RTCA WILL FORM A TASK FORCE to recommend a strategy to the FAA to implement Free Flight. The Free Flight concept will allow operators to select flight paths and speeds. Air traffic restrictions will be imposed tactically only for the minimum time needed to ensure safe flight. The concept will have to be embraced by civil aviation organizations, operators and service providers and will require changes throughout the global aviation community. FAA Administrator David R.
The ED-400 Portable Eddy Current Testing Unit uses two AA batteries, can be carried in one hand but will detect flaws as small as 0.005 in. deep. A meter indicates an imbalance as the probe passes over a flaw, and an audible alarm can be set to alert the operator. A ``cross-coil'' probe design reduces the instrument's sensitivity to background changes in magnetic permeability. It also requires no compensation for ``lift-off'' effects. Centurion NDT, 707 Remington Road, Suite 9, Schaumburg, Ill. 60173.
CAE ELECTRONICS OF ST-LAURENT, QUEBEC, will build a simulator to train astronauts, space station operators and ground controllers to operate and maintain in space the Mobile Servicing System (MSS), Canada's sophisticated robotic system. The $7.5-million Canadian Space Agency contract calls for the simulator to be completed in 18 months.
Carlos J. Chua (see photos) has been named commercial director of the Orient Airlines Assn. He was manager of forecasting and analysis for United Airlines and general manager of its Philippines operations. Robert Peel has been appointed technical director. He was general manager of technical affairs for the Assn. of European Airlines.
The FMG 4400 and 4400D are hand-held devices for measuring the output of aircraft strobe lights as required by the FAA. Both come with a retractable, removable 90-in. wand that ensures the gun-shaped device is the proper distance from the strobe during testing. The 4400 has a pass/fail liquid crystal diode display that tells if the light's output is sufficient, while the 4400D has a digital readout that gives the brightness to a maximum of 9,990 candelas. Both are 11.5 in. long and weigh 2.5 lb. They come with a rechargeable battery pack and carrying case.
Jean-Bernard Cocheteux has been appointed president of Turbomeca, Bordes, France. He remains executive vice president of Labinal and president of Turbomeca's Microturbo Div.
Qantas Airways, long a strict protector of its own turf, is in the unaccustomed position of being accused of poaching passengers from someone else's territory. The accusations come from Cathay Pacific Airways, which says Qantas has unfairly turned Hong Kong's Kai Tak airport into a hub for acquiring passengers on flights to Singapore and Bangkok. It recalled similar accusations by Qantas against Northwest Airlines for picking up passengers in Tokyo on its New York-Sydney route.
Boeing Helicopters has begun assembly of the forward fuselage of the first engineering and manufacturing development V-22 Osprey. The aircraft is the seventh V-22 to be manufactured. Workers have spliced the left and right avionics racks and the aircraft's underfloor at Boeing's suburban Philadelphia facility. The assembly will now be fitted with its canopy and the cockpit console as well as hydraulic tubes, environmental control system components and other systems.
A rotable HE series landing gear indicator harness is now available for the British Aerospace Jetstream 41 to replace consumable OEM parts. The harness features a hermetically sealed switch and gold contacts that prevent oxidation. A heavier gauge wire also is used in the replacement harness to allow for greater flex. The HE harness meets requirements of Mil-S-8805/80. The modified harness has been approved under an FAA Supplemental Type Certificate and is part manufacturer approved. Aviation Technologies Group, 7355-B W. Friendly Ave., Greensboro, N.C. 27410.
This battery-powered sound detection and ranging (Sodar) instrument weighs less than 100 lb. and has an average range of 500 meters. It can be powered by a standard automobile battery. The Remtech Sodar can continuously measure wind speed, direction, vertical motion, turbulence, thermal structure and mixing depth. Applications include emergency response, environmental impact studies, inversion detection, complex terrain modeling and wake vortex studies. Climatronics Corp., 140 Wilbur Place, Bohemia, N.Y. 11716.
Robert S. Ryan (see photo) is the first recipient of the Walter J. and Angeline H. Crichlow Trust Prize of $100,000 awarded by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Ryan is deputy director of the structures and dynamics laboratory at the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. Also winning an AIAA award recently was George Springer (see photo), who was named 1995 Engineer of the Year. He is Paul Pigott professor and chairman of the Aeronautics and Astronautics Dept. at Stanford University.
The U.S. Navy's program to develop a new Integrated Defensive Electronic Countermeasures system for the F/A-18E/F aircraft will be delayed while the Air Force evaluates whether it can be adapted to protect a variety of its aircraft, including F-15s, F-16s, B-1Bs, C-130s, E-3s (AWACS), E-8s (Joint-STARS) and U-2s. If IDECM becomes a joint Navy/USAF program, its market potential could approach $1 billion.
IN A RAPID PROTOTYPING effort, Lockheed Martin has integrated an electro-optical reconnaissance pod on an F-16 for a three-month evaluation by the U.S. Air National Guard. An F-16 from the 192nd Fighter Group, Richmond, Va., collected imagery during the first flight with the pod last week. Lockheed Martin said the pod is one of several off-the-shelf options to replace the RF-4C reconnaissance system.
Airline profits worldwide are expected to more than triple in 1995, to about $5.5 billion from $1.8 billion last year. The International Air Transport Assn. (IATA) projection is based on the following assumptions: 8.5% growth in traffic, 7% expansion in capacity, a flat yield, a 1.5% improvement in unit costs, and interest expenses that are no more than 3.2% of operating costs.
Steven J. Cox has been appointed vice president-business affairs/general counsel of DirecTV. He was corporate counsel for Science Applications International Corp.
Michel Scheller has been appointed head of ONERA, France's aerospace research agency. He succeeds Marcel Benichou, who has retired. Scheller was managing director of DGAC, the French civil aviation authority.
A Massachusetts company has certified a conventional cyclic as a replacement for the teetering cyclic in the Robinson R-22 helicopter. The four-bar cyclic, developed by Altair Corp., allows two pilots to hold the stick in a normal flying position. It eliminates torsional and axial loads on the cyclic system, while adding inertial dampening to reduce stick shake. The design also limits stick movements to the two dimensions in which the control changes helicopter attitude, eliminating a third degree of motion found in the R-22's original cyclic.
R. Paul Ryan, deputy administrator of the Defense Technical Information Center, was elected chairman of the NATO Advisory Group for Aerospace Research and Development's Technical Information Committee.
Following are excerpts from a recent speech by U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R.-Ga.) on the 21st century outlook for high technology, international trade and national security. He spoke at the National Policy Conference of the Richard Nixon Center for Peace and Freedom in Washington. We think we are in the middle of the computer revolution. We are in the toy stage. And it's not just computers. It's the whole genetic breakthrough and biology. It's the capacity to organize miniaturization. It's materials technology.
This TVSD-1 video adaptor is available as an option with the Titan F Series borescope. Features include a halogen light source, fiber-optic bundle, video camera and adaptor. The video adaptor is designed to be compatible with 95% of comparable borescopes. Other features include a focusable eyepiece and 24-in. viewing tube with straight forward and 90-deg. vision. It can be used for internal inspections of parts with an aperture as small as 0.312 in. Titan Tool Supply Co., Inc., P.O. Box 569, Buffalo, N.Y. 14207-0569.
FUNDING HAS NOT KEPT PACE with the demands of aviation workers and safety analysts using the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS), according to a top-level watchdog panel. NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel said the number of reports submitted to the ASRS has nearly doubled since 1988 and has consistently exceeded projections since the system was set up in 1975. However, funding for analysis of those reports and upgrades of the system has remained flat.
Clark H. Onstad has been named senior vice presiden t/general counsel of Atlas Air, Golden, Colo. He was a partner in the Washington law firm of Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand.
EXPECT SPEEDIER PROCESSING OF PASSENGER AND FREIGHT at international airports if proposals recently presented by Airports Council International and International Air Transport Assn. to the International Civil Aviation Organization are adopted. ACI and IATA want to set a 45-min. limit for departing passengers to clear government controls after check-in, and a 4-hr. limit to clear import cargo from time of arrival and presentation of documents. The proposals are being made at the 11th session of the ICAO Facilitation Div., which is winding down in Montreal this week.
Delta Air Lines is betting that a $150-million annual investment in seats on Virgin Atlantic Airways flights will increase its share of traffic on the heavily traveled transatlantic and spill over into other markets. A special target is the lucrative business market between the U.S. and U.K.
Michael D. Farge has been named managing director of Coltax Aerospace, part of U.K.-based Meggitt Aerospace. Farge is former managing director of Danish-owned, British-based FLS Aerospace Engineering and also served previously as senior vice president-customer support at British Aerospace.
