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).
David W. Welp, Francis S. Marchilena and Keith Peden have been appointed to additional positions within the Raytheon Co., Lexington, Mass. Welp has been president of Raytheon TI Systems and now also will be a corporate senior vice president. Marchilena has been assistant general manager of Raytheon Electronic Systems and now also will be a vice president, and Peden, who has been deputy director of human resources, now also will be a vice president.
U.S. airlines will be phasing in additional security procedures during 1998 under a cooperative program with the FAA. Beginning this month, airlines will increase the matching of passengers and baggage on domestic flights, as recommended by the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security. Initially, carriers will use computer and manual screening systems to select passengers whose bags will be matched or whose luggage will be scanned by an explosives detection device.
British Airways expects to begin daily nonstop service to Denver and London Gatwick Airport beginning in June. Denver is the largest U.S. city not served by a nonstop flight from London; United serves it on a one-stop basis via Washington. The British carrier won authority to operate the route from the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority over an application from Virgin Atlantic Airways to operate between London and Las Vegas. BA's service, subject to U.S. government approval, will operate using Boeing 777 aircraft.
Capt. K. Scott Griffith of American Airlines received the Adm. Luis de Florez Air Safety Award for implementing the airline's Safety Action Partnership program, which is based on pilot self-reporting of incidents. Elizabeth A. Marchak of The Plain Dealer of Cleveland received the Cecil A. Brownlow Publication Award for articles on bogus and unapproved aircraft parts, repairs and inspections, and oversight of startup airlines.
The death of a passenger on a United Airlines flight that hit clear air turbulence has focused renewed interest in developing better warning systems so pilots can avoid it. The NTSB has launched a major investigation of the incident, which occurred Dec. 28 on a Boeing 747-100 bound for Honolulu out of Tokyo.
NASA is giving the threat of orbital debris short shrift, according to a National Research Council panel led by former shuttle commander Frederick Hauck. NASA's own guidelines suggest that the chances of meteorites or orbital debris triggering a catastrophic shuttle failure are as high as 1:200. But the agency appears to have put less effort into reducing the risk than it has with comparable risks, such as a catastrophic main engine failure, the report said.
Lewis C. Watt (see photo) has become head of the Air Vehicle Technology Group of the Penn State University Applied Research Laboratory. Al Lemanski will be deputy head.
There is good news and bad news for investors in Spacehab Inc., the first company to commercially develop, own and operate habitable modules that provide space-based laboratory research facilities and cargo services on board U.S. space shuttles.
Photograph: Photograph: To rejuvenate its fleet, Alitalia is taking delivery of 40 150-185-seat Airbus A320/A321 short/medium-haul twinjets. An A321 is shown. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Alitalia in November will implement a far-reaching strategic alliance scheduled to give birth to a combined route system. The agreement's initial phase will focus on European routes, transatlantic services and worldwide cargo operations, KLM and Alitalia executives said. The ``long-term commercial agreement'' will not involve the acquisition of equity, they added.
Vernon C. Sanders has been appointed vice president-business development, Mark Haigh controller and Mark Dinius purchasing manager, all of Hydro-Aire Inc., Burbank, Calif.
Bob Mitchell has been appointed project manager of NASA's Galileo Europa Mission at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Mitchell was Gailieo mission director. Bill O'Neil, who has been project manager for the primary Galileo mission, will be a consultant on the senior staff of the JPL Telecommunications and Mission Operations Directorate.
Photograph: Photograph: The estuary of the Musi River may be a greater challenge for accident investigators than the Everglades was in the ValuJet crash because the river has a swift, muddy current. WIDE WORLD Tapes from a radar may show whether a midair breakup at 35,000 ft. caused a SilkAir regional commuter from Singapore to crash into a fast-flowing river on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, killing all 104 persons on board.
Prior Aviation also is testing a forced-air frost, snow and ice removal system built under license by FMC, Orlando, Fla. Envisioned as an option for large modular deicing trucks, AirFirst blows dry and wet snow off aircraft without using glycol deicing fluid. It removes frost by mixing only one or two gallons of Type 1 fluid a minute into the forced air system's 100-lb./min. airflow. AirFirst also can remove ice up to 0.5 in. thick, which lifts, crystallizes and blows away, according to Lee Williams, FMC program manager. The patented system uses a 2-in.
The Western European Union assembly wants greater cooperation within Europe and with the U.S. on anti-ballistic missile defense, warning that neither the WEU or NATO has a clear or coherent policy to defend against the growing threat of missile attacks. The assembly also called for examining the possibility of cooperation with Russia on missile defense.
If there are any doubts that Airbus' sales effort in China is turning the heads of airline executives who were traditional Boeing customers, China Southern Airlines Chairman Yu Yanen threw cold water on them in a recent appearance in Hong Kong. Until it selected the Airbus A320 last year, China Southern had been a stalwart customer of the Seattle manufacturer (AW&ST Apr. 15, 1996, p. 34). At the time, U.S.-Sino relations were in a trough and Boeing said politics played a deciding role in China Southern's selection process. Yu pointed to other reasons.
European Continental Airways will begin daily nonstop flights to Marseilles, Milan and Venice in March as ``Crossair Europe,'' operating from the French side of the ``EuroAirport'' at Basel Mulhouse Freiburg. Its partner airline--Crossair--operates from the Swiss sector of the airport. The new carrier is 40% owned by Crossair and 60% by investors from the European Union countries of France and Germany, allowing it to operate as an independent company under French law and take advantage of European airline deregulation.
The new Air Force Research Laboratory, based at Wright-Patterson AFB, has consolidated four USAF laboratories and its Office of Scientific Research under a single command. Reorganization of the research arm, begun last April under Maj. Gen. Richard Paul, has compressed 22 directorates into 10. They are: Air Vehicles, Space Vehicles, Information, Munitions, Directed Energy, Materials and Manufacturing, Sensors, Propulsion, Human Effectiveness and the Office of Scientific Research.
Prior Aviation Services is offering fixed-price deicing for customers who use its InfraTek infrared-based deicing system at Buffalo Niagara (N.Y.) International Airport. Usually, deice fees are based on the amount of glycol deicing fluid used. To determine the cost of InfraTek deicing, Prior multiplies the wingspan by aircraft length, then by $0.07425.
A SCALE MODEL of Lockheed Martin Astronautics' Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle recently completed a series of wind tunnel tests at USAF's Arnold Engineering Development Center. As one of two competitors for USAF's next-generation family of heavy-lift launchers, Lockheed Martin plans to use the Russian-designed RD-180 rocket engine to power its core booster stage. The same engine will power the company's Atlas 2AR (AW&ST Apr. 7, 1997, p. 40).
THE ROYAL THAI AIR FORCE is planning to delay the purchase of eight F/A-18 Hornet fighters from Boeing due to the currency crisis. The Thai government has been forced to cut the air force budget by 30% because of the conditions of the IMF rescue package. The Thai air force has already paid $149 million of the $392 million due for the jets, which are scheduled for delivery in 1999. The cancellation fee is $250 million, and the Thai air force is negotiating to delay the payment term by three years. One of the options being considered is reselling the fighters to the U.S.
FLIGHT TESTS OF HONEYWELL'S ADVANCED metal-tolerant magnetic head tracker in a U.S. Army AH-64 Apache rear cockpit showed that it is unaffected by the metal and electromagnetic fields, and has better performance and reliability than the current electro-optical system, according to the company. Head-tracking accuracy of 3.2 milliradians exceeded the 10-milliradian requirement. The magnetic tracker, which is smaller than the EO unit, is being used to upgrade Holland's F-16 and the U.K.'s Jaguar.
THE U.S. AIR FORCE HAS DETERMINED that a B-1B crash on Sept. 19, near Alzada, Mont., was caused by an excessive sink rate that developed while the crew was performing an ``authorized, often-practiced defensive maneuver.'' The pilot had slowed and made a sharp turn at low altitude during a defensive countermeasures and simulated bombing mission, when the aircraft struck the ground, killing all four crewmembers.
