Boeing, McDonnell Douglas and Airbus Industrie are all busy reviewing plans for new wide-body models just as the market for commercial aircraft heats up. Airbus is expected to decide soon on a 310-380-seat stretch version of the A340 (see p. 45) while McDonnell Douglas ponders an MD-XX for up to 375 passengers (see p. 43). Airlines are meeting with the airframe companies to participate in fine-tuning the designs as the manufacturers grapple with the question of how to finance all of the development work.
McDonnell Douglas is receiving positive feedback from some of its key U.S. airline customers on the proposed MD-XX aircraft series, which are designed to provide range well in excess of 8,000 naut. mi. or accommodate payloads of up to 375 passengers. The Douglas Aircraft Co. division is continuing to define details of the design configuration and performance specifications of the trijet derivatives. The company is factoring in a broad range of airline comments on the models and working to resolve any remaining technical issues.
Harry B. Combs, founder of AMR Combs and former president of Gates Learjet Corp., is among four aviation pioneers to be inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame, Dayton, Ohio, on July 20. The others are: Capt. David S. McCampbell (USN, Ret.), known as the Navy's ``Ace of Aces'' for destroying 34 enemy aircraft in the air and 20 on the ground during World War 2; Donald K. (Deke) Slayton, World War 2 combat pilot, experimental aircraft test pilot and astronaut; and Brig. Gen. Paul W. Tibbetts, Jr.
THE U.S. SENATE UNANIMOUSLY approved $235 million for defenses against weapons of mass destruction (WMD), including the initiation of domestic preparedness programs next year to deal with terrorist attacks with nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) weapons on U.S. soil. Of the $235 million grand total approved late last week under the ``Nunn-Lugar 2'' amendment to the Fiscal 1997 defense authorization bill, $150 million is apportioned to the Defense Dept. and $85 million to the Energy Dept.
BMW Rolls-Royce is on track to receive European JAA certification of its BR710 powerplant in August. The turbofan successfully completed fan blade-off tests last week at Rolls-Royce's facilities in Hucknall, England. The fan blade-off test marks the last major trial the company needs to perform for JAA certification. In recent weeks, the BR710 also successfully passed its 150-hr. cyclic endurance test as well as hail- and water- ingestion tests. The powerplant also repeated, and successfully passed, a medium bird ingestion test in late May.
Analysis of the Dark Star crash is beginning to narrow in on the causes of the April accident that destroyed the stealthy unmanned reconnaissance aircraft. Watch for officials to make a pronouncement about the investigation's direction soon. ``In all likelihood it's a combination of things--interaction between the ground and the air vehicle, the landing gear, ground effect and possible modeling errors,'' a Defense official said.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is expected to suggest new regulations covering recurrent training and rest periods for aircraft maintenance technicians, similar at least in intent to the kind that now cover pilots. ``Research into previous accidents done by my office is beginning to show a definite need for recurrent training,'' NTSB board member John Goglia said in a recent on-line conference held by the AVIATION WEEK GROUP INFORMATION CENTER on CompuServe.
Congress has passed an amendment to form a National Defense Panel of nine experts to monitor the Pentagon's reassessment of itself early next year. Some senior military officials believe the panel's oversight offers one of the few chances for an objective assessment of how financial cuts can be made across service lines--through eliminating redundancies-- to rationalize an already stressed defense budget.
THE GALILEO SPACECRAFT last week successfully completed a close flyby of the moon Ganymede, the first targeted encounter of the spacecraft's orbital tour at Jupiter. Project officials said the nominal target altitude for the encounter was 844 km. Data showed Galileo flew past the moon only about 9 km. below the targeted altitude during its closest approach on June 26 at 11:29 p.m. PDT. Ganymede, the largest moon in the solar system, is about three-fourths the size of Mars.
Tony Stephenson has been appointed associate project director of Spearhead Exhibitions Ltd.'s biennial Helitech show, which will be Sept. 30-Oct. 3 at the Redhill Aerodrome in Surrey, England.
NASA is developing concepts that would permit independent instrument approaches to closely-spaced runways in adverse weather without reducing capacity below that obtained under visual conditions. The Airborne Information for Lateral Spacing (AILS) program is part of the Reduced Spacing Operations element of NASA's Terminal Area Productivity Program, which is aimed at increasing capacity at existing airports.
Human error by the crew of the destroyer Yuguri, and not mechanical failure, was responsible for the June 4 shootdown of a U.S. Navy A-6E Intruder, according to Japan's chief of naval operations. The A-6E was towing a target for ship-to-air gunnery practice during the Rimpac exercises. Its crew ejected safely. Previously, the Japanese said a 20-mm. Gatling gun on board the Yuguri might have been switched to automatic targeting mode that locked on to the A-6E because it was the first object sighted. But that explanation now has been rejected.
Major advances in fiber-optic gyro (FOG) technology promise significant size, weight, cost and reliability benefits for military and civil aircraft as well as for precision-guided munitions. FOGs have begun to challenge ring laser gyros (RLGs), which had rapidly displaced the traditional spinning-mass type gyros for most applications after RLGs made their debut about 15 years ago. FOGs already have displaced RLGs in some less demanding civil and military applications where gyro drift rates of about 1 deg./hr. are acceptable (AW&ST May 13, p. 46).
Cathay Pacific Airways ordered an emergency evacuation of 306 passengers and 15 crewmembers from one of its Boeing 777-200s at Hong Kong's Kai Tak airport last week after the crew received a fire warning from the cargo hold. The flight had landed from Bangkok and was nearly at the gate when the warning light flashed. The pilots decided to take no chances, and the evacuation took only about 90 sec. In fact, it was so quick that some passengers were injured when others piled into them at the bottom of the chute.
Testimony given by key government, safety and airline industry officials during hearings last week into the ValuJet Airlines accident will prompt Congress to take action regarding FAA oversight of airlines and carriage of hazardous materials.
Richard J. Nelson has been named managing director of aviation at UND Aerospace at the University of North Dakota. He was president/chief executive officer of Skyway Airlines in Milwaukee.
AVIATION NEWS, THE FIRST MAJOR WEEKLY cable television news program dedicated exclusively to covering the world of aviation, premieres July 2 on the Speedvision Network. Aviation News is produced by an alliance of Speedvision, the Wingspan division of The Network Group and The Aviation Week Group, publisher of Aviation Week&Space Technology. Through its publications and worldwide news bureaus, The Aviation Week Group contributes a continuous news feed and editorial direction to Aviation News. Aviation News is available to 5 million viewers in the U.S.
The U.S. Army still expects to hover-test its kinetic energy anti-satellite (KE ASAT) kill vehicle this fall at Phillips Laboratory's Edwards AFB, Calif., facility in preparation for flight tests in 1998. However, the program currently is stalled until $30 million in Fiscal 1996 funds are released by the Pentagon.
Southwest Airlines continues to recoup its more than $50-million investment in Flight Dynamics head-up displays (HUDs) since December, when a Category 3-qualified Boeing 737 landed at a foggy Sacramento, Calif., airport with a 50-ft. ceiling and 700-ft. runway visual range (RVR), according to the airline. Previously, the carrier was restricted to an 1,800-ft. RVR.
International crews on both the U.S. shuttle and Russian Mir station this week are heading toward new records in space, while obtaining significantly different data that will be combined to build a stronger science foundation for the joint station under development. On Columbia, seven astronauts from the U. S., France and Canada are beginning the second half of a planned 16-17-day mission using advanced U. S. and European hardware to determine--in unprecedented detail--why specific changes take place in the body during initial adaption to zero gravity.
Dornier Satellitensysteme will demonstrate a side-looking synthetic aperture radar system's ability to map rain forests over Indonesia's Sumatra and Kalimantan (Borneo) regions later this month. The intent is to show forest density and tree growth rates for commercial purposes. The flights will be conducted in a C-160 Transall. Called Indrex, for Indonesian Radar Experiment, the demonstration is backed by the European Space Agency and is intended to lead to Indonesia's use of ERS-1 and -2 satellite imagery for forest monitoring.
All Nippon Airways has introduced a new service for first-class passengers--``Full Flat'' seating. The 83-in. (2.11-meters) pitch seats are designed to recline 180 deg. and have a large hood that helps passengers block out nearby distractions. The new service, which also offers down pillows and comfortable cabinwear for passengers, was introduced on Tokyo-New York routes on June 19. ANA plans to introduce it on routes to Paris, London, Frankfurt, Washington and Los Angeles.
Whatever is to follow the NATO-led implementation force now in Bosnia is on the minds, if not the lips, of senior NATO officials. Secretary General Javier Solana will say only that he is thinking ``about several options'' if peace starts to break down. But look for any scheme fashioned at year's end to include intense aerial surveillance and allied warplanes stationed in Italy, Hungary and Albania. One senior NATO official said it might also include ``things like an exterior [ground force] presence . . .
The agency that procures U.S. intelligence satellites is studying an orbiting tethered satellite system designed to complement a tether experiment flown on the space shuttle earlier this year. The National Reconnaissance Office's (NRO) acknowledgment of its leading role in development of the Tether Physics and Survivability (TiPS) spacecraft is the first time in the agency's 35-year history that it has publicly revealed an ongoing space deployment.
THE CRASH OF A SIKORSKY CH-53E last month was caused by a defective swashplate duplex bearing assembly, according to conclusions drawn by an investigative team led by Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. and the Naval Safety Center. The aircraft was on an acceptance flight when the accident occurred, killing all four occupants. Special inspections of swashplates installed on CH-53E and MH-53E helicopters is nearly complete and all aircraft are expected to resume normal flight operations within the next few months, according to Sikorsky.
