FAA has approved extended overwater flights of turbine-powered aircraft over 12,500 lb. and equipped with only a single, long-range navigation unit in defined airspace over the Western Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. The rule applies only when VHF communications breaks along the route do not exceed 30 min. There also are liberalized considerations for commercial operators. The dual long-range navigation system requirement was changed at the urging of the National Business Aircraft Assn. and other aviation organizations.
Canadian military and industry officials were here at the ILA international air show in full force pitching their NATO Flying Training in Canada (NFTC) program to allied air forces.
Early next month, the Virginia Air National Guard is slated to provide the U.S. Air Force patrolling Bosnia with its first manned, tactical reconnaissance capability.
Simulation could significantly enhance current maintenance training, according to Ray Valeika, vice president technical operations for Delta Air Lines. Today's aircraft are extremely complex, with mechanics seeing certain problems occur only once every few years. Possibilities include simulation sessions designed similarly to line-oriented flight training.
A NAVY DECISION AS TO WHETHER to accelerate its Advanced Integrated Electronic Warfare system (AIEWS) program to enhance survivability of its ships is expected within the next couple months, Daniel W. McCoy said recently. McCoy is associate for electronic warfare in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition. Lockheed Martin and Hughes currently are conducting parallel system studies.
A crackdown by FAA inspectors has forced ValuJet Airlines to slash its scheduled operations and refund millions of dollars to passengers shifted to other carriers. The Atlanta-based airline on May 17 cut its daily schedule of 320 flights by about half in an attempt to maintain reliable operations while a platoon of FAA inspectors checks its aircraft, activities and records to verify that ValuJet is running safely and legally.
. . . But ANA and JAL are hot to travel to India. ANA will begin twice-weekly direct services to Bombay from Osaka in September and add Tokyo-New Delhi services (via Bangkok) in October. Bombay, the nation's financial capital, is a plum destination--home to India's international carrier, Air India, and shielded from foreign competition. JAL gave up its Bombay services in 1992 when the carrier decided its routes to India weren't paying off. Since then, economic reform that encourages foreign investment has grown stronger and JAL is ready to retry.
Andrew W. Quinn (see photo) has been named regional vice president-product support for McDonnell Douglas China. He was contract administrator for MD-80 coproduction program with the Chinese.
A small French company is defying the conventional wisdom that bigger is better and high-volume production is essential to be profitable. LMB, a 100-employee company in central France, has found a productive niche manufacturing high-performance electric motors and fans for aircraft in ``production runs'' as small as 10-15 units--too small a lot to interest the big companies. In 1995 LMB produced over 3,000 of these specialized motors.
U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials expect French officials to take an ``aggressive'' position in questioning witnesses at the upcoming hearing on the October, 1994, crash of an American Eagle/Simmons Airlines Avions de Transport Regional ATR72 near Roselawn, Ind. The manufacturer and French certification officials continue to file briefs challenging NTSB findings that the aircraft, as certified, is difficult to control in certain icing conditions. Safety board officials had hoped to hold the hearing in mid-June, but that may have to be delayed.
THE BOEING CO. AND FAA have joined to build a full-scale airport pavement test facility at the FAA Technical Center in Atlantic City, N.J. Research will include developing new pavement technologies and standards that will accommodate new ``superjumbo'' jets weighing 1 million lb. or more. These transports could require construction of strengthened and widened runways, ramps and taxiways at many major airports worldwide. Boeing is studying rewinged 747-500X and 747-600X versions estimated to carry about 440 and 500 passengers, respectively (AW&ST Feb. 5, p. 32).
A TEAM OF AAI AND TRW has been selected to develop the Joint Service Electronic Combat Systems Tester, intended to provide flight-line check-out of USAF and Navy aircraft. Contract award of $11.8 million from Aeronautical Systems Center covers the three-year engineering-manufacturing-development (EMD) phase. The contract's production options could total more than $100 million, according to AAI.
Eurocopter is preparing for tests of a BK-117 modified with HeliRadar, a system that integrates radar antennas in a cruciform-shaped structure mounted above the rotor blades. The system, which rotates in sync with the rotor blades, is intended to provide all-weather capability for rescue helicopters. Eurocopter said the HeliRadar project, sponsored by the German government, is testing technologies that will allow rescue missions in visibility as low as 150 meters, up to 12-mm./hr. heavy rain and in snowfall.
Saab, which has delivered the 20th JAS 39 Gripen to the Swedish air force, is moving ahead with its partner British Aerospace to define the configuration of an export version of the aircraft. With several East European nations as prime targets, Saab and BAe were present at the Berlin air show with a mockup of the aircraft to press their case.
Bucking the recent consolidation trend in Europe, Motoren- und Turbinen-Union has pulled out of talks with BMW Rolls-Royce about a possible merger of the two German-based engine manufacturers. Officials at Daimler Benz Aerospace (DASA), the parent company of MTU, said BMW Rolls-Royce's insistence that MTU scale back its relationship with Pratt&Whitney in the U.S. was too high a price to pay. Roughly 60% of MTU's civil engine revenues come from joint projects with Pratt, and many of those powerplants compete head-to-head against Rolls' products.
Sukhoi officials used the ILA-96 show to advertise their modernization programs for fourth- and fifth-generation fighters, with southeast Asia in mind as the main market. The latest Sukhoi fighters, the multi-role Su-35 and Su-30K, appeared at the show, and the experimental Su-27M fighter may be publicly unveiled at the Farnborough air show in September. The Su-27M, equipped with thrust vectoring control (TVC), has begun flight testing at the Zhukovsky flight test center near Moscow.
U.S. embassies in Europe are laying plans to help the U.S. aerospace industry compete for work in at least 35 new European aerospace projects worth $28 billion through the early 21st century. The U.S. Commerce Dept.'s Commercial Service is planning to use this 35-page ``major projects list'' as a focal point for drawing more U.S. aerospace industry into Western and Central Europe, a strategy that worries European industry. About $7 billion of this market is in Scandinavia. Some of the new projects are:
THE U.S. TRANSPORTATION DEPT. will make a final decision this week on whether an alliance among Delta Air Lines, Austrian Airlines, Sabena and Swissair should be granted antitrust immunity, to coordinate services among the four carriers. Transportation Secretary Federico Pena last week gave tentative authority that would allow the four airlines to cooperate with limited immunity from U.S. antitrust laws to the extent necessary to permit planning and coordination within their respective route systems, Pena said.
Daniel C. Brandenstein has been named executive vice president of Kistler Aerospace of Seattle. He was director of program development for Loral Space Information Systems.
Sheran Seif has been named general manager of sales and distribution for the U.S. and Brigitte Wolf to area manager of passenger sales for Lufthansa German Airlines, both based in the New York area. Seif was manager of sales automation for British Airways, while Wolf was key accounts manager for the U.S. for Lufthansa.
It is the ultimate long-haul trip--South Africa to Japan. South African Airways will pioneer the connection in November with twice-weekly services from Johannesburg to Osaka's Kansai Airport via Hong Kong using Boeing 747-200s. Kansai will be SAA's fourth Asian opening in the past three years. But South Africa does not look as promising to Japanese carriers--it has not appeared on Japan Airlines' or All Nippon Airways' prospective route lists.
JAPAN'S NATIONAL SPACE Development Agency has scheduled the first of about 15 drop tests of the Alflex (Automatic Landing Flight Experiment) at Woomera Airfield in South Australia for June 20-21. Fuji Heavy Industries built the 760-kg. (1,672-lb.) vehicle for NASDA, Japan's Science and Technology Agency and National Aerospace Laboratory to verify non-thrust automatic landing technology for its Hope unmanned shuttle program.
