Jean-Paul Bechat, president/chief executive officer of Snecma, has been elected president of the GIFAS French aerospace industries association. He succeeeds Serge Dassault, chairman/CEO of Dassault Aviation.
Microvision of Seattle will deliver a virtual retinal display technology demonstrator to Boeing's Defense and Space Group next month. The lightweight, helmet-mounted single-eye system uses scanning, low-power lasers to ``paint'' rows of pixels on the wearer's retina, creating a high-resolution, full-color image, according to A.J. Yarmie, Microvision aerospace marketing manager. The VRD will be integrated with a Boeing simulation testbed with flight and various other imagery to be evaluated.
Unhappy with the FAA's use of its emergency authority to revoke pilot certificates, Sen. James Inhofe (R.-Okla.) and Rep. Elton Gallegly (R.-Calif.) are sponsoring a bill to curb the ``unbridled abuse of power.'' Inhofe, an active pilot and flight instructor, said the FAA uses its emergency revocation power when circumstances ``do not support such drastic action.'' The bill would give pilots two days to request an expedited hearing before the National Transportation Safety Board. The NTSB would then have seven days to decide if the action was justified.
To begin giving away its flagship product, the Satellite Tool Kit software. The software has thousands of features designed to help engineer, build and operate spacecraft, such as calculating how big solar panels should be by determining how long a satellite will be in shadows. The company has sold 1,500 copies of the software since 1992 at $10,000 a pop. But Analytical President and CEO Paul Graziani believes giving it away will greatly increase market penetration, thus spurring sales of ``add-on'' products that will more than offset the revenue loss.
Photograph: Consolidation is expected to strengthen Europe's research and development effort. An Aerospatiale 1,000-passenger ``flying wing'' transport concept is depicted in rendering. The French government has formally terminated plans to privatize Thomson-CSF despite vigorous calls from top European industry officials for the rapid privatization of state-controlled aerospace/defense companies.
Photograph: Eurofighter production funding, approved by the German cabinet during budget deliberations, now awaits a decision by parliament this fall. Industry and government partners in the Eurofighter program are looking for ways to minimize the delays in fielding the new aircraft caused by the German government's belated decision to approve funding for production. Despite the German cabinet's decision to include funding for production in its 1988 budget plan unveiled on July 11, the program is not totally out of the woods yet.
Civilian and military managers who oversee launch operations at the NASA Kennedy Space Center and the USAF Cape Canaveral Air Station are seeking approval from their respective headquarters to combine base support contracts for both the facilities. The objective is to save several million dollars in annual operating costs, with the hope those savings could be passed on to launch customers. The civilian and military launch facilities are now supported by different service contractors.
Atlantic Coast Airlines has taken delivery of its first Canadair Regional Jet, and it sports the airline's own livery and not that of its partner, United Express.
An image recognition system prototyped by BrainTech to detect and classify real-time video images has the ability to ``learn'' and continue to improve its performance as it operates, according to its developer. The Video Image Recognition System (VRS) could have a wide range of applications, including automatic target recognition for the military, industrial security, machine vision and robotic operations.
El Al Israel Airlines will initiate a second frequent-flier program, targeted at leisure travelers, this fall. The Loyal Traveler Club will allow spouses or any two others with the same address who are over the age of 12 to combine their points to earn free tickets or upgrades. Members, who will pay $25 to join, also will be allowed to buy as many as half the points needed for a bonus ticket. The points will cost 50 cents each. Mileage for flights after July 1 can be applied to the program.
Photograph: Safety board members said the accident could have been avoided if the pilots had used revised stall recovery procedures developed by Airborne Express in 1991. JOSEPH PRIES Inappropriate stall recovery control inputs and the flight crew's failure to correct them led to the crash of an Airborne Express DC-8-63 near Narrows, Va., last December that killed all six occupants of the aircraft, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn has called for a ``detailed reassessment'' of the Rafale fighter project as part of an overall review of defense spending ordered by Prime Minister Lionel Jospin earlier this month. The reevaluation could endanger a tentative follow-on order for 48 Rafales, approved by the previous conservative government. A previous initial low-volume initial production order for 13 aircraft was not questioned. In mid-June, the French general accounting office had said that there would not be enough money to finance all existing weapons procurement projects.
The privately held consulting and software-engineering firms Decision Focus Inc. and Aeronomics Inc. have agreed to merge as DFI/Aeronomics Inc. They will specialize in revenue management, extending it beyond airline use to the transport, travel and other industries.
Fred Cromer has been named vice president/chief financial officer of Continental Express. He was staff vice president-fleet management for Continental Airlines.
Photograph: First delivery of the C-27J Spartan, an upgraded derivative of the G.222 (shown at right), is scheduled for 2000. Alenia Aerospazio is on track to deliver in 2000 the first C-27J Spartan twin-turboprop military transport, one of several international efforts the Italian company has underway to expand its business base. Last month, Lockheed Martin Alenia Tactical Transport Systems (LMATTS) finalized the C-27J's design and launched the program.
Eurolot, a fully owned subsidiary of Polish flag carrier Lot, has begun 200 weekly flights between Warsaw and five other Polish cities. The unit, created last December to handle Lot's regional routes, is to be equipped with eight ATR 72s leased from Lot, plus another 2-5 turboprops in the 30-40-seat category to be acquired later. The first objective of Eurolot will be to return its loss making domestic operations to profitability by 2000-01.
HAS completed operational test and evaluation of Version 2 of its Mission Support System (AFMSS), the core automated mission planning support software developed by Sanders Information Systems Div. to support more than 25 Air Force aircraft platforms. The AFMSS includes more than 40 associated aircraft, weapon and electronics (A/W/E) software modules produced by 24 different developers. Version 2 has previously been established for the KC-135R and EF-111 and has now been extended to the F-16 and F-15E.
The National Weather Service's Aviation Weather Center is finding that distributing user-friendly weather forecast maps via the Internet is no piece of cake. The goal is to provide pilots with a four-dimensional database (time plus XYZ coordinates) from which they can create a weather map for a specific route. Called the Aviation Digital Data Service (ADDS), the program is intended to enhance the FAA's DUATS and allow pilots to create a more tailor-made weather prediction than they now get.
Has approved a rescue package for Alitalia that EC commissioner Neil Kinnock says will be the last bailout to be granted to European airlines. The commission approved a $1.6-billion package payable in three installments: $1 billion immediately--the remainder in 1998 and 1999, subject to EC scrutiny. The rescue package requires that Alitalia reduce its staff by 1,200, accelerate existing operating cost reductions, sell off numerous holdings, including its share in Malev of Hungary, and freeze its fleet at 157 aircraft until 2000.
The Indian air force (IAF) has begun operation of the Sukhoi Su-30 long-range interceptor/attack aircraft at the Lohegaon air base in Poona, in western India. The first squadron to deploy the Russian aircraft is the 24th Hunting Hawks (see photo), which previously operated the MiG-21M at Ambala in northern India.
Photograph: THE GERMAN AIR FORCE HAS AWARDED a joint venture of Daimler-Benz Aerospace Airbus GmbH. and Lufthansa Technik AG a contract to convert two Airbus A310 passenger aircraft into Multi-Role-Tanker/Transport (MRTT) configuration. The award constitutes the first order for the MRTT, a concept devised several years ago by Daimler-Benz Aerospace Airbus and Airbus Industrie to meet requirements for military tanker/transports. However, it does not constitute a launch order as such, since the A310s involved are used aircraft.
