THE MCDONNELL DOUGLAS AH-64D APACHE LONGBOW attack helicopter made its first flight on Mar. 17 from the company's Mesa, Ariz., facility. Chief pilot Jerry Keyser and production test pilot Walt Jones flew the remanufactured Apache AH-64A for 30 min., reaching a forward speed of 45 kt. and completing a wide range of hover maneuvers.
Michel Asseline, then-captain of an Air France Airbus A320 twinjet transport that crashed on June 26, 1988, is planning to appeal a French court's six-month jail sentence for manslaughter. The aircraft flew into trees and crashed during a low-speed air show flyby approximately 30 ft. above the runway at Mulhouse-Habsheim, killing three of 133 passengers on board.
The Pacific Missile Range Facility's capability for monitoring testing of ships and missiles from below the ocean's surface to well into space has led to the site's being chosen to host operational testing of the Navy's area (lower tier) and theater (upper tier) ballistic missile defense weapons.
Working to improve the safeguarding of nuclear weapons materials, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has assisted more than 40 research and manufacturing facilities in the former Soviet Union so far, director Bruce Tarter told the Senate Armed Services Committee. The Russian military's control of nuclear weapons appears comparable to that of the U.S. military, Tarter told Aviation Week&Space Technology, but materials in nonmilitary facilities and in storage are the main concern. An important element of the U.S.
A consortium of aerospace companies and research organizations is seeking funding from the European Commission to investigate engine and airframe noise reduction technologies, including active noise controls. The project is a follow-on to a recently concluded 42-month study that investigated aero-acoustic methods for fan noise prediction and control. The initial 3-million pound ($4.9-million) ``FANPAC'' study focused on engine fan noise and techniques to meet stringent noise limits being demanded by aviation regulators.
Boeing and McDonnell Douglas have joined with the Czech airline Ceske Aerolinie in a joint bid for up to a 40% stake in Aero Vodochody. The Czech government is looking for a strategic investor in the cash-strapped aircraft manufacturer, which produces military trainers. The two U.S. companies said they would offer Aero Vodochody spare parts work for Boeing commercial transports and component assembly on McDonnell Douglas F/A-18s. The F/A-18 is a candidate for a Czech fighter requirement along with the Lockheed Martin F-16 and the Saab Gripen.
The company's strategy is to offer 32-50-seat twinjets based on its recently launched 328JET Fairchild Dornier, Fairchild Aerospace's new German affiliate, expects to conclude launch orders for the 328JET during the next few weeks. The 32-seat regional twinjet is scheduled to make its first flight early next year. Nine months after acquiring an 80% stake in Dornier Luftfahrt from Daimler-Benz Aerospace, Fairchild Aerospace revamped the company, slashed production costs and on Feb. 5 launched the 328JET, a derivative of the 328 twin turboprop.
Corporate pilot duty periods should not exceed 14 hr. within a 24-hr. period, including a maximum of 10 flight hours, according to the report of a Flight Safety Foundation task force. The study also recommends cumulative limits for duty periods and flight times and references flight limits with relief pilots on board, duty and flight time extensions and rest periods during flight. The guidelines represent several years of work by more than 30 representatives from 21 aviation organizations worldwide, including corporate flight departments and NASA's Ames Research Center.
Russian Mir ground controllers and the space station's crew were reconfiguring the vehicle's control system late last week after the malfunction of a sensor rolled the vehicle off its proper attitude, forcing the shutdown of its gyros and other electrical equipment. The attitude control problem comes in the wake of a fire on the station and the malfunction of its primary oxygen generation system.
Boeing's 777 fatigue test airframe recently completed the equivalent of 120,000 flights, or twice its expected lifetime, at facilities in Everett, Wash. One hundred computer-controlled hydraulic actuators simultaneously applied loads to the structurally complete airframe to simulate all conditions experienced during typical in-service operations. These included pre- and post-flight taxi, pilot maneuvers, wind gusts and cabin pressurization. The tests, which began in January, 1995, operated around the clock and accomplished the equivalent of 250 90-min.
Lufthansa, which saw pretax profits slip by 10% last year, has created a six-person management board to head a restructured passenger business unit tasked with pursuing new competitive strategies. Provisional figures for 1996 show the carrier increased revenues by 5% to DM 21 billion ($12.4 billion). Pretax profits fell to DM 756 million ($446 million) due to weak domestic demand, heavy competition for cargo and increased fuel costs.
Vincent Vitto has been appointed president/chief executive officer of the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Cambridge, Mass., effective July 1. He has been assistant director of the Lincoln Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Vitto will succeed Ralph Jacobson, who will retire.
TOSHIBA CORP. HAS LOST A SECOND CONTRACT for an advanced satellite system in Japan. The Ministry of Transport selected an NEC/Hughes team's $35.9-million bid over a lower $22.2-million bid from Toshiba and Stanford Telecom to supply computers in a ground station for Japan's GPS-based air navigation system. Last month, Japan's National Space Development Agency bypassed Toshiba, the incumbent contractor on its ETS engineering satellites, and selected Mitsubishi Electric Corp. for a $242-million contract to build the ETS-8 satellite (AW&ST Feb. 17, p. 56).
Launch of the first U.S. Air Force Lockheed Martin Titan 4B on nearly 3.4-million lb. of thrust marks the most powerful expendable booster flight since the final Saturn 5 placed the Skylab space station in orbit 24 years ago. The success of the first 4B--after a nine-year, $1-billion development--clears the way for launch of the NASA/ESA Cassini mission to Saturn in October and the launch of heavier military payloads into the early 21st century. The 4B has 25% more payload capability than older Titan 4As.
Negotiators for American Airlines and the Allied Pilots Assn. have arrived at an agreement in principle on a new contract, but it could take a month before a proposed contract could come to a vote of APA members. THE BROAD agreement was reached Mar. 19 in Washington during negotiations mediated by independent consultant Bob Harris on behalf of the National Mediation Board. Details of a proposed contract were expected to be worked out in sessions set for Mar. 20-22.
Kaman has been selected by the New Zealand navy to provide it with four SH-2G Super Seasprite helicopters to fulfill a multipurpose combat role on its new ANZAC frigates.
LORAL SPACE&COMMUNICATIONS HAS COMPLETED its acquisition of AT&T's Skynet Satellite Services unit, which distributes entertainment and educational programming throughout the U.S. Loral had agreed last year to pay $712.5 million for Skynet, but AT&T lowered the price to $478 million after one of the system's two primary spacecraft, Telstar 401, failed in orbit on Jan. 11. The failure is believed to have been caused by a solar outburst (AW&ST Jan. 27, p. 61).
The U.S. Army will probably not seek a second source for development of the Lockheed Martin Thaad ballistic missile defense system, despite this being an initial Pentagon reaction to the Mar. 6 test failure. Two weeks ago, a senior Pentagon official said a drastic alternative would be to drop Lockheed Martin (AW&ST Mar. 17, p. 37).
KLM HAS ORDERED four new Boeing 737-800 transports in a deal valued at about $200 million. The sale indicates KLM will continue to use the 737 for its intra-European markets despite strong competition from European-built Airbus narrow-body transports. KLM currently operates more than 40 737s, including leased aircraft. First deliveries of the stretched 737s, which will be configured to seat 147 in two classes, are scheduled to begin in mid-1999.
Integrated research by four scientific disciplines over the last decade has determined that the probability of an asteroid or comet hitting the Earth is much higher and potentially far more devastating than previously believed. However, the chances of one of these ``near-Earth objects'' or NEOs actually colliding with Earth and killing millions of people in any given year are very low. As a result, the NEO threat has been given little priority by cash-strapped governments.
Unexpected flight control problems are more likely to occur as new fly-by-wire and fly-by-light flight control systems are developed, according to a recently released report from the National Research Council. The same new technologies that offer novel approaches to providing stability and control for even inherently unstable aircraft, have the potential to create unwanted side effects and unanticipated problems.
AIRPORT SYSTEMS INTERNATIONAL and partner Interstate Electronics Corp. will install a differential-GPS ground station at Lugano (Switzerland) Airport. The same team installed an interim system at Lugano in October, 1995, for testing with Swisscontrol and Swiss regional carrier Crossair. Lugano, with curved approaches and multi-path reflections from mountainous terrain, was a good test site, according to the companies, which aim for Special Category 1 landing approval with their system.
