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.
Photograph: The cockpit would feature three electronic displays developed for the Model 609 by Rockwell Collins. Although most companies would use two pilots in IFR flight operations, Bell Boeing officials plan to obtain FAA certification for single pilot operation of the aircraft. A full-scale mockup of the Model 609 (shown below) will be displayed at the National Business Aviation Assn. convention in Dallas next month.
In a recent CIA publication, National Reconnaissance Office historian Gerald K. Haines claims that during the Cold War the Air Force knowingly attributed many UFO reports triggered by high-flying U-2s and SR-71s to ``natural phenomena such as ice crystals and temperature inversions.'' Not so, says one leading UFO debunker, Aviation Week's own Phillip J. Klass.
Avianca is to unveil cut-rate vacation packages in league with major hotels in Colombia later this month as part of the carrier's campaign of more than $8.5 million to improve its infrastructure and boost tourism. The Colombian carrier is committing $6 million by the end of the year to improving its facilities and equipment, other than aircraft. The remainder is to be spent on improving security for its customers and its operations and selling tourists on traveling to the South American nation. For a further boost, Avianca is awaiting U.S.
The U.S. and Turkey should set a new agenda for strengthening their bilateral security relationship, to deal with the new balances of power in the eastern Mediterranean, say U.S. strategic analysts. In particular, they stress the urgent need of the two NATO allies to work closely on countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Turkey shares borders with Syria, Iran and Iraq, which are widely considered among the world's most dangerous proliferators.
The U.S. Air Force awarded $149 million in contracts to six companies to develop sensors for the National Polar Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System, which is slated to combine U.S. military and civilian satellite weather monitoring. The contractors were Hughes, ITT Aerospace, Ball Aerospace, Orbital Sciences and Saab Ericsson.
NATO ally Turkey plans to expedite bids to equip its helicopter fleet with active and passive antimissile systems in the wake of two recent aircraft losses to suspected terrorist attacks. Turkish defense sources estimate a cost of $100,000 per helicopter to equip the military's diverse fleet, which includes 30 AH-1P Cobras, nine AH-1W Super Cobras, 19 Cougars and 17 Mi-17s. In addition, Turkey is to produce 30 more Cougars under a joint project, and recently solicited bids for 50 attack helicopters (AW&ST July 7, p. 47).
Photograph: Russian Soyuz SL-4 lifts off from Baikonur Cosmodrome on about 1 million-lb. thrust carrying the Soyuz TM-26 replacement crew to Mir. The crew docked with Mir Aug. 7. Astronauts on shuttle Mission 85 and the joint U.S./Russian crew on Mir are moving into an intense week of flight operations in different orbits, following the launch of Discovery on a varied science mission and the docking of the new Soyuz TM-26 crew with Mir.
Charles H. Noski has been appointed executive vice president/chief financial officer of the United Technologies Corp., Hartford, Conn. He was vice chairman/CFO of the Hughes Electronics Corp. Noski succeeds Stephen F. Page, who is now president/chief executive officer of UTC's Otis Elevator Co.
Ovadia Harari (see photo) has been named as executive vice president of Israel Aircraft Industries. Menahem Shmul succeeds Harari as corporate vice president/general manager of the Military Aircraft Group. David Harari, formerly corporate director for business development, has become corporate deputy vice president/director of research and development. Menahem Tadmor is now director of corporate industrial services.
Two Eurocopter AS-350 AStars and an A-365 Dauphin are shown operating from the Dallas Central Business District Heliport, located at the southern end of the Dallas Convention Center. The nearly 4-acre, public-use heliport, which opened in January, 1994, now is logging about 4,000 operations a year. Flights associated with the National Business Aviation Assn. convention being held in Dallas this year should increase that total to 5,000 for 1997, according to Lana Furra, manager.
With major airlines expected to hire 4,200 pilots this year, up from 3,080 in 1996, the retention rate for the Air Force's most experienced pilots continues to drop like a rock. The fraction of experienced pilots taking a bonus and staying on board at the nine-year mark has plummeted to 32% from 81% in 1994, says personnel guru Brig. Gen. John Regni. Already this year, 626 pilots have said goodbye to active duty--more than the 498 that left in all of 1996.
A PC-based trainer to Northwest Airlines to simulate the flight management system in a Boeing 757-200. The device is to simulate the full integration and emulate the functions of the FMS, autopilot and electronic flight instrument systems, but at a fraction of the cost of hardware trainer devices. The Burnsville, Minn., company is under contract to American Airlines, Federal Express and FlightSafety International for other PC-based systems. Touch-screen or a mouse input can be used.
United Parcel Service sought to keep its international air services aloft last week as a strike by the Teamsters union, supported by the company's Independent Pilots Assn., crippled the world's largest package distribution company. Competitors, including other package carriers, scrambled to pick up even some of UPS' normal business. UPS routinely delivers 12 million parcels and documents a day, including 80% of all domestic U.S. deliveries. About 1.6 million packages a day are delivered through its ``Next Day Air'' and ``Second Day Air'' services.
Office and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency have selected three teams for the first phase of an effort to develop a Tactical Common Data Link (TCDL). The goals are a family of increased-capacity/lower-cost common data links and increased data link competition. The interoperable digital links are to support both manned and unmanned airborne reconnaissance platforms, including Outrider, Predator, Reef Point, Rivet Joint, Joint-STARS and Airborne Reconnaissance Low.
Photograph: Company officials expect the Galaxy prototype, shown here undergoing wing mate operations, to make its first flight late this year. Alliance Airport near Fort Worth will become the new headquarters for Galaxy Aerospace Corp., and serve as the central hub for completion and product support of the new super mid-size cabin Galaxy business jet. Plans call for completing construction of a $12-million, 143,000-sq.-ft.-headquarters complex by the end of September, 1998, according to Brian E.
Federal Express' new ``next business day'' schedule is expected to expand its services from Japan to the U.S. (AW&ST Aug. 4, p. 15). But its greatest impact will be further down the line, at the origin points in Penang, Malaysia, and Singapore, which now have two-day turnarounds. For Taiwan, the extended service will allow pickups 2 hr. later. When the new Chek Lap Kok airport opens next April, FedEx will gain a $100-million terminal that will let it take advantage of the first 24-hr. operations available in Hong Kong.
Anthony W. Merritt has been promoted to director of government and military sales from global account executive for government sales for Emery Worldwide, Redwood City, Calif.
Four Sikorsky helicopters operated by Hong Kong's Government Flying Service fly in formation past the new Tsing Ma bridge, the longest road and rail suspension bridge in the world. The GFS flies six Sikorsky S-76A+ helicopters equipped for search and rescue (SAR) or utility use, plus three S-70 Black Hawk tactical police helicopters. Shown are the SAR version of the S-76A+ in orange and white, the utility versions in blue and red and the S-70 in gray livery.
