The LeCroy 9384M is a 1 GHz. digital oscilloscope that is optimized for avionics and telecommunications applications. It features an analog bandwidth of 1 GHz. and a single shot sampling rate of up to 4 gigasamples/sec. Each channel can perform 1 GS/sec. analog/digital conversion. The four-channel device has 500 kilobytes of memory per channel and is available with advanced math, a floppy disk and an internal graphics printer. Memory can be reconfigured among the channels. LeCroy, 700 Chestnut Ridge Road, Chestnut Ridge, N.Y. 10977-6499.
Susan Collins has been appointed vice president-consumer marketing for the Hughes Electronics Corp.'s DirecTV, based in Los Angeles. She was director of marketing for Viewers Choice.
Lisa Fries Gardner will be secretary of the Foster Wheeler Corp., Clinton, N.J., in addition to being vice president/chief compliance officer. She was assistant secretary, and succeeds Jack E. Deones.
PIERRE SPARACOMICHAEL A. DORNHEIM ( PARIS LOS ANGELES)
European Space officials are hoping they can put Ariane 5 back on track without an extra test flight or much delay of the second flight, to keep within shrinking budgets. The European Space Agency (ESA) and the French space agency (CNES) formed a nine member accident investigation board last week. It is focusing on how qualification and acceptance tests were performed and whether they were appropriate, given the disastrous June 4 flight of the 1.6-million-pound launcher.
D.E. (Denny) Thompson has been appointed executive vice president of the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, Palmdale, Calif. He had been vice president-business management.
The city of Mobile and American Regional Aircraft Industry Inc. (AMRAI) are working together to locate an assembly plant for a 70-plus-passenger, stretched version of the Indonesian N250 in this south Alabama community. Mobile's city fathers, backed by the chamber of commerce, regard the AMRAI project as a means to strengthen a Deep South niche in the U.S. aerospace marketplace.
Europe's top missile makers are offering a ramjet-powered, radar-guided weapon to meet the U.K.'s requirement for a future medium-range air-to-air missile (FMRAAM) for the Eurofighter 2000. The Meteor is also designed to equip the Swedish air force JAS 39 Gripen and is based largely on the S225XR design, which emerged from concept studies done by British Aerospace, Saab, Alenia and GEC-Marconi over the past three years.
Jeffrey A. Owens has been named general manager of the industrial repair unit of Advanced Technology Services Inc., Peoria, Ill. He succeeds John Semmelroth, who has resigned.
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.
