Increasing numbers of solar storms over the next four years will degrade the performance of the Global Positioning System but in unpredictable ways, according to space environment forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Ground and air rescue teams in 16 isolated areas of Minnesota and Wisconsin are using GPS receivers, donated by St. Luke's Hospital and Trauma Center in Duluth, to speed pickups with accurate victim location.
Robert J. Woods has been named president/chief operating officer and John L. Okay senior vice president of Federal Sources Inc., McLean, Va. Woods and Okay were commissioner and deputy commissioner, respectively, of the Federal Telecommunications Service of the U.S. General Services Administration.
Tom Kraft has been named national resource specialist and Robert Eastin chief scientific and technical adviser for fracture mechanics for the FAA Office of Regulation and Certification.
George T. Singley, 3rd, acting director of research and engineering for the Alexandria, Va.-based American Helicopter Society, has been elected its chairman. Other officers elected were: president, S. Michael Hudson, president/CEO of the Rolls-Royce Allison Engine Co.; and secretary/treasurer, Dean C. Borgman, senior vice president/general manager of Boeing Mesa, which was McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Systems.
Recent tests on Boeing 747 scavenge pumps have all but ruled out the failure of such a unit as a cause of the center-fuel-tank explosion that ripped apart TWA Flight 800--leaving NTSB investigators with rare wiring failures among the few viable explanations for that blast. Conducted by Environ Laboratories in Minneapolis last month, the tests demonstrated that an explosion within the scavenge pump was unlikely to pierce the pump's reinforced housing and trigger a larger blast in the center tank.
The possible uses and potential materials for transparent armor are the subject of a three-year study by the U.S Army Research Laboratory of Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. Potential applications include individual soldier protection and various types of windshields, including helicopter transparencies. The goal is to reduce the weight and thickness of conventional glass/polymer systems.
A growing desire by a number of countries to have some control over satellite navigation systems is fueling an interest in regional satellite augmentations of the GPS and, perhaps, Glonass systems. The result could be a number of geo-stationary satellites, each controlled by a country in the area of the world it serves. What role the rapidly proliferating low-Earth orbit satellites may play is still unknown.
Introduction of the Boeing 777-300 by All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines is requiring the Japanese Ministry of Transport to spend $64.5 million to widen taxiways at 16 airports. The widening is necessary because the -300 is 18 ft. longer between its nose and main gear than the 747-400s that both airlines fly.
Massive consolidation almost certainly awaits companies competing in the information technology and professional services sector of the U.S. aerospace/defense industry, with TRW's recently proposed acquisition of BDM International just one of many such combinations to follow.
Capacity at Istanbul's Ataturk airport is set to double with the launch of a Turkish-Austrian project to build a new international terminal. The terminal will be jointly constructed by a consortium of Tepe Construction Inc. (75%), Akfen Engineering Consultancy (20%) and Austria's Flughafen Wien AG (5%) under a contract worth nearly $300 million. Flughafen Wien, which runs Vienna's main airport, will operate the new terminal complex for nearly four years, after which it will be handed over to Turkey's airport authority.
The U.S. Air Force must start allocating more of its budget to space programs and infrastructure if it expects to carry out the space missions it has assumed, according to the service's top space commander.
RAYTHEON E-SYSTEMS IS DEVELOPING microelectromechanical (MEM) radio frequency circuit elements and tunable filters to enable smaller, low-cost multi-mode radios to operate between 20 MHz. and 2.8 GHz. The goal for the Falls Church, Va.-based company is to create arrays of discretely switched MEM capacitors and inductors that will permit very linear RF circuits, but at 3% of the cost and one hundredth the volume of today's systems.
The install-ation of cockpit head-up flight guidance avionics is accelerating in the world's transport and business jet fleets as pilots and operators recognize safety and operational benefits. High system cost and a shortage of flight simulators equipped with head-up equipment remain barriers to further implementation. Despite these frustrations, pilots and operators of head-up systems are almost unanimously enthusiastic about the equipment. Many have discovered secondary benefits that enhance--or even outweigh--originally expected gains.
GPS is rapidly approaching a time of opportunity and transition. Proposals to modernize the next generation of GPS satellites offer improvements for both civil and military users, if decisions can be made by next March. Applications for precision navigation are expanding, as the sales boom continues and the price of equipment drops. One manufacturer recently broke the $100 price barrier for a hand-held GPS receiver.
Tentative specifications for Boeing's new 777-200X transport include 6-ft. extensions to each wing, 104,000-lb.-thrust Rolls-Royce Trent 8104 engines and one or two belly tanks. The proposed aircraft would meet a Singapore Airlines revised requirement to fly nonstop between Singapore and Los Angeles, an 8,790-naut.-mi. distance, carrying about 195 passengers. Boeing hopes to launch the -200X before Christmas but needs two customers and an unknown unit total for program go-ahead. Singapore, American Airlines and Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways are interested.
Rocquin Van Guilder has been appointed senior project manager in the Great Lakes Div. and Richard L. Wise manager of aviation in the Tulsa, Okla., office of Kansas City-based HTNB Aviation. Also named were: Chris Spann as senior project manager based in Overland Park, Kan., and Andrew Herman as aviation planner in the Irvine, Calif., office.
THE GERMAN BUNDESTAG has approved the 1998 defense budget, virtually ensuring that tooling and production for the $45-billion, four-nation Eurofighter program will go ahead before year-end. The budget and accompanying four-year spending plan provide for DM847 million ($482 million) in spending for EF2000 tooling and production next year, DM1.18 billion in 1999, DM1.35 billion in 2000 and DM1.58 billion in 2001. The budget also authorizes the government to award DM23.1 billion in related contracts for the fighter during 1998-2014.
The Global Hawk starts its medium-speed (50-kt.) taxi tests this week at Edwards AFB, Calif. The long-endurance UAV completed low-speed tests with 9,000 lb. of fuel in its wings--about 65% of its maximum. Accuracy in going from waypoint to waypoint--generally within 1-2 ft.--``was as good as you can get from a good pilot,'' a senior Pentagon official said. Data was transmitted to a ground station. Next, the Teledyne Ryan UAV is to taxi at 85 kt. Takeoff is at 124 kt. First flight is nominally set for mid-January.
A BRITISH RAF Harrier GR7 crashed into the Mediterranean on the evening of Nov. 25 while attempting to land on the carrier HMS Invincible. The pilot was rescued uninjured. The aircraft was one of seven Harriers from RAF Wittering deployed to the Invincible five days earlier.
Spain's airline Iberia and AMR Corp., the parent company of American Airlines, have agreed on terms for AMR's acquisition of a 10% stake in Aerolineas Argentinas. American officials said the agreement is expected to be signed this month. Spanish holding company SEPI, which owns Iberia, also holds a majority share of the Argentine carrier but wants to sell its remaining interest. American began negotiating with Iberia last summer.
Boeing has restarted its 747 production line and is catching up on 737 deliveries under a recovery plan projected to get most deliveries on track by mid-1998. The Seattle-based aerospace manufacturer shut down its 747 line for 20 workdays in October and delayed work on some 737s as parts shortages approached 2,600 a day. Boeing's other Seattle-based lines also were slowed, and airline customers have said the ripple effect has pushed some 1998 deliveries into the following year.
FAA inspectors often fail to uncover safety and compliance problems in the maintenance performed at large repair stations and do not detail steps taken to correct the problems they do find, according to a report by congressional investigators.
