Officials of North and South Korea are set to sign an agreement this month to establish civil air routes connecting the two nations. A direct voice communications link will be used between ATC centers at Pyongyang in the north and Taegu in the south. According to the International Air Transport Assn., airlines using the routes will save $125 million annually from reduced fuel consumption. North Korea could obtain up to $5 million in overflight fees. The routes could be used as early as next year.
DELTA AIR LINES WILL USE SERVICE from Comsat Mobile Communications to provide satcom service for fax and voice calls for the cockpit crew and passengers on all international flights. Delta plans to equip all 46 aircraft in its international fleet under a three-year contract. Calls will be transmitted via the Inmarsat satellite system to one of four Earth stations for connection to public telephone networks anywhere in the world. Communications between Delta's Atlanta flight operations center and the cockpit will flow through ARINC and the Inmarsat satellites.
The U.K. Ministry of Defense has selected the Luxembourg-based TAG Group to operate the Farnborough Aerodrome under a 100-year lease, a move that ensures the continuation of the biennial Farnborough international air show at the site.
Snecma is developing a data mining and case-based reasoning software tool for airlines and CFM International's technical representatives to trouble-shoot problems with CFM56-3 engines. The intent is to put the collective line maintenance experience of technicians to work identifying problems and offering solutions, Project Manager Richard Heider said.
The International Civil Aviation Organization has found serious deficiencies in safety oversight at dozens of national aviation authorities, according to a paper issued in advance of a world meeting next month. An analysis of findings from ICAO's own safety assessments of aviation authorities of 45 nations, none identified, reveal deficiencies in three areas: programs of supervision and certification, national laws and regulations, and personnel qualifications and financial resources of airlines.
A troublesome solar panel on Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) has resulted in at least a two-week suspension of aerobraking, change in a key element in the spacecraft's planned mapping orbit and the possibility of far greater implications for the mission following further analysis by project officials.
Four years after U.S. planners had virtually ceded tactical reconnaissance to unmanned aerial vehicles in the aftermath of the Persian Gulf war, the manned reconnaissance aircraft is making a comeback.
Proponents of cross-border defense industry consolidation in Europe saw some progress last week when British Aerospace and Lagardere expanded their missile joint venture to include LFK, the guided-weapon subsidiary of Daimler-Benz Aerospace (DASA).
The rivalry between Beijing and Zhuhai as homes for aerospace exhibitions in China is likely to continue for some time. Organizers of the Oct. 8-12 Aviation Expo/China '97 here say they will return in 1999 for an eighth time despite speculation that they would give way to Airshow China in the port city of Zhuhai, near Hong Kong and Macau.
Eurocopter is gearing up production to meet a growing demand for civil helicopters as company officials show cautious optimism for the future. ``Three years ago we were in a desperate situation,'' admits Siegfried Sobotta, copresident and chief executive officer. ``Now that is changing. We are fully booked'' with orders. The company does not want to overreact, however, and is taking a measured approach toward increasing production capacity to meet rising demand, Sobotta said here at Helitech '97, the biennial helicopter exhibition.
Aircraft manufacturers and maintenance companies in the U.S. and Europe are fighting a labor-backed effort to cut the amount of aircraft repair work U.S. airlines can send to shops outside the country.
The Italian space agency (ASI) has revealed a draft five-year spending plan that would sharply expand outlays for space activities and focus spending on a small number of clearly defined programs.
DEFENSE DEPT. SPENDING ON ELECTRONICS WILL GROW by 14% over the next 10 years, even though the Defense top line is expected to slip a total of 4%, according to a new Electronic Industries Assn. forecast. The total bill for electronics will grow from $51.5 billion in Fiscal 1998 to $58.9 billion in Fiscal 2007, with the largest growth in procurement--up from $18.5-23.8 billion in that period. Operations and maintenance requirements will continue to grow from $14.8-19.1 billion, but the Defense investment in RDT&E for electronics is about to slide 7%.
AlliedSignal Aerospace is studying development of a new airborne system to better warn flightcrews of inflight turbulence. Although rare, turbulence hurts passengers and flight attendants, costing airlines lost work time and medical payments. The system would combine computer models that predict terrain-induced turbulence as well as aircraft wake vortices, according to Frank Daly, vice president and general manager for AlliedSignal's Redmond, Wash.-based Air Transport and Regional group.
Daniel P. Burnham and Frederic M. Poses, presidents of AlliedSignal's Aerospace and Engineered Materials sectors, respectively, have been appointed vice chairmen of the board of directors of AlliedSignal Inc., Morris Township, N.J.
Transaero chief Alexander P. Pleshakov minces no words about the problems confronting Russian aviation and his airline. The industry's first necessity is improving safety, he says. The second is making domestic traffic grow instead of shrink. The third is finding the money to modernize the nation's aircraft. Against that backdrop, Transaero is juggling competing priorities: new aircraft purchases versus financial stabilization, route expansion versus operating economies.
Atraxis, the airport infotech system from Swissair that has been used in Geneva and Zurich for the last two years, is going on the road. But, alas, the rest of the world doesn't work with the precision of the Swiss. Atraxis' MAX4 Airport suite is a Unix-based group of airport management tools for such tasks as departure control, stand- and gate-allocation, baggage verification and tracing, computerized reservation system revenue accounting, cargo logistics and catering management.
BOEING'S FIRST stretched 777-300 transport made an uneventful first flight last week. The 4-hr. 6-min. flight took off from Boeing's Everett, Wash., wide-body factory at 10:27 a.m. local time and landed at downtown Boeing Field. Pilots Frank Santoni and John Cashman were at the controls.
A National Academy of Sciences panel is readying a series of international meetings on achieving smaller nuclear arsenals. Maj. Gen. William F. Burns (U.S. Army, Ret.), who heads the academy's standing Committee on International Security and Arms Control, will confer in coming months with British, French, European Parliament, Chinese and Indian officials on the panel's proposals for a set of progressive constraints. They include higher standards of operational safety, more cuts in alert levels and steering nuclear doctrine away from rapid, massive response.
Following the breakdown of their planned merger, both Frontier and Western Pacific airlines are shuffling their flight schedules and will compete head-to-head on some flight segments. Western Pacific, after obtaining Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month, is eliminating all jet service at its former Colorado Springs, Colo., hub, and is consolidating its Boeing 737 fleet in Denver (AW&ST Oct. 13, p. 28). In addition, the airline is deleting Indianapolis and Houston from its new autumn schedule.
Italy's Officine Aeronavali has concluded an agreement with the U.S. Ten Forty Corp. to convert 20 DC-10-40 trijets into an all-cargo configuration in the next 5-6 years. The contract is valued at about $140 million. The DC-10s are currently operated by Japan Airlines.
CONGRESSIONAL CONFERENCE COMMITTEES are withholding $38.83 million from the FAA's 1998 budget for the Wide Area Augmentation System, pending further reports on progress. The language prohibits implementing the Flight 2000 Alaska/Hawaii demonstration of Free Flight in 1998--a demonstration that FAA insiders say could not happen, even with funding, until 2001 at the earliest.
