The Navy is planning improvements for the Pacific Missile Range Facility that will make it a key facility for honing U.S. theater ballistic missile defenses. The service will focus its ballistic missile testing off the west coast of Kauai, Hawaii, because White Sands Missile Range, N.M.--the site since World War 2 for testing of major defense space projects--has become too restricted for some next-generation weaponry, said Adm. Rodney Rempt, the service's program executive officer for theater air defense.
THE U.K.'S NATIONAL AIR TRAFFIC Services (NATS) is reducing its charges to airlines at airports in London and Scotland as of Apr. 1. Charges per flight for North Atlantic air traffic control services are also being cut by 18% as a result of cost-cutting efforts. Charges for ATC services at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted will be reduced by 7%, at Aberdeen by 13%, at Edinburgh by 15% and at Glasgow by 16%.
THE EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY'S Huygens planetary probe is scheduled to be shipped this week to NASA's Kennedy Space Center from Daimler-Benz Aerospace/Dornier Satellitensysteme's Ottobrunn, Germany, facilities. Aerospatiale Space&Defense Div. is Huygens prime contractor. Later this year, the probe will be mated with the Cassini Saturn orbiter, in preparation for its launch next October on a Titan 4B Centaur.
A dilemma facing officials here was how to fire ``enemy'' missiles from unpredictable spots on a 42,000- sq. mi. range in order to test the defensive capabilities of U.S. guided-missile ships. The answer was floating in storage at Pearl Harbor. Range employees found a floating drydock built during World War 2 whose individual segments--a string of pontoon barges--could be outfitted as missile launch platforms.
TWO COMPETING CONSORTIA, led by Lockheed Martin and Raytheon E-Systems, have been selected to make best and final offers for the U.K.'s Airborne Stand-Off Radar (Astor) program. Several alternative options, including the Lockheed Martin U-2S and Northrop Grumman Joint-STARS, have been dropped. A winner is expected to be chosen by the end of the year to develop, produce and support Astor, which is to include five airborne surveillance platforms and nine ground stations. A contract award, estimated to be worth 750 million pounds ($1.2 billion), is scheduled for 1998.
Rene Savalle has been appointed director of marketing for commercial operations for SiCOM Inc., Scottsdale, Ariz. He was business development manager of the Andrew Corp.
Senior North Atlantic Treaty Organization managers earlier this month visited Northrop Grumman facilities in Melbourne, Fla., for briefings and demonstrations of the U.S. Air Force Joint-STARS advanced radar ground surveillance aircraft. NATO is evaluating possible procurement of Joint-STARS as part of a new ground surveillance initiative that could also involve French or British systems as a low-altitude complement to high altitude Joint-STARS operations.
NORTHWEST AIRLINES and Airbus Industrie are in discussions about a potential order of up to 40 A330 transports. The discussions were described as ``very preliminary.'' Northwest last year agreed to add another 20 A320s to its fleet but to defer deliveries of 16 A330s until 2004 and 2005 at the earliest (AW&ST Mar. 4, 1996, p. 30). The memorandum of understanding with Airbus, which revised an earlier contract, also allowed Northwest to substitute other Airbus aircraft for the A330s. The airline currently operates 50 A320s.
THE AIRCRAFT OWNERS and Pilots Assn., General Aviation Manufacturers Assn. and National Air Transportation Assn. have complained that the new 21-member National Civil Aviation Review Commission is primarily made up of representatives of airline and large airport interests, and has mostly ignored general/business aviation interests. ``It's unconscionable that of 21 commissioners, not one appointee officially represents general aviation,'' AOPA President Phil Boyer said. Henry Ogrodzinski, president of the National Assn.
THE U.K. NATIONAL AIR TRAFFIC SERVICES has picked Sky Solutions Inc. to build the Scottish air traffic control center in Prestwick. The new center will provide advanced en route, terminal approach and military ATC services for the Scottish Flight Information Region, which covers Scotland and northern England. The company will fund the building, development and operation of the new facility in return for revenues from the operation for 25 years. The center is to be operational in 2001. Sky Solutions is owned by Lockheed Martin Air Traffic Management and Bovis Ltd.
Air Force Gen. Howell M. Estes has tried to shoot down once and for all the ``friendly fire'' theory of the crash of TWA Flight 800. Now chief at U.S. Space Command, he was the service's head of operations at the time of the crash.
Paul J. Casey has been appointed president/chief executive officer of Hawaiian Airlines. He held the same positions with the Hawaii Visitors and Conference Bureau. Casey succeeds Bruce R. Nobles, who has resigned.
NASA's drive to develop a new armada of low-cost scientific spacecraft has moved a little closer to home with the selection of a pair of missions to study the Earth's forests and measure variations in its gravity field.
Thomas E. Foster and Steven T. Keane, both of the Rockwell Collins Air Transport Div., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, have been named Engineers of the Year by Rockwell International. Foster was honored for contributions to the development of satellite-based navigation and landing standards and products for the air transport market, and Keane for contributions to Flight Management Systems in support of the KC-135 Pacer CRAG avionics upgrade program.
THE MALAYSIAN ROYAL AIR FORCE HAS RECEIVED the first of eight F/A-18s on order from McDonnell Douglas. The two-seat D-models will be equipped with upgraded Hughes APG-73 radar systems and General Electric F404GE-402 enhanced-performance engines. The aircraft are intended to fulfill strike and interdiction mission requirements as part of the Air Force's modernization. Initially, they will be used for training. McDonnell Douglas will provide a logistical package to support operations.
HONEYWELL WILL SUPPLY its Airline Maintenance and Operations Support System (AMOSS) to Austria-based Lauda Air for its fleet of Boeing 777, 767-300 and 737-300/400 aircraft. AMOSS software is used with air-ground communication and local or wide area networks to connect an aircraft's on-board computer with ground-based support, including flight operations/dispatch and maintenance control. Under development is a cost-saving algorithm for aircraft troubleshooting. AMOSS was developed cooperatively by Computing Devices International and Honeywell.
Japan Airlines expects operations of a new discount subsidiary, JAL Express, to begin in the first half of its 1998 fiscal year with two Boeing 737-400s. JAL Express will operate some of JAL's low-demand routes on a wet-lease basis and study the possibility of taking over some domestic trunk routes and international sectors. Cockpit crews will not be Japanese initially, although Japanese recruits will be sought later.
China is poised to resume commercial Long March flights by early April after major software and quality control improvements to the booster and launch operations following the failure of three of the last five missions, two involving fatalities. A successful return to flight is critical to the survival of the Long March commercial program following the fatal accidents of 1995 and early 1996 and an upper stage failure last August, which halted commercial launch operations for seven months.
Major management changes are underway at both the NASA Kennedy Space Center and U.S. Air Force Cape Canaveral Air Station and Eastern Range as a result of retirements and reassignments at both facilities. The management changes are underway as both the NASA and USAF facilities are dealing with major operational changes.
The Defense Dept. is reviewing a U.S. Space Command ``informational'' proposal for establishing space as a separate military Area of Responsibility (AOR) equivalent to those associated with air, land and sea operations.
GLOBAL WARMING IS HEATING UP, at least as a scientific debate. Many scientists believe, based on a century of surface thermometer readings, that Earth has been warming about 0.13C per decade. Carbon dioxide and other ``greenhouse gases'' produced by modern humans have increased, and 1995 is the warmest year on record. But skeptics have long pointed to satellite data which indicate a slight cooling trend in the lower atmosphere over the last 18 years. But James W.
