The French government this week is expected to review and enhance security measures at major provincial airports. The initiative is tied to a robbery on board an Air Inter Europe Airbus Industrie A320 twinjet last week at the Perpignan-Rivesaltes airport. Immediately after landing, at the end of the active runway, the cockpit crew discovered two small vans and armed men holding a banner: ``Shut off the engines and open the [cargo] hold.'' The A320 was carrying 60 lb. of bank notes on the lower deck--a booty that vanished, with the robbers, within minutes.
Dean E. Eastman has been named director of the Argonne National Laboratory of the University of Chicago. He was vice president-technical strategy and development reegineering of the IBM Server Group. Eastman succeeds Alan Schriesheim.
Goodyear is using a new ``bumpy bar code'' system to permanently mark aircraft tires. The machine-readable coding will help aviation operators and regulatory agencies monitor tire use. An aviation tire can be retreaded as many as 10 times during its lifespan, and gummed bar code labels tend to be damaged or fall off. The new procedure, created by the Sensis Corp. of DeWitt, N.Y., embosses the bar code into the tire sidewall during the tire curing process, according to Larry Harris, manager of commercial products at Sensis.
Adapt-A-Bridge, a ramp that connects passenger loading bridges to doorways of regional/commuter aircraft, quickly has found a place at Midwest airports. The hardware connection, which allows covered entry to commuter aircraft, is the handiwork of Gary Kuchenbrod, president of the Flight-X Products Corp. of Savoy, Ill. The Adapt-A-Bridge, equipped with handrails, attaches mainly with ATR42s and 72s, but trials have been conducted with Saab 340s, Embraer EMB 145s and Canadair Regional Jets. The connecting ramps are at airports in Champaign, Ill.; Indianapolis and Ft.
Nearly three weeks after President Clinton ordered the creation of a commission to review airline safety within 45 days, it is finally ready to begin work. Considering the task at hand, most of the appointees were not surprising. Vice President Al Gore, who will chair, named NTSB Chairman Hall, FBI Director Louis J. Freeh, CIA Chief John M. Deutch and Transportation Secretary Federico Pena to the panel. Former Transportation Secretary William T. Coleman, John M.
China was scheduled on Aug. 18 to launch ChinaSat 7, a Hughes HS 376 with 24 C-band and extended C-band transponders. It was built for the China Telecommunications Broadcast Satellite Corp., and will be used for voice, fax, data, television and other telecommunications services.
McDONNELL DOUGLAS IS SWITCHING from analog to digital ``glass'' cockpits in T-45A Goshawk aircraft under construction for the U.S. Navy training command. The Navy recently approved the new ``cockpit 21'' configuration after extensive flight evaluation. Digital displays similar to those in the F/A-18, and Global Positioning System/Inertial Navigation assembly, will speed the transition of student naval aviators to fleet aircraft. The first aircraft with the new cockpit--No. 84 of the 174 on order--is slated for delivery in October, 1997.
An Ariane 44L booster has launched two European satellites scheduled to bring major increases in French and Italian telecommunication and television capabilities. Telecom 2D and Italsat F2 were injected into nearly nominal 200 X 35,981-km. (124.3 X 22,362-mi.) geostationary transfer orbits. Late last week, France Telecom and the Italian space agency were scheduled to complete maneuvers to place the communications satellites into their initial geosynchronous orbit locations.
A German solar-powered aircraft now being tested by the University of Stuttgart aerospace faculty has accumulated more than 20 flight hr. A team of 40 students, headed by Prof. Rudolf Voit-Nitschmann, recently completed the 385-kg. (847 -lb.) maximum-takeoff-weight Icare that was selected as the best solar-energy aircraft for the 1996 Berblinger contest.
NASA may be pushing its ``smaller-faster-cheaper'' philosophy so hard it is imposing unreasonable constraints on its upcoming Mars missions, a new National Research Council report warns. Moreover, the major shortcomings the NRC cites in NASA's Mars program are in the areas most closely related to the search for evidence of life. The NRC foresees only the limited capabilities of rovers and dim prospects for a bargain-basement mission to return Martian rock samples to Earth.
MICRON COMMUNICATIONS of Boise, Idaho, is working with the FAA to develop a model of a Positive Passenger Baggage Matching system, which would give an alert before an unaccompanied bag is placed on an aircraft. Ticket agents would issue matching tags for a passenger and his bags. The tags would be interrogated from up to a 10-ft. distance by a ground computer and microwave radio system before boarding. The tags would use a scaled-down version of the company's MicroStamp technology.
Lockheed Martin Electronics&Missiles is developing a shipboard, infrared-based cruise missile defense system under a two-year, $14.9-million contract from the U.S. Navy. The company also has established a long-term joint venture with Rafael of Israel to jointly market the AGM-142 precision guided air-to-ground missile worldwide. The version used by the Israeli air force is designated Popeye.
Investigating the crashes of ValuJet Flight 592 and TWA Flight 800 is straining the National Transportation Safety Board's budget and eroding its emergency reserve fund. At more than $100,000 a day, the TWA probe has already topped the $2 million mark. NTSB head James Hall says he will be forced to ask Congress for additional funding. But to help finance the massive investigation off Long Island, Hall also plans to recommend formation of a consortium, likely to include Boeing, Pratt&Whitney, TWA, the FBI and the NTSB.
MARION (VA.) COMPOSITES has won a contract to supply composite winglets and landing gear doors for up to 80 C-17 Globemaster 3 transports. The contract from McDonnell Douglas, including options, is worth more than $61 million. Marion Composites already supplies leading edge and trailing edge panels for C-17 wing flaps and manufactures the aircraft's nose and tail radomes. McDonnell Douglas sought to recompete the work as part of its multiyear bid for 80 C-17s.
William Wagner of the Townsend Engineering Co. is the new vice chairman of the Washington-based National Business Aircraft Assn.'s board of directors. He succeeds David M. Sheehan, who has retired. Wagner was treasurer and has been succeeded by Tom Myers of Sears, Roebuck and Co.
The first Pacer Crag Block 20 cockpit upgrade for USAF C-135 and KC-135s has been delivered by Rockwell's North American Modification Div. in Shreveport, La. Ultimately, more than 600 aircraft are scheduled to receive the avionics retrofit, which is aimed at enhancing aircraft and flight crew performance. The contract has a potential value of over $250 million if all options are exercised.
The National Air Transportation Assn., based in Alexandria, Va., is hosting a special meeting for Part 135 operators, in Dallas on Sept. 19-20. Representatives from the FAA, U.S. Customs Service and National Transportation Safety Board, as well as top aviation officials from Mexico, are scheduled to speak. The session will address such operational issues affecting charter operators flying under Part 135 as flights to Mexico, FAA enforcement, aviation security and new Part 135 training rules. NATA represents aviation businesses before Congress and federal agencies.
Recent retirement of the U.S. Air Force NKC-135A icing tanker at Edwards AFB, Calif., could derail an emerging FAA plan aimed at improving the safety of aircraft flying in icing conditions.
Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. and the U.S. Navy are completing negotiations for upgrading 180 Marine Corps AH-1W SuperCobra gunships and 100 UH-1N Twin Huey helicopters with many common components. An engineering, manufacturing and development (EMD) contract for the ``H-1 Upgrade Program'' could be signed by late this year.
THE U.S. GOVERNMENT VIP AIRCRAFT fleet based near Washington will be updated with the purchase of as many as four Boeing 757-200s. Newly designated the C-32A, they will be operated by the 89th Airlift Wing at Andrews AFB, Md., and will replace five aging C-137s (Boeing 707s). Two other C-137s used to transport government executives and lawmakers were retired in December. The $365-million firm fixed-price contract provides options to lease or buy the Pratt&Whitney-powered aircraft.
Lockheed Martin's winning proposal to build the X-33 single-stage-to-orbit demonstrator says the aerospace giant would seek to spinoff the follow-on VentureStar reusable launch vehicle as an independent enterprise. ``The hope is to put payloads in orbit so economically it will be just like an airline,'' says LockMart CEO Norman R. Augustine, ``the thought is to find independent investors.'' Meanwhile, Capitol Hill fans of the vertical landing SSTO still aren't giving up on keeping alive a successor to the DC-X as a backstop to the X-33.
Mary Fackler Schiavo may be gone, but the aftershocks of her tenure as the Transportation Dept.'s controversial Inspector General are still causing the FAA headaches. Four members of the House aviation subcommittee, Reps. William Lipinski (D.-Ill.), Peter DeFazio (D.-Ore.), Jerry Costello (D.-Ill.) and Pete Geren (D.-Tex.) have seized upon a 1993 report by Schiavo that disclosed ``appalling findings'' about the agency's lack of oversight of schools and designated examiners that license aircraft mechanics. In a letter to FAA Administrator David R.
The Monitor Jet Corp., a new Canadian company, plans to build military trainer versions of the BD-10 single-engine jet under a worldwide marketing license from the Bede Jet Corp. The BD-10 has been available as a homebuilt kit, but potential international customers have stated a need for 12 of the military trainer version in 1997 (AW&ST June 27, 1994, p. 64). Monitor is working with ``a large U.S. aircraft manufacturer,'' which will provide technology and production expertise during project start-up.
Raleigh Drennon, retired director of aviation for the BFGoodrich Co., Akron, Ohio, will receive the National Business Aircraft Assn.'s John P. Doswell Award for lifelong achievement in support of business aviation. Leonard Greene, president of the Safe Flight Instrument Corp., White Plains, N.Y., will receive the Award for Meritorious Service to Aviation.
McDONNELL DOUGLAS, trying to bolster its chances of selling the F/A-18 Hornet in Eastern Europe, is taking senior government officials on demonstration flights in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland. The company leased a two-seat F/A-18D based at Aviano, Italy, from the U.S. Marines for the nearly two-week tour. McDonnell Douglas test pilot Gary Jennings will demonstrate the aircraft's multirole capability to defense and civilian decision-makers in the three nations, which are looking to buy new fighters within the next few years.
