C. Eric B. McConachie, a consultant and marketing executive with Canadair, has won the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute's C.D. Howe Award for 1996. He was cited for achievements in planning, policy making and overall leadership in aeronautics and space activities.
LEICA HAS ACHIEVED REAL-TIME D-GPS ACCURACIES of less than 30 cm. (11.8 in.) in tests conducted independently in the U.S. and Sweden, using its MX 9400 receivers. Applications for stationary measurements of this accuracy include Global Information System needs, such as airport management. Tests in the U.S. gulf coast using Omnistar for differential corrections consistently had average errors of 30 cm. in latitude and 20 cm. in longitude.
A USAF F-16 CRASHED into a house in a residential neighborhood in Pensacola, Fla., July 11 while trying to make an emergency landing at Pensacola Regional Airport. The pilot ejected and survived. Rescuers were searching for a 4-year-old boy shortly after the accident which injured some people on the ground. The F-16 was being evacuated from Shaw AFB, S.C., as Hurricane Bertha approached the coast.
AIRBUS INDUSTRIE PARTNERS HAVE PLEDGED to reach an agreement by the end of the year on objectives for restructuring the four-nation consortium into a single corporate entity by no later than 1999.
Reinstatement of the 10% U.S. airline ticket-tax and an end to the reprieve in effect since Jan. 1 are looming larger on the horizon. Last Wednesday, the U.S. Senate approved a legislative package that included reimposition of the tax. As envisioned, it would not be retroactive. If the House goes along and President Clinton signs the bill into law, as expected, the tax would become effective seven days later and extend to Apr. 15, 1997. Look for it to be reinstated between mid-August and Oct. 1.
Rolls-Royce and Boeing were expecting late last week to resume a 1,000-cycle ETOPS flight test of the Trent 800-powered 777. Tests were suspended on June 16 at test cycle 886 after a Trent experienced an engine surge during a takeoff run (AW&ST July 1, p. 34). Subsequent powerplant inspection found damage to the Trent's high-pressure compressor, including a failed blade that had been ingested by the engine. Investigators have determined that the failed blade's integrity was degraded by foreign object damage, possibly caused by a bird.
Simulations and modeling of foreign threats have not proved as reliable as once thought. Increasingly thorough examinations of Russian- and Eastern European-manufactured radars, missiles and aircraft--available for examination since the end of the Cold War--have produced rather stark surprises for Defense Dept. analysts. After spending oodles on simulators, for example of SA-5 and SA-10 surface-to-air missiles, ``we discovered we never built one that accurately replicated the threat. We just missed it,'' a senior Pentagon official said.
An intelligence community veteran who directed U.S. spy satellite efforts until earlier this year has been tapped to run a venture that plans to sell high resolution satellite imagery on the commercial market.
The U.S. Air Force is merging its Space Tactics Course into the Weapons School at Nellis AFB, Nev., as part of the service's ongoing efforts to integrate space resources and knowledge into ``warfighter'' units. Students in the first Space Weapons Instructor Course began training last week at the Weapons School's new Space Div. They will ``validate'' the course curriculum, which has been modified to closely match the Weapons School's standardized format. Graduates ultimately will serve as the instructor cadre for subsequent classes.
Industry has long been concerned with the integrity of titanium forgings and rotating titanium components, and it undoubtedly will redouble its efforts should it be found that the uncontained failure of the JT8D engine on Delta Flight 1288 was caused by the failure of a forged titanium fan hub. But it took the crash of a United DC-10 in Sioux City, Iowa, in 1989 and the conclusion that it was prompted by a failed rotating titanium engine component to heighten interest in the area.
Industrial engineers at the University of Buffalo (N.Y.) are developing a computer program aimed at finding error-prone situations in aircraft maintenance practices. The Proactive Error Reduction System (Pers) uses ``best practices'' developed for manufacturing-related quality programs as well as human factors research to analyze aircraft inspection and maintenance practices. After the user has answered a series of detailed questions about a procedure or problem, Pers makes suggestions based on previous experience in rectifying similar situations.
HUGHES AIRCRAFT CO. HAS filed a protest over the U.S. Air Force's selection of McDonnell Douglas and Lockheed Martin for the program definition and risk reduction phase of the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) program. Hughes maintained that its candidate offered the best average unit procurement price, achieved the lowest target kill cost and required the fewest number of aircraft sorties.
C. Lloyd Carpenter has become vice president-international operations for the Electronic Sensors and Systems Div. of the Northrop Grumman Corp. He was vice president-technical services, logistics and capital resources.
If proof is needed that the Japanese no longer shun travel, consider the latest Ministry of Transport statistics. Overseas services now are offered to 440 destinations from 18 Japanese airports compared with 153 and 80, respectively, in 1988. The ministry says Japanese travelers are tired of congestion at Narita, Tokyo's beleaguered international airport, hence the growth in overseas connections from local airports. Southeast Asian countries are the most common destinations from the local airports.
National Reconnaissance Office managers have dropped opposition to downsizing their spacecraft in the wake of a high-level panel's conclusion that future U.S. intelligence satellites should be dramatically smaller. Director of Central Intelligence John Deutch's advisory panel said the NRO should break up the multiple tasks performed by the agency's expensive, highly capable satellites. The tasks would be divided among larger numbers of spacecraft that would be smaller and less capable.
Lockheed Martin projects nearly 800 sales of its F-16 fighter over the next decade in addition to the current firm production run that is keeping the Ft. Worth line open until 2000. The Middle East is expected to provide the biggest overseas market for the F-16 with a potential of 300 orders, followed by the Far East with 160 and Europe with 150. South American air forces should add about 60 to the list. Five Asian nations have ordered 424 F-16s so far, Ralph D. Heath, Lockheed Martin vice president, said.
The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is forging relationships with industry to address the cyberspace warfare threat to international commerce. Traditional government methods will not be sufficient to deal with the cyber threat, according to CIA chief John Deutch. The government will have to develop ``intense and deep cooperation with industry--those who are closer to the very rapid technological change that is occurring.''
The International Turbine Engine Corp. has advanced its plan to provide the alternative engine for the British Aerospace Hawk and its derivatives by delivering an F124 engine to McDonnell Douglas for installation in a T-45 Goshawk. Flights of the F124-powered Goshawk are expected to begin in September and should lead to the qualification of the 6,300-lb.-thrust F124 in the T-45. The U.S. Navy will act as the certifying authority for the aircraft/engine combination.
THOROUGH ``MAPPING'' OF processes is critical to success in streamlining and automating them, according to veterans of such efforts. Reviewing each process from start to finish reveals to managers and workers alike many steps that were inserted to fix old problems and are no longer needed. Automating without the re-engineering that eliminates such steps ``is like putting whipped cream on garbage,'' said T. Blaine McMichen, process development engineering manager at Motorola's Information Systems Group. ``It's just a waste.''
Gen. Joseph W. Ashy, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Space Command, is scheduled to be inducted into the Order of the Sword by the Space Command's noncommissioned officers on Aug. 17.
NASA/Langley Research Center is licensing aerospace design software for the first time to a commercial company as part of the agency's efforts to transfer technology to U.S. industry. The software was originally developed chiefly to improve and accelerate structural design of the defunct National Aero-Space Plane, conducted by Langley's Hypersonic Vehicles Office. Funding for that program was terminated by Congress in 1995.
Safety investigators plan to launch tests within the month aimed at settling whether the pilots of ValuJet Airlines Flight 592 donned vital emergency masks in the moments before their smoke-filled DC-9 plunged into the Everglades. The tests also could help investigators resolve conflicting data on the performance of the engines during the DC-9's last flight.
Saab has completed development of a mid-life update for the JA37 Viggen fighter and begun flight testing of a prototype for the Swedish air force. The first flight of the test aircraft took place on June 4. The upgrade encompasses adding a 1553 digital data bus and new weapons interfaces to allow the aircraft to carry all the armaments planned for the Gripen, including the Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM). The program also includes: -- An upgraded Ericsson PS-46A radar.
