As part of its year-long investigation into the explosion of TWA Flight 800 last July 17, the National Transportation Safety Board is conducting special flight tests using a Boeing 747-100 to document fuel tank conditions under a variety of altitudes, fuel quantities, temperatures and pressures.
Second quarter net earnings of $302 million ($3.26 per common share) compared with $293 million in the same quarter last year. Revenue was $4.71 billion. As a result, the price of AMR's shares increased $4.44, closing at $99.50. Gerard J. Arpey, AMR's chief financial officer, said the company's American Airlines group had pretax income of $403 million on revenue of $4.29 billion.
USAF Maj. Paul Nelson has received the Kelly Johnson Award from the Blackbird Assn. for his work at the Pentagon to keep the U-2 program viable. Capt. Mike Zimmerman won the Pratt&Whitney Award for his work on reactivation of the SR-71s at Edwards AFB, Calif. Richard L. Fortin received the General Electric Award for his work to reengine the U-2S, and Chief MSgt. (ret.) Don Campbell won the J.T. Vida Award for his dedication to the SR-71 program.
Former U.S. Rep. Jim Courter (R.-N.J.) chaired the base closure commission and now heads defense programs at the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution. Loren Thompson is a senior fellow who manages the institution's national security research. Long-range plans are relatively easy to develop when conditions are stable or the pattern of change is steady and predictable. But when conditions are unsettled and the rate of change unclear, long-range plans can go awry fairly quickly. That is the basic challenge the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) confronted.
Pat Millard has been appointed original equipment manufacturer sales manager, and Steve Logue international and specialty OEM accounts manager for Textron Lycoming, Williamsport, Pa.
Steven R. Ritchie has been appointed president of Mercury Air Cargo Inc. of Los Angeles, effective Aug. 1. He has been president/chief executive officer of Gateway Freight Services. Ritchie will succeed Joseph Czyzyk, who will remain president of Mercury Air Group Inc.
Photograph: Coltec's robotic air plasma spray gun applies a protective ceramic coating on a jet engine component. Vendors, already under tremendous pressure due to ongoing consolidation among their customers, will be squeezed even harder as the number of systems integrators continues to shrink. Working its way through the regulatory process is Raytheon's proposed acquisition of Hughes Electronics' defense business. Soon to follow will be Lockheed Martin's proposed acquisition of Northrop Grumman (AW&ST July 14, p. 63).
Has called for its members not to accept some ``land and hold short'' instructions from ATC until a disagreement with the FAA is resolved. The FAA issued a new air traffic order on these procedures last week but ALPA claims it contains inaccurate landing distances and other safety deficiencies.
Issued four airworthiness directives that would limit significantly the payloads of Boeing 727-100/200 passenger transports converted to cargo configuration. A final rule is scheduled to be released in October, according to the FAA. The proposal calls for reducing payloads from the current 8,000 lb. to 3,000 lb. per container until structural modifications to the main deck floor are completed. The 727-100s carry 11 containers, -200s carry 12. There are 300 727s affected by the proposal.
Airbus Industrie will begin deliveries of 12 A320 and eight A321 aircraft to British Midland in March, 1998. British Midland has signed a contract to acquire eight of the single-aisle aircraft (four A320s and four A321s) and will operate the remaining 12 under a lease agreement with International Lease Finance Corp., according to Airbus. The British carrier said the agreement gives it some flexibility to alter the mix between A320s, configured with 160 seats, and A321s, with 196 seats. The aircraft will be powered by V2500 engines from International Aero Engines.
The chaos that accompanied Hun Sen's coup in Cambodia has prompted an end to most foreign flights into Phnom Penh. As of last week, only Thai Airways International continued to serve the capital, from Bangkok, while Dragonair had stopped services from Hong Kong and Malaysia Airlines suspended its flights from Kuala Lumpur. Much of the fighting and looting that broke out after Second Prime Minister Hun Sen ousted First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh from the coalition government occurred along the road to Phnom Penh's Pochentong Airport.
Newly appointed Arianespace Chairman/CEO Jean-Marie Luton plans to give the company, which is responsible for marketing and launching Ariane boosters, a major role in defining new launcher development and determining future European space strategy, at least as regards the launch industry.
House appropriators pulled a fast one on Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R.-Calif.) and Tim Roemer (D.-Ind.), thwarting their plans to amend the $13.6-billion Fiscal 1998 NASA funding bill. The pair wanted to delete a $100-million add-on in the bill for unspecified ``Russian program assurance,'' money to take up slack for the stumbling space station partner, and shift the money to reusable launch vehicle research. But appropriations subcommittee chairman Rep.
Dassault Aviation and WSK-PZL Mielec have concluded a memorandum of understanding that will allow Mielec to take part in the Mirage 2000-5 and other programs in the event the aircraft is selected for Poland's new advanced fighter requirement. Under the MOU, Mielec may handle final assembly of the Mirage 2000s and participate in the manufacture of parts and subassemblies intended for it as well as Dassault's line of Falcon business jets, in association with other Polish firms. Dassault also could assist in new Polish development programs such as the Iryda trainer.
Edmond Marchegay, chairman/CEO of Intertechnique, has been elected commissioner general of the Paris air show. He succeeds Yves Michot, chairman/CEO of Aerospatiale.
Illustration: Table: HORIZONS 2000 PROGRAM PLAN European Space Agency officials are recommending sweeping changes in the agency's Horizons 2000 space science program that they hope will enable it to prepare vital new technologies and participate in future international space efforts without eliminating or descoping important ESA science projects.
Photograph: A rear wheel on the rover has driven up onto the surface of rock called Yogi, where the vehicle later used its alpha proton X-ray spectrometer (APXS) to analyze the elemental composition of the boulder. The Pathfinder landing area has turned out to be an ideal location to operate the first rover on Mars, with open areas to maneuver the vehicle and a variety of rocks with minimal dust to make significant scientific measurements. Andrew H.
A four-fold increase in orders for spare parts has put Pratt&Whitney behind in fulfilling JT8D spares requests. The order surge is concentrated in only a handful of parts, such as compressor airfoils and bearings, according to Pratt&Whitney. A number of factors created the problem, including lack of coordination among airlines, maintenance organizations and the Hartford-based manufacturer. An end to cannibalized parts for aircraft stored in the desert, a recovering airline industry and carriers' reluctance to keep large spares inventories also had an effect.
Photograph: This ground station in Northern Canada is one of four tracking facilities built for the Iridium system. Dishes are housed in protective radomes. The Iridium venture has successfully orbited more than one-fourth of its 66 operational satellites, putting the test to one of the most sophisticated ground control operations ever designed for a commercial space system.
Photograph: Pathfinder prepares for flight from Kauai (top) and cruises at 71,500 ft. over the Pacific Ocean (below). Mirror gives forward view of the dark high-altitude sky. While NASA's Pathfinder Mars probe was making headlines, the agency's other Pathfinder --the solar-powered drone--was setting records as well. The AeroVironment Pathfinder reached about 71,500 ft. on July 7, which should give it a place in the record books as the highest flying propeller-powered aircraft.
Photograph: AASC's ability to prototype composite structures led to a contract to relieve fatigue fracturing on blades for NASA Ames' 80 X 120-ft. wind tunnel, the world's largest. Demand across its diverse product lines of lightweight composite and metallic structures has pulled Applied Aerospace Structures Corp. into a strong growth period two years after it became independent of BP Chemicals.
An international team of astronomers using two X-ray spacecraft have discovered a puzzling object that is unlike any seen before. The object, named AXJ2019+117, appears to have the mass and dimensions of a cluster of galaxies. But it contains only one large galaxy and a few ``dwarf'' galaxies. That's surprising, because clusters of galaxies usually contain hundreds or thousands of galaxies encompassing hundreds of billions of stars.
Martin G. Grier has become vice president/general manager of Elliott Aviation's facility in Moline, Ill. He was manager of FlightSafety International's Raytheon Maintenance Learning Center, Wichita, Kan.
The Senate passed its version of the Fiscal 1998 defense appropriations bill last week, 94-4, the same lopsided approval it gave to the defense authorization bill (see p. 34). The bill's $247 billion is only $3 billion higher than the 1997 level. In round numbers, it would include $45 billion for weapons buys, $83 billion for operations and maintenance, $37 billion for R&D and $70 billion for personnel. Just over $440 million was added to buy two additional C-17s, which would bring to 11 the number purchased next year.
The General Electric Co. of the U.K. is laying the groundwork to better position itself for the inevitable consolidation of the aerospace/defense industry in Europe.
