THE SPACE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS has been positioned onto Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in preparation for the shuttle's sixth flight to dock with Russia's Mir space station. NASA managers last week cleared Atlantis for launch on that flight, shuttle Mission 84, on May 15, during a roughly 7-min. window that opens at about 4:08 a.m. EDT. The precise window and launch time will be determined by Mir's orbital position and Atlantis' ascent capabilities on launch day.
By almost every measure, ValuJet Airlines is doing probably as good a job as anyone could reasonably expect of rebuilding its operation following last year's business near-disaster.
American Airlines' new terminal at the Miami International Airport, scheduled to be fully operational in 2004, will feature 171 ticket counter positions, 32 curbside check-in stations and 8,900 seats in the gate lounge areas. The nearly $1-billion facility also is being designed with 1.4 mi. of moving walkways in the terminal area that will reduce the unassisted walking distance to a mere 900 ft.
Airport taxes on international passengers rose in 33 of 52 destinations surveyed by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) between June, 1994, and February, 1997, and went down in only three. In most cases, the increases were substantial, with 16 of the airports charging passengers between $20 and $49.34 (Vancouver).
The first spacecraft mission to Mercury since 1973 and a proposal to deliver samples from Martian moons to Earth were among five finalists selected by NASA for its next round of Discovery planetary spacecraft missions. The missions were chosen last week, from 34 proposals, for four-month feasibility studies. NASA plans to select one or two of the proposals in October for full-scale development. The missions would launch by September, 2002, following four previously-selected Discovery spacecraft.
The Los Angeles City Council has voted to prohibit all solicitation in the terminals, parking lots and sidewalks at LAX, at the urging of the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners. ``Passengers and visitors alike uniformly complain that solicitation at LAX is annoying and disruptive, and interferes with their movement at the airport,'' Commission President Dan Garcia said. Airport officials cited the 1992 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Society for Krishna Consciousness vs. Lee, in which the court ruled that airports are not public forums for First Amendment purposes.
Airbus Industrie is still widely perceived as more concerned with market share than profits. But in its analysis of the A3XX development program, the European consortium vows it will launch only if it is convinced the project will be financially successful. All assumptions are being challenged, according to Financial Controller Ian Massey. ``It's a question of eliminating all the risks,'' he said.
William Sheldon (Shelly) Buttrill (see photo) has become president/chief executive officer of Kollsman Inc., Merrimack, N.H. He was president of the Lockheed Martin Aeronutronic Div.
A Titan 2 booster lifted off from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., earlier this month, carrying the final Block 5D-2 model of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP). It also marked the first launch of a DMSP spacecraft using a Titan 2. The next launching of a DMSP satellite, set for 1999, will be the first of the more capable Block 5D-3. DMS spacecraft provide weather data for U.S. military forces.
LOCKHEED MARTIN IS NOT GETTING the encouragement that it expected for an early decision to export the F-22, but it has begun planning ways to minimize changes to the integrated avionics on export variants to limit access to the stealth fighter's most sensitive software code. In older systems with stand-alone avionics, sensitive technology has been restricted simply by replacing the avionics suite, but that plan is not easy with the F-22's integrated avionics. About 1.5 million of its 1.7 million lines of code are associated with its avionics.
DASSAULT AVIATION HAS received FAA approval for the Falcon 2000 data package permitting Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum (RVSM) limitations of 1,000 ft. vertically from 2,000 ft. for flights in North Atlantic tracks. The FAA already has approved RVSM packages for the Falcon 900/900EX. Certification for the Falcon 50/50EX is pending.
U.S. intelligence officials expect to debrief North Korean defector Hwang Jang Yop soon. However, his pre-defection statements about North Korea being able to nuke South Korea and Japan into a sea of fire are ``bizarre--utter baloney,'' a senior defense official said. ``They don't have any way to deliver the weapons. The most troublesome thing about those statements is that it fuels the rhetoric of those loonies in Congress who want to shift spending to a national missile defense system.'' U.S.
The Cassini spacecraft was delivered from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) here to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida on Apr. 21, where it is scheduled for launch later this year on the start of a 6.7-year journey to Saturn. The 12,470-lb. spacecraft, designed and developed by JPL, was transported from the laboratory to nearby Edwards AFB, Calif., where it was loaded on a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport for the flight to KSC.
U.S. Navy Capt. James Godwin has become F/A-18 program manager, succeeding Capt. Joe Dyer. Godwin was executive assistant to the commander of the Naval Systems Command.
Saab and British Aerospace received a boost with the signing of a new security agreement between Sweden and Poland. The pact means Polish pilots can now fly the new JAS 39 Gripen, and classified features of the fighter can be demonstrated. Saab and BAe have crafted an industrial partnership program that would include final assembly of Gripens at PZL Mielec and assembly of its RM12 engines at Rzeszow if Poland selects the aircraft to replace its MiG-21s.
Assigned to quickly identify and react to aerospace-related business opportunities, Boeing Enterprises likely will spearhead many of the company's future business forays. Headed by Larry Clarkson, a senior Boeing Co. vice president formerly in charge of planning and international development, the entrepreneurial group already is studying expansion into such nontraditional fields as turnkey airline maintenance and data handling services. Clarkson formerly was in charge of planning and international development for Boeing Co.
In a program worth $500 million, FlightSafety Services has been selected by Raytheon to provide the ground-based training system for the Pentagon's projected new fleet of 740 T-6 Texan 2 primary training aircraft. At the end of the seven-month prototyping phase, FlightSafety Services ``was a clear winner . . . in every category'' over competitor Hughes Training Systems, said David Reimer, Raytheon's vice president for training systems. Moreover, ``FlightSafety happened to have the lowest, most-probable life cycle cost as well.''
Engines: Two BMW Rolls-Royce BR710A1-10 turbofan engines with a takeoff static thrust rating of 14,750 lb. each. Weights: Maximum ramp weight 90,900 lb. (41,232 kg.) Maximum takeoff weight 90,500 lb. (41,050 kg.) Maximum landing weight 75,300 lb. (34,156 kg.) Maximum zero fuel weight 54,500 lb. (24,721 kg.) Manufacturer's bare empty weight 39,500 lb. (17,917 kg.)
U.S. Air Force pararescue personnel last week retrieved two small pieces of aircraft wreckage that officials identified as parts from the A-10 flown by Capt. Craig Button. He and his aircraft disappeared more than three weeks ago in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.
Northwest Airlines plans to equip 173 of its DC-9s with Barry Controls Active Tuned Mass Absorbers in order to reduce cabin noise. Installation of the systems should begin in July and be completed a year later, said Mitch Free, Northwest's project manager. The system works by having the absorbers create vibrations that cancel out those from the rear-mounted engines (AW&ST Feb. 24, p. 68). The cost of the program, which involves fitting 116 DC-9-30s, 12 -40s, 35 -50s and 10 -10s, is $7.5 million, including the kits, engineering and labor.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN'S INTERNAL INFORMATION SERVICES has archived all manufacturing records for the B-2 bomber on a single CD-ROM, eliminating the microfiche version traditionally delivered to a new aircraft customer. Using a Netscape browser, Air Force personnel can view any of the documents on an IBM-compatible PC, Apple Macintosh or Unix workstation. The digital data format also enables searching, sorting, indexing and rearranging the records to suit various user needs.
THE FAA HAS ORDERED visual inspections of faulty ball bearings in the gearboxes of GE90 engines installed on Boeing 777 aircraft. The agency issued an emergency airworthiness directive last week after bearings failed in two 777s operated by British Airways. No in-flight shutdowns occurred. Preliminary analysis indicates the bearings failed because of insufficient internal clearances and improper rivet material. The directive requires operators to visually inspect the engine's debris-monitoring system and replace suspect bearings.
Boeing Chairman and CEO Phil Condit is exploiting more than five years of quiet planning and process restructuring as the huge company attempts to transform itself into an agile aerospace supplier. The shift, and the strategies behind it, already are having broad impact on the aerospace industry. In the past year, the Seattle-based manufacturer has stunned longtime observers by moving into varied and sometimes atypical new ventures.
HUGHES NETWORK SYSTEMS HAS DEVELOPED a prototype Digital Satellite System PC (DSS-PC) card to work with the broadcast capabilities of Microsoft Windows to deliver the variety of video and data services that DBS promises when coupled with multimedia PC platforms. HNS, a Germantown, Md., subsidiary of Hughes Electronics, expects to introduce the final DSS-PC card later this year. Its architecture includes elements of the HNS DirecPC satellite data delivery technology and its DSS satellite receiver.
