Canada's Greyhound Air likely will shut down on Sept. 21 as the result of a planned takeover of its parent company, Calgary-based Greyhound Transport Canada Corp., by another bus line operator. The no-frills airline, which started flying in mid-1996, had lost an estimated $22 million through last spring. Kelowna Flightcraft, Kelowna, British Columbia, operates Greyhound's fleet of seven 727s. The airline has a hub in Winnipeg.
The direct voice input system for the Eurofighter program. The company is to develop hardware over the next 18 months and to be ready for flight trials within two years. About 25 different nonflight-critical cockpit functions will be controlled verbally to reduce pilot workload using a 200-word vocabulary. Eurofighter is expected to be the first production aircraft to incorporate interactive voice technology as standard equipment. During the development, prototype systems were successfully tested on the F-16, F/A-18 and AV-8B Harrier.
France-based Aero International Regional believes the market for turboprop-powered transports will remain robust, despite regional carriers' growing interest in small twinjets. ``The twin turboprop market is far from being dead. We are expecting to deliver several hundred additional aircraft in the next 10 years,'' AIR Chief Executive Officer Patrick Gavin said. He was referring to AIR's healthy sales and strong backlog.
It has been said by some that Aviation Week has never met an airplane it does not like. As a pilot who has flown more than 100 different aircraft for evaluations in the magazine, I will admit there is some truth to that statement. Most of the aircraft I have flown in the past 20 years I have liked, but there were exceptions and some that did not measure up to their billings.
Stennis Space Center, Miss., has acquired a 31-ft.-tall, 5,000-gal. liquid hydrogen tank. The ``previously owned'' tank, which weighs about 450,000 lb. empty, was installed in a steel frame at the E-1 component test facility last month. It replaces a 500-gal. tank and gives Stennis a world-class long-duration test capability, according to Boyce Mix, director of Stennis' Propulsion Test Directorate. Among the turbopumps and engine components scheduled to be tested on the E-1 stand are portions of the X-33 aerospike engine.
NASA's space station cost woes are growing worse by the day. Earlier this year, the agency shifted $200 million from the space shuttle program after Russia's failure to build key components on time forced the agency to procure backup hardware. Now NASA officials want to add $400 million-plus to the $2.121 billion for the station program in Fiscal 1998 to keep the program on track. Where would the money come from? An extra $100 million added by House appropriators to the agency's 1998 budget would help, but Senate appropriators must agree.
There is a growing specter of inter-agency conflict that could pit the military against national intelligence agencies over how the United States should attack the computers of enemy nations in times of war, say senior Pentagon and defense industry officials.
U.K. airport operator BAA is pondering the ramifications of a proposal to rename London Heathrow airport after the late Princess Diana. William Hague, leader of the opposition Conservative Party, has thrown his weight behind the scheme, saying he will make a formal proposal to the Labour government. BAA's board of directors will meet soon to discuss ways the company can contribute to the national celebration of Princess Diana's life.
The North American market for machine vision will reach $1.5 billion this year, up from more than $1.3 billion in revenues in 1996. By 2001 it is forecast to reach $2.5 billion, according to Jeff Burnstein, managing director of Automated Imaging Assn. in Ann Arbor, Mich. Of 1996 sales, more than $800 million was for application-specific systems while almost $200 million was for general purpose use. Semiconductor and electronics manufacturers were the main users last year, accounting for half of the industry's revenues.
The space agency will use MUSE Technologies' Continuum virtual reality software to form a network that will enable scientists at JPL to collaborate in real time with colleagues at other institutions. First on the net will be the Johnson Space Center and NASA's Ames and Langley Research Centers. They will use the Albuquerque, N.M., firm's tool for precision lander design technology for missions to Mars after 2001.
Louis deLaunay has been appointed vice president-sales and marketing for Aero Parts and Services Inc. of Dallas. He was manager of heavy maintenance marketing for the Aero Corp.
House and Senate conferees may decide the fate of Legend Airlines as early as this week when they hammer out a final version of the Fiscal 1998 Transportation Appropriations bill, which includes an amendment allowing airlines to provide long-haul flights from Dallas' Love Field by working within restrictions of the controversial Wright Amendment.
Chile, Argentina and Brazil are expected to lead Latin America's purchase of U.S. military equipment, now that Washington has eased its policy on arms exports to the southern hemisphere. Except for Chile, however, major U.S. weapon exports to Latin America are less likely in the near-term than sales of equipment upgrades, subsystems and components, U.S. analysts say.
Michael F. Boice has been promoted to chairman/chief executive officer from vice president-business development of the Genisco Technology Corp., Anaheim, Calif. He also will be president of its Solaris Systems Div. He will be succeeded by Jim Foti, who was vice president-sales of the Datametrics Corp.
Are becoming complex enough that even the outsourcers are outsourcing. The Sabre Group, which specializes in providing IT management services to the travel industry, decided to outsource its Sabrenet telecommunications arm to SITA a year ago in a seven-year, $450-million contract. Sabre reports the experiment has not affected its network operations but has reduced costs.
The initial flight test phase of the first F-22A Raptor is expected to conclude in Georgia this week after three flights, bringing to a close a test effort that began with the successful first flight of the aircraft on Sept. 7. First flight of the U.S. Air Force's next-generation fighter was staged from Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Marietta, Ga., which is located near the Raptor's final assembly site. Paul Metz, chief test pilot for the Lockheed Martin-Boeing F-22 program, made the flight, which lasted 58 min. from takeoff to touchdown.
International 767-300, powered by General Electric CF6-80C2 engines, suffered an uncontained engine failure during takeoff from Beijing on Sept. 6. The takeoff was rejected at low speed; no passengers were seriously injured. The failure was in the aircraft's No. 1 engine, and punctures were found in at least two locations in the powerplant's thrust reverser. Some engine fragments also were recovered from the runway. Canadian and Chinese officials are expected to decide who will lead the accident investigation by early this week.
On the World Wide Web is nothing new, but listings are usually found through specific company listings or by combing general help wanted pages. But Spacejobs Inc. of Ottawa says that interest in its Website dedicated to space sector help wanted listings is strong enough after its first year of operation that a second page, Aerojobs, is warranted. Aerojobs will provide aviation and aeronautics help wanted ads. President John Criswick said 45-50 manufacturers use Spacejobs and that it is recording 9,000-10,000 hits a day.
Took another step toward developing a military spaceplane by awarding two contracts under Phillips Laboratory's Military Spaceplane Integrated Technology Testbed effort.
Following a long look at the U.S. Air Force's first 50 years, in the Apr. 16 edition, service leaders now cast an eye to the future. Among the trends to be reckoned with are: slim budgets, but a growing need for forward-basing; heavy deployment schedules but a shrinking force, and fewer flying slots but a need to grapple with a growing list of possible military and humanitarian emergencies. Right now, few will predict which path future administrations will take, whether they will invest in a smaller, highly modernized force or a larger, less sophisticated organization.
Aerospatiale Multicom Satellite Network has been formed by the French aerospace manufacturer to provide high-rate space-based routing of audio, video and data communications for private and state-owned companies.
Charles H. Kaman, chairman/chief executive officer of the Kaman Corp., Bloomfield, Conn., will be the 1997 recipient of the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy from the Washington-based National Aeronautic Assn. Kaman will be cited for ``for more than 50 years of contributions to the development of rotary-wing aviation and a lifetime of service to his country as an engineer, entrepreneur, visionary and humanitarian.''
The U.S. has ranked first in worldwide arms export agreements with Latin America every year since 1993, although Washington has refrained from selling its most sophisticated combat weapons in the southern hemisphere since 1982. Capturing nearly 16% of the market, the U.S. averaged about $197 million in sales annually, 1993-96, considerably ahead of formerly first-placed Russia, which tied for second at 9.8% with the U.K. (see chart, p. 38). Italy ranked third with 7.8%.
Were up 29% to 278 million pounds ($442 million) in the first half of 1997 as its commercial aircraft business showed signs of returning to profitability. But the company posted an overall pretax loss of 70 million pounds ($11 million) due to a 330-million-pound ($525-million) charge related to a decision to end production of the Jetstream 41. Defense sales were up 23%, while commercial sales were buoyed by increased orders at Airbus Industrie.
