ROCKWELL COLLINS WILL SUPPLY AMERICAN AIRLINES with its airborne satcom system for its Boeing 767, McDonnell Douglas MD-11 and Airbus A-300 long-haul aircraft. Initial installation is planned on 83 aircraft, ultimately growing to 151. The SAT-906 system will provide passenger telephone, fax and PC links as well as cockpit voice and data communications for automatic dependent surveillance position reporting. The SAT-906 is designed to support from two through six channels.
Fundamental errors in the design and testing of the software for the inertial reference system (IRS) caused the failure of the first Ariane 5, according to the investigation board. After European contractors and agencies spent a decade and $8 billion on Ariane 5, then boasting it would have 98.5% reliability, a common flaw simultaneously halted both IRSs--a failure caused by a numerical overflow in an unused and unneeded software routine.
Bell Helicopter Textron expects to chalk up a total of about 1,000 flight hours with a fleet of aircraft supporting the Olympics. The company, official helicopter sponsor of the Summer Games, is providing 18 helicopters for VIP transport and in support of network coverage of the sporting events.
AN INTERSTATE ELECTRONICS CORP. GPS Flight Management System (FMS) can provide a long-range navigation system for aircraft not even equipped with an FMS. The IEC 9002 will interface with flight instruments and autopilot, and is targeted for aircraft such as older 727s. The FAA recently certified it for enroute, terminal and non-precision approach navigation. With upgrades it will be able to accept accuracy enhancing data from the wide area and local area augmentation systems, when they are in place.
Stork, a Dutch industrial machinery group, has acquired Fokker's surviving units, securing product support for about 1,200 in-service aircraft. The Court of Amsterdam's trustee agreed to sell Fokker Aviation to Stork for $230.4 million, including $48.2 million for the take-over of a loan.
Hughes Space and Communications has parallel efforts underway to develop a very-large-antenna system which will enable handheld cellular phones to communicate with spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit. One of the programs is a collaborative effort with a supplier to develop a drum-shaped, 50-ft.-wide antenna deployed from a cylinder less than 3 ft. in dia. (AW&ST May 20, p. 41). The other project--an entirely in-house effort by Hughes--involves a deployment concept in which the antenna opens in an umbrella-like fashion.
A new U.S. Navy/Hughes spacecraft with double the advanced channel capability to support multiservice needs and White House communications is en route to its geosynchronous orbit station following launch here July 25 on a Lockheed Martin Atlas 2. The 3-ton satellite is the first of a new enhanced version to be flown under the Navy's Ultra High Frequency Follow-on program that utilizes Hughes HS 601 type vehicles. The mission is valued at $180 million including Atlas Centaur launch costs.
Southwest Airlines will show a profit with its $25 promotional fare, according to George Pearson, president of TravelScan, the Bethesda, Md.-based provider of airline data. Southwest will use yield management techniques, mixing passengers who have paid $25 with those who have paid regular fares. The rub is that the $25 fare passengers will occupy seats that--without the promotion--would have been empty. Pearson makes his point with numbers. In 1995, Southwest recorded a daily average of 161,105 passengers.
The U.S. General Accounting Office is way off target in its recent report on ``dumb'' bombs delivered by conventional aircraft versus expensive, precision-guided weapons and stealthy aircraft. Indeed, off target may be too kind for this study (AW&ST July 15, p. 27). This one appears to be a blatant example of a politically motivated inquiry--one that starts with a conclusion, then rounds up only statistics that support the conjecture.
Lori Garver has become a special assistant for communications in the NASA Office of the Administrator, on a one-year leave of absence as executive director of the Washington-based National Space Society.
Two of the U.S. Army's small fleet of four-engine RC-7B photo reconnaissance and signals intelligence aircraft will quietly slip into South Korea in August to begin operations, probably in September, along the volatile demilitarized zone (DMZ) that splits the peninsula.
McDonnell Douglas has requested the FAA to begin the certification process for the planned commercial version of the C-17 transport. Formal meetings with the agency on the proposed MD-17 are scheduled to begin in about one month to determine specific certification requirements. Primary market envisioned for the transport in a commercial role is the carrying of outsized cargo. The aircraft program recently successfully completed durability testing equivalent to three design lifetimes. The 90,000 hr.
Eric Anderson has been promoted to president/chief operating officer from executive vice president of Aviall Inc. of Dallas. Charles M. Kienzle has become senior vice president-operations and Cornelius Van Den Handel treasurer/director of planning. Kienzle was senior vice president-operations of Aviall U.S. Engine Services and Van Den Handel director of Aviall financial planning and analysis.
The FAA has finally found a foolproof way to increase air safety, although skeptics say it's decidedly low-tech and much uncertainty remains about its long-term effect on air traffic management. Last week, the agency and officials at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport had construction workers hoist a 20-ft.-tall mesquite tree to the top of the airport's new, 227-ft.-high control tower. According to the officials, the tree was placed in the empty, uppermost control cab of the tower specifically to ward off evil spirits.
The explosion of TWA Flight 800 over the Atlantic Ocean is already having a major impact on airport security in the United States even though investigators are still trying to determine the cause. U.S. President Bill Clinton announced late last week significant changes in airport security that will take place immediately, which he explicitly acknowledged will cost the aviation industry money and passengers more inconvenience (see p. 29).
Dennis Campbell has been appointed executive vice president-operations and engineering for the Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Stratford, Conn. He was vice president-power generation for the Americas of the Cummins Engine Co., Columbus, Ind.
After prodding from Senate Commerce Committee members Ron Wyden (D.-Ore.) and Wendell H. Ford (D.-Ky.), the FAA has agreed to study ways to make airline safety data available to the public. McCain's measure contains such a requirement, too. Information could include regulatory violations, incidents and enforcement actions, but many questions remain about how to structure such an information program. An Air Transport Assn. official said the U.S. airline industry has no serious objection to the concept, but that the FAA and industry must work together on the issue.
Amid the sadness of the TWA Flight 800 tragedy and public concern for air safety, the airlines' second-quarter financial results paint a picture of renewed strength and promise. But apparently investors are looking at the industry through a different prism, judging by a persistent weakness in airline stock prices.
The U.S. government is heightening security measures at the nation's airports in the wake of TWA Flight 800's destruction July 17. Eight days after the TWA explosion, President Bill Clinton ordered new directives by the Transportation Dept. stepping up the hand search of luggage and the screening of baggage. He also ordered the pre-flight inspection of any aircraft flying to or from the U.S.--``every plane, every cabin, every cargo hold, every time.''
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION last week approved the French government's $1-billion bailout funding to ailing Air France. This is the last installment of $4 billion granted to the state-owned carrier to support its recovery plan.
THE LAUNCH OF A RUSSIAN progress unmanned resupply vehicle to the Mir space station was halted only 45 sec. before ignition at the Baikonur Cosmodrome July 24, when a propellant sensor malfunctioned in the flight's SL-4 booster. The Progress M-32 mission was rescheduled for launch July 27, and is critical for resupply of U.S. astronaut Shannon Lucid and two Russian cosmonauts on Mir.
Two recent reports are pushing the FAA to continue increasing its emphasis on human factors, and the agency has taken steps to implement some of the measures.
Development of the Joint Standoff Weapon is again focusing attention on a growing need for controlled test ranges that can safely accommodate the large footprints of new long-range glide bombs, missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles. Existing government and industry range assets will continue to be stressed as new UAVs and a family of standoff weapons move into their development and operational test phases over the next few years.
BALL AEROSPACE&TECHNOLOGIES CORP. is nearing completion of two instruments that are scheduled to be installed on the second Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission in February, 1997. The Near-Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (the black box pictured suspended on a crane) is designed to study the near-infrared spectral region of the universe that has never been observed from the ground. The instrument is part of a high priority program aimed at studying galaxies that appear more distant than the farthest quasars, the current distance record holders.
