Pentagon planners are considering an alternative to Alliant Techsystem's Outrider tactical unmanned aerial vehicle, which was designed for the Army, Navy and Marine Corps. The company has been given 60 days to fly a new version of the advanced technology demonstrator with a larger wingspan and to set a final weight estimate, predict landing distances and test a new gas engine. Meanwhile, the Pentagon will begin soliciting alternative designs, and the services could buy two UAV designs instead of one. Trying to build a UAV meeting both the Army's 50-km.
Terry Hibler (see photo) has become director of regional airline marketing for New York-based FlightSafety International. He was manager of the FSI New York LaGuardia Airport Training Center.
Flir Systems Inc. is developing sophisticated software that ``fuses'' the output of single or dual infrared bands and other ``weather-penetrating'' sensor imagery. The work is part of a multi-company effort to develop an all-weather cockpit autonomous landing guidance system, also known as ``enhanced vision.''
BUSINESS EXPRESS AIRLINES won court approval of its reorganization plan, which had been jointly filed last month with Saab Aircraft of America. The plan includes renewal of existing code-sharing agreements with Delta Connection and Northwest Airlink, addition of the American Airlines code at Boston and streamlining of its fleet with Saab 340s. The airline, based in Portsmouth, N.H., operates 320 daily departures with 37 Saab 340s to 24 cities in the U.S. and Canada from hubs at Boston and New York's LaGuardia and JFK.
Benjamin A. Pontano has become president of Comsat Laboratories, Bethesda, Md. He was acting president and vice president of the Laboratories Network Technology Div.
E.J. (Ed) Senen (see photo) has been appointed vice president-sales and marketing of the Air Transport Div. of Rockwell Avionics and Communications, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He succeeds Shannon M. Murchison, who is retiring.
The Thunderbirds aerial demonstration squadron is to mark the U.S. Air Force's 50th anniversary this week during an air show at its home base that will feature performances by squadrons from several other nations. The Golden Air Tattoo at Nellis AFB, Nev., is to include performances by demonstration squadrons from Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Italy and Russia. The Japanese demonstration team Blue Impulse is to perform for the first time in the U.S. during the tattoo on Apr. 25-26.
THROUGH BASIC RESEARCH, SCIENTISTS at Sandia National Laboratory and France Telecom believe they have found an inexpensive way to eliminate the problem that results when a power interrupt or system freeze causes loss of unsaved computer data. Only a few steps need to be added to the chip manufacturing process. Principal investigator Bill Warren of Sandia calls the approach protonic computer memory because it relies on protons, which would be embedded during chip fabrication by bathing hot chips in hydrogen gas.
TRIMBLE HAS DEVELOPED COMPREHENSIVE IFR GPS training programs for general aviation use on CD-ROMs for home PC use. The 2000 Approach NavTutor provides multimedia GPS background and training. The Trimble Trainer lets the student fly a simulated single-engine aircraft using a joystick and his PC, to practice GPS instrument approach procedures and instrument scan. The Trainer is based on Initiative Computing's Electronic IFR Training Environment. Lack of GPS knowledge by student pilots was a concern of the National Air Transportation Assn. a few months ago (AW&ST Nov.
Boeing has advised workers in its Everett, Wash., paint facility it plans to start off-loading wide-body aircraft painting work to outside vendors if more efficient, nontraditional work schedules cannot be worked out. The message, from Robert Dryden, executive vice president for airplane production, said a ``test'' aircraft likely would be painted off-premises within the next few weeks.
The first operational wing of Taiwan's Indigenous Defensive Fighter, formally known as the Ching Kuo, was commissioned last week. The 427th Fighter Wing formerly operated Lockheed F-104 Starfighters from its base in Taichung. A total of 130 of the lightweight, twin-engine Ching Kuos has been ordered by the Taiwanese air force. Designed in cooperation with Lockheed Martin, they are being built at the Aero Industry Development Center in Taichung. Further bolstering the island's defenses were first arrivals of U.S-built Lockheed Martin F-16A+ fighters, also last week.
Clayton J. Brukner, inventor, aviator and founder of the Waco Aircraft Co., will be among four aviation pioneers to be inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame, Dayton, Ohio, on July 19. The others are: Herbert A. Dargue, a military aviator and early participant in the transmission and reception of radio messages while in flight; U.S. Air Force test pilot Joe W. Kittinger, Jr., and USAF test pilot and astronaut Thomas P. Stafford.
THE NEWLY CONFIRMED director of the National Reconnaissance Office is pledging a proactive effort to move NRO technology into some other Defense Dept. programs--and maybe even the commercial sector. Keith Hall says he's committed to ``building a bridge'' between the classified world and the Pentagon's ``traditional'' elements.
John W. Pitts has been appointed vice president-military products of Reflectone Inc., Tampa, Fla. He was senior vice president/general manager of Systems Research Laboratories.
REBUFFED BY THE FRENCH government in a bid for soon-to-be-privatized Thomson-CSF, the General Electric Co. of the U.K. is in discussions with Lockheed Martin about a transatlantic linkup. The talks, which involve the company's GEC-Marconi defense division, are still at the exploratory stage. GEC is also in the running to acquire Siemens' defense electronics business which has been put up for sale.
Hong Kong Airport Authority Corporate Development Director Clinton Leaks says that fees proposed for the new Chek Lap Kok airport are in the middle range of international hubs and not excessive, as claimed by the International Air Transport Assn., Orient Airlines Assn. and other critics.
Laurence R. Young, Apollo Program professor of astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, has been appointed director of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute sponsored by NASA.
THE ARIANESPACE board of directors has come up with a possible compromise to resolve a heated controversy over the selection of a successor to outgoing chairman Charles Bigot. The controversy erupted earlier this month when French space minister Francois Fillon announced that he would seek to install Jean-Marie Luton, outgoing director general of the European Space Agency, as the new chairman, instead of Francis Avanzi, the board's preferred choice. On Apr.
NORTH KOREA HAS DEPLOYED the No Dong, a new missile capable of reaching Japan and South Korea, raising concerns about the safety of U.S. troops in Asia and fueling the debate over the pace of the Pentagon's development of effective theater missile defenses. ``We said this day would come and it's here,'' Rep. Curt Weldon (R.-Pa.), chairman of the House National Security Committee's R&D panel and a longtime critic of the Clinton Administration's TMD plan, told Aviation Week.
Air Atlantic of Canada has bought three of the BAe 146-200 regional aircraft it has been leasing from British Aerospace Assets Management-Jets (AMJ) since 1990 for $21 million and signed a new, five-year lease for another BAe 146-200. In addition, the Halifax, Nova Scotia-based regional carrier purchased a package of spares from AMJ for $2 million. AMJ also sold a previously leased BAe 146-200 and leased two others to German regional carrier Eurowings.
Larry Dufraimont (see photos) has been appointed director of programs and certification and Ray Hillman director of products and customer service, of Flight Dynamics, Portland, Ore. Dufraimont was de Havilland Dash 8-400 program manager for Bombardier Inc. Hillman was the AlliedSignal representative in its Russian joint venture with ARIA.
James D. Bletas has been appointed vice president-sales and marketing of SSE Telecom Inc., Fremont, Calif. He was executive vice president-sales and marketing of First Pacific Networks.
SPACE SYSTEMS/LORAL AND FRANCE'S ALCATEL Espace are hoping to tie together two commercial satellite ventures that aim to rapidly transmit large amounts of data for applications such as high-speed Internet access and interactive video communications. SS/L's Cyberstar system, which is comprised of three geosynchronous satellites, is slated to begin service in 1999. Alcatel's SkyBridge venture, which was unveiled Feb. 28, plans to use 64 satellites in low-Earth orbit beginning in 2001.
Robert A. Rieth has been named chief executive officer of Wyle Laboratories, El Segundo, Calif. He was vice president-business/corporate development for Teledyne Inc. of Los Angeles.
