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.
The National Institute of Science and Technology has proposed an international standard for computer-to-computer exchanges of dimensional inspection information. The goal is a readily accessible ISO standard for design, manufacturing, quality assurance and other uses. Incompatible data formats are one of manufacturing's biggest headaches.
ITALY HAS SIGNED A CONTRACT with Lockheed Martin for 18 C-130J-30s with deliveries to begin in 1999. This could undercut Italy's participation in the European-designed Future Large Aircraft project. The country already flies 12 C-130Hs and has ordered a number of C-27J medium transports. Next on the foreign purchasers' list is Norway, which is expected to buy six stretched C-130J-30s to replace six 30-year-old C-130Hs. Britain's Royal Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force are already buying a mix of standard C-130Js and the C-130J-30. The U.S.
Braathens SAFE and Northwest Airlines have entered into a marketing partnership that includes code-sharing, coordinated airport customer service and cooperation between frequent- flier programs. It will mirror a similar agreement struck between Northwest's partner KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and the Norwegian regional carrier in August. Northwest and Braathens plan to code-share on the former's transatlantic routes between North America and London Gatwick and Amsterdam and the latter's routes from those two European airports to Norway.
A top Boeing manager is signaling the company may increase the amount of production it performs outside the U.S. In a speech to the World Affairs Council in Seattle, Ron Woodard, president of Boeing Commercial Aircraft Co., said the company now builds 85% of its commercial jet transports in the U.S. while selling 70% of its production overseas. Nearly 75% of Boeing's future jet transport sales, based on dollar value, are projected to go to customers outside of North America, he said. The shift coincides with a Boeing strategy to position itself as a global enterprise.
A dust mite crawls across a micromachine developed by Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M. The gear's diameter is smaller than a human hair and 1/100 the weight of the dust mite. Sandia experts estimate the worldwide market for micromachine-based inertial sensors at $3.8 billion and the entire microelectromechanical industry at up to $12 billion by 2000.
Wall Street has high expectations for Howmet International, which began trading under the symbol HWM on the New York Stock Exchange last Wednesday, opening at 151/4.
Proposals under consideration to modernize the next generation of GPS satellites offer improvements for both civil and military users, but the time to make a decision is very short.
Magellan is shooting to open the hand-held consumer market with its $99 GPS Pioneer. The features, too, illustrate the pace of improvements sweeping the GPS community. A hiker can mark and store 100 landmarks and see heading, distance, and time-to-go on an electroluminescent display backlighted for night use. A pair of AA batteries give the 6.25 X 2.2 X 1.1-in., 7-oz. unit 24 hr. of operating life.
British Aerospace has signed a contract with Boeing to manufacture wing components for new-generation 737 aircraft, a move that has underlined the fact that while BAe continues to press for European aerospace consolidation, it is actively seeking to keep its options open for transatlantic partnerships.
SOUTH KOREA'S AIR FORCE has selected the General Electric F404 engine to power the KTX-2 advanced trainer/light attack aircraft that Samsung Aerospace and Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems are to build.
United Airlines expects its new Orion yield management and seat inventory control system to add $50-100 million in annual revenue. United will use IBM's Deep Blue parallel processing system (the computer that beat chess champion Gary Kasparov) to run the system, developed for United by DFI Aeronomics. Installation starts in the first quarter next year.
Loss of profits in the fiscal year that ended June 30 among the 18 members of the Assn. of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) has prompted them to warn the region's governments against hasty action in the present currency crisis.
French startup Fairlines is scheduled to begin operations early next week with two MD-80 aircraft in 72-seat business-class configuration. Owned and operated by Francois Arpels, of the jewelry/fragrance Van Cleef&Arpels family, the new carrier initially will provide service out of Roissy-Charles de Gaulle twice daily to Milan Malpensa, three times daily to Nice and twice daily between Nice and Milan.
The rapid verification of procedures by a Johnson Space Center ``tiger team'' working behind the scenes with advanced simulation facilities and experience from previous ``manual'' retrieval flights enabled the shuttle Mission 87 astronauts to easily grasp their wayward Spartan satellite payload on Nov. 24.
James W. Simister (see photos) has been promoted to vice president/general manager from manufacturing manager of McCauley Propeller Systems, Vandalia, Ohio. Volker (Pete) Werwick has been appointed director of sales and marketing.
SAAB AIRCRAFT IS POISED to secure an order for six Saab 2000s from Crossair, which already operates 25 of the 50-seat turboprops. The order, which includes options for two more, was being considered last week by the board at Crossair's parent, Swissair. A Crossair purchase, combined with a recent order by Mesaba Airlines in the U.S. for 19 new Saab 340BPlus aircraft, will sustain production at Saab through the second quarter of 1999. This is not considered enough, however, to stave off plans to cease manufacturing the two turboprops.
Initiatives taken at the International Civil Aviation Organization's meeting in Montreal last month and new collaboration between the FAA and aerospace industry are steps in the right direction toward addressing global air transport safety concerns. The new Industry Safety Strategy Team (see p. 44) has been formed to look at the root causes of accidents during the past two decades and try to identify corrective actions.
In the ``that'll fix it department,'' Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) has called on President Clinton to create an office within the White House to address the Year 2000 issue, saying that the government is ``well behind the curve'' in addressing the two-digit date issue.
Engineers at Sandia National Laboratories are defining the architecture of a prototype ``nanosatellite'' that could evolve into a constellation of approximately 120 spacecraft dedicated to high data rate communications or surveillance.
HARRIS CORP. SHIPPED ITS FIRST 50-WATT digital multimode air traffic control transmitter to Iceland's Civil Aviation Administration. The VDR-2135 transmitter provides voice and data link on VHF ATC frequencies. The digital data link operates at 32 kbps., fast for ATC use.
Ellis Heustess of the Digital Signal Processing Dept. of the Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, N.M., has been cited by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration for contributions to operational support and development programs in the field of tracking and sensor technology. The programs were developed to help the DEA track its aircraft.
In the same week that the Hong Kong Airport Authority said it was delivering new security equipment to the Chek Lap Kok airport building site, someone ripped out nearly 66,000 ft. of electrical wire already installed in the new passenger terminal. But the authority said the airport can open as planned next April. The theft is the latest blow in a series of events--such as a failed emergency test and delays in operating the airport's high-speed commuter railway--that have raised questions as to whether the April deadline can be met.
A NEW PENTAGON REPORT said India and Pakistan may be working on new ballistic missiles. India is ``likely'' planning a follow-on to the 2,000-km.-range Agni missile, whose flight test program has been inactive since 1994, and is continuing work on the shorter-range Prithvi missile. Pakistan is believed to be building a facility to produce new 300-km.-range ballistic missiles, but appears to have halted work on the two-stage Hatf-2, the report said.
