The Icarus Committee, a grouping of noted flight safety experts, is promoting a worldwide effort to put accident and incident prevention into a new perspective. Risks affecting flight safety can be successfully controlled through programs directed at identifying and eliminating deficiencies. However, in the absence of complete commitment at operators' top management level, flight safety margins are seriously eroded, committee members warned after a meeting held here.
Researchers are attempting to reduce aircraft-bird strikes by warning the birds away with an audible modulation on a conventional radar. The technique might even have far-reaching applications as a nonlethal weapon for the military and police as a crowd-control method.
NASA chief Daniel S. Goldin is sending former astronaut and retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas P. Stafford and a team of finance experts to Russia. The bean counters are supposed to get to the bottom of the money mess blamed for lagging production of key components for the international space station. Members of the House space subcommittee were angered last week when Goldin told them he didn't know whether the funds Moscow promised would flow to contractors last month did in fact reach them. Said Rep.
MCDONNELL DOUGLAS has picked Dimension Aviation and its complex at Goodyear, Ariz., for conversion of its DC-10s and MD-11s to freighters for Federal Express. Dimension, formerly SabreTech, is a subsidiary of Sabreliner Corp. The initial contract calls for conversion of 12 of the passenger DC-10s to MD-10s. FedEx is acquiring DC-10s from American and United Airlines for the conversion. Douglas will be responsible for MD-10 engineering, program management, flight test and certification of the freighters.
Northrop Grumman is preparing to deliver the first of 36 new E-2C Hawkeye 2s to the U.S. Navy, capping what company and military officials said is the successful relocation and transformation of the aircraft production line to an efficient operation in this north Florida city.
After nearly two years of work, the U.S. Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy published its report last week. Noting that a ``culture of secrecy'' spawned by the Cold War persists, the report calls for legislation to reduce classification and put in place mechanisms to declassify old information automatically (see p. 19). U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D.-N.Y.) chaired the bipartisan panel, only the second such group ever created by law. Excerpts follow.
Lufthansa CityLine, which has equipped its Canadair Regional Jets with head-up guidance systems developed by Flight Dynamics, has become the first airline in Germany to be cleared for manual Category 3A instrument landings.
TEST PILOTS OF THE 422nd Test and Evaluation Sqdn. at Nellis AFB, Nev., are flying a new configuration of antiradar weaponry on their Block 50 F-16s. The payload consists of four AGM-88 HARMs, three AIM-120 Amraams and a single AIM-9M Sidewinder with a 300-gal. fuel tank. The idea is to increase firepower without sacrificing maneuverability and speed. Endurance is about the same because the pilots abandon the electronic countermeasures pod and two 370-gal. fuel tanks, to reduce drag.
With Boeing's decision to shelve planned -500X and -600X stretch versions of the 747, Japanese aerospace manufacturers are seeking new work. The 67 orders and options that Canada's Bombardier has for its new 70-seat CRJ-700 program are attractive. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries still is deciding whether to become a risk-sharing partner on the CRJ-700. The plan is for MHI to develop and assemble the aft fuselage, with a first delivery in late 2000.
PROBLEMS CONTINUE TO HAMPER Russian Mir space station operations. On Mar. 5 the station's only currently operational full-time electrolysis oxygen generation system ceased operation when air bubbles got into the system. The unit was repaired within a few hours and there are several weeks of backup oxygen supply capability had the unit remained inoperative for any length of time. The crew experienced an additional problem Mar.
An ``improper decision'' to take off into deteriorating weather at a high-altitude airport led to the crash of a Cessna Cardinal last April that killed seven year-old Jessica Dubroff, her father, Lloyd Dubroff, and pilot Joe Reid, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
On the same day that Congress reviewed a proposal to require cargo aircraft to be equipped with Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance Systems (TCAS), one of the biggest U.S. companies, United Parcel Service, took out a full-page ad in several newspapers boasting it is North America's ninth largest airline. When Congress mandated TCAS for commercial passenger aircraft, it exempted cargo aircraft under the rationale that they posed little risk because their numbers were small and they flew only at night.
The unit price of Japan's F-2 close air support fighter will be nearly $100 million in the fiscal 1997 budget for Japan's Defense Agency (JDA) that is expected to be approved by the Diet (parliament) by the end of March.
CTA SPACE&TELECOMMUNICATIONS, a builder of lightweight satellites, has rolled out its first entry in the geosynchronous (GEO) spacecraft market. Indostar-1, a lightweight direct broadcast satellite (DBS) built for Indonesia's PT MediaCitra Indostar, was unveiled recently at CTA's plant in McLean, Va. Weighing 3,054 lb., Indostar-1 is less than half the size of traditional commercial GEO satellites. CTA says it is also the first DBS spacecraft designed to operate in the S-band.
THE U.S. NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD is recommending that the FAA determine acceptable maximum laser beam power and radiation levels, and revise the Aeronautical Information Manual describing flight hazards associated with laser activity. The board is investigating possible laser damage to the right eye of a Skywest Airlines' EMB-120 captain in November, 1996, during an approach to Los Angeles International Airport and another to a Southwest Airlines' first officer following departure from McCarran International, Las Vegas, in October, 1995 (AW&ST Nov.
THE FAA HAS ADDED TO ITS WEB SITE (www.faa.gov) a link to data that agency officials said should help keep the flying public better informed about aviation safety. Anyone now can activate the ``Aviation Safety Information'' button on the agency's home page to access the National Transportation Safety Board's accident/incident data base, the FAA's incident data base and NTSB recommendations to the FAA on safety issues. The site also includes a search engine for all of those data bases.
GEC-MARCONI SENSORS OF THE U.K. and Thomson-CSF Missile Electronics of France have agreed to cooperate on the development and production of future IR seekers for homing missiles. Their first project is expected to involve the Matra BAe Dynamics stand-off weapon being developed for both the British and French air forces.
In a far-reaching effort to become a major international hub, Satolas, France's second biggest airport, plans to invest about $800 million in additional runways and facilities. The rapidly expanding TGV high-speed train route system, as well as additional highways now being planned between Lyons, Geneva and Turin, are expected to feed more long-haul travelers to the airport and further sustain strong traffic growth, according to Lyons Chamber of Commerce officials. A vast TGV station is located next to Satolas' main passenger terminal.
Air Force test pilots are smiling, because, as one says, ``the Pentagon has finally taken our advice about something and dumped the initial design for the F-22 helmet.'' The HGU-86P helmet for the new fighter has been dubbed the ``knuckle head.'' According to one pilot who has been flying with the lumpy helmet at Nellis AFB, Nev., it is ``too complicated, too cumbersome and too painful to wear.'' Pilots say it has to be donned and doffed with an awkward, rearward roll of the head and secured with a slew of strings, clamps and straps.
Look for new, modern military technology to be introduced into Central and South America by both indigenous forces and the U.S. ``As the various countries put their economies back in shape, they are going to look increasingly to modernize . . . their air forces,'' says Army Gen. Wesley Clark, the head of the U.S. Southern Command. ``How fast it will come is open to discussion. It's helpful for the United States . . .
CONTRACTOR TEAMS LED BY Hughes Information Technology Systems, Raytheon Systems Development Co. and TRW Data Technologies Div. will help the U.S. Air Force hone methods for quickly reconfiguring or prototyping software components to the command-and-control (C&C) requirements of the service's operational users.
THE JOINT U.S. NAVY/AIR FORCE'S INTEGRATED DEFENSIVE Electronics Countermeasures (IDECM) rf countermeasures program has successfully completed its critical design review. As a result, the services gave Lockheed Martin's Sanders approval to proceed into the engineering and manufacturing development phase. Lockheed Martin's Sanders is the prime contractor with ITT-Avionics as the major subcontractor and teammate.
The first Boeing 767-based Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft completed a rigorous, 6-mo. flight test and FAA certification program while a second is being readied for mission avionics suite tests.
Boeing is evolving an advanced open system architecture for AWACS computers to allow the rapid insertion of new sensors, displays and tactical analysis capabilities to meet changing mission needs.
The Lockheed Martin Corp. is planning to enter the in-flight entertainment (IFE) business. The company's avionics display systems business will collaborate with The Network Connection Inc., an Atlanta-based manufacturer of computer networking products that provide digital video/audio on-demand, imaging and multimedia processes. The two companies will market, produce and deploy the TNCX AirView system jointly for interactive IFE and cabin management.
