UTair Aviation is getting ready to field Western -made regional jets and new helicopters as it tries to maintain years of growth and sustain its newly found position as one of Russia’s top four airlines.
The Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) is sponsoring two projects that will examine the effectiveness of airport-to-airport mutual aid groups. Two of them responded to help airports hit by Gulf Coast hurricanes. The voluntary work by the Southeast Airports Disaster Operations Group (Seadog) and later the Western Airports Disaster Operations Group (Westdog) has sparked interest in forming other regional-based operations. The ACRP has set a Feb.
Patrick Dulac (see photos) has been promoted to manager from assistant manager of FlightSafety International ’s Learning Center at Paris LeBourget Airport. He succeeds Richard Deuve, who has left the company. Spencer Power has been promoted to assistant manager from manager of product marketing at FSI’s Bell Helicopter Learning Center in Fort Worth and Debbie Jones to manager from assistant manager of the Hawker Beechcraft Learning Center in Wichita, Kan. Rich High has been named regional operations manager, succeeding Marlin Schaefer, who has retired.
A JetBlue Airways Airbus A320 fitted with large, non-standard winglets was seen conducting multiple flights out of San Bernardino (Calif.) International Airport in the latter half of January. The winglets were similar in shape to the “blended” kind produced by Aviation Partners Inc. (API) of Seattle. When asked about the aircraft and the apparent flight trials, API founder and CEO Joe Clark declined comment. However, other sources have confirmed that the new airfoils were created by API.
Cessna and Gulfstream are edging up business jet production plans for 2010 amid early glimmers of a recovery in order activity. Cessna plans to deliver 225 Citations this year, down from 289 in 2009 and 467 in 2008 but up slightly from the number planned six months ago. The company booked 32 gross orders in the fourth quarter of 2009, compared with 38 for the first three quarters combined.
Israeli defense firm Elbit contracted in November 2008 for a 19% stake in Azimuth Technologies , and on Jan. 24 spent around $46.5 million to buy the remaining shares. The purchase price may be adjusted depending on potential dividend payouts by Azimuth. The deal is the latest in a string of acquisitions of technology companies Elbit has made both in Israel and beyond . Anti-trust authorities in Israel still need to bless the transaction. Azimuth is active in technologies associated with target acquisition and fire control.
European Union emissions allowance (EUA) prices crept higher in January, in what traders said was a disconnection from underlying energy fundamentals. December 2010 EUA prices rose to €13.62 ($19.20) on Jan. 26 from €12.60 per metric ton of CO2 equivalent on Dec. 31 .
With an eye on its first batch of second-generation satellites, Globalstar is vying to become the first satphone operator to offer a global high-speed voice/data service.
Lebanon’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation is leading the investigation into what caused an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800 to crash into the Mediterranean Sea on Jan. 25. The aircraft (ET-ANB), bound for Bole Interational Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with 82 passengers and eight crew onboard, plunged into the water shortly after its 2:35 a.m. (local time) departure from Beirut International Airport, according to preliminary accident data.
Mark Elliott, an independent non-executive director of the U.K.-based Qinetiq Group , has been appointed chairman, effective Mar. 1. He will succeed John Chisholm, who will retire.
Henri Koffel has been appointed vice president-purchasing of Messier-Dowty International , Velizy, France. He was vice president-aerostructures procurement at Airbus.
Temperatures comparable to those that would be found in the Kuiper Belt at the edge of the Solar System exist at the Moon’s north pole, kept as cold as 25K by the permanent darkness at the bottoms of deep craters there. The Diviner lunar radiometer experiment on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter generated this map of the lunar north pole last October, during the winter solstice.
Delta Air Lines’ acquisition of Segrave Aviation, announced Jan. 21, makes it one of the larger charter operators of business jets, raising its mixed fleet of Citations, Hawkers, Falcon Jets, Challengers and Gulfstreams to 45. The carrier already operated 24 business jets through Delta AirElite, a charter/aircraft management subsidiary based in Cincinnati. Delta also acquired Segrave’s headquarters fixed-base operation in Kinston, N.C. AirElite operates an FBO at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.
Japan Airlines— after its sharp downsizing—will likely weather the worst financial crisis in its nearly 60-year history. The proposed restructuring plan, which involves more than 15,000 job cuts (a third of the total workforce) and a deep fleet overhaul, is being monitored in Europe with great attention.
John Burnum and Blair Descourouez have been named sales managers in the Eastern U.S. and Western U.S., respectively, for the King Aerospace Commercial Corp. , Addison, Tex. Burnum was a completion sales executive for Gulfstream Aerospace, while Descourouez was vice president-operations for the Ambassador Jet Center.
Aeronautical Engineers Inc. is set to start a second Boeing 737-400 passenger-to-freighter conversion for Turkey’s MNG Airlines. The first conversion of the same aircraft type is slated to be delivered to the all-cargo carrier this week. The second conversion should be completed in May.
Crewmembers on the International Space Station will be a lot less cramped after the upcoming STS-130 mission by the space shuttle Endeavour. Endeavour’s all-NASA six-member crew will plug the Italian-built Tranquility node into the side of its sister-node Unity. That will add more space for life-support gear—an oxygen generator and other air revitalization equipment, and the balky U.S. water-recycling system—and a new treadmill named after political satirist Stephen Colbert.
Barry Kohler has been promoted to president of Bell Helicopter Textron Canada Ltd. , Mirabel, Quebec, from vice president-commercial programs of Bell Helicopter in Fort Worth. He succeeds Eric Cardinali, who has been named senior vice president-Integrated Supply Chain for Textron’s Cessna Aircraft Co., Wichita, Kan. Cardinali, in turn, follows Ron Alberti, who will oversee Cessna 162 Skycatcher production in Shenyang, China, and the transition of work from Cessna’s Columbus, Ga., and Wichita facilities to one in Mexico.
French aerospace contractors are developing an automated high-pressure forming technique they hope will make lightweight composites competitive with metals for small-sized aircraft and missile parts.
Former astronaut Scott Parazynski has been named chairman-elect of the Alexandria, Va.-based Challenger Center for Space Science Education , succeeding former astronaut William F. Readdy. Parazynski is scheduled to become chairman in late 2010. Parazynski is a physician and physiologist with expertise in human adaptation to stressful environments. He was selected for NASA’s astronaut corps in 1992, and flew five space shuttle missions with seven spacewalks. He is director of business development for Wyle’s Integrated Science and Engineering Group in Houston.
Marv Vander Weg has been appointed vice president of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle EELV Customer Office of Space Exploration Technologies , Hawthorne, Calif. He was vice president of the Customer Program Office for the United Launch Alliance.
Joseph Franco has been named quality and environment health and safety manager for the Circor Aerospace Inc. Aerodyne Group , Ronkonkoma, N.Y. He was operations manager for Unison/General Electric.
A crash investigation committee and veteran Russian test pilot V.G. Pugachev have begun to review the contents of the flight data recorder (FDR) from the Russian air force Su-27SM that crashed Jan. 14 and killed Lt. Col. Vladimir Sobolev. The crash has resulted in the grounding of the air force’s Su-27 fleet.
Katherine O. (Kory) Abbitt has been named vice president-sales and marketing for the Americas for the Park Electrochemical Corp. , Melville, N.Y. She was global sales manager for carbon fibers for the Hexcel Corp., Stamford, Conn. Anthony W. DiGaudio, who has been corporate vice president-sales and marketing, now will be vice president-sales and marketing for Asia and Europe.
