MATRA MARCONI SPACE HAS SELECTED Raytheon TI Systems to design and develop L- and S-band phased array antennas for Constellation Communications Inc.'s (CCI's) Equatorial Communications Constellation (ECCO) low-Earth-orbit personal communications system. The production contract will include 12 sets for equatorial satellites, one on-orbit spare and eight ground spares. Matra Marconi Space, prime contractor for the space segment of ECHO, is the joint venture company formed by Lagardere of France and the U.K.'s GE. CCI is a U.S.
Photograph: Strong demand for new aircraft is being sustained partly by the higher operating efficiencies carriers can obtain with new equipment such as the Boeing 757. JOSEPH PRIES Demand for new commercial jet transports continues to be solid--despite what may seem like a drop-off in orders in recent months--and the market is apt to remain strong for the foreseeable future. Through June 30, airframe builders booked 300 net orders compared with 281 in the first six months of last year, according to U.S. industry officials.
AIR FRANCE INDUSTRIES will maintain and overhaul Virgin Atlantic Airways' Airbus A340 long-range transports. The agreement is valued at about $80 million per year. Virgin operates eight A340-300s and recently decided to order 16 stretched-fuselage -600s (AW&ST Aug. 11, p. 85).
Long-standing concerns about the safety of nonprecision instrument approaches are generating new initiatives aimed at upgrading these procedures, but it will be at least another 10-15 years before fully autonomous, airborne navigation systems with 3-D capabilities are available to replace them, according to airline and FAA officials.
Yahoo! has incorporated Sabre's Travelocity as a content module on the travel page of its Netscape Guide. Travelocity will allow Internet users to buy airline tickets.
Photograph: Airlines and aircraft makers must comply with regulations and certification standards set by multiple international bodies. Officials of airlines subject to FAA regulations--both domestic and foreign--are in agreement with the goal of improving safety but complain that enforcement is sometimes uneven, subject to interpretation, and fixated on small details that have a negligible effect on passenger safety.
William S. Allen has been appointed vice president-human resources of Atlas Air Inc., Golden, Colo. He was senior director of field human resources for Pizza Hut Inc.
For the new international space station has arrived at the Kennedy Space Center. The first of two cone-shaped McDonnell Douglas pressurized mating adapters arrived from Huntington Beach, Calif., to begin its launch checkout. The two adapters (PMA 1 and PMA 2) will be mounted on opposite ends of the larger Node-1 unit, which arrived at the launch site earlier this summer. One adapter will act as a bridge between the Node and the Russian FGB spacecraft, while the other will link the Node with other station modules.
Romualdo Monteiro de Barros has been named commercial vice president for the military market for Embraer, Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil. He was director of business development for telecommunications for OTL-Odebrecht.
Photograph: Morane Renault exhibited its new, 180-hp. MR 180 turbocharged diesel engine designed to operate on Jet-A fuel. It would be electronically controlled through a single power lever system. Near-record attendance and new aircraft introductions underscored a growing optimism for the future of general aviation throughout the Experimental Aircraft Assn.'s 45th annual convention and sport aircraft exhibition that concluded here last week.
Photograph: Eight U.S. carriers are operating transatlantic routes to Paris-CDG and Orly. FREDERIC LERT The U.S. and France are engaged in a painful process to resolve long-standing disagreements over transatlantic traffic rights. Because of France's opposition to an ``open skies'' regime, however, negotiators have repeatedly failed to make progress toward a new accord. Lengthy and complex negotiations over the last five years have produced no noticeable results. U.S.
Will fly until at least 2012 and could be operational as late as 2025, said Stephen Oswald, NASA's deputy associate administrator for space shuttle. A successor ``could be a combination of expendable launch vehicles and viable reusable launch vehicles,'' he told a ``Cheap Access to Space'' symposium. ``There's enough payload in the market for good competition.''
Air traffic in Brazil is expected to increase 8.9% this year, according to the airports organization Infraero. The growth will be boosted by low airport fees in Brazil, said officials of Infraero, which operates 67 airports in the nation. Infraero claims that its average fee of $18 per departing passenger is lower than those charged by major U.S. and European airports. Passenger traffic at Infraero's airports last year rose 7% in comparison to 1995 levels, they said, and cargo traffic climbed 18% over the same period.
Vancouver International Airport, British Columbia, has commissioned a Category-3 approach and airfield lighting system with Surface Movement Guidance and Control System. Manufactured by Siemens-owned ADB, Columbus, Ohio, SMGCS uses fully integrated ``power line'' technology and routes control and sensor communications through existing ground wiring to a tower-based touchscreen control station.
NH Industries has begun flight testing the second prototype of the NH-90 transport/ electronic warfare helicopter equipped with a fly-by-wire primary flight control. The helicopter made its maiden flight on Mar. 19, but problems with a hydraulic clutch prevented flight in the fly-by-wire configuration until July. The system's two analog channels and two digital channels will be evaluated separately over a one-year span using flight controls with temporary mechanical backup. The system then will begin a 1,000-hr.
After three full days of formal talks in Tokyo, the U.S. and Japan remain far apart on a new bilateral air services agreement. Nevertheless, both sides say that a new pact could still be reached by the end of September, the target set last month during informal talks in Portland, Ore. Negotiators have agreed to come together again in Washington Aug. 27-29. The U.S. is seeking a transition to ``open skies,'' something rejected by Japan, which offered to move to a ``more liberalized'' market. Said one U.S. official: ``We need more information on their thinking.''
Photograph: The MD 520N is powered by a single Allison 250-C20R turbine engine rated at 450 shp. The Calgary Police' new helicopter, call sign HAWC1, is logging 1,000-hr. flight time a year and boosting police effectiveness with a ``first-on-scene'' record of almost 70%.
Photograph: Light gray areas on most of the forward fuselage of this C-130E show where a polymer material has been applied instead of paint. JOHN D. MORROCCO/AW&ST Lockheed Martin and the 3M Company are conducting large-scale flight tests of an S-3 Viking, F-16 Fighting Falcon and an C-130 Hercules, featuring protective, paint replacement films under development by the two companies. The testing of all three types of aircraft are intended to provide data on scratch and fuel resistance, and overall durability.
Structures expert Nicholas J. Hoff died on Aug. 4 at Stanford University, at age 91. He received the Daniel Guggenheim medal in 1984 for his contributions to the theory and practice of structural design, among other awards. Born in Magyarovar, Hungary, he emigrated to the U.S. in 1939, and researched aluminum reinforced monocoque structures at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, and worked on the Atlas, Polaris, Poseidon, Saturn, and Apollo rocket programs, as well as serving in a number of advisory and consultant roles.
Not long ago, the most wondrous thing about the general aviation industry in the U.S. was that it wasn't dead yet. How quickly matters change! Now, ``gen av'' is on the brink of a new and promising era. Despite the naysayers and prophets of doom who continue to predict its demise, the light plane industry is emerging from the ``Dark Ages'' of the 1980s and 1990s, headed into a 21st Century renaissance. And nowhere was that transition more evident than at the Experimental Aircraft Assn.'s 45th Annual Convention and Sport Aircraft Exhibition (see p. 22).
Pilots gathered at Oshkosh last week were elated to learn that Washington nixed aviation user fees in its tax cut/budget balancing act. What's more, beginning on Oct. 1, all the aviation fuel taxes would go to the Airports and Airways Trust Fund. Currently, of 19.3 cents per gal. on aviation fuel, 4.3 cents is allotted to deficit reduction. Without that deduction, taxes on fuel, cargo waybills and airline tickets are projected to generate about $34 billion for the trust fund during the next 5 years.
The U.S. government will provide $750 million to extend the Bay Area Rapid Transport (BART) system to San Francisco International Airport. The long-sought extension is part of a $1.2-billion, full-funding grant by the Federal Transit Administration that will add four stations and almost 9 mi. of track to the commuter rail system. The BART station will connect to the airport's internal rail transit system and is being built jointly with a new international terminal.
To buy eight Mi-17-1 transport helicopters and 12 Su-30 aircraft with the potential for eight more. The deal is estimated to be worth $650 million for Russia's defense industry. The move to Russian equipment follows U.S. congressional objections to Indonesia's human rights record, which led to Jakarta's cancellation of a proposed buy of nine Lockheed Martin F-16s. Late last month, the U.K.'s new Labour government set tougher criteria for arms exports, saying they would be barred if the weapons were likely to be used for internal repression.
