Launch of the NASA Cassini mission to Saturn originally scheduled for Oct. 6 will likely be delayed several days because of apparent minor damage to the spacecraft's European Space Agency Huygens Titan descent probe. Titan is a planet-sized moon of Saturn, and Huygens is to photograph its surface at up to 3-ft. resolution during a parachute descent after Cassini arrives at Saturn in 2004.
Prosperity has returned U.S. airline labor-management relations to a normal state of give and take, but the airline worker is demonstrating a new-found independence to disrupt the status quo. Airlines are producing big profits and union labor is seeking its share, as it historically has in good times. The airline employees are breaking down old patterns, asserting themselves at the union ballot box as never before.
Conair Aviation, Abbotsford, British Columbia, has partnered with Orenda Recip Inc. to explore the retrofit of Orenda's new V-8 aircraft engines to older Cessna and Piper models. Airframes under consideration include Piper PA-31 Navajo and Cessna 400-series twins. The agreement could expand to include prototype applications, obtaining Supplemental Type Certificates and the sale and manufacture of installation kits. Toronto-based Orenda already is backing similar conversions of the Beech King Air 90, Rockwell Twin Commander and de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver.
A U.S. Senate showdown is supposed to be in store over setting a deadline of 2003 to deploy a limited nationwide defense against ballistic missiles. But the timetable and impact of the debate remain uncertain, despite a staunch declaration last January by the new Senate Republican leadership that national missile defense (NMD) was one of its top 10 legislative priorities.
Was rolled out on Sept. 4 at the Israel Aircraft Industries facility in Tel Aviv. First flight of the prototype is scheduled for December, with a second aircraft joining the test program in the first quarter of 1998. FAA and Isreal certification is planned for late 1998. The $14.5-million mid-size corporate jet is powered by two Pratt&Whitney Canada PW-306A engines. The aircraft will be built in Israel and completions will be done at Galaxy Aerospace's new center at the Fort Worth Alliance Airport.
Airbus Industrie has agreed to supply technical assistance to help Russian firms obtain Joint Aviation Authorities type certification for the Tu-204 family of medium-range transports. The first aircraft to be covered is likely to be the Rolls-Royce-powered Tu-204-120, which received Russian certification on July 15.
China Xinjiang Airlines, based in Urumqi in western China, has taken delivery of the first of the five ATR 72-210As it has on order (AW&ST Sept. 1, p. 40). Deliveries of the other four aircraft, orders for which were confirmed during French President Jacques Chirac's visit to Beijing last May, will continue during the next year. The aircraft will be used to provide service from Urumqi to tourist areas, and on domestic routes within the remote Xingjiang province.
Two Boeing 737-700s to begin replacing its fleet of 29 McDonnell Douglas C-9 transports. The Naval Reserve operates 27 C-9s and the U.S. Marine Corps are assigned two. The militarized version of the 737-700 transport will have an increased payload, to 38,500-lb., and quick-change interior. The contract is valued at $111-million. The aircraft will continue the C-9's role of short-notice transportation of Navy personnel and supplies.
AMR Airlines Services Corp. is acquiring facilities formerly operated by Dalfort Aviation at Dallas Love Field to help accommodate the division's expanding role as a service provider. G. James Gunn, president of AMR Airline Services, said the additional space is needed chiefly to help accommodate workers based in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. AMR Airline Services provides passenger, ramp and cargo handling to U.S. and other airlines worldwide. Under the agreement, Gunn said, AMR will acquire three facilities including a vacant, 200,000-sq.-ft.
Addressing the U.S.' lack of a post-Cold War national security/foreign policy doctrine, Richard N. Haass, director of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution, argues in a new book, The Reluctant Sheriff, that Washington should emphasize temporary, U.S.-led coalitions and a real capability to fight two regional wars at once. Excerpts follow: Four tools are central to the successful functioning of foreign policy--defense, intelligence, foreign assistance and diplomacy.
Atlas 2AS booster with four solid rocket motors successfully launched the GE Americom GE-3 television broadcast spacecraft Sept. 4 from Cape Canaveral into a geosynchronous transfer orbit. The flight marked the 32nd straight successful Atlas Centaur launch, the best record in the commercial launch services industry. The spacecraft is a A2100A satellite built by Lockheed Martin Telecommunications. The total value of the GE-3 spacecraft and its International Launch Services Atlas Centaur booster is at least $200 million. The satellite will be parked at 87 deg. West Long.
The House Appropriations chairman expects quick final action on Fiscal 1998 bills. Holding forth at a press conference as Congress reconvened last week, Bob Livingston (R.-La.) expressed the unheard of hope that Congress might finish work as early as mid-October. He called on his fellow Republicans--in particular its cadre of arch-conservatives--to ``complete the people's business'' with as little contention as possible. He wants to avoid a recurrence of the sort of embarrassment suffered from an attempted Republican overthrow of Speaker Newt Gingrich (R.-Ga.).
Michael Daugherty, who has been vice president of the Engineering and Technology Group of the Aerospace Corp. of Los Angeles, is scheduled to succeed Dick Allman as vice president of the Space Systems Group when he retires on Oct. 1. John Parsons, who has been vice president-space program operations, has been promoted to succeed Daugherty. Succeeding Parsons will be Joe Straus, who has been general manager of the Space-Based Surveillance Div.
Will meet for a third round of formal talks during the week of Sept. 22 in Tokyo in an attempt to reach agreement on a new bilateral air services pact by the end of this month.
Astronaut casting a vote in Texas elections from the Russian Mir space station would have seemed preposterous. But that's just what astronaut David Wolf is planning to do during his stay on Mir, which is slated to begin later this month. The Texas legislature recently approved a change in the state's election law to allow astronauts to vote from space. NASA and the Harris County Clerk's office recently tested a secure link that will allow Wolf to cast a secret ballot from a laptop computer. No word yet on whether Wolf intends to vote Republican or Democrat.
The Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft is scheduled for orbit insertion this week, the first step of a comprehensive, two-year science mission expected to greatly expand knowledge about the surface and atmosphere of Mars while setting the stage for future exploration. MGS is intended to recover most of the scientific objectives of the Mars Observer mission, which failed four years ago only three days before reaching orbit insertion.
The Bell Boeing V-22 tiltrotor team is beginning low-rate initial production of 23 MV-22 aircraft for the U.S. Marine Corps, with first deliveries scheduled for 1999 followed by operational deployment in 2001. Jack Gallagher, Bell Helicopter Textron's V-22 program director, said the joint venture is under contract for the first three lots of MV-22 LRIP tiltrotors for the U.S. Marine Corps totaling 30 aircraft.
Roland Dilda has been named senior vice president-San Antonio operations for Fairchild Aerospace. He was president/chief executive officer of Aerosystems Engineering, St. Paul, Minn.
Oxford Air Training School, buoyed by increasing demand for initial pilot training and with an eye to the introduction of a new joint European license in 1999, is looking to expand under its new owners.
Randall P. Lincoln (see photo) has been appointed publisher of the Rye Brook, N.Y.-based Business&Commercial Aviation and ACFlyer magazines of the Aviation Week Group. Lincoln was director of worldwide original equipment manufacturer sales and marketing for AlliedSignal Commercial Avionics Systems. He succeeds Dave Ewald, who is retiring.
The Pentagon is asking Congress to approve shifting funds to pay for a new version of the ship-launched, Tomahawk cruise missile. The Block 4 ``Tactical Tomahawk'' should cost less, be quickly retargeted and carry new warheads to strike a greater variety of targets.
