NASA officials are giving serious consideration to a request by Sen. John Glenn (D.-Ohio) to fly in space again and are looking at putting him on a space shuttle flight in 1998. Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, will turn 76 this week, which would make him by far the oldest person ever to fly in space. The White House, which would have to give final approval, is waiting for NASA's recommendation. But a potential stumbling block is a U.S.
Alan Butki has been appointed vice president-manufacturing of St. Joseph, Mo.-based Snorkel's Elwood, Kan., facility. He was director of engine group operations for the Tecumseh Products Co.
SunMate solar electric generators can provide power for wind shear monitoring equipment, airport beacons, runway lights, air traffic control radar and other equipment. The units have sufficient storage capacity to operate continuously during long periods of inclement weather. The SEGs can be mounted on towers or on the ground and are available in a.c. and d.c. configurations. An optional DeSulfator battery conditioning circuit can extend battery life. Atlantic Solar Products Inc., 9351 J. Philadelphia Road, P.O. Box 70060, Baltimore, Md. 21237.
Photograph: Twin peaks on horizon and expanse of flood plain are visible, along with airbags and lander, in color-corrected version of early IMP image. Pathfinder's completion of the first landing on Mars in 21 years and operation of a microrover has provided a major boost for small planetary probes as well as NASA's ambitious plans to launch nine Mars missions in a decade.
In what is being hailed as further evidence that China is adopting international air transport standards, the Civil Aviation Administration of China and State Planning Commission said domestic air ticket prices will be the same for Chinese and foreign passengers as of this month. In the past, Chinese passengers have paid about half the fares that foreigners did. Domestic passenger traffic grew by 5.1% in the first four months of this year compared to last year, according to the State Statistics Information and Consultancy Service.
Advanced Aircraft Analysis Version 2.0 provides users of IBM-compatible computers running Windows 3.1, 95 or NT the same capabilities at the workstation-based system that runs under Unix. Aircraft configuration settings and multiple flight conditions can be saved within the same project. Other improvements include a more intuitive user interface and the addition of engineering symbols with Greek letters and sub and super-scripts. Design, Analysis and Research Corp., 120 E. Ninth St., Suite 2, Lawrence, Kan. 66044.
Bud R. Biloon has become director of air ranges business development for Cubic Defense Systems of San Diego. He was vice president of Compcomm Systems Inc.
Tony R. Werner has been appointed vice president-marketing of Polar Air Cargo Inc., Long Beach, Calif. He was vice president-cargo for Asia for Northwest Airlines.
Richard Fenby has become managing director of Ionix High Performance Wiring Systems, Staffordshire, England. He held the same position at Rank Brimar. Fenby succeeds Grahame Davies, who has retired.
A battle is brewing in the House over a Fiscal 1998 NASA funding bill drawn up by an Appropriations subcommittee headed by Rep. Jerry Lewis (R.-Calif.). Senior members of the House Science Committee are planning the unusual step of challenging the appropriations bill on the House floor. Reps. F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr., (R.-Wis.) and Dana Rohrabacher (R.-Calif.) have an amendment that would delete $100 million for ``Russian program assurance.'' NASA officials sought the money as a hedge against future problems with Russia.
The nation's larger carriers and smaller airlines have squared off against each other. The seven largest U.S. airlines sponsored an employee rally in Washington last week in favor of a tax package sponsored by House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Archer (R.-Tex.). Both the House and Senate measures would increase considerably the tax burden on airline passengers during the next five years but they take different tacks.
Robert J. Leonard has been appointed vice president/director of finance of Eastman Kodak Commercial and Government Systems, Rochester, N.Y. He was vice president/director of imaging products and systems. He has been succeeded by Joanne E. Braeunle, who has been director of contracts, procurement and planning.
Russia has made ``great progress'' securing and stabilizing its nuclear holdings, President Clinton asserted last week. ``We may not live in a zero-risk world, but I do believe we're doing well,'' he said at a post-NATO summit press conference in Madrid (see p. 38). The President said the government had not yet determined if three Lithuanian nationals arrested recently in Miami could have made good on their offer to smuggle nuclear weapons to undercover U.S. Customs agents.
The IA-5 parts washer has multiple wash manifolds that blast parts with 100 gal./min. of hot wash solution at 40 psi. The device is equipped with full instrumentation, controllers, a temperature gauge, heavy-duty wash time, electro-mechanical safety interlocks, Hoffman Nema 4 electrical enclosures and Allen-Bradley components. S.A.S. Equipment Inc., 2435 No. Indian Hill Blvd., Claremont, Calif. 91711-1730.
Gael Squibb has become director of the Telecommunications and Mission Operations Directorate of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. He had been the directorate's chief operations architect and manager of data services for NASA's Space Operations Management Office. Squibb succeeds Paul Westmoreland, who has retired.
Former astronaut Sam Durrance has been appointed director of science and technology for the Faisat constellation of low-Earth orbit satellites for Final Analysis, Lanham, Md.
FLIGHT TESTS OF THE TWO-SEAT SUKHOI SU-30MKI multirole fighter for India have begun at the Zhukovsky flight test center near Moscow. The first prototype, equipped with canards and AL-31PP engines with thrust vectoring control, took place on July 1 (AW&ST July 7, p. 18). The second prototype is expected to be ready for flight tests in the fourth quarter, Alexander Barkovski, the aircraft's chief designer said. Sukhoi has modified the engine nozzle drive connection to be actuated by the aircraft's fuel system, rather than the hydraulic system on earlier versions.
The worldwide market for single-engine turboprop regional transports continues to expand, particularly in developing nations. TACA Group of El Salvador has ordered eight additional Cessna C-208B Grand Caravans for its subsidiary feeder airlines, bringing its Caravan fleet to 12. The first four were delivered early this year, to provide air transportation within Costa Rica. The $1.25-million, fixed-gear Caravans replaced twin-turboprop aircraft flying scheduled service to 13 destinations.
Photograph: Howmet saved time and achieved a higher yield with its Turbo-Clean process for removing dirt that builds up in the serpentine passages of turbine blades. The pace of technological innovation and new product development is increasing as companies strive to introduce new equipment and processes that are both more capable and cost efficient. That was the consensus of officials responsible for strategic planning and developing new technology at a variety of large and small companies.
Thomas Sullivan has become vice president-sales and charter operations of Ronson Aviation, Trenton, N.J. He was vice president-marketing for Raytheon Aircraft.
The IP-FiberIO IndustryPack is a bus-independent fiber-optic communication system that allows transmission speeds of up to 10.6 megabytes/sec. between nodes. It consists of a fiber-optic shared memory interface on a Type 3 double-wide IndustryPack mezzanine module. IP-FiberIO is a low-cost solution for shared memory applications such as high-fidelity flight simulator applications. Because it is bus independent, it can be incorporated into PCI, CompactPCI, VME and VXI bus architectures. GreenSpring Computers, 181 Constitution Drive, Menlo Park, Calif. 94025.
Gregory T. Parkos has been appointed vice chairman of the Whittaker Corp., Simi Valley, Calif. He had been president/chief operating officer until retiring.
Pathfinder's successful landing in rocky terrain has provided NASA with a Mars landing system option for future missions that may be required to go to scientifically rich, but hazardous, landing sites. Wesley T. Huntress, NASA associate administrator for space science, said the demonstrated flexibility of the Pathfinder airbags may influence some landing system design decisions in the future.
