International Lease Financing Corp. will place China's first A320s with a start-up carrier and is negotiating with a second in deals that will break the drought in new Chinese orders. ILFC President Steven F. Udvar-Hazy said last week that Sichuan Airlines of Chengdu will take three A320-200s to replace Tupolev Tu-154Ms with the first delivery in the third quarter of this year. All three aircraft are to be placed in 1995.
Boeing 777, serial no. WA004, arrived at London Heathrow airport last week and taxied through a welcoming arch formed by the spray of two fire engines. The flight to London was part of a 90-cycle pre-service test by United Airlines. The Pratt&Whitney PW4084-powered version of the 777 received joint FAA and European JAA type certification on schedule, as well as simultaneous FAA production certification.
Garylee Clark and Chris Lyons have been appointed assistant directors of customer support at the Houston Learning Center and New York headquarters, respectively, of FlightSafety International. Lyons was accounts manager for customer support.
HIRING BY MAJOR AIRLINES exceeded all other categories for the first time in three years in March. U.S. carriers with more than $1 billion in annual sales added 176 cockpit crew to their staff during the month, for a total of 481 in the year to date, according to Air, Inc., an Atlanta-based pilot career services firm. National-category airlines, carriers with more than $100 million in annual revenue, picked up 171 pilots while regional operators of jet and turboprop aircraft employed 151 and 140 new pilots, respectively.
Edward P. Barry, Jr. (see photo) has been named vice president of Integrated Inertial Navigation System s/Global Positioning Systems for Rockwell in Anaheim, Calif. He is a retired USAF lieutenant general and commander of the Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles AFB.
A senior U.S. Navy official believes the stealthy attack aircraft the service wants from the Joint Advanced Strike Technology program will also meet the Air Force's requirement for an F-117 and F-15E replacement.
LOOK FOR BIG THINGS FROM little ``squids,'' also known as superconducting quantum interference devices. Cryogenically cooled squids can detect electromagnetic signals 10,000 times smaller than those detected by other magnetometers. Potential uses include antisubmarine warfare, locating oil and mineral deposits, detecting tiny currents associated with aircraft corrosion and three-dimensional medical imaging. Conductus, Sunnyvale, Calif., is working with the U.S. Navy to incorporate high-temperature superconducting materials onto semiconductor chips.
STEVEN D. DORFMAN, president of Hughes Telecommunications&Space Co., engaged in a bit of bashing of U.S. launch capabilities at the 11th National Space Symposium. He told the Colorado Springs meeting that over the last decade, satellites' effectiveness has increased 25 times due to longer life, higher power, data compression, reconfigurable spot beams and other technological advances. Meanwhile, launch costs have been flat or increasing slightly.
An Air France group task force is completing studies that will set the stage for a new domestic-regional carrier scheduled to start operations in January, 1997. Air France's European Div. and Air Inter, the French flag carrier's domestic subsidiary, will be merged to form the as-yet-unnamed new carrier. It is scheduled to operate 120-130 aircraft and carry 27-30 million passengers during its first year.
RAYTHEON AIRCRAFT CO. is working with the FAA on plans to certificate its control-by-light technology, initially in a single system on the Beechjet light business jet. Boston-based Raytheon Electronics Systems Div., which provided the technology, has filed for 11 patents. If used extensively, control-by-light technology would eliminate 33% of the Beechjet's wires and cables, saving up to 250 lb., according to Stephan Hanvey, vice president of engineering for Raytheon Aircraft.
CHINA'S AIR FORCE is to begin transferring control of the country's air routes to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) this year. The hand-over is expected to take three years. First routes to come under CAAC authority will be those in a triangle from Beijing in the north, Shanghai in the east and Guangzhou and Shenzhen in the south. The air force has long maintained that for national security purposes it must retain control of all internal air routes.
The Dutch air force and Cabinet have selected the McDonnell Douglas Apache AH-64D attack helicopter over the Eurocopter Tiger in a program worth about $700 million to U.S. contractors. The decision will further entangle European politics with procurements involving U.S. competitors.
A PLUG-IN, SOLID-STATE replacement altimeter has been developed by Innovative Solutions&Support, Inc., Malvern, Pa. The low-power, 3-lb. unit uses a microprocessor, self-contained pressure transducer in place of aneroids, and a backlit liquid crystal display that emulates the display of widely used 1960s-vintage barometric altimeters. In addition to greater accuracy, the electronic version has a 12,000-hr. mean time between failures and is simple to repair.
The European Space Agency and Arianespace plan to launch Europe's second ERS radar remote-sensing spacecraft this week on a mission that will double European space-based radar capabilities and expand data on ozone depletion. The $576-million ERS-2 satellite carries a new Italian-built ozone mapping instrument to complement its large imaging radar and other sensors. The 2.7-ton spacecraft will be used in tandem with ERS-1, which has been aloft since 1991.
BOEING LAUNCHED one of its new 777 transports on a surprise world demonstration tour. The trip last week, intended to show the huge twin to existing 777 customers as well as drum up new business, also indicates the 777 certification test program is going well. Temporary operational control of a second 777, serial number WA004, was handed over to United in late March as part of a 90-cycle pre-service evaluation (AW&ST Apr. 3, p. 40). That aircraft remains under continued Boeing supervision, however.
EXPECT RESULTS OF INDIA'S STATE-OWNED Hindustan Aeronautics, Ltd. (HAL), investigation into the reported extensive use of bogus aircraft spares in the country's civil aviation sector to be released later this month.
FOLLOWING A WHITE HOUSE MEETING with Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, President Bill Clinton pledged last week to work with Congress to ease a nuclear nonproliferation law that is blocking F-16 deliveries to Pakistan. But the disposition of the aircraft remains heavily in doubt because Clinton does not want the law repealed. The President has no waiver authority to release the F-16s, and he is bound by law to withhold the aircraft and associated equipment because Pakistan refuses to shelve its nuclear program unless India gives up its program, too.
RESEARCHERS AT LAWRENCE LIVERMORE National Laboratory have developed a real-time automatic face-recognition system. Called KEN, it has significant security potential and can be applied to other object classes, such as footprints and signatures. KEN uses either a charge-coupled device camera or a California Institute of Technology-developed analog silicon retina chip to provide visual input under varying lighting conditions. KEN system software breaks faces into multi-scale features attached to a grid structure.
New technology and growing concern about proliferation of inexpensive cruise missiles are reviving NORAD interest in a space-based radar system that could replace North America's ground-based warning radar network.
AKIRO KONDO, currently senior managing director for corporate planning, will become the next president of Japan Airlines, succeeding Matsuo Toshimitsu, who has held the post since 1990. Kondo, 61, has been with the airline since 1957 and has been a board member since 1989. Toshimitsu will remain on JAL's board of directors as an adviser.
Elizabeth A. Inadomi has joined the firm of Podesta Associates of Washington as a principal. She was staff counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
Thomas L. Ransom has been named vice president-airport services for Elsinore LP, Newport Beach, Calif. He served in operating management with Van Dusen Airport Services (Signature Flight Support).
Alden V. Munson, Jr. (see photo), has been appointed vice president-operations of TRW Information Systems, Orange, Calif. He was with the Aerospace Corp.
SAKHALIN ISLAND'S YUJINO-SAKHALINSK International airport will get a facelift, with help from the Japan-Sakhalin Assn., a group of 45 Japanese companies trading on Russia's Sakhalin Island. Modernization plans include construction of a trade center, oil storage facility and cement plant, and updating Sakhalinsk's telecommunications network.
Paul Reukauf has been appointed vice president and general manager for California operations for Aurora Flight Sciences, Manassas, Va. Prior to joining Aurora he was an instructor at the National Test Pilots School in Mojave, California.
