SAAB-SCANIA GROUP will split into two units, Saab AB - which will include the military and civil aircraft divisions - and Scania AB, effective May 16 at the company's annual general meeting. Bengt Halse, currently president of Ericsson Microwave Systems, was appointed president of Saab AB effective April 1.
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF STATE AVIATION OFFICIALS named Lori P. Lehnerd to the new position of director of aviation programs and hired Meagan (Speiser) Granlund as a staff associate. Lehnerd, who spent eight years in FAA's Airports District Office in Falls Church, Va. before joining NASAO last August, will be responsible for representing the states' aviation interests before FAA and other state and federal agencies and interest groups. She also was named managing editor of NASAO's monthly newsletter.
Harmon O. Pritchard, who is credited with pioneering many of the member benefit programs at the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, retired after 29 years with AOPA. R. Anderson Pew, chairman of AOPA's Board of Trustees, thanked Pritchard "for all those years of loyalty to us and for all you've brought to the organization. I know you must stand back and look at it as I do with some degree of wonderment on what it's become." AOPA currently claims more than 335,000 dues-paying members, or nearly half the pilots in the U.S.
MCDONNELL DOUGLAS HELICOPTER SYSTEMS and Hughes Helicopters, Inc. Model 369 and OH-6A series helicopters (Docket No. 94-SW-05-AD; Amdt. 39-9149; AD 95- 03-13) - supersedes an existing AD applicable to the aforementioned helicopter models with certain main rotor blade assemblies or certain main rotor hub lead-lag assemblies installed, that currently requires repetitive inspections and checks for cracks.
Derek Vaughn, 70, a former Qantas Airlines pilot and Cessna Aircraft marketing executive, died Feb. 16 in his sleep in Sydney, Australia. Vaughn joined Cessna in 1970 after several years with General Electric. Vaughn was elected a senior vice president at Cessna in 1978 and was general manager of Cessna's Citation Commercial Jet Marketing Division when he retired from the company at the end of 1982. He had continued as a consultant to Cessna.
DOT SECRETARY Federico Pena and other proponents of establishing a government corporation to run the U.S. air traffic control system have frequently cited New Zealand as an example of a country where such a corporate ATC structure has been implemented successfully. Ed Stimpson, president of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, put that example in perspective last week while testifying before the House aviation subcommittee. "New Zealand...is home to only six turbine-powered business aircraft," Stimpson said.
REP. BUD SHUSTER (R-Pa.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said last week he is beginning to favor reform that keeps FAA functions within government rather than setting up a government or private corporation to operate the air traffic control system. Shuster, who said earlier he was open to a variety of options, said during a hearing last week he is leaning toward loosening personnel and procurement regulatory burdens instead. Rep.
CONTINUING DELAYS in awarding the Joint Primary Aircraft Training System (JPATS) contract are frustrating top Air Force officials as well as competing manufacturers who are paying out millions of dollars per month as the selection process drags on. U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ronald Fogleman said this month he's just as baffled and frustrated about the latest delay as the industry. "We just need to get on with awarding the contract, for crying out loud," he told reporters at a Washington breakfast.
Rep. James Lightfoot (R-Iowa) plans to introduce legislation this week to remove the Federal Aviation Administration from the Transportation Department and make it an independent agency.
Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer, which was privatized two months ago with the public auction of 55.4 percent of the company's voting stock (BA, Dec. 12/255) named a new slate of officers last week and bade farewell to Ozires Silva, who led the company throughout most of its history.
Airport Systems International, Inc., Overland Park, Kan., said problems with a line of airport signage it acquired from another company have been resolved, and the signs now meet FAA standards. ASI suspended shipments of airport signs last month when officials found that some of the VomaGlow signs did not meet specifications for power output and light uniformity (BA, Feb. 6/60).
JAMES B. FROWNFELTER was named director of marketing for Fokker Aircraft U.S.A., the Alexandria, Va.-based North American marketing and sales subsidiary of Fokker Aircraft B.V. in the Netherlands, a member of Daimler- Benz Aerospace. Frownfelter, who joined the company in 1991 as manager- account development, will report to Maarten van Eeghen, president of Fokker Aircraft U.S.A. Frownfelter, who was new business manager in the Commercial Systems Division of Hughes Aircraft Co.
DUNCAN AVIATION will relocate its Scottsdale, Ariz., satellite avionics shop from Corporate Jets to Desert Aviation, effective March 1. The avionics shop will now occupy the facility formerly used by Aero Services and will be open 24 hours per day. Telephone number for the Scottsdale shop is (602) 922-3575.
BRITT HOSKINS was promoted to director of government business, a newly created position at FlightSafety International. An 11-year FSI veteran, Hoskins had been manager of the company's Daleville-Dothan, Ala., learning center. In his new position, Hoskins will be based in a new FSI office in Fort Worth, Tex. and will be responsible for developing new government business opportunities, enhancing current government business contracts and coordinating FSI's overall government business efforts.
RICHARD MINTZ, who has served as Federico Pena's press secretary at the Transportation Department, plans to leave DOT in mid-March for a position with the public relations firm of Ogilvy, Adams&Rinehart.
DASSAULT FALCON JET named three Garrett Aviation Services hangar locations authorized service centers: Springfield, Ill.; Houston, Texas; and, Los Angeles, Calif. Peter L. Ginocchio, senior vice president of customer support for Dassault Falcon Jet, said the designation of the new locations "is part of our plan to expand support for Falcon operators worldwide. Garrett customers can now have a full range of airframe and engine maintenance done on their Falcons at one time and in one place."
NATIONAL AIR TRANSPORTATION ASSOCIATION has joined the chorus of those opposing FAA's proposed revisions to its airmen medical standards, recommending that the entire proposal be dropped.NATA President James Coyne said the proposed standards introduce unnecessary burdens on medical certificate applicants, adding that "FAA has no evidence to support that these new requirements will, in any way, increase aviation safety." Noting that fewer than two percent of general aviation accidents involve a medical problem as a contributing factor, Coyne said "statistics clearly indica
FOKKER AIRCRAFT opened a new material support center in Atlanta, Ga., to serve its growing customer base in the U.S. The new building is situated in the Southridge Business Center near Hartsfield International Airport. It has a floor area of 35,000 square feet, 80 percent of which will be used for warehouse facilities, with the remainder reserved for offices. The facility stocks more than 30,000 different parts with a combined value of $36 million and employs 16.
The National Transportation Safety Board, labeling flight data recorders (FDRs) installed in many aircraft "inadequate," last week recommended that a wide range of aircraft now in the fleet be equipped with FDRs that record up to 24 parameters. While primarily focused on older airline equipment such as the Boeing 727 and 737 and McDonnell Douglas DC-9, the NTSB recommendations also apply to all transport category airplanes operated under Parts 121, 125 and 135 of the Federal Aviation Regulations.
TOM GRUBAUGH has joined the aircraft sales division of Piedmont Aviation, Winston-Salem, N.C., as a corporate aircraft salesman with responsibility for sales and marketing of new and used Beech and Jetstream products in Virginia and West Virginia. He will be based in Richmond, Va. Grubaugh has extensive general aviation experience, having worked for Mitsubishi, Gulfstream and Piaggio.
PERRY REBHUHN was named a senior accounts executive at Intertrade Ltd. Rebhuhn, who will be responsible for numerous airline accounts, joins Intertrade from The Memphis Group, an aviation trading/component overhaul company in Tennessee, where he was a senior trading executive. He previously held management positions at UPS and Continental. He will serve as Intertrade's team leader for larger airline inventory consignment transactions.
FLIGHTSAFETY INTERNATIONAL said the company's new Saab 340 simulator at LaGuardia Airport received FAA Level C certification, as did a new Beech C- 12D simulator at FSI's Dalveville, Ala. training center.
BRITISH AEROSPACE Model ATP airplanes (Docket No. 93-NM-217-AD; Amdt. 39- 9128 ; AD 95-02-09) - adopts a new AD requiring inspections to detect damage, overheating and proper operation of the DC connections and cooling fans in certain transformer rectifier units (TRUs), and repair or replacement, if necessary. FAA said the AD was prompted by a report of the loss of all DC electrical power, except for the battery emergency bus, due to failure of the TRUs, which occurred during flight. The AD is effective March 16.
