Travis Christ has joined Westlake Village, Calif.-based Row 44 as chief sales and airline business development officer. He was president of the Americas Div. of Travelport.
Claude Chidiac (see photo) has joined Montreal-based Esterline CMC Electronics as vice president of customer support and strategic development. He was vice president of business development for business aviation at StandardAero, based in Arizona.
Buried in the middle of the TPC rankings of companies with revenues of $1-5 billion, Allegheny Technologies is one to watch. Few companies track the ups and downs of the commercial airframe manufacturing industry as closely as this supplier of specialty metals. Allegheny's role as a titanium supplier for Boeing's 787 should finally pay off as deliveries of the long-delayed jet commence. The company also will benefit from increased production of other aircraft by Boeing and Airbus.
The Transportation Department is stripping away certain privacy protections offered to business jet operations. Under a rule quietly announced at 5 p.m. before the Memorial Day weekend, the department is limiting the Block Aircraft Registration Request (BARR) program, which permits aircraft owners to request that their tail number be withheld from online flight-tracking programs. Effective in early August, only operators with a verifiable security threat will be able to keep their birds off the trackers.
The results are in from Aviation Week's 16th annual Top-Performing Companies (TPC) study. Lockheed Martin CEO Robert J. Stevens has been instrumental in the company's transformation from laggard to four-time TPC winner. But the company, like other defense contractors, will be challenged to maintain its performance in a leaner and less forgiving defense environment. This year's TPC report includes tables of the rankings of 55 publicly traded aerospace and defense companies worldwide, breakouts on individual companies and—for the first time—business segment winners.
Relativity Capital purchased Evergreen Maintenance Center, an aircraft storage and maintenance facility in Marana, Ariz., on May 27 for an undisclosed sum from Evergreen International Aviation. This is the first solid aftermarket play for the private equity company. Management and staff are expected to remain.
What is the No. 1 worry facing the air cargo industry? A possible U.S. ban on the carriage of lithium-ion batteries in the belly of passenger airlines is still considered the chief regulatory concern because of the huge ripple effect it would have on the entire airline industry. But a less-known proposed rule by the Transportation Department's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration should be watched as well, says David Ross, principal at the logistics firm Stifel Nicolaus.
Development of the new Ka-60/-62 medium twin-engine helicopter—Kamov's first non-coaxial aircraft—is gaining pace, backed by military orders and government subsidies. Russian Helicopters, the holding company for the country's rotorcraft industry and Kamov's parent, is simultaneously preparing both the Ka-60 military transport and Ka-62 civil version; the latter has a maximum takeoff weight of 6,500 kg (14,300 lb.) and can carry 12-15 passengers at 290 kph (180 mph) over a range of 750 km (465 mi.).
Smashed to smithereens, a return to Earth orbit for retirement, or a voyage into deep space—those are the alternative fates that have awaited the Chinese lunar probe Chang'e 2 since its launch last October. Now the decision has been made: Chang'e 2 will go to the second Sun-Earth Lagrangian point this month, laying the groundwork for Martian missions.
Amy Butler (Washington), Graham Warwick (Washington)
The outcome of talks under way in the U.S. Air Force on what new technologies to include in the second tranche of GPS III satellites will affect how much this multibillion-dollar constellation can support the FAA's next-generation air traffic management system.
Gerd Gruppe has become director of space administration at the German Aerospace Centerin Cologne. He worked for the Bavarian state government for more than 20 years.
Prices for European Union Allowance (EUA) carbon credits traded in the 27-member state bloc's Emissions Trading System (ETS) jumped at the end of May to above €17 ($24.47) per metric ton following a decision by the German government to shut down all of the country's nuclear power plants by 2022.
EADS's Airbus unit delivered a record 510 commercial jets in 2010, netted 574 new orders and announced multiple increases in production rates to satisfy robust demand. But the European A&D powerhouse continues to struggle to find a formula to translate its sales success into bottom-line results. EADS ranked ninth among the 10 companies with revenues of more than $20 billion, eking out a paltry 2% operating profit margin that trailed its peers. Meanwhile, the company's plan to grow its U.S.
Sean E. Menke has become president and chief executive officer of Pinnacle Airlines, Memphis, Tenn., succeeding Philip H. Trenary. Menke was a managing partner at Vista Strategic Group of Denver.
Anand Ramachandran and Peter Watson have been appointed to the aircraft finance team at Investec of London. Ramachandran spent 12 years at major Indian carriers, including Kingfisher Airlines, Reliance ADA Group and Jet Airways. Watson was head of sales and marketing for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Hong Kong Aviation Capital.
Large U.S. A&D contractors continue to outperform their European peers by a wide margin. The revenue-weighted TPC score of U.S. companies with sales of more than $5 billion was 73, compared with 58 for comparable European contractors. TPC advisers attribute the gap to problems that have long bedeviled the European giants, such as interference by governments advancing an overriding interest in jobs over profits.
The first Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial system has landed at Grand Forks AFB, N.D., the U.S. Air Force's second main operating base for the high-altitude, long-endurance aircraft. The Block 20 aircraft temporarily deployed to Grand Forks from Beale AFB, Calif., on May 26, ahead of the expected arrival in July of the base's first of 10 Block 40 Global Hawks. They will be equipped with the new ZPY-2 synthetic-aperture radar/ground moving-target indication sensor. Grand Forks was previously a KC-135 aerial-refueling tanker base.
In the U.S., the top eight gateway markets handle 90% of the volume. Brian Clancy, a consultant with Logistics Capital & Strategy LLC, explains that in 2010, the main gateway “clusters” were the New York/New Jersey area, followed by Chicago, the express shipment carrier hubs—Memphis, Tenn./Anchorage, Alaska; and Louisville, Ky.—and then Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Dallas.
USAF Col. Alvin Bedgood (see photo) has been appointed commander of the Civil Air Patrol's Southeast Region, taking the reins from Col. James Rushing. Bedgood will also serve on CAP's National Executive Committee.
The Indian air force (IAF) has long had big ambitions, and the pending arrival of a new leader with a broad agenda indicates there will be no easing up in efforts to strengthen the service's capabilities. The first major revamp of the IAF's order of battle—revival of border air bases to counter Chinese air force deployments, along with quick acquisitions of new weapons and systems—will be operational priorities for Air Marshal Norman Browne, who takes over as IAF chief at the end of July when Air Chief Marshal P. V. Naik retires.
Luxembourg's SES SA and television and broadband satellite operator Wananchi of Kenya have formed a joint venture to set up a direct-to-home service in East Africa. Dubbed Zuku TV, the operation will provide pay TV service in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi and elsewhere in East Africa, using SES capacity beginning in July. The European company will also set up a training program for installers; a pilot program already is operating in Nairobi.
USAF Maj. Gen. (select) Russell J. Handy, commander of the 9th Air and Space Expeditionary Task Force-Iraq and director of Air Combat Command in Baghdad, has been named director of operations, plans, requirements and programs of Headquarters Pacific Air Forces, Pearl Harbor-Hickam AFB, Hawaii. Maj. Gen. (select) Timothy M. Zadalis, director of air plans for the International Security Assistance Force Joint Command of U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, U.S.
