, India, Japan and other countries. The new service is similar to that provided on Orion 1, which covers the Atlantic. Aimed at Internet service providers, the service will be based on the WorldCast system and provide linkages to Europe's ISPs and the U.S. Internet.
Putting an end to a year-long debate, Hong Kong's government has said that fees at its new airport at Chek Lap Kok will be an aggregate 20% higher than present charges at Kai Tak airport. The charges, which will take effect when Chek Lap Kok opens July 6, are to be levied at three levels: for landing, parking and terminal services:
Sabena Belgian World Airlines and France's AOM in March plan to implement a far-reaching partnership agreement involving French domestic routes as well as long-haul destinations in overseas territories such as French Guiana. AOM is an independent carrier that operates a 23-aircraft fleet and last year carried 3 million passengers. Sabena operates 63 aircraft and carried 6.7 million passengers in 1997.
NASA HAS APPROVED THE LAYOFF of about 400 Kennedy Space Center workers employed by the United Space Alliance shuttle processing contractor, following a NASA safety review that found the reductions could be made without increased risk to shuttle operations at current launch rates. The layoffs have been forced by NASA budget reductions. An additional 170 jobs will be cut through attrition.
The FAA's Oakland Center is making slow but significant progress in implementing its Oceanic Automation Program, a precursor to future global automatic dependent surveillance systems.
NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin has reversed a controversial order to cancel most agency research programs aimed at supporting future astronaut missions to the Moon and Mars early in the 21st century. Goldin's reversal voids much of a memo to NASA field centers on Jan. 9 ordering the termination of activities ``uniquely directed toward human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit'' by Jan. 30.
Xavier Pourpardin has become vice president-communications and marketing of Eurocopter. He succeeds Arnaud Hibon, who now heads Aerospatiale's Beijing office.
The joint Russian/French Soyuz TM-27 cosmonauts were to dock with the Mir station on Jan. 31 following launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Jan. 29. The liftoff at 7:33 p.m. Moscow time came only 23 min. before the space shuttle Endeavour undocked from the Mir station (see p. 29). The near-simultaneous critical events placed a high workload on flight controllers monitoring both missions at Russia's Korolev Flight Control Center (TsUP) near Moscow.
Bob Hawk has been named vice president-corporate communications and Mike Cardellichio vice president-marketing worldwide of Fairchild Dornier, San Antonio, Tex. Hawk was an FAA public affairs official and Cardellichio vice president-marketing for North America.
Political Washington has concluded that diplomatic avenues to resolve the Iraq weapons crisis are all but exhausted and that it is only a matter of time before the U.S. resorts to force, potentially massive.
Yoshi Funatsu, retired executive vice president-maintenance of All Nippon Airways, and Syed Ajaz Ali, retired deputy managing director of Pakistan International Airlines, have received honorary fellowships in the International Federation of Airworthiness.
Almost two years after it lifted off, NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (Near) spacecraft returned for a close pass of Earth on its way to a scheduled encounter with a 25-mi.-long asteroid next January. The 2-hr. swingby of Earth on Jan. 22-23, seven months after Near flew past and imaged an asteroid beyond Mars, provided the spacecraft with a critical gravity assist to put it on a trajectory toward its main target, asteroid 433 Eros.
Edmund W. Staple (see photo) has been appointed president of Textron Aerospace Fasteners, Santa Ana, Calif. He was vice president-sales and marketing for Greenlee Textron.
Northwest Airlines' stunning acquisition of control of Continental Airlines, being characterized by the two carriers as a ``strategic global alliance,'' is likely to be reviewed by the Justice Dept. as if it were a merger.
The FAA is planning construction of a new, $20-million control tower at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to accommodate planned airport and traffic expansion. The 265-ft.-high facility will have an 850-sq.-ft. cab configured with 10 controller positions. It will be constructed on the airport at a site north of the passenger terminal and east of the runway complex. Almost all of the new tower's ATC equipment will be state-of-the-art.
High-level government intervention late last year spared a USAF TC-135 nuclear sampling aircraft that was headed for the boneyard. Based at Offut AFB, Neb., the transport is the last of a once-large fleet that located and retrieved atmospheric debris from nuclear weapons tests, providing undeniable proof that a detonation had occurred. The TC-135 will undergo about six months of depot maintenance before being returned to the ramp at Offut, according to Air Force Technical Applications Center officials.
