William J. Higley (see photo) has been named general manager of the Abex NWL Div. of Parker Aerospace, Kalamazoo, Mich. He has been manager of Abex plants in Dublin, Ga., and Beaufort, S.C.
Clarence W. Kitchens, Jr., has been appointed director of weapons technologies in the U.S. Defense Dept.'s Office of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering. He was director of the U.S. Army's Benet Laboratories.
Jeffrey S. Cassidy has become senior vice president/satellite underwriter for ACE Ltd., Hamilton, Bermuda. He was vice president-satellite underwriting for United States Aviation Underwriters Inc.
James R. Sides has become chairman/chief executive officer of the Atlantic Research Corp., Gainesville, Va., and corporate vice president of the parent Sequa Corp. of New York. Sides succeeds Antonio L. Savoca, who has retired.
Lynn Prothero, postal affairs director of Trans World Airlines, has been elected chair of the Airline Postal Advisory Committee of the Air Transport Assn.
Alan Dietrich has been named vice president-government operations and marketing for AlliedSignal Aerospace, Torrance, Calif. He was vice president/general manager of the communications systems business of AlliedSignal Aerospace's Electronic Systems, and will be succeeded by Pat Hurley. Earl Major has been appointed vice president-quality assurance and Michael Anderson vice president-operations transition. Vincent Pedotto and Allen MacKnight have been named AlliedSignal Aerospace fellows.
Bill Casamo has been named senior vice president/general manager of sales and marketing for DirecTV of Los Angeles. He was vice president-sales of Thomson Consumer Electronics.
Just how important is the VIP and government market to business jet manufacturers? About 21% of today's worldwide Dassault Falcon Jet fleet, more than 260 aircraft, perform a variety of military or government functions. The French navy recently awarded a contract to Dassault Aviation to modify four Falcon 50 trijets for maritime surveillance. Each of the aircraft will be equipped with a search radar, underside search-and-rescue container drop hatch, infrared camera and two large observer windows. The aircraft also can be fitted with a medevac module.
TAP AIR PORTUGAL PLANS TO EQUIP 16 new Airbus A319 and six A320 aircraft with Collins GLU-920 multimode receivers. The receiver combines ILS, MLS and GPS landing systems in an integrated unit with familiar ILS ``look-alike'' interfaces in the cockpit. The 22 aircraft also will have Collins wind shear-detecting WXR-700 digital color weather radar. First deliveries of the new aircraft are scheduled for December.
Alenia Aerospazio's Space Div. has opened a new facility in Rome designed to allow the rapid assembly, integration and testing of small satellites and antennas. The $30-million center is being inaugurated with the production of 56 satellites and 112 active antennas for the Globalstar mobile satellite venture. The facility is designed to deliver four satellites per month.
The Pentagon is taking a strong look at a once-ignored proposal to develop an initial U.S. national missile defense system based on modified Air Force Minutemen 3 missiles. But questions still remain whether such a system and its radars could be deployed without violating the ABM Treaty with Russia.
Michael J. Houterman has been named president of Hughes Space and Communications International (HSCI), El Segundo, Calif. He also will be a vice president-commercial operations of Hughes Space and Communications (HSC). Houterman succeeds Frank A. Taormina, who is now executive vice president of Hughes Communications Inc. (HCI).
THE NATIONAL IMAGERY AND MAPPING AGENCY awarded Harris a $22-million contract to provide an Internet-based system that catalogs satellite imagery and global maps for military users around the world. The company is to develop the software that will permit military officials with an Internet browser to ``surf'' the three classified Defense Dept. nets, browsing and ordering electronic copies of any maps or images in the data base.
Airbus Industrie continues to see the Asia/Pacific region as the dominant market for new transports in the next 20 years, including the new wide-body A3XX that the European consortium says will be on the market in 2003. The region is expected to need 4,100 new transports to meet an average annual passenger growth rate of 6.4%. China, where Airbus is in partnership on pilot training programs with the government, is expected to continue to grow at 8% annually. The Airbus forecast is slightly more optimistic than recent studies released by Boeing.
All Nippon Airways says it will help a low-cost challenger get started even though backers of the new route intend to take on Japan's major carriers on their busiest routes. Officials said that with ANA's backing, Skymark Airlines would be able to move up its first services on the Tokyo-Osaka route by about a year to the first half of 1998.
Peggy C. Wilhide has been appointed associate NASA administrator for public affairs. She was press secretary to Vice President Al Gore. Wilhide succeeds Laurie Boeder, who is now deputy assistant secretary of Health and Human Services for public affairs.
Engineers were perplexed when a hefty signal jammed the S-band downlink at a new control center built by TRW in Chantilly, Va., for NASA's upcoming Lewis satellite. The signal, which was encroaching on the radio band reserved for government use, appeared to be coming from a neighboring building. An investigation traced the problem--to a faulty car alarm system. Joseph Deskevich, spectrum manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said he knows of only one other instance in which a faulty car alarm has interrupted satellite transmissions.
NEW CENTERLINE LIGHTS ON KENNEDY SPACE CENTER'S shuttle runway will enable the orbiter's pilots to better align with the runway late in approach and perceive any drift off the centerline. The shuttle runway was equipped with centerline lights when it was built 20 years ago, but they were removed prior to the first flight in 1981, after concern arose about damage to the orbiter's tires if they were to strike the lights during touchdowns of 200-220 mph. New technology that allows the lights to flush with the runway surface has made reinstallation possible.
WESTERN PACIFIC AIRLINES will begin flight operations from Denver International Airport by late June, the latest low-cost carrier to challenge United at one of the latter's largest hubs. New service will begin after WestPac receives a batch of new Boeing 737s it ordered last year. President/CEO Robert A. Peiser said Western Pacific ``has to get into the large Denver market'' in order to grow, but will keep its headquarters in Colorado Springs.
Wall Street analysts and other industry observers are expressing growing skepticism about the ability of major U.S. airlines to hold down labor costs--their greatest expense--in the face of continuing record profits.
AN X-33 FOLLOW-ON VEHICLE would be developed under the NASA authorization bill approved last week by the House Science Committee. An amendment to the bill would authorize spending $750 million during the next two years on the vehicle. Like the X-33, it would be an experimental single-stage-to-orbit demonstrator, but it would have a different design and include more advanced technologies.
THE U.K.'S DEPT. OF TRANSPORT has backed off its plan to fight a court challenge by the International Airline Transport Assn. to its proposed introduction of more stringent noise limits at London's three major airports. It took the move after legal advice that the U.K. High Court was likely to find fault with the department's earlier consultation process with airlines. The Dept. of Transport agreed to resume talks with airlines on noise limits, as well as the location of monitoring equipment, after the May 1 general election in the U.K.
Iran will complete few of the arms deals it is negotiating, but there is a sense of urgency to its latest attempts to buy antiaircraft missiles, Pentagon officials say. Iranian officials are convinced the U.S. will strike at military and nuclear facilities if Iran is found to have been behind the bombings in Saudi Arabia that killed U.S. servicemen. ``They're worried that we'll come after them,'' a senior Pentagon official said. However, the equipment being sought is more modest than some speculated.
