AEROSPATIALE will transfer its Airbus business to a stand-alone subsidiary in the next few months. The French company's initiative is set to facilitate Airbus Industrie's transition into a stock company, which is planned for January 1999.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created ``virtual machining'' software that allows designers to create and evaluate the performance of expensive machine tools and manufacturing equipment in a computer before ordering them. The technique, called Machining Variation Analysis (MVA), allows designers to ``use'' planned machine tools and manufacturing systems to build virtual parts, according to Dan Frey, assistant director of the System Design and Management Program at Cambridge, Mass.-based MIT.
Gus Whitcomb has been named Los Angeles-based manager of communications for the U.S. and Latin America for Cathay Pacific Airways. He was director of corporate communications for Greenwich Air Services of Miami.
Don Brown has become director of flight operations for airlift and tanker programs for the Boeing Co. in Long Beach, Calif. He was a test pilot of MD-80s, MD-11s and C-17s for McDonnell Douglas.
Francois Courtot has been appointed director of the Labinal Turbomeca Engines Div. He was sales director of the Aerospatiale Missile Div. Francisco del Pozo has been named finance director of the Brussels-based European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol.) He succeeds Peter Johns, who is now managing director of APA Associates.
The Lunar Prospector entered a polar orbit of the Moon last week in what mission controllers at NASA's Ames Research Center here described as ``perfect health'' for the start of its year-long mapping mission.
Fast-deploying Air Expeditionary Forces (AEFs)--one is now stationed in Bahrain--so far have consisted of missile- and bomb-carrying aircraft such as F-16s, F-15C/Es and B-1s. But a plan is afoot to field an AEF dedicated to intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. The principal aircraft involved would be the RC-135 Rivet Joint (for monitoring communications and plotting the location of electronic emitters), the E-3 AWACS (for identifying and tracking airborne traffic) and the E-8 Joint-STARS (for watching movement on the ground).
THE FAA HAS GIVEN TECHNICAL STANDARD ORDER approval to Sextant Avionique's EVR716 VHF Data Radio transceiver which is capable of operating on the new 8.33 KHz. channel spacing, as well as the standard 25 KHz. Congestion in the VHF frequency band in Europe has led to the requirement to reduce channel spacing to 8.33 KHz. in one part of the band at altitudes above FL 245, commencing January 1999. The French DGAC and U.K. Civil Aviation Authority gave their approval in September 1997. Sextant delivered the first radios to British Airways last October.
Brian James has become corporate vice president/chief financial officer of the Aereostructures Corp., Nashville, Tenn. Other corporate vice presidents recently named are: Ed Miller, legal and audit; Julie Peeler, information systems; and Kurt Riessler, human resources.
Hugh Fraser has been appointed vice president-commercial of Sabena Belgian World Airlines. He was general manager for British Airways for Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
LucasVarity will supply engine and fuel control systems for the newest generation of Trent engines under a risk and revenue sharing agreement with Rolls-Royce. The company's Lucas Aerospace division will provide complete systems, including electronic engine controls, fuel metering units and actuation equipment for the Trent 8104, 500 and 600 engines. It will also supply fuel pumps for the latter two powerplants. Production deliveries of the new engines are set to begin early in the next century.
Oliver W. Bootz has been appointed Northwest U.S. sales manager for the West Trenton, N.J.-based Roller Bearing Co. of America. He was sales director for the BE Aerospace Corp.'s Seating Products Group.
Turkey is pressing to become a cooperative partner on Israel's Arrow anti-tactical ballistic missile program as defense ties between the two countries continue to deepen. Faced with an unenthusiastic reception for its bid to secure full membership in the European Union and problems obtaining arms from the U.S. due to Congressional criticism of its human rights record, Turkey is increasingly turning to Israel as its major strategic partner.
American Airlines and Rolls-Royce are forming a joint engine repair company, which is expected to begin operations by year- end. It will be based at the carrier's Alliance Fort Worth Airport maintenance facility. The two companies have signed a letter of intent to create the 50-50 joint venture to service Rolls-Royce engines in the Americas. Initially, the facility will repair RB211-535 and Tay 650 engines, which, respectively, power American Airlines' Boeing 757s and Fokker 100s.
The White House insists it was NASA's call on whether to allow Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio) to fly on the space shuttle 36 years after he became the first American in orbit. But some Republicans are seething that this is a blatantly political stunt that rewards Glenn, not for his heroics during his Mercury flight, but on Capitol Hill. He staunchly defended the Administration during hearings on campaign finances. After months of wrangling, Daniel S. Goldin was set to announce on Jan. 16 that Glenn will fly on Mission 95 in October.
Mike Bolton has been appointed general manager of the strategic business unit of Osmonics Inc., Minnetonka, Minn. He was director of technology for Osmonics/Autotrol products in Milwaukee.
Although the technology is cloaked in secrecy, a wide range of U.S. weapons designed to conduct offensive computer warfare is under development, a handful have been tested and at least one was used in combat. By developing an arsenal of offensive cybermunitions, some planners believe the U.S. can spend less on computer defenses.
Madhu Menon of the University of Kentucky at Lexington, and Deepak Srivastava of NASA's Ames Research Center report that carbon nanotube wires will be possible in the future. Nanotubes are molecular-sized pipes made of carbon atoms. The wires will be hundreds of times smaller than those currently used in silicon chips and could be connected by pentagons and heptagons at wire junctions.
Rising worldwide demand for helicopters resulted in more than 2,600 pilots attending Bell Helicopter Textron's training center at Fort Worth during 1997. It was the school's highest annual student load since the current facility began operating in 1974, according to Bell officials. Attendance is expected to increase between 5-10% this year. The school operates a fleet of 11 helicopters that includes three Model 206B-3 JetRangers, three Model 407s, three 206L-4 LongRangers, a 412EP and a Model 430. Average flight time for the school's 16 instructors is 12,000 hr.
The U.S. Navy has successfully completed the third Boeing SLAM-ER cruise missile developmental flight. It involved a high-speed, low-altitude launch from a VX-9 F/A-18 positioned 75 mi. from a ground target. The pilot of a second F/A-18, operating at a stand-off range of 150 mi., identified the target and locked the SLAM-ER onto a predetermined critical point of the target complex, then commanded launch. The fourth SLAM-ER development test is to include a launch from 40,000 ft. for a longer range mission against an even more complex land target scene.
The NTSB's staff has14 major aviation investigations underway, including the still unresolved probes of the USAir 737 crash near Pittsburgh and TWA Flight 800, and assisting Indonesia on the SilkAir Flight 185 crash (see p. 47). Yet they repeatedly are required to respond to questions from members of Congress and other quarters about poorly researched theories about what caused TWA 800 to crash.
