The FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation has licensed the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority to operate the third U.S. commercial spaceport, on leased property at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia's Atlantic coast. The government agency had previously licensed commercial spaceports at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., and Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla. All three spaceports will focus on small to medium boosters that primarily will serve the surging demand to launch low-Earth-orbit satellites.
The Eurofighter program passed several milestones in the past month, including the first missile firing and inflight refueling trials, as final details of production contracts worth up to $45 billion are being ironed out.
Thomas B. Harmon, manager of aviation sales for Scott Aviation, Lancaster, N.Y., has been elected president of the Aviation Distributors and Manufacturers Assn. Other officers elected were: first vice president, James T. Quinn, vice president-marketing for Aviall; and second vice president, Gary Plummer, marketing manager for BFGoodrich Aerospace.
Bradford Parkinson, Edward C. Wells professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University, has received the Magellanic Premium Award from the American Philosophical Society. He was cited for contributions to the development of the Global Positioning System. Also honored was Roger Easton, who invented the spaceborne atomic clocks that are key to GPS.
INDONESIA HAS AGREED TO ELIMINATE all tax incentives and budget subsidies for its two-pronged regional aircraft program, according to the International Monetary Fund. An IMF source said that as part of an austerity package that Jakarta accepted in return for an IMF financial rescue, state-owned IPTN will be stripped of its government backing for indigenous aircraft. They are the $1.5-billion N-250, a 64-seat turboprop that was in flight testing, and the $2-billion N-2130, a 100-seat jet, which had yet to be built.
Northrop Grumman has selected the Gulfstream 5 business jet as the platform for its entry into the U.K.'s Airborne Stand-Off Radar (Astor) program--a smaller, advanced version of the company's E-8 Joint-STARS system which may involve new, classified technology the U.S. is offering to codevelop with the U.K.
THE BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE Organization (BMDO) said it will have to delay the fifth intercept test of its Theater High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) anti-missile system to replace faulty components. A malfunctioning communications transponder on board the interceptor and possibly faulty thrust vector control firmware will force an undetermined delay of the test, which had been set for March. BMDO said it will set a new test date within a month. All four previous Thaad intercept tests were failures.
Boeing is using an overhead video camera system that automatically spots tiny pieces of debris on composite wing plies during manufacture. The device, essentially a color video camera linked to a stand-alone desktop computer, adds no cycle time, can operate for 24 hr. and uses low-cost, off-the-shelf technology. The computer analyzes images and triggers aural and visual alarms when it discovers colors that should not be present, according to John Harrell, principal technical specialist at Boeing's Composite Center in St. Louis.
Ben E. Simmons (see photo) has been appointed vice president of Honeywell Sensor and Guidance Products' Guidance and Navigation Operation, Clearwater, Fla. He was vice president of the Honeywell Technology Center in Minneapolis. Simmons succeeds Jeffrey T. Bakken, who now heads a unit of the Honeywell Home and Building Control business.
Japan's NASDA space agency, the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science and Japanese industry are studying the feasibility of building a robotic ``helper'' satellite to check the health of or make modular repairs to spacecraft in orbits higher than 500 km. (270 naut. mi.). The plan is part of NASDA's overall effort to use robotics as part of an advanced space infrastructure.
As Saddam Hussein's defiance of the U.N. enters its eighth year, President Clinton's strategic dilemma pits necessity against reality. The necessity, most here agree, is enforcing Iraq's compliance with U.N. weapons inspections. The reality is that military force short of all-out war is unlikely to bring Saddam to heel. The Iraqi president has amply demonstrated that bombing will not break his will to resist. Given this Catch-22, military experts and Middle East strategists say the U.S. should:
Australia's carriers are likely to see their share of air traffic into the country diminish under a government-sponsored open skies review by an industry team, but Qantas faces a bigger threat than Ansett Australia.
Edward W. Stimpson, president for 25 years and later vice chairman of GAMA, has won the National Aeronautic Assn. Elder Statesman of Aviation Award. He was honored for long-time contributions to aerospace.
French engine manufacturer Snecma's return to profitability in 1997 is being strengthened by CFM International's healthy sales and strong backlog, according to company officials.
As Cathay Pacific continues to reel from Asia's economic crisis, the Hong Kong de facto flag carrier says it will lay off 5% of its non-flying staff, 760 employees. But analysts say that may be only a first step toward more layoffs and changes in cockpit compensation.
Michael O'Callaghan has succeeded Michael Donovan as managing director of British Aerospace Regional Aircraft. Donovan is now managing director of British Aerospace Defence Systems.
U.S. AND JAPANESE negotiators extended their talks into Friday last week in hopes of reaching agreement on a new bilateral aviation agreement. Government sources said the talks were in their final stages and both sides seemed determined to reach an agreement during this round of talks.
President Clinton's warning last week to Iraq that the time for diplomacy is dwindling may not be an empty threat. Iraq officials are adamant about refusing inspections for biological and chemical weapons, and Clinton said the U.S. would strike without coalition help if necessary. Meanwhile, fine tuning of the allied force in the region was continuing. Most recently, the Navy accelerated training and deployment of EA-6B aircraft, which jam air defense radars. Within a month, the Air Force will have equipped its operational B-2 bomber force with 4,400-lb.
Greg B. Gibson has been named vice president-flight operations, John M. Hedblom vice president-labor relations and Linda Srabian director of Airbus integration, all for US Airways. Gibson was regional director of flying, based in Charlotte, N.C. He succeeds William Barr, who has retired. Hedblom was director of labor arbitration and administration and succeeds Dwain Andrews, who is retiring. Srabian was project manager of information services for United Airlines. Also, Robert L.
The core of U.S. Air Force special operations aircrew training is a well-integrated system that blends self-paced computer-based instruction and classroom presentations with sophisticated flight simulation.
So far, Indonesia has done an outstanding job of coordinating international resources to investigate the Dec. 19 crash of a SilkAir Boeing 737-300 on the island of Sumatra. The nation has been faced with crushing economic problems and pressure from the world financial community to address them as the nation's highest priorities. The impact of those economic problems on the Indonesian aerospace industry has been draconian (see p. 21). Nonetheless, Indonesia has orchestrated professional and thorough efforts to recover debris from that aircraft.
Gregory J. Clark has been named president/chief operating officer of Loral Space&Communications. He has been president of the News Technology Group, a unit of the News Corp. Clark succeeds Michael B. Targoff, who has resigned. Targoff will continue as a member of the board of Loral-led Globalstar Telecommunications Ltd.
