Lisa Anderson, Rick Heim and Elizabeth Joves have been promoted to vice presidents from directors of communications, operations and expositions, and human resources, respectively, for Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International, Mountain View, Calif.
Some U.S. space officials are beginning an informal and preliminary assessment on the possibility of using the space shuttle to retrieve and return to Earth a 1.5-ton Chinese communications satellite stranded in a useless orbit by the failure of its Long March booster Aug. 18.
A FEDERAL JUDGE HAS DISMISSED a $1.5-billion lawsuit brought against Comsat Corp. by PanAmSat Corp. U.S. District Court Judge John F. Keenan of the Southern District of New York ruled PanAmSat did not have adequate evidence to support its charges that Comsat, the U.S. signatory to Intelsat, had violated antitrust law and engaged in predatory pricing. PanAmSat, the first private company to offer global satellite communications services, charged in the 1989 lawsuit that Comsat had conspired with other companies to suppress or eliminate PanAmSat.
RAYTHEON ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS WILL SUPPLY Digital Airport Surveillance Radars (DASR) to the Defense Dept and FAA, under a contract potentially worth $619.9 million, which could provide 213 radars through 2007. Known in the FAA as the ASR-11, the DASR will provide 60-naut.-mi. primary radar and 120-naut-mi. secondary radar surveillance from airports. The preproduction $20-million contract calls for up to three radars.
The Boeing Co. probably could never dominate the defense business the way it does commercial aircraft sales--barring the acquisition of a tactical military airframe manufactuer--or could it?
Gulfstream is evaluating an enhanced vision system option for the Honeywell/GEC Marconi head-up displays it is offering on its Gulfstream 4SP and 5 business jets. The technique overlays and correlates an infrared image of the environment ahead of the aircraft on the normal head-up display scene. Called enhanced or synthetic vision, such a system would offer improved safety for landing, takeoff and ground taxi operations in fog, smoke and haze, and other bad weather conditions, according to Gulfstream program manager Robert S. Morris.
Teams investigating the crash of Trans World Airlines Flight 800 are accelerating their efforts to nail down the potential for a fuel-air explosion to destroy a 747 in flight. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials in charge of the accident probe are pursuing several paths to determine how much damage such an explosion could have wreaked on Flight 800: -- An NTSB contractor early this week is to join the U.S. Navy's search for more pieces of wreckage from the Boeing 747-131 on the floor of the Atlantic.
British Airways will shed as many as 5,000 jobs and is eyeing selling or subcontracting some of its activities as part of an ambitious plan to cut operating costs by 1 billion pounds ($1.56 billion) by 2000.
RAYTHEON HAS WON AN $11.5-MILLION CONTRACT to provide the U.S. Special Operations Command with four mobile terminals designed to communicate with both military and commercial satellites. The company said it may ultimately produce 270 similar terminals for the Army and special forces to provide high-capacity voice and data links in the C, X and Ku bands. The mobile units would be capable of interfacing with Intelsat, Defense Satellite Communication System (DSCS), NATO and Skynet satellites, among others.
A common word used by international carriers when discussing Asia is ``expansion.'' They want to expand--more countries, more routes, increased frequencies. But when Air France recently took a look at the world's fastest growing airline market it reached a different conclusion. It wants more frequencies, yes, but has dropped nearly half its routes of three years ago and is in no hurry to add many more.
Prospects for air traffic management equipment sales throughout Latin America are dimmed by reluctance and inability of officials in the region to settle on the requirements for future air traffic control systems. Traffic management throughout Central and South America is beset by problems, according to officials in and outside the region. As in the U.S., much of the ATC equipment there is obsolescent. Systems are subject to frequent failures and require intensive, costly maintenance.
Nighthawks that deployed to Kuwait from Holloman AFB, N.M., in mid-September completed 15 refuelings during the approximately 18-hr. flight--one of the longest flown by the stealthy ``black jet.''
Anthony J. Correro, 3rd, James W. McFarland and Bruce N. Whitman have been appointed to the board of directors of Petroleum Helicopters Inc., Lafayatte, La. Ben Schrick has been promoted to executive vice president/chief operating officer from vice president/COO. Correro is a partner in the law firm of Correro Fishman Haygood Phelps Weiss Walmsley and Casteix of New Orleans. McFarland is dean of the A.B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University in New Orleans, and Whitman is executive vice president of FlightSafety International of New York.
THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY APPLIED PHYSICS LABORATORY is using an X-band bistatic radar to study wake vortices on Runway 33L at the Baltimore/Washington International Airport. The studies will be used to develop a vortex detection system to help air traffic controllers adjust the flow of inbound aircraft based on vortex presence and intensity in the runway threshold environment. Similar studies are planned for October at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, and will include researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, NASA and the John A.
BMW ROLLS-ROYCE'S BR710 engine has gained FAA certification following certification of the powerplant by the European Joint Airworthiness Authorities in August. The 15,000-lb.-thrust class engine is being used on the Gulfstream 5 and Bombardier Global Express.
Plans to put high-powered radars on tethered balloons to detect cruise missiles may be in trouble. Pentagon acquisition chief Paul Kaminski called a meeting last weekend with top service officials to review whether to proceed with an $800-million advanced concept technology demonstration (ACTD) for the aerostat scheme or pursue upgrades to the E-3 AWACS/E-8 Joint-STARS fleets, or develop a new system. Aerostat supporters fear that the money will be taken from them and applied to fixed-wing aircraft upgrades.
A JAGUAR T2A CRASHED into the Moray Firth off Scotland during a Royal Air Force training mission on Sept. 18. The single pilot on board the two-seat aircraft ejected safely and was picked up by a Sea King search-and-rescue helicopter from RAF Lossiemouth. The incident occurred shortly after take-off from Lossiemouth.
THE SENATE'S FISCAL 1997 FAA Reauthorization bill approved last week provides more than $2.2 billion to fund the Airport Improvement Program, $1.8 billion for facilities and equipment and $5 billion to pay for FAA operations. It also includes $206 million for research and development. The House FAA Reauthorization bill includes similar amounts, but features multi-year funding through Fiscal 1999. Senate and House conferees expect to hammer out a final version of the two bills before Congress adjourns this week.
James L. McPhaul has been named president/general manager of Jackson Hole (Wyo.) Aviation. He was station manager for the AMR Corp. at Reno/Tahoe (Nev.) Airport.
The results of a difficult summer season for Phoenix-based America West Airlines probably will be reflected in the airline's earnings for the third quarter of this year, according to officials with the low-cost carrier. The airline earlier this month reported record passenger miles for August and a 72% load factor for the year to date, which is a 2.2% improvement in passenger loads compared to the same period in 1995.
Ross Dueber has been named technical consultant for the development of lithium-ion batteries for the Technologies Div. of Eagle-Picher Industries, Joplin, Mo. He remains an associate professor at the U.S. Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs and was a USAF engineer for nickel-cadmium and sodium-sulfur cell programs.
Specially instrumented foot restraints, a handhold and a pushoff pad are being used inside the Mir space station to acquire realistic data on the everyday forces that astronauts use to get around or anchor themselves in zero-gravity conditions. The experiment, the second in a series designed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, could help save millions of dollars on the design and construction of inhabited space structures such as the space station as well as the racks that house sensitive experiments.
TRW AND ITS SUBCONTRACTORS are proceeding with work on NASA's Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility imaging satellite (AXAF-1), which is scheduled to be orbited by a space shuttle in 1998. TRW is fabricating flight structures for the spacecraft and has completed production and testing of six solar arrays that will be integrated into two deployable panels. Spacecraft assembly and testing are expected to begin in the second quarter of 1997. Subcontractors are also proceeding with work on the science instrument module and the mirrors for AXAF-1's advanced X-ray telescope.
THE FIRST CESSNA TURBO STATIONAIR C-206 to fly since Cessna restarted production is shown in flight. The upgraded aircraft, powered by a Textron Lycoming TIO-580-A1A piston engine, climbed to an altitude of 5,000 ft. The indicated airspeed reached 140 kt. at the planned 2,500-rpm. throttle setting. The 1-hr. flight was piloted by Doug Bassett, a Cessna engineering flight test pilot. Production is scheduled to begin at Cessna's Independence, Kan., plant in 1997.
