The Allied Pilots Assn. has approved a contract proposal with American Airlines, paving the way for the carrier to order up to 91 Boeing aircraft for delivery beginning in 1998.
China's mounting efforts at rapid military modernization have rekindled the U.S. debate over whether Beijing could become the premier threat of the 21st century or merely seeks to update its large and antiquated forces.
Gains in aviation safety are blocked by the tendency of many corporate and government leaders to ignore potential problems and punish individuals who try to bring those problems to light before an accident occurs, according to industry officials and safety investigators. Further reducing accident rates among commercial airlines and other aviation operations, these officials said, will require those leaders to take several dramatic actions.
The decision by Logicon Inc. last week to join forces with Northrop Grumman Corp. was only one of several recent mergers and acquisitions involving lower-tier U.S. aerospace/defense companies. In the aeronautics and aviation support sector, Calspan SRL Corp. and Veda International Inc. intend to merge to create an independent information technology and research, development, test and engineering (RDT&E) company, with sales of more than $250 million. Both firms are headquartered in the Washington area and are privately held.
The Ilyushin Design Bureau rolled out the first production IL-96T cargo transport on Apr. 26 at Voronezh, Russia. First flight is set for May 18, and Ilyushin officials plan to exhibit the aircraft in June at the Paris air show. The four-engine freighter is powered by Pratt&Whitney PW2037 engines each rated at 37,000 lb. of thrust, and is equipped with Collins avionics. Collins Air Transport Div. is the supplier and avionic system integrator for the IL-96T and the passenger variant, the IL-96M. Six 8-X-8-in.
Hans-G. Koch has joined the board of directors of Lufthansa Systems as head of the Marketing and Sales Depts. Chief Executive Officer Peter Franke now concentrates on business operations.
Peter Challinor (see photo) has been appointed group president-landing gear and flight control operations for Coltec Industries, Charlotte, N.C., overseeing the Menasco subsidiaries. He was president of the subsidiary Walbar Inc.
Orders for small jet aircraft from U.S. regional airlines have accelerated in the past year and are expected to account for a growing share of the regional airline industry's fleet over the next decades.
A weapons proliferation expert urged a Senate panel last week to investigate whether the Clinton Administration's pro-export policies are inadvertently helping Iran acquire U.S. weapons technology via China. Gary Milhollin said a lack of congressional oversight ``was one of the reasons the Commerce Dept. approved so many sensitive American exports to Iraq'' prior to the Gulf war. Now, China may be using high tech equipment from the U.S.
Paul A. Ross (see photo) has been appointed SaltLake City-based group vice president-space and strategic systems for Alliant Techsystems. He was vice president/general manager of the Space and Strategic Propulsion Div. of the Aerospace Systems Group.
This integrated sensor package allows users of Turbine Technologies Ltd.'s turbojet engine Mini-Lab to gather additional data points. The additional sensors measure pressure at five points and temperature at five. Fuel flow can be measured with a custom-designed rotameter-type flow meter that relies on a high-output light emitting diode and an infrared photo detector. The sensors are routed to a central access panel, which can in turn be connected to dedicated instrumentation or a personal computer for data acquisition and display.
For all of its strengths in airborne radar and electronic systems, Northrop Grumman Corp. is widely viewed as an also-ran in the defense industry--outgunned by Lockheed Martin and soon to be eclipsed by Raytheon, assuming its purchase of Hughes' and Texas Instruments' defense operations is approved by the U.S. government.
Delta Air Lines' head of safety is leaving to help Airbus Industrie refine the human-factors designs of its aircraft flight decks and pilot training programs. The airline's vice president of safety and compliance, John K. Lauber, handed Delta Chairman Ronald W. Allen his resignation last week. An international authority on human factors, Lauber is to become the vice president of training for Airbus Industrie of North America in mid-June.
Sidney Hurst has been named vice president-maintenance of the Eagle Aviation Group and Elliott A. Epstein director of system ground services for Las Vegas-based Eagle Canyon Airlines.
The X-MET 880 is a portable alloy analysis system that uses X-ray fluorescence that can aid the detection of counterfeit or nonconforming aircraft parts. The system is configured to meet the needs of the aerospace industry. It uses a silicon-lithium X-ray detector housed in a cryogenically cooled, hand-held analysis probe and can successfully resolve the tightly spaced spectral peaks of halfnium, tantalum and tungsten, which are used in the latest superalloys. The detector's high signal-to-noise ratio allows fractional differences in these elements to be determined.
The CPU-46 is a single-board computer based on the Motorola 68040 microprocessor designed for use in military and industrial markets that require ruggedized equipment. The conduction-cooled board operates at temperatures of -55 to -85C and can withstand extreme levels of vibration, shock and humidity. Features include 16 megabytes of 3.3-v. dynamic random access memory that is expandable to 32 MB, a 68040 processor running at 33 MHz. and 4 MB of programmable flash memory. Radstone Technology Corp., 50 Craig Road, Montvale, N.J. 07645.
R. Dixon Speas is to receive the 1997 Award for Meritorious Service from the Washington-based National Business Aircraft Assn. for a lifetime of contributions that have advanced aviation interests. He was the founder of R. Dixon Speas Associates, Aviation Consulting Inc. and PRC Aviation.
The electronic GH-3000 is designed to replace electro-mechanical standby attitude, airspeed, altitude and navigation instruments. The device can provide airspeed, bank and pitch, altimeter, ILS glideslope, and airborne ILS localizer data on its active matrix liquid crystal display. It can be configured to visually match an aircraft's primary flight display system, making it easy for a pilot to transition from one instrument to the other.
AlliedSignal has begun developing lightweight receivers, transmitters and related hardware for aircraft-mounted Iridium communications. The company plans to offer single- and multichannel systems for all sizes of civil and military aircraft. As envisioned, Iridium users on the ground will be able to access the 66-satellite, low-altitude communications network using hand-held telephones.
The Basic Radiation Training Course is a CD-ROM-based multimedia program for personnel assigned to areas where potential radiation exposure exists. The 10-module course provides an overview of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's radiation safety program, as well as lessons including atomic structure, characteristics of ionizing radiation, biological effects of ionizing radiation and concepts of radiation protection. A certificate of completion can be printed out after a student passes a test included with the program.
A U.S. industry team has test-fired a hybrid propulsion rocket motor to an altitude of more than 100,000 ft. in a demonstration of technology that team members claim could revolutionize civil and military launch capabilities.
USAIRWAYS ANNOUNCED it will end jet service at nine cities, ground 22 older aircraft and consolidate both maintenance facilities and reservations operations during the next 18 months. USAirways Chairman and CEO Stephen M. Wolf and President Rakesh Gangwal said the airline had ``made great strides'' in many areas in the past year but other areas remained unchanged. The airline would reduce capacity by 6.5% by ending jet service in September to Albuquerque, Austin, Bangor, Maine, Cincinnati, Daytona Beach, Islip and Newburgh, N.Y., and Melbourne, Fla.
Neal Keating (see photo) has been named vice president/general manager of the Rockwell Collins Air Transport Div., Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He succeeds Clay Jones, who is now executive vice president of Rockwell's avionics and communications businesses.
