Embryonic efforts to create a regional aviation market in the Middle East are slowly beginning to take hold but continue to face political obstacles and the hostility of national flag carriers, many of which are struggling financially.
U.S. Navy analysts are urging the sea service to adopt a radically different look in the 21st century, in a closely held report to the chief of naval operations. The Navy should embrace unmanned vertical takeoff aircraft, high-energy rail guns with ranges of 200-400 naut. mi., and targeting systems that will quickly find mobile missiles, says the study obtained by Aviation Week&Space Technology. The study did not spell out the details of how some of the more esoteric capabilities would be achieved.
Lockheed Martin passed the critical design review for NASA's X-33 research rocket plane on Oct. 31, moving one step closer to first flight in July 1999. The X-33 is to test the technologies that would be used in a single-stage-to-orbit launcher that Lockheed Martin calls ``VentureStar,'' and some of the X-33 engineers have switched to refining that design. This work and the X-33 flights are to lead to a decision in December 1999 on whether to proceed with VentureStar.
Flight delays have decreased by 40% for Air China since its recent implementation of a $1.5-million PC-based system to improve passenger processing at Beijing's Capital International Airport.
John D. Tyson has formed Tyson Futures, Ballwin, Mo. He was vice president-business development of Boeing's McDonnell Aircraft and Missile Systems Div.
Jeff Lawrence has become senior vice president/director of the Aerospace Group of Cassidy and Associates of Washington. He was associate NASA administrator for legislative affairs.
Shareholders of both Lockheed Martin Corp. and General Electric Co. will be well-served by an accord between the two industry giants in which GE will swap $2.8 billion of its preferred stock in Lockheed Martin for cash and various operations Lockheed Martin had been seeking to divest.
Collins and a Honeywell/Racal team are racing to bring Inmarsat's new Aero-I satellite communications channel to medium-business jet and narrow-body and regional jet transport markets. Aero-I systems, which handle both voice and data, feature smaller and lighter avionics and antennas and require less power than existing satcom systems, which mostly use Inmarsat's Aero-H network. Aero-I also is cheaper to buy and, with anticipated service price decreases, should cost about 50% less to use.
J. Kurt Brock has been named director of international commercial space for Spectrum Astro, Gilbert, Ariz. He was president of the Loral Integrated Navigation and Communication Satellite Service.
Leonard M. Pomata and Paul D. Miller have been named corporate vice presidents of Litton Industries Inc., Woodland Hills, Calif. Pomata is president of Litton's PRC Div. and Miller president of Litton Marine Systems and Sperry Marine, Charlottesville, Va. Nancy L. Gaymon has been named corporate vice president-human resources. She was director of human resources and succeeds Mathias J. Diederich, who has retired.
AlliedSignal Aerospace's worldwide repair and overhaul network is expanding use of software to keep its active inventory at a minimum while ensuring that orders are filled promptly. Below-average ``fill rates''--orders filled on time--were one of AlliedSignal's major concerns when management undertook a sweeping turnaround in the early 1990s (AW&ST Aug. 15, 1994, p. 38). Besides achieving better customer satisfaction, the company also felt that its parts forecasting, inventory and distribution controls were deficient.
James A. Brough, executive director of the Birmingham (Ala.) Airport Authority, has been elected chairman of Airports Council International-North America, effective Jan. 1. He also was reappointed to the world governing board of ACI.
RUSSIAN MIR SPACE STATION cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyev and Pavel Vinogradov successfully reconfigured solar arrays on the station's exterior during two 6-hr. extravehicular activities last week. On Nov. 3, the crew removed an aging unproductive array from the Kvant 1 module on the rear of the station and secured it to the outside of the Mir core vehicle. On Nov. 6, they exchanged a more advanced Russian array for the old one on Kvant 1.
Marty Moses has been promoted to Wichita, Kan.-based Learjet field service manager for Bombardier Business Aircraft from Challenger field service representative. Succeeding Moses is Michael Charron, who was crew/chief inspector at the Tucson (Ariz.) Bombardier Aviation Services Center. Kenneth Lavine has become Challenger field service representative for Africa and the Middle East, based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The U.S. House last week approved a bipartisan bill aimed at boosting growth of the commercial space industry, but chances are slim that the Senate will take up the measure before recessing for the year. The Commercial Space Act of 1997 would direct NASA to study commercial possibilities for the international space station and allow licensing of space vehicles to return commercial payloads to Earth. The legislation would also encourage policies to promote the U.S.
AIR CANADA HAS ORDERED five wide-body Airbus A330-300s and three A340-300s and holds options for another four A330s and four A340s as well as 20 additional aircraft. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in mid-1999 and continue through 2001. The airline already operates eight A340-300s. The aircraft will be powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 772 engines rated at 72,000-lb. thrust. In addition, Aer Lingus ordered two CFM56-powered A321s, and Singapore Airlines' regional affiliate Silkair ordered three A319s and five A320s equipped with International Aero Engines V2500s.
JOHN D. MORROCCO(European Editor Michael A. Taverna contributed to this report.)
While the Middle East will remain the largest market for arms exports, the region's appetite for new weapons is leveling off as countries focus more of their energy and resources on absorbing the large amounts of equipment ordered in the aftermath of the Persian Gulf war.
The USAF Air Education and Training Command is studying a computerized undergraduate pilot preflight briefing aid tentatively called ``see one, do one, teach one.'' The low-cost technique was demonstrated at a September ``innovation summit'' at Randolph AFB, Tex. The training method incorporates video files of the different acrobatic and formation maneuvers military students perform, from a cockpit or overhead view, put together using Power Point software.
Roy Pickens has been appointed senior vice president/general manager of the Dassault Falcon Jet Corp.'s Little Rock, Ark., facility and Marc Valle vice president-programs in Teterboro, N.J. Pickens was vice president-industrial operations and succeeds William C. Bracas. Valle was program manager for the Falcon 900 and 900EX at Dassault Aviation, Velizy, France.
Darleen Druyun, principal deputy assistant Air Force secretary for acquisitions and management, has received the 1997 AIAA Hap Arnold Award for Excellence in Aeronautical Program Management. She was cited for management initiatives for the F-22, C-17 and JDAM programs.
David N. Rogers, director of the Washington-based Defense Systems Div. of the Systems Resources Corp., Burlington, Mass., has been appointed corporate vice president.
Miniaturized weapons and aircraft that fly in surface effect are two ideas evaluated by the Navy's Strategic Studies Group 16. Although the concepts were not briefed to the chief of naval operations, they were included in two attachments to the study (see p. 32).
Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., is looking for an industrial partner to help develop a new fiber-optic liquid-level sensor technology. The solid-state system, patent applied for, should be attractive to aircraft manufacturers and the military as it presents no spark hazard and is not affected by electromagnetic interference, according to Jonathan D. Weiss, project leader.
Argentinean startup AeroVIP has acquired three British Aerospace Asset Management- Turboprops Jetstream 32EPs in preparation for its planned domestic service launch in mid-December. Carrier executives plan to operate from hubs at Aeroparque Jorge Newbery in Buenos Aires and Cordoba Airport about 175 naut. mi. (320 km.) northwest of Buenos Aires. The carrier's focus is on serving as a feeder to domestic and international carriers from cities with populations of more than 100,000 that have inadequate or no airline service.
