New Image Quest Technologies full-color, 10.4-in.-diagonal display exhibits a detailed aviation moving map format. The Fremont, Calif.-based company has begun shipping similar advanced active matrix liquid crystal displays (AMLCD) to the U.S. Navy for use on its P-3 maritime patrol aircraft. On the P-3, the 640 X 480-pixel AMLCD will display forward-looking infrared imagery, with similar 4 X 4-in. modules later replacing certain cockpit displays.
HUGHES IS NEGOTIATING A DEAL to launch satellites it builds on Japan's H2-A, a new family of boosters based on the H-2 rocket. Japanese press reports say the launch deal involves more than 10 satellites. Hughes officials confirm they are in negotiations and hope to sign an agreement within the next month. Slated to debut in 2001, the H-2A will use new solid and liquid boosters to increase payload capacity.
Vance D. Coffman has been promoted to president/chief operating officer from his recent appointment as executive vice president of the Lockheed Martin Corp., Bethesda, Md. He also had been president of the company's Space and Strategic Missiles Sector.
Congress is turning up the heat on the Pentagon to eliminate redundancies in military aviation. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects the Pentagon will spend $7-15 billion annually between 2002 and 2020, primarily on the F-22, F/A-18E/F and Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). That would mean tactical aviation's slice of the shrinking defense budget would increase by 50%. Ever helpful, the CBO is suggesting ways to cut the spending. The first is to cancel the new programs, buy more F-15Es, F/A-18Cs and F-16Cs and accept a smaller, less sophisticated force.
Lionel Fleury has been named deputy managing director of Alcatel Espace, Toulouse, France. He was president of Agence France-Presse and head of Telecom 1.
As one would expect during this election year, Vice President Al Gore, announcing the X-33 winner at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, gushed about the 2,000 ``California jobs'' that would be created (see p. 20). But Gore was almost laconic compared to Daniel S. Goldin. The NASA chief, a Democrat appointed by a Republican who managed to keep his job under a Democrat, gave Gore a stemwinder of a campaign-style introduction.
AlliedSignal is leading a study of Uzbekistan's aircraft industry with $2 million in funding from the U.S. Trade and Development Agency and U.S. industry. The study is aimed at assessing the feasibility of revitalizing Uzbekistan's Chkalov Aircraft Production Co. so it could produce aircraft equipped with Western-made engines and components. Under investigation are the Allison-powered Ilyushin Il-14 and CFM-powered Il-76MF/TF. Plans also call for equipping the aircraft with brakes, avionics and auxiliary power units made by AlliedSignal.
NASA has taken a major step toward the long-awaited launch of the Space Infrared Telescope Facility by awarding contracts to Lockheed Martin and Ball Aerospace for development of the spacecraft and infrared telescope assembly. The selection of Lockheed Martin and Ball for the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) program confirms NASA's commitment to complete the program on a schedule which will overlap its observations with other great observatories, according to officials at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
In a letter to FAA Administrator David R. Hinson, National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Jim Hall urges the agency's chief to expedite rule-making to require upgraded flight data recorders in Boeing 737 aircraft. Hall told Hinson a June 9 incident involving an Eastwind Airlines 737-200 that lost rudder control ``could have become the third fatal 737 upset'' with inadequate data to explain the cause.
A U.S. AIR FORCE TITAN 4 LAUNCHED from Cape Canaveral last week placed a large secret payload related to military intelligence into an orbit inclined about 60 deg. to the equator. The flight represents only the second Lockheed Martin Titan 4 launched from Cape Canaveral with no upper stage. The only other mission from the Cape of this type was flown in 1990 carrying four National Ocean Surveillance System (NOSS) spacecraft.
The Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer Earth Probe (TOMS-EP) is expected to begin transmitting environmental data to NASA scientists by the end of the month following successful launch on a Pegasus XL booster. The 650-lb. satellite, developed by TRW Space&Electronics Group, was launched July 2 at about 12:46 a.m. PDT approximately 60 mi. off the coast of California. The three-stage Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus booster was dropped by its L-1011 carrier aircraft from an altitude of about 38,000 ft. prior to first-stage ignition.
Ericsson Microwave Systems is courting U.S. and European companies as it looks for partners to develop a next-generation radar based on an active electronically scanned array antenna (AESA). Ericsson, which developed the PS-05/A multi-mission radar for the Gripen, is looking at AESA as part of a study on next-generation radar technology requested by the Swedish Defense Materiel Administration.
Federal Express' Asia-Pacific transshipment hub here at the former U.S. Navy Cubi Point airfield has provided it with such a strong base that it can afford to be patient with other expansions, even though the Asia-Pacific region is its fastest growing market.
BOEING HAS COMPLETED a first round of tests aimed at showing that expensive rocket components such as main engines, flight controllers, hydraulics and turbo machinery can be dropped after launch, recovered, refurbished and used again. The reusable components are a cornerstone of Boeing's proposal for the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) competition, which is seeking a way to upgrade existing U.S. boosters to lower launch costs 25-50% (AW&ST Jan. 1, p. 54).
Lockheed Martin's winning proposal for the NASA X-33 experimental rocket will introduce technologies new to the launcher world, including a linear aerospike engine, metallic thermal protection, and a lifting body airframe.
Final plans for the merger of Aerospatiale and Dassault Aviation are set to be completed by the beginning of 1997 with the French government holding a majority stake in the new company. The government confirmed last week that the merger, which it said will create a strong European player that could also rival U.S. competitors, will be structured to allow privatization of the new company as soon as possible. The timetable appears to be much quicker than originally planned, although much of the details have yet to be worked out (AW&ST July 1, p. 26).
Opinicus Corp. has developed and delivered to Parks College a portable, reconfigurable engineering simulator capable of testing loads and performance for generic helicopter, fighter and heavy transport aerodynamic models.
Jim White has been named director of corporate communications of Magellan Systems, San Dimas, Calif. He was public relations manager and will be succeeded by Donald Meyer, who was a public relations specialist for the Los Angeles Times.
Brian J. Olds has been appointed senior vice president-aircraft sales and leasing for the AAR Engine Group, Elk Grove Village, Ill. He was executive vice president/chief operating officer of Midway Airlines.
Saab has completed flight testing of the re-engined SK60W trainer/light attack aircraft, and the first three fitted with the new Williams-Rolls FJ44 engines are ready for delivery to the Swedish air force. Some 70 hr. of engine tests and 50 hr. of flight trials have been logged employing three test engines. The 1,900-lb.-thrust FJ44 turbofans are lighter and consume 25% less fuel than the Turbomecca RM9s they replace. They also will offer increased reliability and lower maintenance costs than the RM9s.
John Stanton of Australia has been elected chairman and Wolfgang Wagner vice chairman of Intelsat in Washington. Stanton, who was vice chairman, is regional director for the Americas and Europe of the Telstra Corp. Ltd., Australia's Intelsat signatory. Wagner is a director of Deutsch Telekom North America in Washington.
Chester Schickling has become vice president-marketing of the Sino Swearingen Aircraft Co., San Antonio, Tex. He was director of regional airline sales at Standard Aero.
As the flight testing of the JAS 39 Gripen enters its final stages, Saab and its industry partners are accelerating work on several upgrades for the muti-role aircraft, as well as export configurations.
The FAA is assigning 11 additional air traffic controllers to monitor transatlantic flights after two operational errors at the New York Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) in June resulted in reduced separation and activation of on-board collision avoidance systems.
