Pan American World Airways has tapped British Aerospace Aviation Services to perform heavy maintenance on its fleet of Airbus Industrie A300B4s for three years. Work under the $60-million contract will be carried out at British Aerospace Aviation Services' facilities in Filton, U.K.
Molecular OptoElectronics, Watervliet, N,Y., is developing a new, broadband active sensor technology that covers a wide section of electromagnetic spectrum from the mid-infrared (8-micron) through millimeter-wave bands, including the terahertz region in between. Commercial applications--still far down the road--could include single-sensor enhanced vision systems for aircraft cockpits and military use.
On why the Adeos-1 advanced Earth-observing satellite failed, Japan's National Space Development Agency has rescheduled the launch of its Comets communication and broadcasting engineering satellite, shifting it from August to sometime during its winter schedule in January/February. Comets uses systems that were common to Adeos.
Sandia National Laboratories chief Paul Robinson was in town showing his wares. His researchers have begun using differential synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to make detailed terrain maps in any weather. They have developed an advanced manufacturing system that uses a laser and a plastic solution to make 3-D maps from the SAR images within minutes. The thin, rubbery maps can be folded and stored inside a wetsuit or pocket without distortion and have already been used by special operations troops.
Officials from the Krasnoyarsk Territory of Russia were in town last week promoting a new air route from North America to Asia over the North Pole and Siberia. The new routes could save 3 hr. on flights from Washington to Singapore, according to Krasnoyarsk's Gov. Valery Zubov. For communications over the pole, Russia plans to launch new mobile communications satellites that aircraft could use to transmit their GPS- and Glonass-derived positions. But he says resolving technical issues to open the routes for scheduled airline service could take 3-4 years.
Continental Airlines will get greater access to destinations in Hawaii through its new marketing alliance with Hawaiian Airlines. When the pact takes effect Oct. 1, Continental will be able to tie its marketing in with Hawaiian's 12 daily wide-body services between the island state and the mainland U.S. The pact also should boost traffic feed for Hawaiian and Guam-based Continental Micronesia, which is included in the alliance.
Freighter crashed on takeoff from Miami International Aug. 7, killing the three crewmembers and a security guard on board. Miami-based Fine Air's Flight 101A, operated under lease for another company, was set to carry roughly 80,000 lb. of textiles to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The aircraft took off from Miami's Runway 27 Right. Shortly after it lifted off, a firefighter at the airport and other eyewitnesses reported, the aircraft pitched up to a steep angle, banked from side to side and plunged back to the ground.
Photograph: DASA last month tested the A340-500/600's low-speed flight characteristics with this 1:23.5-scale model in the company's wind tunnel. Airbus Industrie has finalized agreements with two A340-500/600 launch customers--Air Canada and Virgin Atlantic Airways--and the consortium's supervisory board is now ready to authorize go-ahead for the ultra-long-range transports within the next few weeks.
British Airways estimates last month's three-day strike by cabin crew will cost the airline 125 million pounds ($204 million) in lost revenues. Both sides are now trying to negotiate a settlement in the dispute over pay and cost-cutting measures. Profits are also under threat from the continuing strength of the pound sterling. Operating profits in the first quarter, which ended June 30, were down 60% from last year as the strong pound reduced profits at BA by 77 million pounds ($125.5 million).
Sandia National Laboratory, Livermore, Calif., has developed a software program that tracks the progress and status of components and subassemblies as they advance through the manufacturing process. The aim is to use object-based technology to build a lightweight, platform-independent alternative to cumbersome paper-based manufacturing systems which also can be used by small to medium businesses, according to Jack O'Connor, senior technical staff member.
Officials have begun evaluation flights on the Bombardier Global Express, moving the ultra-long-haul business jet closer to its planned May certification. As of mid-July, the flight and certification test fleet of three Global Express jets had accumulated more than 560 flight hours in almost 200 flights. A fourth aircraft is scheduled to be added to the test fleet in September. The $32-million Global Express has a projected range of up to 6,700 naut. mi. During the test program, aircraft No. 9001 has reached speeds of Mach 0.96 and flown up to 9.4-hr. legs.
Photograph: Hollow diamond wing configurations provide more locations for control surfaces and more flexibility in their arrangements. Lockheed Martin is seeking international partners to develop a family of transport/tanker aircraft for the 21st century. ``The next-generation aircraft has to be built in a world partnership,'' said Richard G. Kirkland, vice president for market development at Lockheed Martin's Aeronautical Systems Div.
PGA Portugalia Airlines took delivery last month of the second of four Embraer EMB-145 aircraft on order as it moves to establish itself as a major regional carrier on the Iberian Peninsula. The independent Portuguese airline, established in 1990, has converted options on another two EMB-145s into firm orders. Two more Embraer twinjets will be delivered in the fall and the remaining two next spring when the airline will have a total fleet of six EMB-145s and six Fokker 100s.
A single chip with impressive capabilities to detect the relative motion of objects and uses colors to interpret direction and velocity. BEV Stockplus invented the chip that it calls a generic visual perception processor. The design is modeled on the processing carried out in the eye and the visual cortex of the brain. Rather than relying on a large amount of digital signal processing, simpler algorithms are used in the chip to detect motion in any direction designated by the operator. Inputs to the chip can be images from a video camera, Flir or radar.
Photograph: The Cessna CBI private pilot program's Management Module fulfills FAR Part 141 reporting requirements and allows the instructor to monitor a student's progress. Computer-based instruction aimed at the fledgling private pilot is scheduled to become available in the spring of 1998. Cessna Aircraft Co., at the EAA's 45th annual convention, outlined its plan to bring CBI to the entry-level pilot via its 350 Cessna Pilot Training Centers in the U.S. The offering, according to Russell W.
A British Regional Airlines senior pilot made a safe emergency landing at Manchester airport after a landing gear malfunction on a British Aerospace ATP. The eight-year-old twin-turboprop, one of 15 ATPs operated by British Regional under a franchise agreement with British Airways, departed from Manchester for Knock, Ireland, with 66 passengers and a crew of four at 5 p.m. on Aug. 3. Shortly after takeoff, cockpit warning lights indicated a fault in the left landing gear as the wheels had not locked into the retract position.
Photograph: The rise of fractional ownership programs for business jets such as the Bombardier Global Express is helping to fuel new sales. A two-year ``golden age'' of business jet sales is continuing with deliveries up more than 40% in the first six months of 1997. Better yet, sales are expected to remain strong for several more years. Manufacturers delivered 184 business jets in the first half of 1997, compared to 130 for the corresponding period last year, according to John Lawson, president of sales for Bombardier Business Aircraft.
And ground-based telescopes have discovered the most distant galaxy ever seen. The young galaxy is as far as 13 billion light-years from Earth, placing it less than a billion years after the Big Bang that formed the universe. The galaxy was uncovered when the Hubble Space Telescope imaged the much closer galaxy cluster CL1358+62, located 5 billion light-years from Earth, thanks to a bit of good luck.
LAN Chile is improving its performance. The Santiago-based carrier reported profits of $24 million for the first six months of 1997, a 54.8% jump over its $15.5-million profit for the same period last year. LAN's Ladeco subsidiary helped in the turnaround, posting a $2.5-million profit for the January-May period. That compared to a $8-million loss for the same period in 1996. Ladeco expects to post a $6-million profit this year on sales of $90 million, in part by increasing services to Chilean destinations of Punta Arenas, Puerto Montt, La
Safety investigators are scrutinizing pilots' reactions and retrieving data from a Federal Express MD-11F to better understand why the aircraft crashed after a hard landing at Newark International Airport. Investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board pressed their efforts to map and recover wreckage from the McDonnell Douglas freighter in the days after the July 31 accident, in large part to clear Newark for full operations.
Photograph: Pixel by pixel comparisons of left and right stereo images are necessary to build 3D images such as this rock field at the Pathfinder landing site. Software developed by Ames Research Center allowed processing of such images in about 10 min. Three-dimensional computerized terrain models developed by the NASA Ames Research Center's Intelligent Mechanisms Group have played a major supporting role for Pathfinder scientists in their study of the Ares Vallis flood plain on Mars.
Photograph: Three USAF T-3A Firefly trainers at the Air Force Academy have crashed in the last 2 1/2 years, killing six instructors and cadets. The U.S. Air Force's suspension of T-3A Firefly pilot-screening flights remained in force last week as investigators continued to look for the cause of an engine failure at the Air Force Academy (AFA) on July 23. The latest incident followed a fatal T-3A crash on June 25 which prompted a special investigation into the aircraft's flight characteristics and the service's pilot screening program (AW&ST Aug. 4, p.
