CIMx ShopBrowser is a web-based system for viewing product and process data on the shop floor and for providing data collection for quality measurements. The system is built on the Oracle Web Application Server and uses Java Applets for communication. Using a multimedia personal computer or network computer, a machine operator on the factory floor will be able to view pictures, text, video and graphics as well as listen to audio instructions. Because it uses web technology, the system can be integrated with an intranet or extranet.
Booth space reservations are up 10% over last year for the Helicopter Assn. Intl.'s 50th exposition and meeting, to be held Feb. 15-17 in Anaheim, Calif. Last year, HAI's annual meeting, also held in Anaheim, attracted 12,790 attendees with 434 manufacturers taking a record 161,600 sq. ft. of booth space. HAI's more than 1,400 member organizations now fly about 2 million flight hours annually in a fleet exceeding 4,000 helicopters.
When the clocks ring in the new millennium in less than two years, air travel will present a very different picture from what is currently seen. The U.S. will be conducting its first major test of Free Flight and the attendant Future Air Navigation System (FANS) avionics suites. Many commercial air routes, particularly over the North and South Pacific and Russia, and possibly over Africa, will be inhabited primarily by FANS-equipped aircraft.
The MAC-6700 Waterproof Microwave Absorber can be used to reduce extraneous reflections on outdoor antenna test ranges and in radar cross section test facilities. The curtain also can be used to reduce coupling or interference between transmitting antennas. The double-sided material is less than 0.75 in. thick and weighs less than 1 lb. per sq. ft. Millimeter Wave Technology Inc., 1920 W. Oak Circle, Suite 200, Marietta, Ga. 30062.
Boeing this week plans to report firm orders for about 560 transports in 1997, including 15 from its new Douglas Aircraft Products Div. subsidiary, formerly Douglas Aircraft Co. The company does not count options, letters of intent or memorandums of understanding. Boeing's December orders included an eight-aircraft pact for next generation 737-800s with Olympic Airways.
A new photonic time delay system being developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Md., to steer the beams of a phased array antenna uses a single optical fiber, offering significant reductions in complexity, cost, size and weight. The U.S. Navy envisions active phased arrays on ships with 10,000 transmit/receive modules, which could require 1,000 time-delay units per module, using current photonic beam-steering technology.
Since we began publishing the Aviation Week&Space Technology Aerospace Source Book three years ago, it has remained focused on operational systems, continuing to grow and evolve to meet the changing needs of aerospace professionals worldwide.
The G6 High Lift loader is one of six new pieces of battery-powered ground support equipment intended for use by regional airlines and business aircraft operators. The four-wheel-drive tug also can tow an aircraft weighing up to 70,000 lb. The vehicle can be recharged with standard 110-volt, 60-cycle electrical power using an on-board charger. Chargers compatible with international voltage standards are also available. Giliberti Inc., 71534 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, Fla. 33413. Circle 255 on Reader Service Card
The modular panel shade system is designed for use in wide-body aircraft. The new design uses synchronic upholstered panels instead of pleated fabric to provide improved reliability and integrity. The electrically powered unit has been tested to 20,000 cycles but is also equipped with a manual override system. MSA Aircraft Interior Products Inc., 11911 Radium Drive, San Antonio, Tex. 78216.
SOUTH AFRICA HAS SHORT-LISTED the Saab/British Aerospace Gripen, the Dassault Mirage 2000 and the supersonic AT-2000, to be built jointly by DASA and Denel, to meet its requirement for a new multirole aircraft. The MiG-29 was eliminated earlier. The government is seeking further information and offset packages with best and final offers due in May. A decision is expected this summer.
STEVE FOSSETT CUT HIS BALLOON circumnavigation flight short on Jan. 4, landing in Novokiporovskaya, Russia, after avoiding Libya and becoming trapped in calm air, and having equipment problems. Fossett flew about 7,300 mi. from his St. Louis launch on Dec. 31, less than the 10,360-mi. world record he set a year ago (AW&ST Jan. 27, 1997, p. 29). Five teams are attempting circumnavigation with Rozier-type helium/hot-air balloons, split into low- and high-altitude camps.
After spending the late 1980s and early 1990s in the doldrums, the business jet aviation market is experiencing a healthy growth spurt. In 1995, there were 337 business jet deliveries worth $3.3 billion. This figure rose to 352 jets worth $3.6 billion in 1996. Deliveries of business jets in 1997 rose above 400, worth more than $5 billion, one of the best single-year increases in the market's history. And 1998 should see deliveries of 420 jets worth $5.4 billion.
The AccuRange 4000-RET line of eye-safe, laser-diode-based rangefinding sensors can be used in RS-485 serial communications. The devices are suitable for use in distance measurement systems and applications at ranges up to 50 ft. and are accurate to 0.1 in. They can function at sampling rates of up to 50,000 times per sec. The AccuRange 4000 is housed in a rugged NEMA-4 case with shock-mounted internal components. Acuity Research Inc., 3475 Edison Way, Suite P, Menlo Park, Calif. 94025.
With a little more than a month in orbit, checkout of the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM) spacecraft and calibration of its instruments is proceeding just as planned. The four-ton NASA satellite (above), part of Mission to Planet Earth, was launched Nov. 27 on an H-2 from Tanegashima Space Center, Japan. Controllers at the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., had commanded the removal of the protective covers from Ceres, the Clouds and the Earth Radiant Energy System, and were expecting to calibrate the instrument late last week.
NWING Version 1.0 is a complex variable boundary element method for multi-airfoil wing design. The program allows a user to select NACA four-digit airfoil profiles and construct multi-airfoil configurations. Pressure distribution, velocity field and lift/downforce coefficients can be viewed and printed. The program employs a two-dimensional inviscid boundary element method that is formulated using complex variables. The risk of flow separation at the leading edge also can be perceived. Computational Mechanics Inc., 25 Bridge St., Billerica, Mass. 01821.
Photograph: Photograph: To clear space for new work, Boeing's Salt Lake City factory is consolidating two MD-80/90 fuselage production lines into one. Boeing's Salt Lake City manufacturing facility, acquired in last summer's merger with McDonnell Douglas, is clearing floor space for new work as its MD-80 and MD-90 fuselage production winds down. The plant, which employs 570, now builds the entire MD-80/90 fuselage for Boeing including the vertical fin. It does not build the aircraft's nose or wing. It also produces small assemblies for the MD-11 transport.
Flight engineer Innokentiy Pavlovitch Tzivilev has won the Flight Safety Foundation Heroism Award for helping fellow victims of a Russian helicopter accident survive for 44 hr. in isolated and bitterly cold conditions. Capt. Leul Abate of Ethiopian Airlines won the Professionalism Award in Flight Safety, for piloting and strategy that were credited with saving the lives of 50 passengers and crewmembers when his aircraft was hijacked.
IN THE WAKE OF AIRBUS Industrie's decision to launch the stretched-fuselage A340-500/600 long-range transport, Virgin Atlantic Airways last month signed an order for eight 378-seat -600s and optioned eight additional aircraft. Swissair ordered nine A340-600s, six additional -300s and one more A321. Olympic Airways ordered two additional A340-300s and optioned two. In 1997, the European consortium concluded orders for 477 aircraft, up from 326 in 1996.
SAAB FLIGHT DYNAMICS HAS DELIVERED its IR-OTIS infrared search and tracking system to the Swedish Defense Materiel Administration for flight testing on a JA 37 Viggen. The system eventually is to be adapted and integrated into Swedish air force JAS 39 Gripens.
Light rail service could be extended to Portland International Airport through a unique partnership of the city, port authority, metropolitan area transit providers and Bechtel. Although details of the cost-sharing approach have yet to be worked out, the goal is to begin construction of the $130-170-million project in 1999. No use of federal or state funds or tax increases is planned. As envisioned, worldwide construction company Bechtel would bear the cost of a 1.4-mi. segment of the 5.5-mi.
Reno Air's twice-daily jet service between Oklahoma City and Las Vegas, begun in mid-September, carried almost 7,000 passengers in November, nearly 5% of OKC's passenger traffic, including commuter and charter service. One of Reno's flights provides a same-plane connection to Los Angeles. The Reno-based carrier operates Boeing MD-80 and MD-90 twinjets. Oklahoma City is one of several Midwestern U.S. airports struggling to attract jet service for the economic and social benefits improved access brings.
THE DGA FRENCH ARMAMENTS agency has awarded Matra BAe Dynamics a tooling and production contract for an initial batch of 225 Mica medium-range air-to-air missiles. The Mica will equip Dassault Aviation's Mirage 2000-5/9, which will begin delivery in 1999, as well as the Rafale. The award is the fourth of a series of experimental multiyear contracts initiated by DGA last year with the Apache cruise missile and Vesta liquid fuel ramjet propulsion system. A multiyear award for the French/Italian MU90 light torpedo was issued last October (AW&ST Nov. 17, 1997, p. 21).
For most of us, the big thrill of the Apollo Moon landings was that not only had man set foot on the Moon but we could see him walking around. NASA's Ames Research Center, which is heading the space agency's return to the Moon this week (see p. 50), is keeping up with the times. Ames developed the software that made the quick imagery from the Mars Pathfinder mission available on the Internet last summer (AW&ST Aug. 11, 1997, p. 70).
