Development Agency is investigating the deaths of 500 cocks and hens that apparently were overcome from sound waves in a rocket test. The incident occurred May 16 when the space agency was testing the performance of a propellant on Hokkaido Island. Fifty kilograms (110 lb.) of the propellant were ignited and the sound wave it created apparently caused the fowl to flee to a corner of their coop, crushing themselves to death. The coop was more than 4 mi. from the test center.
Approved Boeing's $14-billion merger with McDonnell Douglas. The pact remains to be endorsed by the boards of directors of both companies and--more importantly--European Commission anti-trust regulators.
Advanced Navigation and Positioning Corp., of Hood River, Ore., has won a $1.7-million contract to install its Transponder Landing System at Subic Bay International Airport in the Philippines. The TLS is planned to provide Category-1 approach capability for Subic's Runway 25, which will increase airport capability during high winds and the monsoon season. Mountainous terrain and signal interference restrict the siting of a conventional instrument landing system to serve the approach.
Photograph: United has offered round-the-world service, linking the U.S., Europe and Asia, since December, 1995. It operates 26 747-400s. A new work culture has displaced labor-management brawling; still, the flight attendants' contract remains unsettled In its recovery from the worst downturn in airline history, United Airlines has evolved into one of the dominant international air carriers envisioned by U.S. deregulation advocates two decades ago.
James Silva has become laboratory manager of Space Electronics Inc. of San Diego. He was manager of destructive physical analysis for Hi-Rel Laboratories.
Of subcritical nuclear tests was conducted at the Nevada Test Site on July 2, to measure the phase characteristics of plutonium under pressures up to several million atmospheres, to provide data for computer models of nuclear bombs (AW&ST Jan. 22, 1996, p. 52). The Los Alamos National Laboratory-sponsored ``Rebound'' test simultaneously detonated three separate experiments, using a total of 160 lb. of high explosive to apply three pressure levels to a total of 3.3 lb. of plutonium. The test was conducted in a sealed chamber 960 ft.
Artist's rendering shows SeaBase, a mobile floating U.S. military logistics center being studied by the U.S. Navy. The U.S. Office of Naval Research is negotiating a $4-5-million contract with Norway's Kvaerner Maritime to perform a feasibility study on the dynamically positioned platform and troop carrier concept. Preliminary specifications include a 5,300-ft.-long runway, capable of accommodating aircraft as large as the McDonnell Douglas C-17 transport, plus hangars and housing for up to 10,000 troops.
Made first flights last week. The Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter for India flew from the Zhukovsky flight test center on July 1. The prototype multirole fighter is equipped with canards and thrust vectoring of its two Lyulka-Saturn AL-37FU engines. While initial deliveries of the Su-30MK, without thrust vectoring, began earlier this year, the thrust-vectored-equipped aircraft will be delivered in 2000. The first two-seat Kamov-52 Alligator made its first flight on the same day from the helicopter manufacturer's test facility.
With the completion of geostationary transfer operations for its Fenyun 2 meteorological satellite, China Great Wall Industries is counting a second successful launch in a month. FY-2 was placed at 105 deg. E. Long. following its June 10 launch on a Long March 3 booster from China's Xichang launch center. Only a month before, the Long March returned to service after a nine-month hiatus following a series of failures (AW&ST May 19, p. 26). The China Aerospace Corp. FY-2 is spin stabilized and carries a scan radiometer and a water vapor detection instrument.
As part of a program to expand service to international destinations from its main hub at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), American Airlines plans to add 9-12 additional gates adjacent to Terminal 2W. Construction is scheduled to be completed late in 1998. The new gates would be used chiefly to help make DFW a major gateway to Mexico, Latin and South America, according to American Chairman Robert L. Crandall. He said the airline will retain its older facilities in Terminal 2E and 3E.
Zhoushan, an island city on China's mid-Eastern seaboard and the country's largest seafood base, is to get its first airport this month, when a $40-million facility opens after five years of construction. The airport will have a single 8,200-ft. runway and has drawn applications for routes from six Chinese regional carriers, according to the official China Daily. Until now, the region of 1,339 islands south of Shanghai has had no rail or air connection.
Lufthansa German Airlines and Vlaamse Luchttransportmaatschappij (VLM), a Dutch Fokker F50 operator, have established a code-sharing agreement. Initially, the agreement will cover 104 weekly VLM flights linking London City Airport to Rotterdam and Dusseldorf Express Airport in Moenchengladbach, Germany. In September, it will be extended to cover new joint daily service between Munich and Antwerp. The agreement also entails mutual frequent-flier recognition and marketing, sales and customer relations services.
The first U.S.-built section for the new International Space Station has been shipped to its Kennedy Space Center launch site, a major milestone in the program. The Boeing Node-1 unit is shown here at the Kennedy Space Station Processing Facility beginning checkout for launch on the shuttle Endeavour, which is scheduled for early 1999. The node was flown to Kennedy from Huntsville, Ala., on board a U.S. Air Force C-5 transport. Endeavour's crew will use the shuttle's arm to dock the node onto the Russian FGB spacecraft.
What sort of weather the Mars Pathfinder would encounter at its scheduled July 4 touchdown, the first spacecraft landing on the planet in two decades. Hubble Space Telescope images taken June 27 revealed a dust storm churning through deep canyons just 600 mi. south of Pathfinder's landing site. But Hubble astronomers were predicting the dust would stay confined to the canyons, meaning Pathfinder would likely encounter a dark blue sky with bright white clouds.
Law enforcement aviation continues its rapid growth. A recent survey of 106 flight departments by the Airborne Law Enforcement Assn. (ALEA) revealed that 25% were less than five years old. These agencies had a fleet of over 500 aircraft including more than 120 military surplus airframes, some used as non-flying spares. For the 49 units that provided detailed pilot experience data, median pilot flight time was 3,250 hr. and median time-in-model about 1,500 hr. Yearly unit flight totals averaged 1,886 hr. in 1995, the latest year for which data is available.
Early next year, TNT Express Worldwide will leave Germany and move its European hub to Belgium. TNT selected Liege-Bierset airport in southeast Belgium to base its 30 British Aerospace BAe-146s and a fleet of trucks. Liege, formerly a Belgian air force base, is in the middle of the Paris-Amsterdam-Frankfurt triangle and a high-density highway system.
Illustration: Diagram: AAAS Operation Anew system is under development that provides automated airport advisory services, including the location of transponder-equipped traffic, to pilots flying into uncontrolled airports. Based on the tracking function of the Transponder Landing System (TLS) built by Advanced Navigation and Positioning Corp. (ANPC), Hood River, Ore., the Automated Airport Advisory Service (AAAS) detects and tracks the position of aircraft operating a transponder within 10 mi. of the host airport and up to 3,000 ft. above it.
An Airbus Industrie A300-600ST Super Transporter outsize cargo aircraft is scheduled to carry in the next two years 57-ft.-long ship tanks from Clermont-Ferrand, in central France, to Le Havre harbor. The empty weight of each of the 18 tanks is 99,000 lb., including support jigs. The tanks are being manufactured by Societe Europeenne de Chaudronnerie Industrielle and are the biggest cargo load ever carried by an aircraft, according to Airbus officials. Three A300-600STs are operated by Airbus to transfer aircraft subassemblies to the consortium's final assembly lines.
Photograph: Denel is developing the A-Darter missile under a technology demonstration program for the South African air force. Qualification tests are underway of the missile's electrically-actuated thrust vector control unit. Several new missile designs and teaming arrangements were unveiled at the Paris air show, including a new short-range missile by Denel of South Africa. The missile, called the A-Darter, is being developed by Denel's Kentron Div. under a technology demonstration program for the South African government.
Jean-Louis Peree has been appointed maintenance engineering director and Ric Allison vice president-sales of Bombadier Regional Aircraft, Downsview, Ontario. Peree was technical director/head of quality assurance of Brit air. Allison was director of sales for operating lessors.
Photograph: Scientists were hoping to capture images as detailed as 200 meters in resolution when Near whizzed by asteroid 253 Mathilde late last week. NASA's Discovery program, aimed at exploring the solar system with low-cost spacecraft, is set to yield its first science with a flyby imaging of an asteroid and a landing on Mars within a week. The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (Near) spacecraft was slated to fly within 750 mi. (1,200 km.) of the main belt asteroid 253 Mathilde on June 27, the closest approach a spacecraft has ever made to an asteroid.
SOUTH AFRICA'S ALTECH DEFENSE SYSTEMS has selected Virtual Prototype Inc.'s simulation software suite for a variety of simulation projects for the South African Defense Force. These include reconfigurable real-time software programs, usable with commercially available hardware for flight simulation and flight training in realistic tactical environments, with separate programs for both fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft.
France's Potez Aeronautique, an airframe subassemblies manufacturer, will produce empennages for Northrop Grumman's E-2C Hawkeye early warning and control aircraft. The work package includes horizontal stabilizers, elevators, rudders, vertical fins and tabs. The long-term agreement is tied to the French Navy's plan to procure four E-2Cs for the nuclear-powered Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier. In addition to building empennages for France's E-2Cs, Potez is scheduled to produce subassemblies for the U.S. Navy and other export customers' aircraft.
