Wall Street analysts who follow the Boeing Co. seem to have concluded that the production bottlenecks that are proving so troublesome for the commercial airframe manufacturer and many of its vendors will be all but gone by next spring.
Lawrence Feirman (see photo) has been named vice president-national and route development sales for MSAS Cargo International Inc. He was vice president-sales and marketing for MSAS Americas.
Sam B. Williams, president/CEO of Williams International, has received the American Institute of Aeronautics and Asstronautics' 1997 Piper General Aviation Award. The award honors contributions leading to the advancement of general aviation.
Alitalia's pragmatic recovery plan is producing encouraging results and is expected to gradually restore the troubled flag carrier's profitability. Italy's political instability, management crisis, ill-fated strategic plans and worker unions' opposition to the company's long-waited restructuring have not stopped Alitalia's new management that obstinately seeks to ``reconstruct'' a competitive carrier.
Chris Petty has been named leisure sales manager in the U.K. for United Airlines. He succeeds Brandon O'Reilly, who is now general manager for Singapore.
Allan S. Dollie (see photo) has been appointed general manager of the Gulf Aircraft Maintenance Co., Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. He was chief engineer for aircraft for Northwest Airlines. Dollie succeeds Ahmed Al Moosa, who is now general manager of the company's industrial business unit.
Celebrated the 100th launch of its Ariane rocket family with the liftoff of an Ariane 42L from Kourou, French Guiana, on Sept. 23. The mission, the 29th consecutive successful launch of an Ariane 4, orbited the Intelsat 803 telecommunications satellite, built by Lockheed Martin Telecommunications. The next Ariane 4 mission, V102, is set for Nov. 4.
Boeing has contracted Aviation Group of Dallas to paint up to seven new Boeing 777s to help accommodate increased production rates. Induction of the first aircraft is set for November. The $2.4-million contract runs for three months and is the first part of a possible three-phase deal.
Ordered an unspecified number of Matra BAe Dynamics Sea Skua missiles. The contract for the ship-launched version of the missile, associated equipment and training is estimated to be worth 80 million pounds ($129 million). The missiles are to be deployed on new patrol craft which Kuwait has on order.
Aplanned AIM-120 Amraam live-fire test against two target drones at Eglin AFB, Fla., next month will cap a six-year development under the $1.27-billion U.S./European F-16 Mid-Life Update program. The initial engineering, manufacturing and development portion, a $384-million effort, should be completed in January 1998.
More needs to be done to ensure foreign air traffic controllers and pilots have the English proficiency to handle emergency and nonstandard situations, both the National Transportation Safety Board and the U.S. General Accounting Office are telling Congress.
Boeing has selected the managers for 11 product areas and related support services under its new Information and Communications business unit. The action follows the operational merger of Boeing and McDonnell Douglas on Aug. 4. Jim Evatt, president of ICS, will report directly to Alan Mulally, president of Boeing's Information, Space&Defense Systems Group. Evatt will oversee a review of ICS programs and organizations to eliminate duplication and enhance synergies, Boeing said.
On complementary metal oxide semiconductor chips at IBM's East Fishkill, N.Y., facility, which is the first production of a new technology called CMOS 7S, according to IBM. The nonprofit R&D consortium, Sematech, of which IBM is a member, announced a laboratory copper demonstration of the technology last month. Using copper will allow smaller feature sizes than aluminum and its lower resistance will permit transistors to operate at lower power, initially down to 1.8 volts.
C. Phillips Joy has become president of Trielectron Industries Inc., Hollywood, Fla. He was managing director of U.S. operations for P&WC Aircraft Services Inc.
This robotic ``Omni-Hand 2'' approximates the dexterity of a human hand and wrist for space-based tasks such as satellite repair and space station assembly. As envisioned, Omni-Hand 2 will allow the effective use of handtools in space without exposing astronauts to the dangers of extra-vehicular activity. The robotic hand is designed to be remotely controlled by a human or function automatically, according to Mark Rosheim, company president.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory has started assembly of the Deep Space 1 technology demonstrator probe, set for a July 1, 1998, launch to visit the asteroid 3352 McAuliffe, Mars, and comet P/West-Kohoutek-Ikemura in a two-year mission (AW&ST Dec. 9, 1996, p. 68). The probe is to be the first flight in NASA's New Millennium program, and will demonstrate xenon ion propulsion, using electricity from high-power solar concentrator arrays; autonomous onboard optical navigation; a Ka-band downlink; lightweight science instruments; and other technologies.
WorldSpace's ambitious plan to deliver news, entertainment and educational programming to developing nations via a satellite-based digital audio broadcasting (DRB) network will move a step closer to reality at the end of this month when the first of a planned fleet of three satellites begins final integration and testing.
Don't look for Boeing to build a supersonic transport to replace the Anglo-French Concorde any time soon, even though Boeing chief Philip M. Condit started at Boeing as an aerodynamics engineer on the SST program in 1965 and clearly has affection for it. The technology may be successful, but ``the issues are fundamentally economic,'' he told a National Press Club luncheon. A new SST would need operating costs close to that of subsonic aircraft, he said.
TWO BRITISH PILOTS SET an around-the-world speed record in a Boeing MD 500D helicopter recently. Stephen Good and Michael Smith of HeliAir Helicopters in England completed the 20,000-mi. trip in about 131/2 days. They logged 200 flight hours starting and ending at Boeing Field in Seattle. The crew had to deal with head winds and heavy turbulence most of the way on a trip that included a visit to the North Pole.
Successfully launched an experimental commercial communications satellite on Sept. 23 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. The Faisat-2V spacecraft, built by Final Analysis Inc. of Lanham, Md., is designed to test low-cost data transmissions. A secondary payload, Vitasat, is aimed at connecting developing nations to the Internet. Final Analysis ultimately hopes to deploy a global constellation of 26 commercial satellites to provide digital data services worldwide.
U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee really goofed recently at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Was the Mars Pathfinder rover successful, the Texas Democrat asked, in photographing the flag Neil Armstrong had left behind in 1969? Anyone can have a bad day. Unfortunately, this member of the House aeronautics and space panel, back in Washington shortly afterward, followed that question by asking whether sending an astronaut to Mir is a ``suicide'' mission.
Harlan Bittner (see photo) has been promoted to principal director of the Office of Engineering and Technology Applications of the Aerospace Corp. of Los Angeles from systems director for systems engineering and mission assurance for the Launch Directorate. Charlotte Lazar-Morrison (see photo) has been promoted to principal director of the Human Resources Directorate from director of compensation and staffing resources. She succeeds Marlene Dennis, who has become general manager of the Human Resources Div.
About a proposal by Inmarsat to reallocate part of the L-1 signal for a communication downlink for Mobile Satellite Service (MSS). Protection of the 1559-1610 MHz. band for Global Navigation Satellite Systems is threatened by the MSS request to the International Telecommunication Union to use 1559-1567. MSS would then have a 3.6-MHz. direct GPS overlap and low-level ``skirts'' across the GPS receiver bands. The USAF's Joint Program Office sees this as the first step in a MSS bid to consolidate L-band use for MSS use.
Patrick G. Smelt has been promoted to Northeast U.S. manager from Rochester (N.Y.) station manager for USAirports Development and Services Inc. of Rochester. James J. Werven has been promoted to Southeast U.S. manager from Atlanta station manager, and Mark A. Klein to superintendent of construction and property management from project manager for corporate hangar construction. Timothy G. Reidy has been named controller.
