Bombardier Aerospace plans a (U.S.) $36-million expansion of its Montreal completion center to accommodate finishing work on its new line of Global Express business jets. Construction work on the 415,400-sq.-ft. facility, to be located alongside the Canadair aircraft final assembly plant at Montreal's Dorval International Airport, is scheduled to be completed in November. It plans to accept its first Global Express, serial no. 9005, for interior installation the following month.
The Sabre Group, IBM, AT&T Tridom and Moscow-based International Technology Corp.-Sirena (ITCS) are developing an airline management system that will be marketed to airlines operating in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Known as Sirena-3, the system is being developed specifically to modernize and expedite ticket reservations, help manage fares and pricing, revenue accounting, passenger check-in, crew scheduling and yield management.
GA Team 2000, a consortium of U.S. general aviation manufacturers and pilot organizations, is introducing a national ``Stop Dreaming, Start Flying'' campaign this month to encourage people to learn to fly. Chairman Edward W. Stimpson said television advertisements are scheduled to air on cable networks beginning next week. The program's toll-free number is 1-888-BE-A-PILOT and qualified applicants will be sent a $35 coupon toward their first flight redeemable at more than 5,000 flight schools and fixed-base operations nationwide.
With the possibility of a strike still looming, pilots at American Airlines will vote this week on a new contract that includes a 9% wage increase, restrictions on Eagle regional jet operations, and increased job protection in exchange for improved productivity.
India's military spending will remain well short next year of multiplying needs. The year-old United Front government has proposed a $10-billion (Rs. 35,620 crore) defense budget for 1998, a 20% paper increase above this year. But capital expenditure would actually fall.
THE PENTAGON HAS SENT a surprisingly candid report on Chinese military capabilities to Congress. The study, ``Selected Military Capabilities of the People's Republic of China,'' begins with the premise that China expects to become one of the world's great military powers during the first half of the next century. However, Chinese leadership believes that a rapid or large-scale build up would be unnecessary and detrimental to continued economic growth. The primary emphasis will be a strong defensive force that can also fight short-duration, high-intensity regional wars.
Stung by the lack of timely emergency helicopter response to the January, 1995, Kobe earthquake, which killed more than 6,000, the Japanese government is actively working to improve its national helicopter infrastructure. The measures, which will benefit nonemergency helicopter operations as well, include relaxing strict takeoff and landing criteria and temporary helipad requirements, according to Bunsei Sato, former head of Japan's Posts and Telecommunications Ministry.
The Model T2FM is an analytical ferrograph for analyzing wear particles and contaminants in used lubricating oils, hydraulic fluids, greases, coolants and fuels. The system relies on a thistle tube to provide a constant flow of sample onto a glass substrate where wear and contaminant particles are separated for microscopic examination. By analyzing particle size, surface characteristics and composition, technicians can determine the wear modes in a machine. The T2FM is sensitive to wear particles ranging from 1-800 microns and can segregate particles by size.
The Brazilsat 2 launch set for around the end of the year will carry a piggyback NASA aerodynamics experiment on the wing of its Pegasus booster. An instrumented metal glove has been added to the right wing to measure hypersonic aerodynamics in the Mach 5-8 range from 100,000-200,000 ft. as the booster climbs to space. The Orbital Sciences' winged first stage will transmit telemetry but will not be recovered.
THE U.S. NATIONAL Transportation Safety Board is investigating a contained failure in the center engine of an American Airlines Boeing 727-200 during takeoff at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport last week.
Mario Cid Fernandez, Victor Vargas, Nate Winer and Don Muzich have been appointed by Hughes Magnaphone, Torrance, Calif., as sales managers for North America; the Far East, Latin America and Pacific Rim; Western Europe; and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, respectively.
Initial orbital checkout of the last Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Block 5D-2 spacecraft is going according to schedule, following launch from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. It was the first launch of a DMSP satellite on a Titan 2 booster, both of which are provided to the U.S. Air Force by Lockheed Martin.
Photograph: The image captured before application of aircraft final finish indicates the range of materials used in the F-22's forebody and wings. Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Pratt&Whitney last week rolled out the F-22--now officially named Raptor--and immediately began a series of tests to pave the way for the fighter's first flight late next month. As they unveiled the first of what may well be the last new fighter to fly in the 20th century, officials from the U.S.
Robert R. Ropelewski, a member of the Aviation Week&Space Technology staff for 18 years until 1988, died at home on Apr. 5 of an apparent heart attack. He was 54.
AP Labs VMEwindow graphic control software will now provide latitude, longitude, altitude and Greenwich Mean Time when it is linked with a GPS receiver and antenna. In addition, a multimedia alarm processing capability will alert an operator both visually and aurally when critical flight parameter data are encountered. The aural warnings may be prerecorded messages in any language or can be sounds such as gongs, sirens or whistles. A third improvement is support for Mil-Std-1553 Remote Terminals.
MATRA BAE DYNAMICS has concluded an agreement to sell Mistral air defense systems valued at $100 million to Hungary. The contract covers the supply of several hundred Mistral missiles, along with Atlas fire control units and MCP fire coordination, control and command systems, to be installed on Mercedes Unimog 1350L vehicles. The MCP will include Shorar radar supplied by Oerlikon Contraves' Italian affiliate, Thorn-EMI thermal cameras and Matra BAe Dynamics Aida terminals.
Rogerson Aircraft Corp. has made a key sale of its new self-contained electronic flight instrument displays to Bell Helicopter Textron. The order, to supply primary electronic flight instrument system displays (EFIS) and Integrated Instrument Display Systems (IIDS), covers all current Bell twin-engine production through the year 2005. Valued at more than $150 million, it is the largest single civil avionics contract ever awarded by Bell and the most substantial ever won by Rogerson, according to Michael J. Rogerson, company chairman.
EVANS&SUTHERLAND WILL SUPPLY visual systems to upgrade four U.S. Navy and Marine Corps training programs--the AH-1W, F-14, T-45 and Landing Craft Air Cushioned Vehicle simulators. ESIG-4530 image generators will be provided for the AH-1W simulators, which use two 21-ft. domes for out-the-window imagery for simultaneous pilot and gunner training.
The allies are lined up with the Administration on NATO expansion, despite chronic reports of their misgivings in private. At a White House press conference last week, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien rejected the idea that NATO expansion should be postponed until Russia has completed deeper nuclear arms cuts. ``I don't think you can link the two,'' Chretien said, disregarding threats by Russian lawmakers to sink the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START 2) if NATO expansion isn't called off.
The Liquitank line of flexible rubber containers is available in a variety of shapes and sizes for storing and transporting water, fuel and other liquids. Special helicopter-transportable units are designed for dropping and towing. Other recently developed ones are designed for use in containers on board cargo aircraft. The tanks are made of elastomer-coated, high-strength fabric that is vacuum vulcanized at 284F. The inflatable containers resist flames, ultraviolet light and ozone. They are air tight and inhibit the growth of microbes, bacteria and fungus.
Japan will pioneer remotely controlled rendezvous/docking and space robotics technology with a target-chaser satellite combination set for launch Nov. 1 on its H-2 space booster. Called ETS-7, the engineering test satellite was developed by Toshiba for the National Space Development Agency to establish procedures that will be essential for NASDA's unmanned mission approach to servicing the international space station and future space platforms. ETS-7's design life is 1.5 years; total program cost is 32 billion yen ($260 million).
Louis Di Nardo has become vice president-marketing of the Linear Technology Corp., Milpitas, Calif. He succeeds Thomas Recine, who has retired. Di Nardo was manager of North American distribution.
Keith C. Krantz has been appointed director of corporate pricing for the Northrop Grumman Corp. in Los Angeles. He was controller for estimating and pricing at the company's Electronic Sensors and Systems Div. in Baltimore.
Hong Kong and the U.S. have signed a revised bilateral that provides for air services beyond the July 1 handover of Hong Kong by the British to China. The agreement, which originated in 1937, allowed nine U.S. carriers to operate some 84 passenger and cargo services a week into the colony. They carried 920,000 passengers and 147,000 tons of air freight on direct services last year. Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways and Air Hong Kong, a Cathay cargo subsidiary, operate about 21 services a week and last year carried 315,000 passengers and 42,000 tons of freight.
