The recent midair collision of a U.S. Air Force C-141 and a Luftwaffe Tu-154 off the coast of Namibia tragically demonstrates that no transports--military or civil--should be operating in African airspace without traffic-alert and collision avoidance systems.
John J. Nokleberg has been named chief financial officer of the Teledesic Corp., Kirkland, Wash. He was a vice president in the global media and telecommunications group of Chase Securities Inc.
Natalie W. Crawford has been promoted to vice president/director of Project Air Force from associate director of Rand, Santa Monica, Calif. She succeeds Brent D. Bradley, who has been reassigned. Succeeding Crawford is C. Richard Neu.
Smiths Industries will update the weapons management and control (WMC) system on the U.S. Marine Corps' AV-8B Harrier attack aircraft under the Open Systems Core Avionics Requirements (OSCAR) program. OSCAR calls for replacing the existing proprietary avionics system with one using COTS software and hardware, including processors. The new WMC system is to integrate control of current air-air and air-ground weapons, and have upgrade provisions to accommodate future weapons.
Aided by advanced kinematic analysis of the flight data recorder, reveals no evidence of mechanical failure in the Sept. 8, 1994, crash of USAir Flight 427 near Pittsburgh, according to Boeing. Boeing says the simulation technique, validated by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, also indicates the rudder and lateral flight controls were not a factor in the earlier crash of United Airlines Flight 585 near Colorado Springs.
Filed applications with the Federal Communications Commission to use the new V-band portion of the radio spectrum--36-51.4 GHz.--for future-generation satellite systems. Lockheed Martin, Loral, Orbital Sciences, PanAmSat, Spectrum Astro and Teledesic filed proposals totaling more than $20 billion. Applications had previously been received from Motorola, Hughes and TRW (AW&ST Sept. 15, p. 27). The FCC also received applications from Globalstar, Iridium and Mobile Communications Holdings to use the 2-GHz.
Sky Games inflight gaming software has been certified for Matsushita 2000E passenger entertainment systems. Written by Interactive Entertainment Ltd. of Memphis, Tenn., the software allows passengers to play blackjack, poker and slots either in a wagering capacity or as ``entertainment only.'' Singapore Airlines is to test the system on a Boeing 747-400. Airlines can set their own rules for wagering, but the system will allow credit card bets of up to $350, with winnings capped at $3,500.
German Army Gen. Klaus Naumann, the chairman of NATO's military committee, says the U.S. military is becoming high-tech with such ``unparalleled velocity [that] one day we will see a disconnect between the U.S. and its European allies.'' Because most NATO members maintain traditional arms procurement practices, ``they can no longer cope with the speed of the revolution'' in reconnaissance, command and control, information systems and precision weapons. The problem is exacerbated by a steep decline in European R&D spending, he says.
The FAA is investigating operational errors made by air traffic controllers earlier this month at the Dallas-Fort Worth Air Route Traffic Control Center that resulted in violations of minimum separation standards, but did not constitute a near midair collision threat, according to the agency.
Research Organization (ISRO) controllers are hoping to use the propulsion system on board Indian Remote Sensing Satellite-1D to gradually raise its perigee following the poor performance of a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). A shortfall of about 130 ft. per sec. in the fourth stage of a PSLV-C1 launcher was blamed for leaving the imaging satellite in a 817 X 300-km. elliptical orbit, instead of the intended 817-km. circular orbit. The indigenously developed booster lifted off from Sriharikota Space Center in southern India at 10:17 a.m. local time on Sept. 29.
Honeywell is planning a new version of its HUD 2020 head-up display aimed at the cockpits of midsize corporate turboprop and business jet aircraft. The HUD 2022 incorporates a smaller overhead mounting, engineered and built by HUD 2020 program partner GEC-Marconi. First prototypes are scheduled to be ready in early 1998, according to Dan Stockfisch, Honeywell manager of head-up displays. The company's Phoenix-based Business and Commuter Aviation Systems Div. also is adapting ``vertical tape'' symbology to its HUD displays.
Lawrence Livermore, Sandia and the E.O. Lawrence Berkeley national laboratories have joined forces with a private industry consortium led by Intel, Advanced Micro Devices and Motorola, to launch an advanced lithography research project aimed at making chips that are 100 times faster and have 1,000 times as much memory as current chips. Called Extreme Ultra Violet (EUV), the advanced lithography technology involves etching circuit lines smaller than 0.1 microns in width.
Congressional Republicans achieved their goal of bolstering national missile defense in the Fiscal 1998 defense appropriations budget, but effectively failed to finance additional B-2 bombers or cut off U.S. peacekeeping operations in Bosnia.
Conditionally approved Raytheon Co.'s $9.5-billion acquisition of Hughes Electronics Corp. defense business from General Motors Corp. Raytheon must divest the Dallas-based infrared sensor operation it recently acquired from Texas Instruments and portions of the ground electro-optical (EO) systems business in California and Georgia it proposed to buy from Hughes. The businesses to be jettisoned represent about one-half of 1% of the revenues of Raytheon's defense electronics business.
Increasing dynamic pressure from continuing aerobraking maneuvers has almost fully deployed the balky solar panel on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, according to project officials. Glenn E. Cunningham, MGS project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said last week that the panel has been pushed to within about 2 deg. of its fully deployed position, although it still is not locked in place.
ARINC will purchase vhf digital radios from Park Air Electronics, a British subsidiary of Northrop Grumman, for its ground-air data link network. The software-programmable radios can be remotely reconfigured to provide data communication in either analog minimum-shift key form or differential eight-phase shift key (D8PSK) VHF data link, recently selected as an ICAO standard. The radios will augment the existing aircraft communications addressing and reporting system (ACARS) network across the U.S. and Europe.
British Airways, as part of an effort to streamline its engineering department, has agreed to sell its wheel and brake repair and overhaul operations to AlliedSignal Aerospace. The deal, to be concluded by year-end, will include a 10-year contract with AlliedSignal to perform the work on BA aircraft. BA, meanwhile, is on track to open its new 250-million pound ($403-million) cargo center at London Heathrow airport in January. The automated center will allow BA's capacity for freight and mail to double to 800,000 metric tons (88,000 tons) a year.
The creation of ``clusters'' of consolidated companies is likely to be the best way for the European aerospace industry to improve its competitive position vis-a-vis the U.S., according to the European Commission.
Lima, Peru's Jorge Chavez international airport is receiving a new ASR-12 solid-state primary surveillance radar from Northrop Grumman's Electronic Sensors and Systems Div., formerly Westinghouse. The company's newest primary radar, along with a monopulse secondary surveillance radar (MSSR), has been delivered and should be installed and integrated into the airport before the end of the year. The company's Park Air Electronics subsidiary is also providing ground-air communications equipment for the airport.
By shifting most of its flights to Denver, Western Pacific has left Colorado Springs airport's expansion in a state of uncertainty. The airport had experienced extremely rapid growth since Western Pacific brought low fares to southern Colorado, quickly surpassing its design capacity of 1.5 million annual enplanements. The airport had started expanding its terminal and parking facilities to keep up with Westpac's growth plans. The airline's sudden move to Denver has had a significant impact on traffic at its former hub.
Eliyahu Yitzhaki has become president/CEO of Rafael USA Inc. of Washington. He was a colonel in the Israel Defense Forces. Yitzhaki succeeds Eitan Yudilevich, who has become corporate vice president/general manager of the missiles division of the Rafael Armament and Development Authority, Haifa, Israel. He succeeds Giora Shalgi.
Building on its military communication background, Harris Digital Radio developed a software-programmable ground-air VHF radio to expand into ATC communications. The radio is designed to handle both analog voice and digital data today, and to add digital voice with a software patch if desired in the future.
The aerospace industry is increasingly becoming an information processing industry. Computers have moved well beyond guiding missiles and milling machines to showing engineers how to organize production lines and build aircraft. Managing data to work cheaper and more efficiently has become a prerequisite to winning contracts. If Silicon Valley startups create overnight millionaires, can aerospace compete for programmers? This series examines that issue and provides case studies in how the industry is exploiting info tech.
Experiment has been approved by U.S. Defense Secretary William S. Cohen. The two-part test calls for the Army's Mid-Infrared Advanced Chemical Laser (Miracl) at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., to be trained on the Air Force's third Miniature Sensor Technology Integration (MSTI-3) satellite (AW&ST Sept. 8, p. 19). First, there will be a series of illuminations of less than 1 sec., then the laser will hone on MSTI-3 for 10 sec.
Brazil's Varig has signed a $400-million info tech contract, South America's largest, with SITA and IBM for systems management services. IBM will provide the airline with facilities outsourcing, while SITA will handle its voice and data network services. The IBM tasks will be performed at Sumare in Brazil and include such functions as accounting, reservations, engineering and logistics. In all, IBM will manage more than 6,000 Varig desktop computers and create a single-point-of-contact help desk operation.
