However, all is not well with Global Hawk's future payloads. Development of an advanced signals intelligence package for the big UAV hit a snag when Congress axed $16 million in funding. To renew support, a senior Pentagon official says, Global Hawk ``needs a good flight badly.'' The sigint package would let analysts figure out an enemy's electronic order of battle and intercept crucial, low-power communications.
Edmund B. Everette, former dean of the School of Aeronautics at the Florda Institute of Technology, has been named regional representative in Florida for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assn.
THE FIRST FIGHTER WING at Langley AFB, Va., lost a F-15C Nov. 24. The aircraft was part of a two-ship formation conducting basic fighter maneuvers over the Atlantic. The pilot, 1st Lt. David M. Nyikos, ejected about 70 mi. off the coast and was rescued from his raft by a Coast Guard helicopter about 30 min. later. He was assigned to the 94th Fighter Sqdn., which just returned from Saudi Arabia. This was only the second aircraft loss for the 1st FW since the Persian Gulf war. The other went down during a Red Flag exercise early last year.
A software program developed by NASA to prepare International Space Station hardware for launch is being spun off into the private sector. Command and Control Technologies Corp. of Titusville, Fla., plans to market the Command and Control Toolkit, an expanded version of the Control Monitor software developed at the Kennedy Space Center. The aim is a product adapted to preparing, launching and operating launch vehicles and orbiting satellites.
Japan's Defense Agency reports that about $452 million worth of military equipment ordered through the U.S. foreign military sales program is late, even though the JDA's checks have been cashed. Two suspects are named for the late deliveries: production delays and Japan's low rank on the Pentagon's delivery schedule. The JDA has asked the Pentagon to speed things up.
MARTIN R. SHUGRUE, JR., founder of the ``new'' Pan American World Airways, has been replaced as president and CEO by David A. Banmiller, a longtime airline executive who most recently has been a consultant. Shugrue, who spent 20 years at the ``old'' Pan Am and was instrumental in launching the new carrier with the old name last year, will stay on the company's board of directors as nonexecutive vice chairman. As a founder, he is a major shareholder with almost 5% of the stock.
British Aerospace has begun flight trials of a helmet-mounted sight on Hawk 200 to assess the benefits and integration issues associated with such systems. The system tested involved a helmet sight developed by Pilkington Optronics and an optical helmet tracker from Kentron, a subsidiary of Denel of South Africa. It is a monocular derivative of Kentron's Guardian system (AW&ST June 30, p. 56). The first flight test, conducted by BAe two weeks ago, included successful radar and AIM-9 missile locks on a Hawk ``target'' aircraft during maneuvers of up to more than 4g.
Soloy Corp. of Olympia, Wash., has received FAA approval for its Dual Pac powerplant. The single-propeller, 1,329-shp. twin Pratt&Whitney PT6D-114 engine system completed extensive endurance and run-dry tests in August. Issue of the Supplemental Type Certificate is a step toward certification of Soloy's Pathfinder 21 modification to the Cessna Caravan 208B, which is scheduled to begin flight testing next month. The Pathfinder 21 incorporates a 6-ft. stretch and 3,750-lb. gross weight increase to 12,500 lb.
Albert B. Randall has become of counsel to the Washington law firm of Baker, Donelson, Bearman and Caldwell. He was assistant chief counsel for litigation of the FAA.
U.S. delegates headed off a proposal at the World Radiocommunication Conference that could have posed a serious threat to the Global Positioning System, but gave in on another controversial plan that will make it much easier for low-Earth-orbit systems to share radio spectrum.
USAF engineers at MacDill AFB, Fla., have designed and constructed a low-cost KC-135 rinse facility. The base, surrounded by salt water on three sides, requires frequent rinsing of aircraft to prevent corrosion. The rinse rig, which cost $8,000 to build, will save manpower and conserve water, according to David Hansen, chief of engineering for the 6th Civil Engineer Sqdn. The process wets aircraft down with 39,000 gal. of water during a 3-min. interval. No soap is used. An inductive loop sensor triggers the rinse process as pilots taxi onto the pad.
Nishan Teshoian has been appointed president/chief operating officer of Coltec Industries, Charlotte, N.C., effective Jan. 5. He was chairman/CEO of Keystone International Inc.
Lloyd R. Sorenson has been appointed vice president-finance and Peg Billson vice president-program management for AlliedSignal Aerospace Equipment Systems, Torrance, Calif. Sorenson was division director of business management for McDonnell Douglas Space and Defense Systems and Billson vice president/MD-11 and MD-80/-90 programs manager for the Douglas Aircraft Co.
ICO Global Communications, a London-based spinoff of Inmarsat, got a big boost from the Federal Communications Commission last week. A new FCC ruling makes it much easier for ICO and other foreign satellite operators to gain access to the U.S. market--just as U.S.-based ventures such as Iridium seek to serve markets abroad. ICO is planning to offer voice, data, messaging and fax services around the globe via 12 medium-orbit satellites that are being built by Hughes. Service is set to begin in 2000.
Carleton F. Kilmer, a managing partner with Andersen Consultants who specializes in aerospace, commented about the rewards to be gained when the industry adopts commercial standards for managing customer relations and supply chains. He noted that the industry has succeeded in driving down its labor cost component during the past 4-5 years because its worker base has shrunk so drastically. But it has not seen a corresponding increase in return on assets, he said.
Slowed by installation glitches and training delays, Alaska Airlines is just beginning to see the benefits of the Fight Dynamics Head-up Guidance System (HGS) installed in its 28 Boeing 737-400s. About half of the 430 pilots assigned to the carrier's Boeing 737-400s are qualified on the avionics, according to Kim Kaiser, 737-400 flight manager. Until last month, the FAA insisted Alaska's 737-400s fly to regular minimums until a popping circuit breaker problem, which removes a backup power supply to the HGS, was corrected.
Anew strategic alliance between Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa German Airlines--and Singapore's simultaneous withdrawal from its Global Excellence Alliance with Delta Air Lines and Swissair--is expected to speed other Southeast Asian carriers into competitive alliances.
The International Civil Aviation Organization is ready to approve an enhanced plan for a far-reaching safety oversight program. Despite tight financial constraints, additional funding for the program is expected to become available in the organization's 1999-2001 budget, ICAO Council President Assad Kotaite said. Member states also are being encouraged to offer additional support.
THE NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC AND ATMOSPHERIC Administration is considering using GPS to measure precipital water vapor--a step which could improve weather models and forecasting. The idea would take advantage of 100 Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) that are operated by the National Geodetic Survey, and best known in the GPS surveying community. Instead of sending up weather balloons at just a few locations with uncertain drift, NOAA could use the CORS sites, which monitor the integrity of GPS signals, to get continuous data from more than 100 locations.
The B-2 ``Spirit'' stealth bomber now can fly 600 hr. between planned maintenance inspections, the longest of any aircraft in Air Combat Command, according to the U.S. Air Force. The phased maintenance inspection requires removing more than 70 panels and inspecting about 1,200 parts. The bomber also is checked for structural integrity and corrosion. B-2 inspection intervals gradually have been extended from an original 200-hr. limit using data collected by the 509th Maintenance Sqdn. at the aircraft's Whiteman AFB, Mo., base.
BOMBAY-BASED JET AIRWAYS is equipping its four new Boeing 737-400 aircraft and existing fleet of 10 737-300/400/500s with Collins Traffic-alert Collision Avoidance Systems. The installation is intended to meet India's TCAS mandate which takes effect on Jan. 1 (AW&ST Nov. 17, p. 40).
SIEMENS NEDERLAND, BASED IN THE HAGUE, will use a commercial-off-the-shelf software tool kit from Montreal-based Virtual Prototypes Inc. (VPI) to develop defense simulators and trainers with interactive tactical scenarios. Siemens selected VPI's Scenario Toolkit and Generation Environment (Stage) as the backbone for developing tactical simulations tailored to a variety of specific needs. The company determined Stage would give it more flexibility than traditional in-house software development.
Bombardier Business Aircraft and Lufthansa Technik have inaugurated a new maintenance, repair and overhaul facility in Berlin that will be run by Lufthansa Bombardier Aviation Services GmbH. It will be Bombardier's first installation of this type outside the U.S.
A new U.S. forecast predicts good times for aerospace in the next 10-20 years, but the wild card is Asia's financial crisis and how much it slows the industry's biggest growth market. The U.S. Industry&Trade Outlook, a government/private sector overview of the nation's industrial economy and global export prospects, predicts healthy world trade in large commercial transport aircraft and their engines, and the space industry's commercial launch vehicle sector.
Aviation leaders are collaborating on a plan for focusing U.S. government and private resources on the operational changes, equipment upgrades and research areas that hold the greatest potential for increasing aviation safety. Dubbed the Industry Safety Strategy Team, the collaboration combines parallel efforts of FAA and industry officials to quantify the causes of aviation accidents during the last 20 years and identify ways of eliminating the most common causes.
