Sikorsky Aircraft has committed itself to helping a Malaysian company broaden its composite manufacturing skills as an offset to the Royal Malaysian Air Force's purchase of two S-70 Black Hawks valued at about $20 million. The deal works because Sikorsky can call upon a sister company within United Technologies to purchase 5-million ringgit ($1.5 million) worth of the Malaysian concern's production during the next two years.
Illustration: Illustration: Diagram: One design for MAN's proposed new cryogenic upper stage features an all-new stage layout consisting of a toroidal oxygen tank and a lenticular hydrogen tank made up of spherical tank domes from the Ariane 5 core stage. Although Europe's new heavy-lift Ariane 5 booster is only halfway through its qualification flight campaign, program leaders are already taking preliminary steps to improve its performance to meet future market demand.
National Technical Systems Inc. will take over operation of several physical sciences laboratories at McClellan AFB, Calif., under a U.S. Air Force contract. Extending through April 1999, the privatization contract includes a work backlog of approximately $2 million. NTS will operate McClellan's chemical engineering, analytical chemistry, materials engineering, failure analysis and environmental testing laboratories as commercial entities, broadening the company's technical services base. Much of McClellan's skilled laboratory workforce will be retained.
Datria Systems Inc. of Aurora, Colo., has bought the Asset Tracking System (ATS) technology project developed by Lockheed Martin Missiles&Space of Sunnyvale, Calif. Lockheed Martin developed Automatic Location Tracking System, which Datria has renamed VoCarta, to provide a real-time tracking capability using the Global Positioning System. Essentially, VoCarta integrates GPS and electronic maps, or geographic information systems (GIS).
Executive Jet Aviation has ordered 24 Dassault Falcon 2000 twinjets for its NetJets fractional ownership program, the first time a Falcon model has been involved in a plan of this type. The 24-aircraft buy, worth $500 million, is the largest business jet sale in dollar terms in Dassault history, and the largest commercial order for the company in unit terms since PanAm helped to launch the Falcon 20--then called the Mystere 20--four decades ago.
Illustration: Illustration: Diagram: Tests of the Universal Access Transceiver for ADS-B will allow exchange of positions between aircraft and the ground, and uplinking weather and traffic information from ground air traffic services. The FAA will receive help from an unexpected quarter for its Flight 2000 tests in Alaska and Hawaii. The Cargo Airline Assn. is leading an effort to evaluate automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B)--a critical element of free flight--and hopes to start flight tests next summer.
The Boeing-operated Airborne Surveillance Testbed last month was scheduled to view the launch of two AQM-37 drone missiles from F-4 fighters northeast of Hawaii. The drones were launched approximately one hour apart. Mission of the AST, a 767 transport carrying a 2-ton infrared telescope which supports U.S. Ballistic Missile Defense Organization research, was to gather raw and processed infrared data as the rocket-powered drones flew a ballistic trajectory to nearly 300,000 ft. after air-launch at 50,000 ft.
Michael W. Smyth has become director of safety for Polar Air Cargo, Long Beach, Calif. He retired earlier this year from the U.S. Marine Corps as a lieutenant colonel.
Air India will begin negotiations with Airbus Industrie and the Boeing Co. for the purchase of three new medium-capacity aircraft--either the Airbus 310 or Boeing 767. The acquisition was approved in principle by Air India's board, which also asked the airline to carry out studies on the purchase of a Boeing 747-400 for use on Canadian and Persian Gulf routes. The board also approved the sale of two aging 747-200s and the potential divestiture of 49% of the airline's hotel subsidiary.
The People's Republic of China marks its 50th anniversary in 1999, which could lead to a U.S.-Chinese clash over Taiwan, argues U.S. Rear Adm. (ret.) William T. Pendley. He is a contributor to a recent Heritage Foundation book, ``Between Diplomacy and Deterrence: Strategies for U.S. Relations with China.'' China's security considerations are focused less directly on military threats than on the need to ensure the survival of the current regime.
Dick Turner has become manager of FlightSafety International's Sea-Tac Seattle Training Center and Mike Croitoru manager of FSI's Learjet Training Center, Wichita, Kan. Turner was a program manager at FSI's Florida-based systems development unit, and Croitoru was FSI's manager of Learjet business development.
A UKRAINIAN AIRLINES Yak-42 trijet with 70 persons on board crashed in wind and snow in mountainous terrain on approach to the Salonica, Greece, airport on Dec. 17. Pilot error was suspected in the mishap, which occurred as the aircraft was making a second approach because of heavy air traffic.
THE FAA'S OFFICE of Commercial Space Transportation lifted a suspension of Orbital Sciences Corp.'s license to launch Pegasus boosters out of Wallops Flight Facility, Va., after the company completed software modifications so its Pegasus fourth stage would vent leftover hydrazine (AW&ST Dec. 15, p. 25). The Pegasus is now scheduled to launch eight Orbcomm satellites on Dec. 22.
The Dec. 15 article on the NTSB's TWA Flight 800 public hearing incorrectly characterized testimony on the relation between the temperature and minimum ignition energy of Jet A vapor. The researcher testifying said a 50F decrease in the fuel's temperature can increase the minimum energy needed to ignite its vapors by 100,000 times.
THE F/A-18E/F HAS now been flown several times without ``wing drop'', using combinations of stall strips, porous wing fairings, wing fences and other refinements, Navy officials say. The wing will not be redesigned, and the final combination of fixes will likely be chosen by March.
The Mars Global Surveyor is being eased back to its standard aerobraking altitude after sustaining a 133% increase in atmospheric density during successive orbital passes as the result of a widespread Martian dust storm. Project officials at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said the dust storm--which at its peak covered an area the size of the South Atlantic Ocean--is beginning to subside in intensity.
The U.S. Air Force has formed an information warfare squadron at Shaw AFB, S.C., to protect military command centers, but perhaps it should have formed one to protect Wall Street instead. The most lucrative targets for cyber war may well be civilian targets where the opportunity exists to bring Wall Street, and perhaps the U.S. economy, to its knees. There is a possibility this can all be done from abroad using the same sorts of techniques that recreational hackers use.
Visionary Leonardo da Vinci knew the importance of hands-on (and feet) flying skills to maintain safe flight: ``Wings are driven by the back pedals, which the flier operates with the alternating leg motions. The effect of thrust is amplified by the hand-operated crank, which powers a hoisting device.''
As 1997 draws to a close, a group of Aviation Week editors offer personal views on a wide variety of issues. The following perspectives touch on subjects as diverse as Dan Goldin, secret airplanes, China's military strength, cyber warfare, aerospace innovation, French culture and Leonardo da Vinci's contribution to flight training. So for a look at what Dan Goldin is really like, why the U.S. military should reveal details about secret airplane projects, or what the most likely targets of cyber war might be, read on.
TRW will abandon its faltering Odyssey satellite project and receive a $150-million stake in a competing system led by ICO Global Communications as part of a settlement to end a legal battle over spacecraft design. The agreement ends TRW's failed efforts to attract investors to begin building the $3-billion Odyssey system and transforms two bitter aerospace rivals into business partners.
Four missing fasteners caused the USAF/Lockheed Martin F-117A crash at a Baltimore area air show on Sept. 14, and a required inspection of those fasteners was missed six months earlier, according to the accident report. The report found that maintenance records of the Air Force 49th Fighter Wing were incomplete, that the fastener inspection was not accomplished due to ``contractual and budgetary constraints,'' and that no group was tracking whether required ``time compliance directives'' were being completed by the due date.
A STRONG CIVIL AIRCRAFT SECTOR will boost U.S. aerospace sales to a record $129.6 billion in 1997, an 11% jump over last year, according to the Aerospace Industries Assn.'s year-end review. After hemorrhaging jobs for much of the decade, the industry added 77,000 jobs this year, thanks in large part to the commercial transport sector. The U.S. government's share of industry sales will drop to 50% in 1997 and continue to decline, the forecast said.
U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) signed a Dec. 16 letter to President Clinton asking him to stabilize NASA funding. The White House is reportedly considering cutting the agency's Fiscal 1999 budget request by as much as $1 billion, to $12.6 billion, which could force the delay or cancellation of major space programs.
As mergers and acquisitions have reduced the number of U.S. aerospace/defense contractors, it has become fashionable to assail the industry's consolidation partly on the grounds that innovation will suffer--that somehow, large aerospace companies will lose their incentive or their ability to introduce new technologies or improve upon existing ones. This is ludicrous. While the final list of the biggest players remains in a state of flux, one thing remains constant: technology innovation continues to be the marrow of this industry.
FAA INSPECTORS IN MAY found Boeing's procedures for reporting configuration changes to new aircraft--a critical part of mandatory pre-delivery inspections--was ``out of control.'' As first reported in The Wall Street Journal, the May 21 letter from the Seattle aircraft-certification and manufacturing-inspection offices said Boeing was making configuration changes without notifying FAA officials slated to do type inspections on new aircraft, or notifying them late (even after an aircraft had been delivered).
