Photograph: A Spectrum Astro technician installs components on NASA's Deep Space-1 spacecraft. DS-1 is set to test new spacecraft technologies as it flies by a comet and an asteroid. Spectrum Astro Inc. has grown as a supplier of small satellites to the U.S. Defense Dept. and NASA, taking on a government bureaucracy that was addicted to complex and expensive spacecraft. Now it's planning to test whether its recipe for low-cost satellites and lightning quick design times can be applied successfully on a much larger scale. President W.
RLM Software has made its FlightView data available to its airline customers via satellite. FlightView's customers now access the Boston-based company's 24-hr. updates on flight status information through dedicated telephone lines at $200-1,000 a month. For a one-time fee of about $500, they can connect via satellite using Hughes Network Systems' DirecPC as the delivery system.
SAGEM WILL SUPPLY the Swedish Ministry of Defense with three sections of its UGGLAN tactical unmanned air vehicles. Each UGGLAN section and target designation system includes three UAVs, which will probably be the Crecerelle, air vehicles and a ground station for flight planning and control. The UAV system is designed for real-time, day and night reconnaissance using an IR CCD camera, and also for target designation.
IN AN EFFORT TO FURTHER CUT public deficits, the French government is mulling additional cuts in military procurement spending. Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and Defense Minister Alain Richard are set to finalize a reduced 1998 defense budget soon. Although no major programs are expected to be canceled, the Defense Ministry's 1997-2002 procurement plan could be revised in a cost-cutting initiative affecting a pending multiyear order for Dassault Aviation Rafale navy/air force combat aircraft.
A Formosa Airlines Dornier 228 landing under visual flight rules crashed into a mountainside on Matsu Island on Aug. 11, killing all 16 persons on board, including two cockpit crew. According to the 19-seat aircraft's cockpit voice recorder, the pilot in his last radio transmission advised the tower that he was executing a go-around. The crash occurred about a minute later, at 8:33 a.m. (local time).
The optimal airline line maintenance facility design has a large plate glass window overlooking the gate area, separates maintenance technicians from ramp service personnel and positions the team leader's desk adjacent to the door to the work area.
A FULLY INTEGRATED PROTOTYPE of the U.S. Army's kinetic energy antisatellite (KE ASAT) kill vehicle was hover-tested for the first time on Aug. 12 at Phillips Laboratory's Edwards AFB, Calif., facility. During the kill vehicle's 47.8-sec. autonomous flight at 4 a.m., its sensors locked onto and tracked a distant light source that simulated a moving target. The target was placed approximately 1 km. away, and was about as bright as a household ``night light,'' according to a test participant.
Photograph: Assembly of a Boeing 737 transport fuselage is performed in Wichita, Kan. Boeing interacts with almost every FAA branch. Boeing's top safety and certification official believes FAA supervision and enforcement has gotten increasingly tougher as the agency ``goes the extra mile'' to avoid any potential for public or political criticism. ``Contrary to public opinion, I believe FAA has become more, not less, rigorous in assuring compliance with regulations,'' during the past decade, said Capt. Chet L.
A MONTH AFTER CHINA'S POLITICAL TAKEOVER of Hong Kong, Cathay Pacific Airways and Beijing's top regional airline management company are denying rumors that there are plans for the British to lose control of Hong Kong's de facto flag airline.
The expanding links between erstwhile enemies Russia and China have become a focus of U.S. geostrategic thinking in the post-Cold War period. In some light, the rapprochement is considered surprising. Russia's nascent political democracy is by definition anathema to China's Communist leaders. The Chinese were apprehensive that the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 might spread further into Asia, engulfing them as well.
Merger-and-acquisition specialists expect cash-rich General Dynamics Corp. to emerge as the winner in the defense industry's latest consolidation play--United Defense L.P., which is being auctioned by co-owners FMC Corp. and Harsco Corp.
High-profile accidents during the last year--and the recent Korean Air Boeing 747 crash in Guam--have riveted public and media attention to questions of aviation safety. For this report on safety, editors of Aviation Week&Space Technology asked a wide variety of sources--pilots, associations and officials in industry and government--to review the performance of the FAA, National Transportation Safety Board and European Joint Airworthiness Authorities. Areas of primary focus were duties related to inspection, certification and airworthiness.
The U.S. Air Force is performing initial flight testing on a dual-band, mid- and long-wave infrared imaging system in its KC-135 Speckled Trout VIP and testbed transport. The tests, part of a cooperative research agreement with the service, could boost development of cockpit enhanced vision systems for safer aircraft landing, takeoff and ground operations, according to J. Richard Kerr, vice president-advanced development for Flir Systems Inc.
Syria is ``preparing for war'' and constitutes the greatest near-term military threat to Israel, says Eliahu Ben-Elissar, Jerusalem's ambassador here. Military improvements ``in every direction'' include the purchase and, now, local production of improved Scud-C missiles with 720-780-mi. range. Syria now has about 150 Scud-Cs and 30 launchers and a total inventory of 600-700 ballistic missiles, he says. Russia is helping Syria improve the readiness of its 40-plus fleet of MiG-29 Fulcrum As, despite the latter's outstanding debt of $10-12 billion.
THE SUKHOI DESIGN BUREAU'S experimental, forward swept-wing, stealthy aircraft with thrust-vectoring control, has completed high-speed taxi tests and is ready for flight testing. The twin-engine aircraft, referred to as the S-32 or S-52 in the West, and the Mikoyan 1.42 fighter will not be on public display at the Moscow Aviation and Space Show in Zhukovski this week. But informed sources indicate the two aircraft will be on view in hangars for high-ranking official visitors.
The House Appropriations Committee thwarted an FAA plan to shift the burden of financing navigation and landing aids--and approach lighting systems--from the federal pocketbook to local airports. The committee's report on transportation appropriations threw a damper on the FAA plan. The shift ``could result in the diminution of aviation safety, since airports are neither staffed nor funded'' to buy, operate and maintain the equipment, it said. The House report does not have the force of law, but it is regarded as policy direction from the holders of the purse.
Col. Walter J. Boyne (USAF, Ret.) is to receive the Air Force Assn.'s Gill Robb Wilson Award in arts and letters for his latest book, ``Beyond the Wild Blue: A History of the U.S. Air Force, 1947-1997.''
Photograph: Japanese robotic arm is viewed against Earth's horizon during Mission 85 tests to verify performance for space station. Arm performed well, but software slowed tests. Space shuttle Mission 85, which was scheduled to land here Aug. 18, should return a wealth of astronomy and Earth atmospheric information, including new data that could bolster a theory that Earth is bombarded by small comets daily.
The National Transportation Safety Board's meeting this week--to hear its staff's report on causes of the May, 1996, ValuJet DC-9-32 crash and recommendations for their correction--promises to be a lively one. Board officials last week were scrambling to revise that report to cover more of the issues raised by the crash and delete questionable sections. The draft report at one time criticized the two pilots of ValuJet Flight 592 for not diverting their burning aircraft to Opa Locka, Fla., airport instead of attempting to return to Miami International.
John R. Gibson has become president/chief executive officer of the American Pacific Corp. of Las Vegas. He was corporate vice president-engineering and president of subsidiary American Azide Corp.
THE FAA HAS ISSUED A FINAL RULE allowing the use of single-engine aircraft for FAR Part 135 operations under instrument flight rules. The change, which is being adopted this month, is scheduled to become effective May 3, 1998, according to the agency. The new regulation will require that commercial aircraft carrying passengers for hire be equipped with an autopilot or a second-in-command pilot, and additional vacuum and electrical sources to power gyroscopic flight instruments, navigation and communications radios.
Bob Dickey has been promoted to vice president/general manager of manufacturing solutions and Randy Martin to vice president-product development for manufacturing solutions for Cimlinc, Itasca, Ill. Dickey was vice president-marketing and Martin director of development.
Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., plans to test a prototype walk-through airport detector portal, shown here in an artist's concept, by the end of this summer at Albuquerque's international airport. The noninvasive device will use a preconcentrator that is 1,000-times more sensitive, 200 times smaller and 13 times less expensive than previous preconcentrator designs, according to Kevin Linker, Sandia project leader. With a planned 12-sec. monitoring time, the portal also is four times faster than previous Sandia preconcentrator models.
THE INDEPENDENT PILOTS ASSN., the union which represents 2,000 pilots at United Parcel Service, warned that the company faced a second strike--by pilots--after settlement of the current strike by the Teamsters' union. The IPA has supported the Teamsters' strike since it began Aug. 4, idling most of the UPS fleet used for its ``Next Day Air'' and ``Second Day Air'' services. IPA President Bob Miller said ``the day may soon come'' when the Teamsters honor IPA's picket lines.
David Harvey, director of mergers and acquisitions at Rolls-Royce, and Rosemary Day, a director with London Regional Transport, have been appointed non-executive board members of National Air Traffic Services, a subsidiary of the U.K.'s Civil Aviation Authority.
