Photograph: Astronaut Joe Tanner works outside the shuttle repairing the Hubble Space Telescope with Earth 300 mi. below and the Sun overhead. United Space Alliance is working with NASA to ensure safety is not compromised in the new contract. The U.S. space shuttle program is in the initial phase of a new NASA/contractor relationship that offers the potential of more streamlined operations at less cost.
Also, Mark R. Rosekind, chief of the aviation operations branch of the Flight Management and Human Factors Div. of the NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., and Patricia W. Andrews, manager of global aircraft services for the Mobil Business Resources Corp. and organizer of the FSF Fatigue Countermeasures Task Force, won FSF President's Citations for Outstanding Achievement in Safety Leadership. Rosekind was honored for providing the basic research for principles and guidelines for business flying rest scheduling.
The FMS/GPS Integration Unit is designed to provide the switching and logic circuitry needed for integration of the Rockwell Collins FMS-800 System on existing aircraft. The unit provides an interface between the FMS/GPS system and preexisting inertial navigation, VOR/Tacan, automatic direction finder, flight guidance computers and other equipment. The unit is housed in a 3/8 ATR enclosure that can be installed in a standard Arinc 404A mounting tray. A 318-pin, three-gang connector at the rear of the unit allows for connection with the aircraft bus.
The USD 15S/AF is a large-screen ultrasonic flaw detector for aerospace applications. Features include a square wave pulser that enhances penetration power, a data logger that stores up to 1,200 thickness reading, a high-low limit monitor for thickness gauging and an A-scan compare function for displaying stored and active A-scans simultaneously. The unit includes a 40 dB. dynamic range DAC. The unit weighs 19 lb. An 8-hr. battery weighs another 9 lb. Krautkramer Branson, 50 Industrial Park Road, Lewistown, Pa. 17044.
The Safe Flight N1 Computer has been approved for use on both the Raytheon Beechjet 400A (left) and Cessna Citation Ultra. It displays real-time target N1 thrust settings as a percentage of rpm. for takeoff, climb, cruise and go-around modes. The device monitors ram air temperature and pressure altitude from the aircraft's digital air data bus, along with environmental control system configuration and anti-ice mode to compute the appropriate N1. The single-piece, panel-mounted unit weighs less than 1 lb.
Rescor 901 is an alumina-oxide adhesive and coating for use on ceramic fiber and composite materials. The coating can be brushed or sprayed on, or parts can be dipped in it. Rescor 901 is resistant to chemicals, solvents, oxidizing and reducing atmospheres and molten nonferrous metals. The material protects against diffusion and wetting in brazing or sintering processes. Cotronics Corp., 3379 Shore Pkwy., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11235.
The Rugged-UPS Series of uninterruptible power supplies is designed for use in harsh physical and electrical environments, including tracked and other military vehicles. The units can operate on 80-265 v. a.c. at frequencies of 47-66 Hz. while also accepting 22-32 v. d.c. They will automatically switch to d.c. if the a.c. power fails. In the event of a d.c. failure, the UPS will switch to its internal battery. Acumentrics Corp., 14 Southwest Park, Westwood, Mass. 02090.
The U.K. airports group BAA posted a 407-million-pound ($728-million) pretax profit for the year ending Mar. 31, a 2.6% decline from the previous year. Passenger traffic at its seven U.K. airports was up 4.6%, to 98 million. Profits were undercut by a $40-million-pound ($66-million) write-off related to delays in government approval for Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport. A public inquiry will not be completed until next July, and the earliest the new facility could open is 2004.
Light-emitting diodes, previously limited largely to display applications, now can be substituted for incandescent bulbs in many cases. LEDs can have lifetimes of 100,000 hr. or more and are more resistant to shock, vibration, frequent switching and environmental extremes than filament bulbs. Configured as multichip or multiLED arrays, they can meet the off-angle, multispectral and brightness requirements formerly satisfied only by incandescents. LEDs also operate more efficiently, which reduces power requirements.
James P. Huntoon has been named mid-Atlantic sales manager for SimuFlite Training International, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. He was a supervisor of sales representatives for SimuFlite's Quick Turn program. Mohammed Al Habbai has been appointed manager in Baku, Azerbaijan, for Emirates. He was retail and government sales manager at the airline's headquarters in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
THE U.S. AIR FORCE HAS GRANTED initial flight release certification to the Pratt&Whitney F119, clearing the way for the engine to power the F-22 Raptor on its first flight, now expected late this month. Pratt&Whitney has delivered four engines to support F-22 flight tests, including Engine No. 5 (see photo). It was tested atthe company's Middletown, Conn., facility before being sent to Lockheed Martin earlier this year. The engine is now mounted in the first F-22 flight test aircraft. Ground runs of F119s installed in the aircraft are expected to begin shortly.
Photograph: Major fuselage sections of the first MD-95 are joined at Douglas Aircraft's final assembly line. First flight is set for the second quarter of next year. Final assembly of the first 100-seat MD-95 transport has begun at Douglas Aircraft Co., marking a critical phase of the program in which major airframe components arriving from a global network of supplier-partners must fit precisely as they are joined.
Photograph: Aerospatiale has final assembly responsibility for Airbus A300-600, A310, A320 and A330/A340 transports. The first shortened-fuselage 250-seat A330-200 is shown. In a sudden reversal, France is promoting a minimum-change restructuring plan for Airbus Industrie to protect national industrial assets. ``There could be no simple solution [to the requirement to restructure Airbus]. But we should not dream about forming a hypothetical unified company,'' Aerospatiale Chairman/CEO Yves Michot said during an in-house seminar held here in southern France.
Photograph: The control center for Globalstar's 48 on-line satellites and eight spares will have to handle a spacecraft contact every 90 sec. If one were to undertake a study of the way spacecraft are controlled from the ground, the Hubble Space Telescope would certainly represent the old way of doing business.
Jacques Pellas, who has been general manager for total quality for Dassault Aviation, has been appointed general manager for military support. He has been succeeded by Jean-Gerard Roussel, who will remain general manager for space assisted by Michel Albert.
Photograph: The Airbus Industrie A330 high-capacity twinjet transport is playing a major role in the European consortium's effort to acquire an increased market share. Commercial, military and space flight operations are changing dramatically, pushed for the most part by the need to do more with less. Some of the insights revealed by aircraft operators are strikingly counter-intuitive. As a case in point, Lufthansa elected to have aircraft from several manufacturers in its fleet.
Photograph: The Canadian National Research Council uses a twin-engine Bell 412HP helicopter, equipped with the direct voice input system, as its advanced systems research aircraft. Recent tests conducted by the National Research Council of Canada prove a direct voice input (DVI) system can enhance situational awareness in specific helicopter operations.
The House National Security Committee has put language in its version of the new defense bill that would require the Administration to send an annual ballistic missile threat update to Congress. The demand was triggered by Republican ire over the failure of allegedly politicized intelligence estimates to predict North Korea's recent fielding of the Nodong long-range ballistic missile--something some intelligence sources aren't even sure has really happened (AW&ST June 9, p. 25).
Edward D. Mendenhall, director of flight operations for the Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., Savannah, Ga., has received the Flight Safety Foundation's Adm. Luis de Florez Flight Safety Award for leadership in developing training strategies to reduce controlled-flight-into-terrain accidents. Joan Sullivan Garrett, president of MedAire Inc., won the FSF Business Aviation Meritorious Service Award for founding her company, which provides professional assistance 24 hr. a day worldwide through electronic communications.
Simulink 2.1, Stateflow and Real-Time Workshop 2.1 comprise a suite of programs for modeling, simulating and prototyping real-time embedded systems applications. They provide a fully integrated solution for addressing key engineering design tasks required for complex system development from modeling initial design concepts through simulation and rapid prototyping. The MathWorks Inc., 24 Prime Park Way, Natick, Mass. 01760-1500.
Mathansr is a program that allows shop floor workers to quickly solve math problems such as calculating dimensions and areas of geometrical shapes. It can save workers time while also eliminating calculation errors. The program is a module that runs with Microsoft Excel. Users can only enter numbers in unlocked cells, making Mathansr forgiving. Solveware, P.O. Box 7669, Jupiter, Fla. 33468-7669.
Carl L. Smothers has become vice president-corporate development of the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp., Austin, Tex. He was business development manager for the Corporate Research and Development Laboratories of Texas Instruments.
