NASA's shuttle launch team here is preparing the orbiters Atlantis and Discovery to be launch-ready in early June to preclude delays of a critical Russian spacecraft's launch from disrupting U.S. space operations--including initial construction of the international space station more than two years hence.
A German-built laser geodetic spacecraft (right) transported to the Russian Mir by the unmanned Progress M-27 tanker will be ejected this week by the station's joint Russian/U. S. crew. Progress M-27 docked with Mir late Apr. 11, following its launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome Apr. 9. In addition to the laser spacecraft, the tanker/transport carries about 400 kg. (880 lb.) of food and 500 kg. (1,100 lb.) of maneuvering propellant for the station.
U.S., Russian and Ukrainian aerospace companies and a Norwegian ship builder have formed a team to offer space launch services from a pad converted from an offshore oil platform. The partnership, called Sea Launch, will establish a U.S. home port for its operation, which will use a Zenit-based vehicle to launch satellites from international waters in the Pacific Ocean. Boeing Commercial Space Co. has overall responsibility for development of the Sea Launch system and operation of its business.
Barbados-based Carib Express is expanding its operations in the Caribbean this month with the entry into service of a third 76-seat British Aerospace 146-100 leased from British Aerospace Asset Management Organization. The new interisland airline began service in mid-February with flights linking Barbados with St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Grenada and Dominica. The carrier is 70.1% owned by private investors, 19.9% by British Airways, and 10% by the governments of Barbados; Dominica; Grenada; St. Lucia; and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Airlines that operate in European airspace will have to retrofit aircraft with very high frequency (VHF) air-ground radios that provide 8.33 KHz. channel spacing instead of the current 25 KHz. Operational use of the new ``triple-split'' channels to overcome radio spectrum congestion could come as early as Jan. 1, 1998, for aircraft operating in some of Europe's upper airspace sectors.
LOOK FOR INCREASED USE OF ADVANCED, high-speed computers and trend analysis tools by systems manufacturers to quickly identify and correct chronic in-service equipment problems. The practice reduces customer maintenance and spares stock costs, and often supplies a service cash-short carriers do not have the personnel or expertise to provide. Collins Commercial Avionics Reliability Evaluation Corrective Action Program (RECAP) recently tracked down a bad left-hand rudder servo feedback device as the source of problems occurring on a Boeing 747.
P. Douglas McKeen has been named vice president-labor relations for America West Airlines. He was managing director of labor relations for ground operations at Northwest Airlines.
The U.S. Army is starting qualification tests of terrain-following radar on Sikorsky MH-60K (above) and Boeing MH-47E special operations helicopters. The tests are being conducted by the service's Airworthiness Qualification Directorate at Edwards AFB, Calif., and will assess the capabilities and limitations of the Texas Instruments AN/APQ-174B radar, which is derived from that used in the Air Force's Lantirn targeting and navigation pod. The tests are to be completed by the end of this year.
NASA's Ames Research Center has developed head-up display formats and a flight control system that allow a Harrier V/STOL attack aircraft pilot to make ``blind'' landings on a 40 X 70-ft. pad.
Express package service's executives believe Asia's longer distances, faster growth will prevent another failure like FedEx's foray into Europe The McDonnell Douglas MD-11, the long-range freighter launched in 1991 by FedEx, is playing a critical role in the express carrier's new thrust into the lucrative international market. ``It was a while getting there,'' Theodore L. Weise, FedEx's senior vice president-air operations, said of the MD-11. ``But we're pleased where it is going.''
LOUISVILLE'S PRIMARY commercial airport last week acquired a new name, Louisville International Airport. The airport will continue to identify itself with the three-letter code, SDF, an abbreviation for Standiford. Elijah H. Standiford was a railroad man on whose property the airport was constructed more than 50 years ago. Largely due to UPS' presence at Louisville, the airport ranks fourth in the U.S. and sixth in the world in cargo handled. n
TRADITIONAL SOURCES of new pilots are drying up in the U.S., which could hurt chances for a prolonged rebound in the general aviation industry. In addition to rising flight training costs, younger persons' incomes have represented a falling percentage of national mean income since 1977, according to consulting firm GRA, Inc., of Jenkintown, Pa. This means the age group most likely to pursue recreational flying has less discretionary income, and increases the appeal of less-expensive substitute activities.
STRUCTURED MATERIALS INDUSTRIES, Inc., of Piscataway, N.J., has developed a method to make silicon shine when stimulated by an electric current. The technology may be an important step in integrating photonics with conventional microprocessor chips made of silicon and offer a lower-cost, lighter-weight alternative to full-color liquid crystal displays and other lighting. SMI's silicon-based Quantum NanoCrystals confine electrons within extremely small areas to permit efficient emission of light, SMI President Gary S. Tompa said.
Boeing has completed the exterior structure of the first pressurized space station module--a node that would connect laboratory and crew modules and allow the space shuttle to dock. The cylindrical pressurized module, which is 18 ft. long and 14 ft. in diameter, was built by Boeing Defense&Space Group at NASA's space station manufacturing building at the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
A simple, yet novel propulsion concept for two-engine turbine-powered aircraft offers a more than 250% improvement in climb performance while cuttingdirect operating costs by 30% when compared with modern business jets, according to analyses.
The pilots of USAir Flight 1016 that crashed at Charlotte, N.C., last July were ``victims of a failed system'' that deprived them of important weather information, according to the Air Line Pilots Assn. and USAir officials.
U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Russell C. Davis, currently commanding general of the District of Columbia National Guard, has been nominated for appointment as vice chief of the National Guard Bureau.
The U.S. Army has modified hard landing techniques and added reinforced parts to its 11/2-year-old primary training helicopter fleet to halt cracking of an interior bulkhead. Inspectors found rippling of the exterior skin, paint chipping and ``cracks in the [landing gear's] aft cross-tube support area'' on some of the 87 Bell TH-67 Creeks, according to a senior Bell Helicopter official. The training helicopters are assigned to the Army Aviation Center at Ft. Rucker, Ala.
PREDICTING MISSILE STRIKES HAS IMPROVED since Desert Storm, when alerts revealed which countries Iraqi missiles were headed for, but not their precise targets. Now two prototype Joint Tactical Ground Stations are operating in Germany and South Korea. The latter ``provides support for the three [infrared early warning] satellites looking at that Peninsula [primarily North Korea],'' a senior Ballistic Missile Defense Organization official revealed.
NO ROGUE STATE WILL HAVE a long-range missile capable of hitting the U.S. before 2005. That is the latest estimate given to a House panel by the head of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, Army Lt. Gen. Malcolm O'Neill. More worrisome in the short run, O'Neill said, would be the clandestine purchase of a system like the Russian SS-25 ballistic missile. A modified SS-25 is being marketed as a commercial space vehicle, but it failed after a launch late last month, wiping out Russian, Mexican and Israeli satellites (AW&ST Apr. 3, p.27).
RUSSIA HAS BETTER defenses against tactical ballistic missiles at least until the upgraded PAC-3 Patriot is fielded, senior Ballistic Missile Defense Organization officials told members of the House Committee on National Security. The Russian SA-12, which has been offered for export, has ``a bigger, hotter missile, designed for the ATBM role,'' a BMDO official said. ``I wouldn't consider it equal in terms of cost and operating effectiveness to the [U.S.-built] Patriot,'' the official said. However, the Russian system was designed for two types of missiles.
LOOK FOR THE FIRST FLIGHT OF IPTN'S N250 twin-turboprop on Aug. 17. Officials of the state-owned Indonesian manufacturer will say only that the first flight is to take place in July or August, about three months later than originally planned when the 60-seat aircraft rolled out last November. So why bet on Aug. 17? Because it is Indonesia's independence day and long-time watchers of IPTN chief H.J. Habibie note he is heavy on symbolism.
S.M. Akram has been promoted to Texas regional sales manager of SimuFlite, Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport. He was Central Region sales manager.
