Western Pacific Airlines has received its certification from the U.S. Transportation Dept., clearing the startup carrier to begin scheduled service Apr. 28.
A federal grand jury has indicted two former executives of Chromalloy Gas Turbine Corp. of Orangeburg, N.Y., on charges that they conspired to defraud airlines and the FAA in repair of engine parts. Indicted were James M. Gabriel, a former Chromalloy executive vice president who headed up production at the company's Research and Technology Div., and Gerard E. Vitti, former executive vice president in charge of nonairfoil products. If convicted, they face heavy fines and imprisonment.
The much ballyhooed Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1994 became law on Oct. 22, when President Clinton executed the House version of a compromise bill that had barely squeaked its way out of Congress in the last minutes of its regular session. The new law brings about changes designed to ease the burdens of creditors who have suffered abuse during the first 15 years of the Bankruptcy Code, especially in the so-called ``mega bankruptcy'' cases.
EXPECT EVA AIR TO TAKE A STRONG MANAGEMENT POSITION in Taiwan's Great China and Makung airlines, now that it has bought minority holdings in the two domestic carriers. A division of the Evergreen Group, Eva Air was founded three years ago and competes against Taiwan's government-owned China Airlines in international services--it flies only one domestic route. Eva will open its 24th international route and sixth to the U.S. in May when it begins flights to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.
DEPUTY DEFENSE SECRETARY JOHN DEUTCH'S MOVE to the CIA is expected to roil the Pentagon's acquisition process, particularly since he is expected to take with him Nora Slatkin, the Navy's chief acquisition official. Losing Deutch, officials believe, will change the tenor of debate on both the B-2 and C-17. Defense Secretary William Perry has sat on the fence while Kaminski supports both programs. Deutch wants to limit both. John P.
Managers and creditors of Piper Aircraft Corp. are completing negotiations on a plan to bring the aircraft maker out of bankruptcy this summer by selling it to a major creditor and investors from Philadelphia. Piper President Chuck Suma met in Miami last week with attorneys for creditors and for Teledyne Industries, Inc., and the Philadelphia investment firm of Dimeling, Schreiber and Park, to complete a disclosure statement and ancillary pacts to support their joint plan to reorganize the Vero Beach, Fla.-based manufacturer.
Nearly three years after beginning flight tests of its prototype RP-1 twin-engine helicopter, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has launched the program for the civil market. Flight tests of basic technologies were completed in March, and a request for a type certificate was to be filed this month. First deliveries are expected in late 1997. Final design criteria have not been established, however, and company officials say the first test vehicle (right) does not necessarily reflect their ideas for a production model (AW&ST Feb. 20, p. 25).
Aerojet expects to receive its first two Russian NK-33 rocket engines this month and start preparing them for ground test firings in September or October. A possible candidate for powering next-generation U.S. expendable launchers, the engine will sell for about $4 million.
The French carrier Aeropostale is implementing an aggressive strategic plan to operate additional postal services on the domestic route system and acquire increased passenger business. Societe d'Exploitation Aerospostale, usually known as Aeropostale (a reference to its historic pioneer-era predecessor), is jointly owned by the Air France group and La Poste postal service.
The captain's decision-making and crew resource management skills will figure prominently in the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board's report on the Dec. 13, 1994, crash of an American Eagle Jetstream Super 31. NTSB officials expect to determine a probable cause of the accident late this summer. The board's investigation is focusing on the final 30 sec. of the flight, when an apparent engine problem distracted the crew and may have led to a loss of situational awareness.
Two Mikoyan MiG-29s were flown on board an Antonov An-124 Ruslan late last month for delivery to the Malaysian air force. The air force will operate the Russian fighters as well as McDonnell Douglas F/A-18s (AW&ST Apr. 10, p. 56).
Land and facilities left behind in the wake of base closures initially may sound like a windfall to regional governments, especially those hard-hit by financial problems.
THE UNCHECKED RISE IN THE YEN is starting to bite into aerospace profits at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. With Boeing's approval, MHI has named China's Shenyang Aircraft Manufacturing Co. to produce machined parts for the Boeing 777 transport on a subcontract basis because production in Japan is too expensive. The yen's appreciation previously hurt MHI's 767 subcontract. Company managers thought they had built exchange rate safeguards into their 777 program but now acknowledge that increased outsourcing is likely.
Commercial and military aviation in Russia is threatened with ``total collapse''unless the government acts swiftly to provide funding for new programs and protection from Western competition, according to industry officials here. Although airframe and engine manufacturers have heavily lobbied the Russian Parliament for action, it is unlikely the government will be able to provide much-needed support for the country's aircraft industry, officials said.
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY, Pasadena, Calif., is developing fully functional prototypes of a real-time, in-situ life prediction/fault detection, isolation and response system for complex electromechanical systems. The technology, which operates autonomously, uses integrated neural nets and fuzzy logic to track and process a broad class of nonlinear signals in noisy and chaotic environments, according to Sandeep Gulati, technology inventor.
Peter Reynolds has been appointed director of flight test operations for the Bombardier Aerospace Group flight test center, Wichita, Kan. He was chief of engineering flight test for Learjet. James L. Ziegler has been named vice president-Bombardier Aviation Services at Learjet headquarters in Wichita. He was vice president-strategic planning and business development of Learjet. Ziegler has been succeeded by David W. Brant, who was vice president-program development.
Pratt&Whitney late this month plans to test an advanced core engine that ultimately will be used to demonstrate the turbine temperature goals set for the second phase of the U.S. Defense Dept.'s Integrated High Performance Turbine Engine Technology initiative. Pratt is performing the work under one of two recent awards made under the U.S. Air Force's latest advanced turbine engine gas generator (ATEGG) program, a key subcomponent of the overall IHPTET effort.
Alan D. Kathman (see photo) has been named Harry Watson Enginee r/Scientist of the Year at Teledyne Brown Engineering, Huntsville, Ala., for his design and application of diffractive optics and his leadership in creating Teledyne Brown's binary optics fabrication facility.
Nuclear weapons accident response specialists at Los Alamos have been providing training and equipment to their counterparts in the former Soviet Union for the past two years and are interested in forming a joint U.S./Russian team to assist other countries.
THE PENTAGON'S JOINT Cruise Missile Office is in the early stages of examining a new concept to employ Hughes BGM109 Tomahawks as dispensers for the Brilliant Anti-Tank (BAT) submunition and wide-area munitions. Called Tstar, for Tomahawk stops the advancing regiment, it would have a range of 500-700 mi. and is designed for use against mobile armored targets as well as fixed targets.
Few Wall Street analysts have been as bullish on McDonnell Douglas Corp. as First Boston's Peter Aseritis, and last week he reestablished a ``buy'' investment rating after downgrading the stock during the previous week. Aseritis' reversal was prompted by McDonnell Douglas' strong first-quarter financial performance, which he believes will ``overwhelm commercial [aircraft] uncertainties--at least for a while.''
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.
