In a renewed effort to conclude a U.S.-France bilateral accord, the U.S. Transportation Dept. and the French Transport Ministry are scheduled for another round of negotiations in the next few weeks. Last month, exploratory talks ended--as expected--in intense disagreement about the transitory period that would precede the open skies agreement. The French government firmly intends to impose a 9-year phased liberalization period that would give Air France more time to slash costs and compete against U.S. carriers in a deregulated environment. The U.S.
Lufthansa German Airlines, United and three other airlines will expand existing bilateral cooperation agreements into a multilateral partnership that they claim will be the largest, most comprehensive and first truly global alliance in the industry.
Gary W. Fortmeyer has become director of program management within the Command Systems Div. of the Telephonics Corp., Farmingdale, N.Y. He was program manager for the company's Multi-input Tracking and Ground System.
U. S./Russian operations on Mir indicate the new International Station should be more dependent than past programs on in-flight maintenance as a key "foundation for redundancy" governing safety and operations. This would differ from previous NASA policy, where specific backup hardware has always been the basis for redundancy, said U.S. flight controllers based here at the Russian Mir control center.
The Society of British Aerospace Companies, organizers of the Farnborough air show, have decided to advance the dates of the biennial event from early September to the last week in July, starting in the year 2000. The shift places Farnborough in even more direct competition with the Berlin air show, which is held in May on the same two-year cycle. SBAC's move is in response to exhibitors' desire to have more time to prepare for the subsequent Paris air show, which is held in June on alternating years.
Revenues from Emirates' growing cargo business represented 15.7% of its overall airline revenue last year--tonnage rose 20.1%--and its growth is expected to continue this year.
EUROCOPTER PLANS TO MAKE a record-breaking flight with an AS 350B3 Ecureuil helicopter across the Atlantic in early June. The single-engine helicopter will be inflight refueled through a system designed by the French manufacturer Intertechnique. The French team claims no one has attempted a transatlantic non-stop helicopter flight. The flight is scheduled to start at Teterboro (N.J.) airport on June 6 and finish 24-27 hr. later at Le Bourget near Paris.
THE FBI SPENDING on counterterrorism has tripled in three years from $93 million to $243 million and the FBI is hiring people to fill 1,260 new positions funded last year to support the effort, according to FBI Director Louis Freeh. CIA Director George Tenet told the Senate Appropriations Committee at the same hearing last week that the CIA works closely with the FAA and keeps close track of terrorist tactics and techniques. He added the CIA doesn't need any more money to do the job, it just needs to focus on being aggressive in countering the threat.
A pair of new instruments installed on the Hubble Space Telescope in February have yielded their first returns, providing ever-deeper looks into space and time. Images released by NASA suggest that the instruments will live up to their promise to answer basic questions about the formation of galaxies, black holes and stars.
THE NEW STAR ALLIANCE started with an embarrassing bang in London last week. On the same day that executives unveiled the new partnership in Frankfurt (see p. 27), aircraft from two of the carriers were involved in a ground collision at Heathrow airport. An Air Canada 747-400 and a United 777 scraped wings while both were taxiing to holding points for takeoff. No one was injured and both aircraft returned to their stands. An inspection found only superficial damage to one of the 747's winglets, which was repaired, and the aircraft departed for Toronto 3 hr. later.
A Continental Airlines crew mistakenly landed at a World War 2-era field 4.6 mi. from its intended destination, Corpus Christi (Tex.) International Airport, only days before Continental was named a top U.S. carrier based on customer satisfaction.
Who ultimately gets the blame for new defense cuts--the Pentagon, the Administration or a Republican Congress--is up in the air. Four years ago, the Republicans tried to portray President Clinton as soft on defense issues. They added money to his budget request, which the Pentagon gladly accepted. But when the Republicans captured control of Congress, it became obvious they would have to deal with the budgetary consequences. Beleaguered Pentagon officials pointed out that Congress had been adding back what the White House had cut.
Sony Trans Com, Irvine, Calif., may be short-circuiting manufacturers of sophisticated, expensive inflight entertainment systems with its portable Video Walkman. A recent order by Delta Air Lines for over 2,000 units brings sales of Video Walkmans to airlines, charter and business jet operators to nearly 15,000 worldwide. The hand-held, wireless viewing device usually is distributed to premium-class passengers after takeoff. It has a 4-in. screen, weighs less than 8 lb. and can be started, stopped, fast-forwarded or replayed according to the passenger's wishes.
Establishment of a planned 66-satellite constellation for the Iridium global communications system is underway with the launch of five of the spacecraft on a single McDonnell Douglas Delta 2 booster from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. The May 5 launch was conducted nearly four months later then previously planned as a result of the Jan. 17 failure of a Delta 2 carrying a Global Positioning System spacecraft at Cape Canaveral (AW&ST Jan. 27, p. 31).
This liquid air breathing apparatus will provide 1-2 hr. of breathing air while also providing cooling for a firefighter's garments, which reduces heat stress and extends a suited individual's work time. The system uses technology developed for NASA to provide an astronaut training life support system, as well as the Energy Dept. for hazardous material laboratory clean up. Oceaneering Space Systems, 16665 Space Center Blvd., Houston, Tex. 77058.
European regional airlines' healthy traffic growth is expected to continue in the next few years, in a slowly-evolving deregulated market. In 1996, 70 airlines operating 859 aircraft carried 50 million passengers, a strong 12.9% increase over 1995. This year, in sharp contrast with a 7% traffic increase forecast by major European airlines, a healthy 14% growth is expected by regional carriers, according to European Regions Airline Assn. (ERA) officials.
Space shuttle Mission 84 is set to liftoff this week bound for Mir with the heaviest logistics load ever delivered to the station. It will carry substantial hardware to replace or repair Mir's aging systems. The flight will use a twin Spacehab module configuration to deliver nearly 2,600 lb. of Russian logistics supplies, including a large new oxygen generator and additional repair kits to backstop the Mir's cooling loops and other systems. The flight will also carry nearly a half ton of U.S. science hardware to the Russian space station.
Aram M. Mika has become vice president-business development and advanced programs and technology for Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space, Sunnyvale, Calif. He succeeds John Dietz, who is now vice president/general manager of Lockheed Martin Special Programs. Mika was president of the Hughes Aircraft Co.'s Space Electro Optics unit.
The S-TECH System 20 is a roll-axis flight control system for general aviation aircraft that offers roll stability, turn command capability, heading hold when interfaced with an optional heading system and enroute and navigation tracking. An enhanced version, the System 30 has the same features, along with altitude hold and out-of-pitch trim annunciation. The autopilot is integrated into the Turn Coordinator, so the added system does not use valuable panel space. S-TECH Corp., 1 S-TECH Way, Mineral Wells, Tex. 76067.
The LD90-3100 EHS-GF and LD90-3300 EHS-GF are pulsed laser range finders with a glass-fiber coupled remote optical head and split optics design for easy integration with two or three-dimensional profiling systems. Applications include terrain profiling from an aircraft and vehicle collision prediction and avoidance. The -3100 has a typical range of 200 meters (660 ft.) with an accuracy of +/- 2 cm. (0.8 in.) and 4 mm. (0.1 in.) resolution. The -3300 offers 300-meter (990 ft.) range with accuracy of +/- 10 cm. (4.0 in.). Both models have a 12-KHz. measurement update range.
Jeffrey L. Markel has been named president of the Wayne, N.J.-based CNI Systems Div. of GEC-Marconi North America (GMNA) and Raymond Daugherty president of the Greenlawn, N.Y.-based Electronic Systems Div. James Sullivan has been appointed vice president-finance of GMNA. Other vice presidents named were: John Sputz, business development; John Currier, general counsel, contracts and compliance; and Jack Sweet, human resources.
THE FAA HAS PLACED a $12.2-million order for trace explosives detection equipment including $6.2 million for 50 Egis systems from Chelmsford, Mass.-based Thermedics Detection Inc. Barringer Instruments and Ion Track Instruments also received orders for trace equipment. The systems can detect minute traces of plastic explosives with low false alarm rates. The FAA is evaluating other trace systems and plans to buy more than 500 detectors for rapid baggage screening.
Belgian startup carrier CityBird plans to initiate service between Brussels International Airport and the New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles areas in early June with its second MD-11. The full-service, low-fare carrier will charge one-way coach fares as low as $148 from Newark International Airport until June 30. The flights will depart Newark on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays starting on June 2. The minimum fare will rise to $184 starting July 1.
The Clinton Administration plans to add as much as $2 billion for U.S. National Missile Defense (NMD) efforts to beef up a test program that has been widely criticized as inadequate. The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) had planned just three NMD intercept tests through 1999. The extra money, the result of recommendations in the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), would enable more testing of exo-atmospheric kill vehicles (EKV)--the vital NMD interceptor technology--over the next three years.
The final U.S. Air Force report on the failure of a McDonnell Douglas Delta 2 booster here Jan. 17 cites the potential of a ground mishandling incident or even sabotage by gunfire as ``credible failure modes'' that could have caused the rupture of the vehicle's No. 2 Alliant Techsystems solid motor and explosion of the vehicle. The Air Force Delta Accident Investigation Board which had final jurisdiction over the analysis was unable to isolate a definitive cause and neither the launch team nor the booster's contractors are being blamed for the accident.
