Taiwan has begun construction of a nationwide network of heliports. Work is in progress at six locations, including an island close to mainland China. Initial operations are scheduled for 1997. The plan, which includes legalizing the private ownership and use of helicopters in the country's military-controlled airspace, has wide support due to Taiwan's serious road congestion.
William McGovern has been named manager of Pan American sales for the Dataforth Corp., Tucson, Ariz. He was North American sales manager for Intelligent Instrumentation.
Singapore Airlines has a reputation for bold moves. Two years ago it ordered $10.3 billion worth of 747-400s and A340-300Es and followed that up last year with a $12.7-billion order for 777s.
Low-level aerial strikes, largely banned during Desert Storm and after, may make a comeback, some Pentagon planners believe. New, more advanced software for the Block 50 F-16 will include a digital terrain system that is intended to provide an increasingly sophisticated capability to fly low in safety. The system was originally envisioned as a safety cushion ``in case a pilot blacks out,'' an Air Force official said.
One of ValuJet's four founders sold a major part of his holdings in the airline May 20, helping push the price of the carrier's stock to its lowest levels in more than a year. Founder and board member Timothy P. Flynn sold 1.5 million of his 5.98 million shares of ValuJet common stock to satisfy margin debt previously incurred, according to the airline. On May 20, ValuJet shares closed at a 13-month low of $11.25 after a day of heavy trading, rebounding to more than $12.50 late last week.
Aggressive export promotion in Europe by the U.S. Commerce Dept. on behalf of the U.S. aerospace industry is helping American business win awards over European competitors. But the strategy is also generating increased controversy about U.S. government influence and motivation in European aerospace competitions.
NASA hopes to figure out by the end of this week how to proceed with work on the international space station's two nodes. Both nodes failed recent pressure tests (AW&ST May 20, p. 33). A redesign of the Boeing-built units, which link larger station modules, was one option being considered last week. Another possibility is to let Boeing ``move the goal posts.'' The nodes would only have to meet the 22-lb.-psi. specification when fully outfitted. The test of Node 1's shell was halted at just 17 psi.
TWO RUSSIAN COSMONAUTS exited the Mir space station May 20 for a 5-hr. 20-min. extravehicular activity (EVA) to move a solar array from the station's docking module to the Kvant module at the rear of the vehicle. While outside the station, Cosmonauts Yuri Onufrienko and Yuri Usachev also inflated and filmed against an Earth backdrop, a several-foot-long aluminum and nylon Pepsi Cola can as part of a future Pepsi television commercial. The company paid more than $1 million for the stunt. The crew, assisted by U.S.
Jay Beasley, a former Lockheed test pilot who played a key role in developing flight safety procedures for the P-3 Orion, died May 16 at the age of 82. Beasley logged 9,400 hr. and 31,000 landings in the P-3 and flew a total of 50 different models of aircraft. In his work for Lockheed and then Lockheed Martin, Beasley trained 4,100 Navy pilots.
Sen. John McCain (R.-Ariz.) trotted out his Omnibus Aviation Act of 1996 last week. It would reauthorize $1.8 billion for the Airport Improvement Program and tackle the sensitive issue of funding the FAA over the long term. To solve that problem, the bill would institute a user fees system to pay for air traffic control services. The measure also would stiffen existing prohibitions against diversions of AIP money from airports, and mandate that airlines share information about pilots seeking employment. The White House supports McCain's bill.
USAF WILL SHORTLY FLIGHT TEST a new countermeasures technique designed to foil ground-based laser-guided missiles and target designators. The technique uses a trailing fiber-optic cable as a decoy similar to towed microwave emitting devices intended to attract radar-guided missiles.
Singapore Airlines Group has reported a 12.3% increase in operating profits for the 1995-96 fiscal year, but the gains reflected more positively for its subsidiary operations than the airline itself. The airline (SIA) was buffeted by greater regional competition and a 3.6% appreciation in the Singapore dollar. Traffic was up 11.2% but overall yields dropped 5.3%.
Federal investigators are pressing their efforts to determine what role more than 100 oxygen generators in ValuJet Airlines Flight 592's belly may have played in creating or intensifying the conditions that caused that aircraft to plunge into the Everglades.
A NORTH KOREAN PILOT defected to South Korea in his MiG-19. The aircraft caused a brief air-raid panic after it crossed into South Korea on May 23. South Korean air force jets intercepted the MiG-19 and escorted it to the Suwon military airport near Seoul after its pilot, 30-year-old Capt. Lee Choi Soo, dipped the MiG's wings to signal his intention to defect.
The failure of a Russian SL-4 Soyuz-U booster carrying a military/commercial imaging reconnaissance satellite will test the capability of the fledgling Russian space insurance industry to make good on a space loss claim. The SL-4, launched May 14 from Baikonur Cosmodrome, was carrying a Vostok-class imaging spacecraft. Initial analysis indicates the accident occurred because the vehicle's payload shroud failed 49 sec. into the flight.
House Republicans quickly scuttled a vote set for last week on whether to require the Pentagon to deploy a National Missile Defense (NMD) system by 2003. It appeared the votes weren't there to pass the measure. Supporters beat a retreat after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said the ``Defend America Act of 1996'' would cost $10 billion over five years, $3 billion more than Republican leaders have advertised. The CBO also estimated total acquisition costs for a layered ground/space NMD system would run $31-60 billion through 2010.
USAir must stop downsizing and begin expanding if it intends to become more competitive against airlines challenging its territorial markets, according to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Stephen M. Wolf.
A consortium of U.S. government laboratories is in the early stages of developing an autonomous ``microsatellite'' that would intercept three Earth-orbit-crossing asteroids during a year-long mission. Called Clementine 2, the spacecraft would collect multispectral images and fire small probes into each asteroid to determine its composition.
John J. Sciuto (see photo) has been appointed president/chief executive officer of Comptek Research Inc., Buffalo, N.Y. He succeeds John R. Cummings, who is retiring, but will remain chairman of the board. Sciuto was president/CEO of subsidiary Comptek Federal Systems Inc.
The ValuJet Airlines DC-9 crash has stirred up a spate of preliminary safety issues that cut broadly across the field of aviation and extend to the government's oversight role. Evidence of fire, the presence of possible hazardous cargo on the aircraft and the FAA's precrash critical reviews of ValuJet have raised many questions. The media blitz that has followed the crash has been unprecedented, and U.S. airline officials are manning the barricades to defend the industry's safety record and procedures.
French equipment suppliers are having increasing success in the world's aerospace markets, but they still measure success by penetration of the U.S. markets, meaning sales to Boeing and McDonnell Douglas. Teaming with a U.S. manufacturer is the most common strategy. Messier-Dowty paired with Menasco to receive a share of the Boeing 777 work and a landing gear contract for the U.S. Navy's McDonnell Douglas F/A-18s. Ratier-Figeac teamed with Hamilton Standard to supply propellers for Lockheed Martin C-130-Hs.
AERO INTERNATIONAL REGIONAL this month delivered the first enhanced ATR42-500 twin turboprop transport to Air Littoral, a French regional carrier based in Montpellier. Last year, Air Littoral concluded an order for 15 ATR42-500s that are scheduled to be delivered in 1996-97. Last week, AIR also delivered an ATR42-500 to Houston-based Continental Express, a Continental Airlines affiliate that has ordered eight aircraft and optioned 12 (AW&ST May 20, p. 54).
Edward Lim has become manager for Australia and New Zealand for the Dubai-based airline, Emirates. Geraldine Hunt has been named sales manager in Australia for Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania; Marie Norris station manager in Melbourne, and Russell Minke cargo manager for Australia.
Les Bishop has become major accounts sales manager for the Unitrode Corp., Merrimack, N.H. He was strategic accounts manager for Philips Semiconductors.
