THE GLOBAL MARKET FOR UNIX-BASED software products will grow 8% a year through the end of the century, according to a forecast by DataPro Information Services. DataPro expects the market for non-UNIX products, including those based on Windows and Windows NT, to drop by 8% annually over the same period. UNIX's strength through the year 2000 will be derived by its position as the preferred operating system for World Wide Web servers, according to DataPro, and its continuing dominance in database, file and print systems.
Canada has begun training its CF-18 pilots with a new export version of the Ericsson Erijammer A100 electronic warfare training system. The EW jammer pods, fitted to T-33 aircraft, were recently employed in Canada in NATO Maple Flag exercises. Canada has purchased eight of the pods, which are designed to train radar operators in electronic counter-countermeasures.
Solid-state electronic ballasts for aircraft lighting have been developed by Page Aerospace, Middlesex, England. The new ballasts save over 90 lb. and 1 kw of power consumption in a typical commercial transport application compared with magnetic-style ballasts, according to Peter Swift of Page's Seattle office. A single Page ballast lights two fluorescent lamps of any rating and size. The new ballasts are retrofittable and operate silently, Swift said.
Northwest Airlines has made a connection at Osaka/Kobe's Kansai International Airport by feeding four of Japan Air System's busiest routes. Northwest and JAS are sharing computer reservations to link inbound Northwest passengers (and vice versa) from Los Angeles and Honolulu to JAS' flights to Sapporo, Fukuoka, Kochi and Niigata. More connections are planned, according to officials. JAS plans to issue through tickets to U.S. destinations using the Northwest domestic network via California and Hawaii.
As the Transportation Dept. and Justice Dept. continue to mull the rising tide of requests for antitrust immunity by airlines, the European Union is indicating it may beat Washington to the punch. Prompted by the recent alliance proposed by British Airways and American Airlines, the EU commissioners for competition affairs and air transport, Karel Van Miert and Niel Kinnock, respectively, said they will launch investigations this week into six transatlantic agreements. These include British Airways-American Airlines, KLM-Northwest and SAS-United.
Boeing is studying a next generation of ultra-long-haul 777 transports based on the yet-to-fly -300 stretched version. Aircraft design and performance continue to evolve after initial presentations at a ``777X Working Group'' meeting held here in October. Representatives of 14 international airlines attended those briefings including British Airways, American, Delta, Northwest and SAS.
Last month's German LBA certification of Eurocopter's EC-135 twin-engine utility helicopter set new standards for the commercial helicopter industry. The 7-or 8-seat EC-135 was the first light twin to receive its initial certification with two powerplant options. The test program logged approximately 1,000 hr. of flight in gaining the full-flight envelope, visual day/night approval, which included meeting new JAR Part 29 engine isolation and system redundancy requirements.
WORLDWIDE revenues for software licenses, license renewals, maintenance and services of CAD/CAM and CAE programs should jump 18.9%, to near $7 billion this year, according to Daratech Inc. The Cambridge, Mass., consulting firm tallied 1995 industry revenues at $5.8 billion. Daratech projects that new licenses for computer-aided design, computer-aided manufacturing and computer-aided engineering software will account for about $4 billion of the revenue. Revenues from charges for maintenance, leasing and usage as well as training and support will make up the rest.
This summer, after nearly a decade of anticipation, the B-1 Lancer will finally begin operations with advanced conventional weapons, and the Pentagon is expected to accelerate the bomber's projected near-precision weapons capability by three years to 1997.
Boeing and General Electric have launched a business jet/executive transport version of the 737-700 that has a 6,000-naut.-mi., transpacific, unrefueled range. The aircraft, which is still unnamed, will be a direct competitor in range and cost to the Gulfstream 5 and Bombardier Global Express long-range business jets.
Hugo Ragnar Parr has been elected chairman of the European Space Agency's Council for 1996-97. He is director-general of the Norwegian Ministry of Industry's Research Dept. Parr succeeds Pieter Gaele Winters.
The European Space Agency's science program committee has authorized the preparation and integration of a fifth Cluster satellite using spare subsystems and flight instruments from the original program as it attempts to revive the scientific mission.
The official Chinese press says Airbus Industrie will have to keep shopping for an Asian partner for its A3XX 550-seat jumbo aircraft. The China Daily says the country ``would not run the high commercial risk of involvement in such a project'' because it is devoted to the development of a 100-seat regional jet by state-owned Aviation Industries of China (AVIC). Asia is the biggest potential market for the 500-plus-seat aircraft proposed by Airbus and Boeing. Airbus has been looking for a partner for several years.
I-LOGIX HAS NETTED A $750,000 order for the Statemate Magnum systems-design automation product from its biggest customer, British Aerospace. Andover, Mass.-based i-Logix began shipments in May of Statemate Magnum, the result of a 80-person-a-year effort to integrate its original Statemate and Express programs into one program with greater capabilities for designing and simulating complex entities such as avionics and fuel-management systems.
GENERAL ELECTRIC'S 92,000-lb.-thrust version of the GE90, the GE90-92B, has received FAA certification. Flight test of the powerplant on the 777-200 IGW (Increased Gross Weight) is scheduled to begin in September. The first 777-200 IGW is expected to enter service with British Airways in early 1997.
Leonard Pomata has been appointed president of the McLean, Va.-based PRC Inc. subsidiary of Litton Industries. He succeeds William C. Hoover, who has resigned. Pomata was senior vice president/general manager of PRC's systems integration unit.
Gerry Roberts has become interim chief executive officer of Superior Air Parts of Dallas, following the resignation of David Sisson. Roberts was president/CEO of National Airmotive.
Video images taken from a downward-looking camera mounted on the nose of the McDonnell Douglas DC-XA experimental rocket show some of the debris and flames encountered during vertical landings.
The U.S. National Defense University's Institute for National Strategic Studies, at Ft . McNair in Washington, recently prepared a report entitled ``The Unintended Consequences of Information Age Technologies.'' The analysis was initiated at the behest of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). It deals with the risks of providing too much access to information with Command, Control, Communications, Computers&Intelligence for the Warrior (C4IFTW), which is the concept currently guiding the U.S. military's assimilation of information technologies.
NASA is assessing the potential for delay to the scheduled July 31 launch of the shuttle Atlantis to Mir after finding that some hot gas seeped into areas near O-ring seals on the Thiokol solid rocket boosters that launched Columbia June 20. The assessment late last week was that the seepage has a possibility of delaying the flight, depending on initial analysis. A new water-based sealant was used for the first time in Columbia's motors in place of a methyl-based sealant banned by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Robert J. Mahoney has been named vice president/chief financial officer of the Advanced Navigation&Positioning Corp., Hood River, Ore. He was director of finance for the North American Sales Div. of the Mentor Graphics Corp., Wilsonville, Ore. Larry R. Christensen has been appointed vice president-marketing and sales, and H. Wayne Vial has been promoted to team member services manager from quality manager.
Lee J. Whitneyhas become vice president-communications of the Lockheed Martin Corp. Aeronautics Sector. He was director of communications for McDonnell Douglas Aerospace.
Roy McNulty , president of Short Brothers Plc., Belfast, Northern Ireland, has been appointed chairman of the Bombardier Inc. subsidiary. Laurent Beaudoin, chairman/chief executive officer of Bombardier and formerly chairman of Shorts, will continue on the Shorts board. Ken Brundle has been named vice president/general manager for aerospace activities of Shorts and Jim Gilmore vice president/general manager of support services in Bournemouth, England.
Researchers at USAF's Wright Laboratory, Dayton, Ohio, are working to improve the accuracy of future tactical and humanitarian air drops with a prototype dropsonde atmospheric profiling system. The suitcase-sized device's self-contained receiver/ processor unit weighs less than 100 lb. and provides real-time atmospheric sensing and a computed air-release point to the host aircraft based on signals from dropsondes released over or near the drop zone.
