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.
U.S. MARINE LT. COL. Terrence W. Wilcutt has been named commander of the eighth of nine space shuttle missions to Mir. Mission 89, targeted for launch on Discovery in January, 1998, will carry Dr. David Wolf to take up a four-month residence on the Russian space station, replacing fellow astronaut Wendy Lawrence, who is due to fly to Mir on Atlantis this September. Wilcutt's other crewmembers will be Navy Cdr. Joe Frank Edwards, Jr., the copilot, and mission specialists Bonnie J. Dunbar, James R. Reilly, 2nd, and Air Force Maj. Michael P. Anderson.
An FAA analysis of pilot-controller interaction has found 40% of the elements-- fundamental units of speech--in 2,500 controller communications and 59% of those in 5,900 pilot communications studied contained at least one error. Such errors could compromise safety and lead to operational errors and pilot deviations, according to the Flight Safety Foundation of Alexandria, Va., in its summary of the 41-page FAA report. In conducting its research, the FAA studied transcripts of 9 hr. of conversations among controllers and pilots at three different Tracon facilities.
SEXTANT AVIONIQUE WILL WORK WITH DSTO OF AUSTRALIA on a collaborative research agreement to integrate Sextant's Topnight helmet-mounted display (HMD) into a partial-dome F/A-18 flight simulator. The Aeronautical and Maritime Laboratory's Air Operation Simulation Center in Melbourne plans to use the system to study the operational effectiveness of an HMD for high-speed operations. F/A-18 pilots will participate, exploring a variety of air-to-air off-boresight symbology during low- and medium-altitude combat situations.
QUADRICS SUPERCOMPUTER WORLD (QSW), a subsidiary of Alenia Aerospazio and the U.K.'s Meiko, has signed an agreement with China's Dawning Information Co. to jointly develop new massively parallel supercomputer systems for Asian markets that will have up to several thousand processors and performance in the 100 Gigaflops range. Since 1993, Alenia has sold approximately 60 Quadrics Supercomputers to European universities and research centers.
The Enhanced Javelin antitank missile made a successful first flight in late January at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala. The 49.5-lb., shoulder-fired missile locked onto a stationary T-72 Russian tank 3,300 ft. distant and impacted the vehicle's turret. Approximately 30 more firings are scheduled through May. The fire-and-forget Javelin has a range of more than 1.5 mi. and is in low-rate production.
A THAAD INTERCEPTOR missed its ballistic missile target for the fourth time in a row in a Mar. 6 test at the White Sands Missile Range, N.M. Cause of the failure was unclear late last week. The Lockheed Martin Thaad (Theater High-Altitude Area Defense) program may slip because of the failure, particularly the planned 2004 deployment date and a small User-Operational Evaluation System. Pentagon acquisition chief Paul Kaminski said that the failure ``will probably require that we do some restructuring.'' The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization/U.S.
Croatia is scheduled to participate in Europe's far-reaching effort to implement a more efficient air traffic control (ATC) system. Last week, after a 2-year transition period, Croatia, an independent state since 1991, joined the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol). It already is participating in Eurocontrol's Central Flow Management Unit and European Air Traffic Control Harmonization and Integration Program. Eurocontrol's 25 member states slowly are paving the way for a unified ATC system.
The appointment of a former U.S. Air Force chief of staff as board chairman of Pioneer RocketPlane Corp. is expected to accelerate financing and elevate the credibility of the start-up company's air-refuelable space launch vehicle program.
The recent surge in the value of U.S. airline equities notwithstanding, the stock-price performances of both the aerospac e/defense group and carriers are lagging well behind the increase in the Standard&Poor's 500 Industrials Index thus far in 1997.
The Clinton Administration has not been moving swiftly to name a new head of the FAA to replace David Hinson, who left late last year. Carl Vogt, a former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board and a lawyer here, is still in the running. Also considered a strong candidate, though, is retired Air Force Gen. Hansford T. Johnson. He was commander-in-chief of the U.S. Transportation Command and Military Airlift Command during the buildup to the Persian Gulf war. Former Democratic Rep.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is continuing to investigate the crash of an Airborne Express Douglas DC-8-63F last December during a test flight near Narrows, Va., that killed all six occupants. The four-engine jet was destroyed by impact forces and a post-crash fire when it struck mountainous terrain about 6:10 p.m. on Dec. 22. The DC-8 took off from Greensboro, N.C., about 5:40 p.m. Instrument meteorological conditions prevailed for the night flight.
Japan now has its fourth proposed low-cost airline. Investors backing Pan Asia Airlines say the carrier wants to begin making city-pair connections with considerably cheaper fares from Fukuoka to Osaka, Tokyo and Okinawa in October, 1998. The airline's ambitions include eventual connections to Chinese cities. Pan Asia joins three other groups that have proposed start-up carriers since last October: Tokyo-based Skymark Airlines, Sapporo-based Hokkaido International Airlines and an as-yet unnamed carrier from Okinawa.
