Peter K. Chapman has been appointed vice president-marketing and business development of the AAR Corp., Wood Dale, Ill. He was president/chief executive officer of the Young Brothers Development Co. of Hong Kong.
The U.S. Air Force's ability to train new NATO pilots has reached its maximum capacity, and the service will not be able to handle post-2000 increases. To remedy the shortfall, a Canadian aerospace company and the Canadian National Defense Dept. have put together a plan to train 40-50 NATO pilots each year in Saskatchewan and Alberta, and at the same time improve instruction for Canada's yearly output of 30 high-performance jet pilots.
Stephen D. Townes has been named president/chief operating officer of the Hunter Aircraft Corp., Alexandria, Va. He succeeds Barry M. Meuse, who will remain chairman/chief executive officer. Townes was vice chairman of the aeromod devisions of the Sabreliner Corp.
COMSAT CORP. FILED SUIT Apr. 23 against its former chief executive officer, Bruce L. Crockett. The company said the suit, filed in federal district court, alleges that Crockett was linked in a ``conspiracy'' with two privately held firms that have threatened a proxy contest for control of Comsat.
Imagery of Red River flooding near Grand Forks, N.D., was captured by Canada's Radarsat remote sensing satellite and made available electronically to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers within three hr. of acquisition.
Gulfstream Aerospace's newest business jet, the Gulfstream 5, offers corporate operators an 6,500-naut.-mi. aircraft--a performance guarantee the company made when the program was started in 1992.
THE CAUSE OF AN Air Force HC-130P crash into the ocean off northern California on Nov. 22 was fuel starvation, but there was not enough clear evidence to determine the reason for the starvation, according to the Apr. 21 USAF accident investigation report. The radio operator survived but the other 10 crewmen perished. The digital flight data recorder showed all four engines flaming out in 1 min. at 22,000 ft., 83 min. after takeoff. Restart attempts failed because of the lack of electricity from a generator or air turbine motor. The No.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has a vision for future small-unit military operations that would provide every soldier with communication and situational awareness undreamed of today. Lessons learned from the developments will pay dividends for aviation, particularly for unmanned aerial vehicles and low-observable aircraft.
Boeing's Airborne Surveillance Testbed completed its 50th mission last month following a surge in flight testing. The 767 transport, equipped with a cupola housing a 5,800-lb. infrared telescope, is under contract to the U.S. Army to help evaluate systems to detect and track ballistic missiles and discriminate warheads from decoys and debris. Recent AST missions observed Minuteman, Lance, Talos/Sargent and ``Scud-like'' missile launches.
The U.S. and Japan have begun a series of joint experiments to test the transmission of high-definition video and computer data over an unprecedented combination of satellite and fiber optic cable links. The experiments are aimed at developing protocols and techniques that would enable satellites to rapidly transmit images and scientific data traditionally relayed via fiber optic cable.
Boeing has hired more than 5,000 workers since mid-January, bringing its global employee count to almost 153,000. To cope with surging commercial transport orders, the company plans to hire about 10,000 workers this year, compared with 21,000 in 1996. The hiring rate is slowing, however, and now averaging about 250 new workers a week. At one point last summer, Boeing brought in more than 1,100 new workers in a single week.
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has developed and demonstrated in clear weather a variable-buoyancy research balloon. The dual-balloon system, which maintains an approximately constant altitude over land and sea, could be useful in tracking storms and hurricanes while monitoring their wind distribution patterns. The new system uses a 16-ft.-high balloon for lift, typically helium-filled. Under it is suspended a radiosonde, strobelight and 10-ft.-long bag or balloon filled with a phase-change fluid such as butane, ethyl chloride or Refrigerant 114.
ADP Paris airports authority's plan to immediately begin construction of two more runways at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle (CDG) may be in jeopardy--but not because of protestations by local residents and environmentalists, who have long been opposed to the runway additions. The Romans, ancient Romans, that is, have entered the picture.
Despite several recent problems, conditions on board the Mir space station continue to improve as the Russian/U.S. crew performs maintenance on its cooling loops, oxygen and communications systems. The risks to continued long-term operations on the station have been substantially reduced by the success of the repairs and the Russians have no plans to curtail Mir operations, although aging systems will remain an overall concern.
Pentagon officials say the McDonnell Douglas aerospace manufacturing equipment diverted by China from a civil airliner project could be used to build military aircraft--possibly the indigenous F-10 fighter, a version of the Russian-designed Su-27, or a new generation of cruise missiles. Some of the machine tools sold to China are used to bend and shape large aircraft parts. The equipment was bought in 1994 by Catic and installed at the Nanchang Aircraft Co., which produces missiles and military aircraft.
Stephen Lee will become vice president-maintenance services at FLS Aerospace Ltd. in the U.K. on June 1. Lee is director/general manager of Dowty Aerospace Aviation Services Ltd.
The VisionAire Vantage single-engine business jet has started cruise testing, and has exceeded 350 kt. true airspeed at altitudes above 35,000 ft. The 7,000-lb. maximum takeoff weight aircraft is powered by one Pratt&Whitney JT15D-5 turbofan. The aircraft first flew on Nov. 16, and made the first landing gear retraction in early March after 15 hr. of low-speed testing (AW&ST Nov. 18, 1996, p. 73). St. Louis-based VisionAire says it has 59 firm orders and expects deliveries to start in the second quarter of 1999 following FAR Part 23 certification.
Japan's air force and the Technical Research and Development Institute of the Japanese Defense Agency have begun a $317-million F-15J modernization program. Current schedule calls for design completion by 1998, assembly of a prototype the following year and flight tests in 2001-02. Planned modifications include an upgraded radar, integrated electronic warfare suite modified from Japan's F-2 fighter, advanced central computer and digital electronic engine control system. The program helps save Mitsubishi Heavy Industry's F-15J assembly line, which was to close soon.
Flir Systems Inc. is diversifying its infrared-based product line to include video and new image processing applications. Long known in aerospace circles for its Series 2000 infrared sensor gimbal ``ball'' used by many police helicopters, the 350-person company has made strategic acquisitions both in the U.S. and internationally to refine and expand its imaging capabilities. FSI also is pushing to increase use of its infrared and image processing technologies in new international, military and industrial markets.
Two new low-cost but vastly different British carriers are transforming London Luton Airport from a primarily charter facility catering to leisure travelers to an increasingly business-oriented scheduled hub airport. With the entry of easyJet, a low-fare, low-frills airline, in November, 1995, and Debonair Airways, a low-fare, more-frills airline, in June, 1996, the somewhat sleepy Luton has seen a surge in activity, with traffic up 33% in the past two years.
A Thiokol Castor 120 inert solid rocket motor is lifted before placement on its pad (surrounded by a service structure) on Launch Complex 46 at Cape Canaveral. The stacking tests are being used to help Lockheed Martin and Orbital Sciences Corp. verify the new commercial launch facility for use by LMLV and Taurus boosters. The Florida Spaceport Authority has converted the old Navy Trident missile pad for commercial use. The first mission will be launch of the NASA Ames Lunar Prospector spacecraft into orbit around the Moon.
A U.S. Air Force B-2 test aircraft (AV-4) dropped an inert GAM-113 near-precision, deep-penetration conventional bomb at the China Lake Naval Weapons Center, Calif., in February (see photo, top left).
