McDONNELL DOUGLAS and its industrial partners have offered the British Ministry of Defense a second candidate for the U.K.'s Conventionally Armed Stand-off Missile (CASOM) competiton. The new entry-- the Grand SLAM plus--is a longer-range derivative of the team's first entry, which is called the Grand SLAM. The two weapons share common subsystems, but the Grand SLAM plus is 21 in. shorter and about twice as wide.
WestPac plans to start its own regional carrier in November to bring passengers from smaller points in Colorado and nearby states to its Colorado Springs hub. Four or five cities will be selected initially from a list that includes Aspen, Durango, Vail, Ft. Collins, Grand Junction and Gunnison in Colorado; Santa Fe, N.M.; and Cheyenne and Casper in Wyoming. The airline soon will decide what aircraft to use--under consideration are the Dornier 328, Saab 340, AIR ATR42 and de Havilland Dash 8-200.
Pilot training and tactics development for the JAS 39 Gripen are starting in earnest with the formal introduction of the new multirole aircraft into service with the Swedish air force and the opening of the Gripen training center here. F7, the first wing to operate the Gripen, has received 18 of the 22 aircraft delivered to the air force by Saab. Two more are scheduled to be delivered to the wing this week. All 30 production Gripens in the first lot of aircraft, out of a total of 140 on order, are to be delivered by the end of the year.
Santa Barbara Airlines, a new Venezuelan carrier, will begin scheduled passenger service this fall from a hub in Maracaibo, the country's oil-exporting center. The airline will operate 50-seat turboprops and is choosing between the Aero International Regional ATR42, de Havilland Dash 8-300 and Fokker 50. Santa Barbara Airlines plans flights initially to a number of points in Venezuela--Barquisimeto, Barinas, Merida and Santa Barbara--as well as Cartagena and Barranquilla in Colombia. It also will seek authority to serve several Caribbean destinations.
EDWARD H. PHILLIPSJAMES T. McKENNA ( WASHINGTON MIAMI)
The FAA's inability to ensure that ValuJet Airlines' maintenance and flight operations meet the agency's safety standards will be a major issue at U.S. National Transportation Safety Board hearings this autumn into the May 11 crash of Flight 592. NTSB Chairman James Hall expects the NTSB will complete its detailed report on the accident late this year and release it early in 1997. Public hearings are tentatively scheduled for August or September, he said. The FAA and its oversight of ValuJet operations will come under close examination at those hearings.
Indonesia's state-owned factory is accelerating its manufacturing schedules to meet anticipated demand for a new line of regional turboprops and jets seating 50-130 passengers. First deliveries of the 100-seat N2130 regional jet from Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara (IPTN) have been moved forward two years--to 2004--on the strength of pre-market surveys, the launch of the McDonnell Douglas MD-95 and the anticipated launch of a 100-seater from China.
THE U.S. NAVY HAS ISSUED a precautionary grounding for its fleet of Sikorsky CH-53E and MH-53E helicopters. The standdown was issued last week after investigators probing into the crash of a CH-53E at Sikorsky's Stratford, Conn., headquarters on May 9 raised concerns about the aircraft's swashplate duplex bearing assembly. Four Sikorsky employees were killed in that crash, which occurred during a routine acceptance flight test.
The Accu-Bolt is an opto-electronic instrument for measuring externally threaded bolts and fasteners. It allows manufacturers and users of threaded products to verify and certify their dimensions. The system uses a ``point and shoot'' method that takes about 4 sec. to measure a bolt or fastener. The only human role is to insert the test object into the holder for imaging. Thread dimensions can be measured within 0.0001 in. on bolts ranging in size from 1/8-2 in.
By the time Indonesia's IPTN is ready to test its N2130 regional jet it expects to have its own transonic wind tunnel, near Jakarta. The country has low-speed wind tunnel capability already, but it would have to use European facilities with a high Reynolds number to test at the Mach 0.8 speeds it wants the new twinjet to cruise at. Construction of the Indonesian Trans-Sonic Speed Tunnel has been approved, and it is scheduled to open in 1999. The ITST is to be a 2 X 2.4-meter facility running at a 4.5-bar pressure.
Power Spectra, Sunnyvale, Calif., and EAC Helicopters, St. Paul, Minn., have formed a joint company to provide portable airborne landmine detection systems. Power Spectra recently successfully tested a prototype high-energy ultra-wideband impulse radar capable of locating dummy mines within a 500-ft. viewing area from a 150-ft.-high sensor. At shallow depths, the Ground Penetrating Radar can image underground objects as small as an English muffin. As envisioned, the new system can be mounted on ground vehicles and helicopters and synchronized with GPS navigation data.
FRENCH COMPANIES and Russian space organizations in the next few days are expected to establish Starsem, a joint company scheduled to market the Soyuz and Molniya launchers in the Western Hemisphere. Aerospatiale and Arianespace would own 35% and 15%, respectively, of France-based Starsem. The RKA Russian space agency and Samara-based Centralized Specialized Design Bureau will own the remaining 50%. Starsem will be headed by Francois Calque, Aerospatiale's director for space operations.
The first Bombardier Global Express, s/n 9001, undergoes final assembly at Bombardier's Toronto facilities (below). The 6,500-naut. mi.-range jet is scheduled to roll out in late August and perform its first flight the following month. Four aircraft will be used in the flight test program which will be conducted at Bombardier's newly expanded flight test center in Wichita. Production of the jet, which will cost about $35 million completed, is virtually sold out into the year 2000 at an average two-a-month rate.
Strong international traffic and restructuring programs have helped Japan's two major international carriers--Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways--finish 1995 in the black. For JAL, the year that ended Mar. 31 brought its first operating profit since 1990. Revenues climbed 7.8%, to 1.1 trillion yen ($10.5 billion) based on increases in business travel and international tourism. The airline saw a 13.7% increase in its overseas traffic, bringing it a record 10.7 million international passengers, and an 11.5% increase in international sales revenue.
Securing and dismantling the Soviet nuclear legacy at its source are the top funding priorities of America's nuclear stewards, who are hobbled by the same deficit pressures as the rest of the government. They say that in the battle of the budget, two programs are paramount for securing ex-Soviet nuclear materials and preventing smuggling. One is the Energy Dept.'s laboratory-to-laboratory collaboration with Russia's leading nuclear institutes, set up in 1994. Currently, six U.S.
Western Pacific Airlines' load factor for May was 56.4%, 7.1% below the same period last year, but traffic volume increased a staggering 340%. WestPac flew 118.7 million revenue passenger miles (RPM) in May, carrying 140,155 passengers. May, 1995, was the low-cost carrier's first full month of service. It served only five cities from its Colorado Springs hub and flew 27.0 million RPMs. Now it flies a full schedule of nonstop flights to 20 cities, adding flights and destinations as more aircraft join its fleet.
AIRBUS HAS PLACED its first narrow-body aircraft in Singapore with an agreement by Singapore Aircraft Leasing Enterprise (SALE) to lease eight A320s and four A321s, with options for another 12 of any family type. An engine choice has not been made. SALE is a partnership between Singapore Airlines and Boullioun Aviation Services. Until now it has purchased only wide-body aircraft--Boeing 767s and 777s.
Paul Cotter has been appointed C-130J program manager for the Avionics Div. and Robert Cotter director of displays and mission computers for Sanders, Nashua, N.H. Paul Cotter was business area manager for fire control and sensor systems, while Robert Cotter was director of technical operations.
U.S. negotiators have laid down the gauntlet, warning that full access to London Heathrow Airport--not just an ``open skies'' agreement--will be the price Britain must pay for an antitrust-immunity blessing on the proposed worldwide alliance by American Airlines and British Airways. THE TWO CARRIERS, which together control more than 60% of the traffic between the U.S. and U.K., have agreed to establish an alliance under which they will coordinate their passenger and cargo services between the U.S.
Stephen T. Pearl has been named vice president/general manager of the Aviation Repair Business Group of Chem-tronics Inc., El Cajon, Calif. He was general manager in El Cajon and Tulsa, Okla.
LUXEMBOURG-BASED Societe Europeenne des Satellites has ordered more television satellites from Hughes Space & Communications and Matra Marconi Space. The satellites are scheduled to produce additional capacity in a new orbital position. SES also plans to operate additional spacecraft from an existing position. The orders involve Astra 2A and Astra 2B. Hughes' Astra 2A is scheduled to be injected into a new orbital position, at 28.2 deg. East, by an Ariane 4 or 5 in August, 1997. Matra Marconi's Astra 2B is to be collocated at the same position.
Daniel R. Kummet has been appointed vice president-consulting services of the Ascent Logic Corp., San Jose, Calif. He was director of training and consulting.
