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Aviation History
1996
1996 - 1888.PDF
f*j\.uLM33 NEWS IN BRIEF • PORTUGUESE TEAMING Canadian companies Bom bardier Aerospace and Con- air Aviation are providing fire-control services to the Portuguese Government, us ing a pair of Canadair CL-215 water-scooping aircraft. Bombardier is supplying the aircraft, while Conair is to operate and maintain the air craft for four months. Conair is also providing pilots and engineers to train Portu guese personnel. • PREDATOR CRASH A US General Atomics Pre dator unmanned air vehicle crashed on 24 July in north eastern Bosnia, near Brka in Moslem-Croat Federation territory, while on a recon naissance mission. • CESSNA FIRST Cessna has flown the first new pilot-production Model 182 Skylane, powered by a Tex tron Lycoming IO-540. Two more are planned before series production begins. • F-14 CONTROLS The US Navy has confirmed plans to retrofit Grumman F-14s with a GEC-Marconi digital flight-control system, with an order for five test and 213 production units. • STRIKE IMPLICATIONS The seven-week-old strike at McDonnell Douglas in St Louis, Missouri, is affecting deliveries, with only eight of at least ten scheduled aircraft, and 13 of 22 scheduled mis siles, delivered. FAA averts Olympics aviation shutdown in terrorism alert KAREN WALKER/ATLANTA A TOTAL BAN on aviation operations over the Olympic Games, in Atlanta, Georgia, has been narrowly averted by the US Federal Aviation Administration. The eleventh-hour White House decision to prohibit all non-Gov ernment aircraft from airspace over Olympic venues was prompted by heightened security concerns. The ban, proposed just two weeks before die opening ceremo ny on 19 July, would have stopped all helicopter operations for Olympic television coverage, VIP transport, express cargo and an FAA-backed technology demon stration of free flight over congest ed urban areas. The White House move, just days before die suspected terrorist bombing of a TWA Boeing 747 off New York, is bound to lead to spec ulation that the US Government is responding to specified warnings of terrorist airborne action. The US Secret Service refuses to divulge die reason for the proposed ban. The FAA averted the ban only by offering to provide something which, at that point, did not exist— portable surveillance boxes which could be installed in each approved aircraft and which would enable security services to tag and track those aircraft from the moment they were airborne. The White House agreed to allow those air craft — and none odier — into the designated "hot" zones. The FAA, issued with emer gency funding by the White FAA carries the torch for continued aviation presence at Olympics House, gave Puyallup, Washing ton-based Arnav Systems ten days to design, develop, manufacture and install 60 portable versions of its GeoNet automatic dependent- surveillance system. Arnav was given White House authorisation to instruct its suppliers to drop all other work. Operators were given as little as two days notice to install the boxes or stay out of the temporary flight- restricted (TFR) zones — despite the fact that all the crews involved had already been through months of security vetting. For Bell Helicopter Textron — which has paid millions of dollars to be an official Olympic sponsor — the total ban would have been disas trous, as none of the 18 helicopters it has provided for camera work and VIP transport would have been allowed over Olympic venues. Security-service aircraft, includ ing armed Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawks, now patrol the TFR zones and have orders to force down any aircraft which enters a hot zone without its identification box. Bell says that some of its aircraft were denied access when the boxes were jammed temporarily. A police heli copter, chasing an armed-robbery getaway car, has already been tur ned back by an armed Black Hawk. About 100 aircraft, including three airborne-early-warning Lock heed Martin P-3s, three Cessna Citation pursuit aircraft and three Black Hawks belonging to US Customs, are among those now carrying the Arnav system, which uses satellite navigation and data- link communications to tag and track aircraft. About half were fitted previously with the GeoNet system so that they could take part in the Atlanta Short-haul Transportation System (ASTS) demonstration, carrying vital packages into and out of the city centre. ASTS chairman Tom Marlow says that he was given no reason for the ban. • Japan seeks Asian co-operation for low-cost regional-aircraft programme J APAN IS LOOKING at co operating with other Asian countries to develop a small, low- cost regional aircraft, as a possible alternative to earlier plans to devel op a larger 90- to 110-seat twinjet. The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) says that it is seeking finance-ministry funding in fiscal year 1997/8 to launch a new study. The feasibility study is likely to be led by Japan Aircraft Development (JADC), which has been conducting a joint MITI/industry-funded YS-X study into the development of a 90- to 110-seat aircraft, in possible collab oration with Boeing. Studies to date indicate that this aircraft is not financially viable, and development has been shelved. Attention has since turned to a smaller 70- to 90-seat regional jet, with JADC discussing a joint feasi bility study with Bombardier. The new aircraft is seen as a good second platform for Mitsubishi's new supercritical wing, developed for Bombardier's Global Express (Flight International, 19-25 June). The new study being proposed by MITI would be aimed at identify ing other potential partners in Asia and the type of aircraft required by the region's air-transport market. It is unclear, though, which countries would be interested in the project. China, Singapore and Indonesia are already tied to various other air craft programmes. • 4 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 31 July - 6 August 1996
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