It is increasingly clear that Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast represents the future of air traffic management. But while many countries are embracing ADS-B, nobody is moving as quickly as Australia to turn its promise into reality. Airservices Australia has already established itself as a leader in satellite-based surveillance by introducing the world’s most extensive ADS-B network. Now it is looking to expand the technology into new areas to create a truly national system.
Yosi Albagli (see photo) has been named executive vice president and president of Orbit Communication Systems ’ Satellite Communications business unit in Netanya, Israel. He was president of VocalTec Communications and CEO of CTWare, both Israeli telecommunications companies.
Amy Butler (Eglin AFB and Fort Walton Beach, Fla.)
The U.S. Air Force is putting plans to procure advanced directed-energy weapons on hold and focusing instead on delivering planned air-launched munitions. And, though the focus is on executing current projects, some senior service leaders worry that forthcoming requirements will outstrip available funding, jeopardizing the ability to keep pace with proliferating threats—such as advanced aircraft and deeply buried targets.
The FAA loses a round in court over a long-running squabble about the 2006 expansion of drug and alcohol testing requirements to subcontractors “at any tier.” The Court of Appeals here has given the agency until March 10 to explain why it should not have to produce an analysis of the costs and benefits of the regs, which could reach down into subcontractors of subcontractors, many of which might only be nominally involved in aviation.
Holly Harvard, manager of customer service at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, has received the Cincinnati Convention & Visitors Bureau ’s Pinnacle Award. She was honored for more than 20 years of improving the passenger experience at the airport.
The Pentagon is generating plans for a no-fly zone over Libya—plans that could produce the first combat assignment for the F-22 Raptor stealth fighter. Whether the idea progresses beyond this stage is subject to United Nations and NATO support, the scale of Libyan military action against its civilians, and the reluctance of the U.S. to take on stewardship of military operations in yet another Muslim country. Nonetheless, the idea does show how the U.S. Air Force confronts the task of taking down a large air defense system.
Veda Shook, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), has been seated on the Executive Council of the AFL-CIO . In parallel with a career as a flight attendant, Shook was union president at Alaska Airlines and an AFA international vice president.
Europe’s space policy has come a long way from where it started. Initially it was an ill-fated strategy, handicapped by lack of political support and funding, though there were some early believers in France’s nascent efforts to develop a capable launcher that would ensure independent space access while being mindful of U.S.-imposed constraints. Germany was an avid and faithful partner, and several other European governments endorsed and ratified the proposed cross-border effort that gave birth to the Ariane launcher developed by CNES French space agency.
After the final space shuttle flight later this year, NASA managers probably will continue the practice started by President Dwight D. Eisenhower of choosing military pilots as at least some of its astronauts. Early commercial crew vehicles are likely to be capsules, and most U.S. astronaut time will be spent on the International Space Station, so there will be little call for the piloting skills required to fly an orbiter back through the atmosphere to a runway.
Airlines should be able to improve overall safety levels by more effectively addressing loss-of-control procedures in training and operational venues. Loss of control has replaced controlled flight into terrain as the No. 1 cause of accidents in recent years. Overall, the airline industry has reached a plateau for safety performance improvement in the past decade. But the Flight Safety Foundation’s European Aviation Safety Seminar in Istanbul concluded that this must change.
The U.S. Transportation Department is concerned about a program that prevents third parties from seeing the registration numbers of aircraft operating in the U.S. ATC system.
Asia-Pacific Staff (New Delhi), Graham Warwick (Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil)
India’s venture to develop and build a 90-seat regional jet is set to gather pace, with the technical and industrial outlines beginning to take shape. The formal high-level committee report supporting the program’s launch is nearing completion and submission to the government. The document is intended to underpin a development effort that would catapult India into the ranks of Brazil, Canada, China, Japan and Russia in offering a jet to the regional airline sector. Engineering work could begin as early as next year.
The Interstate Aviation Committee has granted the type certificate to the Antonov An-158, a stretched version of the An-148 regional jet. The new version, certified Feb. 25, features a fuselage that is 1.7 meters (5.6 ft.) longer, improved avionics and winglets. The An-158 can carry 99 passengers in a single class with a range of up to 2,500 km (1,560 mi.) compared with 2,700 km for a 75-seat An-148-100B. Antonov expects first delivery this year.
Juliana Kfouri (see photo) has been appointed senior vice president of corporate strategy and special projects for Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways . She came from TAM Linhas Aereas, where she was chief information officer and director of information technology.
Turmoil in the Middle East has the the International Air Transport Association (IATA) annual general meeting (AGM) on the move. The IATA was scheduled to hold its 2011 AGM in Cairo, the city that hosted the then-fledgling organization’s second one in 1946. But the protests and political unrest that toppled long-time Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11, perhaps coupled with ongoing turmoil in other countries in the region, forced IATA’s hand. The AGM, scheduled for June 5-7, is being moved to Singapore.
The U.K. aerospace industry potentially faces several more years of uncertainty, with government officials warning it will take longer than some had expected to rectify the imbalance between procurement plans and budget reality.
Airlines seemed well positioned just a few months ago to absorb higher fuel costs, which were forecast to rise through 2011 along with rising crude oil prices. Of course, that was barring any shocks to the system. Now all bets are off, with oil supplies in Libya and some other oil-producing countries at varying degrees of risk and crude oil prices at their highest level in two years.
Is anyone surprised that Boeing was the ultimate winner in the tanker competition? (AW&ST Feb. 28, p. 30). The U.S. has never awarded a major military contract to a foreign entity. Northrop Grumman knew the deck was stacked against the A330 after the contract was canceled. EADS should have known it and saved its time and money. Some might even say EADS did know it, but was willing to play along to provide the Pentagon with an air of competitive legitimacy.
Jeffrey Johnson has been named president of Boeing Middle East . He succeeds Paul Kinscherff, who becomes chief financial officer for international finance. Johnson, who will be based in Dubai, was a senior director of business development for Boeing Defense, Space & Security.
Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance may offer low-hanging fruit in efforts to prune defense spending, congressional auditors suggest. ISR is critical in Iraq and Afghanistan. The trouble, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says, is that the ad hoc processes the Defense Department created over the last decade to respond to changing combat needs have led both to duplication and gaps.
Russia launched a new navigation satellite, the Glonass-K, on a Soyuz-2.1b launcher on Feb. 26. It was the first Glonass launch from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. Glonass-K is a new-generation satellite for Russia’s global navigation space system. It was developed by Reshetnev Co. using an unpressurized, three-axis-stabilized Express-1000K platform. The spacecraft weighs 935 kg (2,060 lb.) versus 1,450 kg for the Glonass-M series currently in orbit.
Christopher Brown is the new vice president of legislative and regulatory policy at the Washington-based Air Transportation Association of America . He comes from Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, where he was senior counsel of the Government and Regulatory Affairs Practice Group and senior congressional affairs adviser to United Airlines.
General aviation as an industry and as a community was overwhelmingly U.S.-centric since coming into its own after World War II. The airplanes were designed, built and used in the U.S. and the CEO’s name often appeared on the roof: Piper, Beech, Lear, Bell, Grumman and Cessna (well, Clyde’s nephew anyway), among them.
Altug Bekdemir has been appointed general manager of Munich-based Aviareps ’ new aviation and tourism management services in Turkey. He was a country manager for Austrian Airlines.
Bell Helicopter has introduced two new variants of its light single-turbine Model 407—the armed 407AH for export parapublic customers and commercial 407GX with Garmin G1000 glass cockpit. Both helicopters are making their debut this week at the Heli-Expo show in Orlando, Fla.
