LOCKHEED MARTIN TACTICAL AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS of Fort Worth delivered the first of 40 Block 50 F-16C fighters late last month to the Hellenic Air Force. The aircraft are to begin arriving in Greece later this year, and will form a new squadron. Five of the aircraft have been completed, and instructor pilot training will begin this summer at Luke AFB, Ariz. The aircraft are powered by General Electric F110-GE-129 IPE engines and equipped with Lockheed Martin's Low-Altitiude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night System.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is urging the FAA to require automatic ice detection and crew alerting systems for all Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia turboprop aircraft.
Airbus Industrie's supervisory board is expected to authorize offers to potential A340-600 launch customers shortly. The European consortium has completed the 378-seat long-range transport's design and is planning to make a choice on the aircraft's propulsion in the next few days. ``A final schedule has not been determined yet. But the [supervisory] board is slated to meet before the [June 15-22] Paris air show,'' Alan Pardoe, the Airbus A330/A340 product manager, said.
Mark Goodman has become special assistant to the president/chief executive officer of the Los Angeles-based Aerospace Corp., Edward C. (Pete) Aldridge, Jr. Goodman was director of international programs in the Office of Business Management of the Space Technology Applications Div.
A U.S. AIR FORCE A-10 Thunderbolt crashed about 9:30 p.m. near Gila Bend, Ariz., on May 27, killing 29-year-old Capt. Amy Lynn Svoboda. According to the Air Force, Svoboda had been flying for about 2 hr. on a training flight with another A-10 when the accident occurred. The second A-10 was not involved and returned to base. As of late last week, the cause of the crash remained unknown, but the aircraft struck the ground at high speed and there was no indication that the pilot had tried to eject, an Air Force official said.
Brian D. Dailey has become vice president-strategic development for the Lockheed Martin Corp., Bethesda, Md. He succeeds John F. Egan, who plans to retire. Dailey was vice president-business development for the Space and Strategic Missiles Sector.
Leo M. van Wijk, who has been managing director/chief operating officer, is expected to be appointed president/chief executive officer of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. He will succeed Pieter Bouw, who will resign effective Aug. 5. Peter Hartman, who has been vice president-engineering and maintenance, will become a managing director.
U.S. HOUSE SCIENCE COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr., (R.-Wis.) has introduced legislation designed to promote development of the commercial space industry. The Commercial Space Act of 1997 follows a similar bill that passed the House near the end of the last Congress but was never taken up by the Senate.
With the demand for business travel to Venezuela on the rise, American Airlines plans to increase the number of flights from its Miami hub to Caracas. One daily round-trip will be added to the regular schedule beginning June 15; another will begin operating July 1, but for the summer only. The extra services, utilizing Boeing 727-200s, will bring the daily total to four. American officials said the airline is adding services because of improving economic conditions in Venezuela.
CONSTELLATION COMMUNICATIONS INC. (CCI) has selected Europe's Matra Marconi Space to develop, build and launch satellites for its planned low-Earth orbit constellation. CCI initially plans to orbit 12 satellites around the equator to provide telephone service to rural and remote areas. The Reston, Va., company would add more spacecraft later for global coverage. CCI said Matra Marconi Space's contract is worth at least $600 million over the next three years.
BWIA International and Air Jamaica are preparing to cooperate in several areas to reduce operating costs. The two Caribbean carriers signed a memorandum of understanding to work together in purchasing, customer service, flight operations, engineering and support services. A working group has been created to study longer-term opportunities such as code-sharing and cross-utilization of aircraft. The two airlines are looking to expand the alliance to include other operators in the region.
The French administration's initiative to impose Jean-Marie Luton, the European Space Agency's outgoing managing director, as Arianespace chairman/CEO, has succeeded. In a surprise vote, the European launch systems company's board approved the French proposal. Francis Avanzi, Arianespace's president and chairman/CEO designate, is scheduled to leave the company in the next few days.
THE U.S. AIR FORCE AND NAVY'S JSF/Integrated Subsystem Technology Critical Design Review team has authorized Lockheed Martin to proceed with fabrication and flight-testing of an all-electric flight control actuation system for the Joint Strike Fighter program.
The crash of ValuJet Flight 592 and in-flight breakup of TWA Flight 800 have opened air safety issues to sensational treatment in a variety of media. Sadly, the intense focus on these two accidents and their causes is diverting public attention from safety issues that are more critical.
Designs for all the major systems on NASA's X-34 technology demonstrator have been frozen, paving the way for fabrication to begin in anticipation of a flight debut late next year.
Capt. Donald J. Lee has won the AAA's Aviator of the Year Award for his work while a first lieutenant as the AH-64D Apache Longbow platoon leader. Kenny Deskins, assistant director/senior training specialist at the Army Aviation Logistics School, Ft. Eustis, Va., has received the Joseph P. Cribbins Department of the Army Civilian Award. Sgt. Troy E. Pontello has won the Aviation Soldier of the Year Award, and CW3 David E. Milligan has been honored with the James H. McClellan Aviation Safety Award.
Joe Norris has been named chairman/chief executive officer of Sullivan Higdon and Sink, Wichita, Kan., effective July 1. He will succeed Vaughn Sink, who will retire. Norris has been president/creative director. Rand Mikulecky has been promoted to succeed Norris as president from senior vice president-client services and Sam Williams to executive vice president/chief financial officer from senior vice president. And, Lynell Stucky has been promoted to vice president from director of marketing.
Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R.-Iowa) is trying to derail any nomination of Pentagon Comptroller John Hamre to be deputy secretary of Defense. In a May 27 letter to President Clinton, Grassley alleged that Hamre has ``authorized and protected'' a process by which payments to contractors for work in progress are illegally charged to the wrong accounts. Hamre has said he strongly disagrees with congressional auditors' conclusions that Defense lacks sufficient financial controls.
Photograph: Airlines servicing South Africa have grown to 80 from 20, and South African Airways operates the most flights on the busy north-south routes. Aviation authorities from 55 nations have proposed a broad list of recommendations designed to remedy critical deficiencies in Africa's airspace.
U.S. astronaut Shannon Lucid received the Order of Friendship Medal from Russian President Boris Yeltsin at a Kremlin ceremony honoring Russian cosmonauts and international astronauts who flew on board the Russian space station Mir in 1996. The Order of Friendship Medal is one of the highest Russian civilian awards and the highest award that can be presented to a non-citizen.
A COMPOSITE IMAGE prepared by Boston University astronomers shows three distinct tails extending from comet Hale-Bopp, including a sodium gas tail that was first observed in early April by European astronomers. The scientists aren't sure of the source of the tail, which is too faint to be seen with the naked eye. ``The position of this sodium tail and its pattern of brightness away from the nucleus are very different from the normal [ion and dust] comet tails,'' said BU astronomer Michael Mendillo.
One such mission, called Polar, may be in especially good shape. First, managers think they figured out how to cut ops costs to 30-35% of those expected in Fiscal 1998, its nominal final year. Then Polar made a mass media splash last week. One of its science teams announced that small comet-like objects are bombarding Earth by the thousands each day, only to break up harmlessly 15,000-600 mi. above the surface. The team, led by the University of Iowa's Louis A. Frank, had been saying that since 1986, based on data from the Dynamics Explorer 1 satellite.
Final assembly of the MD-95 transport is underway at McDonnell Douglas with the mating of the wing and center fuselage barrel section of the first test aircraft at Long Beach, Calif. The initial aircraft is scheduled to be nearly assembled by the end of this year, and ready for first flight by the second quarter of 1998. Initial deliveries are set to begin in mid-1999.
