Problems with the ground support equipment and radiation protection on its Centaur upper stage forced U.S. Air Force officials to delay the year's first launch of a Titan 4 by a month.
A new breed of players is putting the pieces into place to assure the U.S. aerospace/defense industry's competitiveness in the 21st century. No longer struggling just to survive, many companies are striving for--and in a growing number of cases, attaining--world-class manufacturing performance. Their goal is to position themselves for profitable growth when commercial and military markets start recovering worldwide.
TEN ASTRONAUTS have been named to the third and fourth shuttle missions to dock with Russia's Mir space station. Joining USAF Col. Kevin P. Chilton, the commander of Mission 76, set for next March, will be copilot Richard A. Searfoss, an Air Force lieutenant colonel, and mission specialists Shannon W. Lucid, Linda M. Godwin, Army Lt. Col. Michael Richard Clifford and Ronald M. Sega. Joining Navy Cdr. William F. Readdy, who will command Mission 79 in August, 1996, will be Marine Lt. Col. Terrence W. Wilcutt, the copilot, and mission specialists USAF Lt. Col.
Richard DeIasi has been named corporate vice president-technology for Northrop Grumman in Los Angeles. He remains director of research and technology of the Advanced Technology and Development Center. Molly A. Ficara has been appointed vice president-internal audit. She was manager of B-2 Div. audit.
U.S. airline passengers can expect crowded airplanes for much of 1995 if traffic trends of the first three months continue and new airline strategies persist. The high load factors are a strong sign that major airlines are well placed for improved earnings this year.
The prospect of greater of use of international code-sharing agreements by American Airlines poses a major challenge for negotiators attempting to hammer out a new contract between that carrier and its pilots' union, according to the union's president. Labor issues related to international code-sharing make up ``a fairly complicated piece'' of the negotiations between American and the Allied Pilots Assn., the union's president, Capt. Jim Sovich, told AVIATION WEEK&SPACE TECHNOLOGY. The APA's current contract became amendable Aug. 31, 1994.
Raymond G.H. Seitz (see photo), former U.S. ambassador to the U.K., has been appointed to the board of directors of British Airways, succeeding Charles Price, 2nd, who will retire in July. Seitz is a senior managing director at Lehman Brothers, Ltd.
MCDONNELL DOUGLAS has successfully demonstrated integration of a tactical reconnaissance pod on an F-15. The 23-ft.-long conformal pod carried a complete Advanced Tactical Airborne Reconnaissance System sensor suite supplied by Loral Fairchild. It is based on the system being developed for use internally on Marine Corps F/A-18s. Loral Fairchild also provided a medium altitude electro-optical subsystem and a reconnaissance management system for last week's test in which video imagery from the system was displayed in the cockpit.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN, STILL HOPEFUL that Congress will finance up to 20 more B-2s, is stressing the bomber's versatility. The company has found a way to target individually the 40 or more 250-500-lb. small guide bombs that the B-2 could carry. Engineers plan to install a radio antenna in the weapons bay to transmit updated target data to the bombs up until launch. The antenna is to be connected to the aircraft's mission planning computer. The need for a hard cable transmission line to each weapon on a bomb rack or rotary launch would be eliminated.
UNITED AIRLINES has ordered two Boeing 747-400s and four 757s in a deal valued at $570 million. The new aircraft will be delivered in April through June, 1996. United currently operates 24 747-400s and 88 757s. The purchase is part of a plan to replace 747-100s, 747-200s and McDonnell Douglas DC-10s.
Frank B. Ryan has been elected to the board of directors of America West Airlines. He succeeds Harrison J. Goldin, who has resigned. Ryan is a professor of mathematics and computational and applied mathematics at Rice University.
PENTAGON ACQUISITION CHIEF PAUL KAMINSKI is not satisfied with first results of the bomber study by the Institute for Defense Analyses, which rejects new B-2 bomber production (AW&ST Apr. 17, p. 19). Kaminski has sent the closely held study back to the IDA, asking that additional force mix and warning time options be examined. He wants to ensure the study will withstand the scrutiny of Capitol Hill's B-2 proponents who are certain to ask if every possible scenario has been explored.
Scientists have trained the Hubble Space Telescope on Neptune and found the planet has not only changed since Voyager 2 flew by in 1989 but has much more dynamic weather than most astronomers had suspected. Last June, Hubble showed that the Great Dark Spot in the southern hemisphere of the gaseous planet had disappeared. Now, it has found that a new one has appeared--in the northern hemisphere.
SCIENTISTS AT LOS ALAMOS National Laboratory are seeking to test and commercialize a new, low-cost acoustic cleaning system with reduced environmental impact and worker exposure to dangerous substances. An insertable, kilowatt-level acoustic ``speaker'' radiates high ultrasonic pressures that dislodge surface contamination and paint from parts submerged in water or other liquid bath.
Rick Hundley and Bill Perkins have been named directors of international sales for Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Co., Marietta, Ga. Hundley was a managing director of General Dynamics Product Support and Services Co., and Perkins was an international business development director for LASC.
SWISSAIR WILL DECIDE within the next few weeks whether to put a separate business class in the 12 British Aerospace Avro RJ100 aircraft to be operated by Crossair. The aircraft will be used on routes previously operated by Swissair, which will no longer operate aircraft with fewer than 100 seats. Crossair, its profitable regional subsidiary, currently operates with one class, using leather seats in a business-oriented 32-in. pitch, to maximize its flexibility. But Swissair officials are worried that their passengers might want the separation of two distinct classes.
In the wake of rising airport accidents, the FAA is launching an aggressive program to reduce aircraft collisions on runways that includes the swift commissioning of 19 ASDE-3 surface detection radars and deploying the Airport Movement Area Safety System in May, 1996.
NASA HAS HAD TO SPEND ITS OWN MONEY for certain single-stage-to-orbit technology projects that Congress directed the Defense Dept. to finance. Top Administration defense officials have long been hostile to SSTO initiatives. Last summer, President Clinton's national launch policy directed the department to help NASA develop a reusable launch vehicle (RLV). Yet by late last week, the Pentagon still had not released the $30 million Congress added to the Fiscal 1995 budget for SSTO work. NASA's Gary E.
U.S. Navy and Marine Corps officials are warning that severely underfunded modernization accounts could jeopardize the services' ability to meet growing operational demands in the future.
The U.S. government should immediately begin a high-level review of the rapidly escalating problem of terrorism, with a view to improving its capability to defend against such threats and respond decisively.
A new company being formed in Sweden intends to develop and manufacture GPS and communication equipment for civil and military aviation. The global positioning and communication (GP&C) products, based on the patent of Swedish inventor Hakan Lans, will be a family of transponders that will provide GPS positions over a two-way data link. Possible applications include air traffic control, prevention of runway incursions, and collision avoidance systems, according to Lans.
Donald E. Scott has been appointed vice president-government relations for GTE Government Systems Corp., Needham Heights, Mass. He was director of federal telecommunications. Scott succeeds Richard (Corky) Smartt, who has retired.
David H. Mobley has been named chief engineer at NASA headquarters in Washington. He was a technical assistant to the center director of space activities at the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
Udo Pollvogt has been named executive vice president-government relations of Daimler-Benz Aerospace. He was head of the orbital infrastructure division. He has been succeeded by Josef Kind, who was senior vice president-personnel policy. Kind has been succeeded by Jurgen Buschmann, who was head of economics and personnel and Mercedes-Benz Nutzfahrzeuge Ludwigsfelde GmbH. Andreas Breitsprecher has been named vice president-press and information.
