The Transportation Dept. Independent Review Team finds the U.S. aviation safety system in tip-top shape—but is asking the FAA to implement its “blueprint” for continued safe skies and a better-managed regulatory agency. That blueprint consists of 13 safety recommendations, says Transportation Secretary Mary Peters in releasing the team’s findings last week. Key recommendations include: •Having guidance in place by year-end to ensure that airlines and FAA officials understand airworthiness directives.
SkyWest’s $5-million investment in the Brazilian regional carrier Trip, a 6% investment stake, is part of a well-established expansion strategy (AW&ST Mar. 24, p. 44). Management has been investigating other investments in Europe and China. The stake in Trip could grow to as much as 20% in the next two years, depending on how Trip performs in Brazil’s growing economy. Holding company SkyWest Inc. operates SkyWest and Atlantic Southeast Airlines, which was acquired in 2005.
Boeing has received a $278-million contract add-on to build an additional two P-8A Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft for the development and demonstration phase of the patrol aircraft program. Bell-Boeing won another $358.7-million contract add-on for five additional CV-22 tiltrotor airlifters.
Sept. 21-23—Virtus International’s Third Annual Future Aerospace Congress. Don Cesar Resort, Tampa, Fla. See www.virtusinternational.com Sept. 24-26Black Sea Defense & Aerospace Conference. Romaero Convention Center, Bucharest, Romania. Call +1 (703) 406-0010 or see www.bsda.ro/ Sept. 24-27—Society of Experimental Test Pilots’ 52nd Symposium and Banquet. Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel Resort & Spa, Anaheim, Calif. See www.setp.org
Kevin Cummings (see photos) has been appointed executive vice president/general manager of the Launch Systems unit and Frank Koester vice president/general manager of the Spacecraft Systems unit, both within Minneapolis-based Alliant Techsystems Space Systems Group.
Julie Laviolette has been named general manager for North America for Shell Aviation , effective Sept. 22. She was vice president-procurement for Air Canada. She succeeds Michael Sergeant, who will be a senior project leader.
Though I enjoyed the informative “Darpa at 50” (Aug. 18/25, p. 54), I was disturbed to conclude from the vacuum of information about it, that the agency apparently failed to anticipate the need for sensors and equipment to recognize and deal with suicide bombers now prevalent in conflict zones. This form of attack will continue to roil civilized nations until we find the technology to sense it at street level and defeat it. My forlorn hope is that our program to develop weapons that will defeat this menace is so secret that it can’t be mentioned in print.
Charlie Miller has become London-based vice president-international-corporate communications for Boeing . He was head of corporate communications for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
David Patterson has become executive director of the National Defense Business Institute at the University of Tennessee Center for Executive Education . He was principal comptroller/deputy undersecretary of Defense and has been an executive with the Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing.
Steven G. MacLean, Canada’s chief astronaut and one of the first six Canadian astronauts chosen, will take over the helm of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) following his appointment last week by Industry Minister Jim Prentice. A physicist, MacLean has flown in space twice—on STS-52 on board Columbia in 1992 and on Atlantis in 2006 for the STS-115 International Space Station assembly flight. During the latter mission, he became the first Canadian to operate the station’s Canadarm2 and the second to participate in a spacewalk.
Dassault Systemes has confirmed German press reports regarding an alleged trade secret violation by Siemens Product Lifecycle Management. Dassault says Siemens PLM, acquired in 2007, has admitted obtaining a list of 3,216 Dassault clients from Germany, Switzerland and Austria and posting it on the web, along with contract details and other confidential information.
The U.K. Defense Ministry and Eurocopter are in the final throes of negotiating a service life extension program for 30 RAF Puma helicopters. The program is intended to allow the Puma to remain in service until 2024, rather than being withdrawn from service in 2012. Eurocopter is working on the assessment phase of the proposed extension. The availability and the overall size of the Defense Ministry’s support helicopter fleet is a sensitive issue. Combat operations in Afghanistan have stretched U.K.
Although Grumman’s “Iron Works” was fabled for its U.S. Navy fighters, in a bid to diversify, its engineers also developed the first for-business turbine aircraft—the turboprop Gulfstream—along with postal trucks. Now the current maker of Gulfstream jets is also diversifying, and delivering several messages of its own. General Dynamics Corp.’s Aug. 19 announcement that it planned to acquire Jet Aviation for $2.25 billion not only confirmed its faith in business aviation’s solidity and potential, but signaled the course of the segment’s evolutionary growth.
Pat Connelly has retired as president and become chairman of the ICE Corp. , Manhattan, Kan. He has been succeeded by Randy O’Boyle, who was vice president-marketing.
Flight tests of the revised GEnx-1B engine for Boeing’s 787 are demonstrating improvements to the fuel system and combustor, according to General Electric, and the changes will be recertificated for production engines.
India’s privately owned domestic carrier Kingfisher Airlines has stepped into the international arena with the Sept. 3 launch of daily non-stop service between Bangalore and London Heathrow. The carrier will operate an Airbus A330-200 configured in first and economy classes on the route, the “latent potential” of which Chairman and CEO Vijay Mallya hopes Kingfisher will exploit.
British Airways passenger figures for August reflect the problems facing the sector, with a reduction in passenger load factor of 2.7 points from the previous year, to 77.3%. Non-premium traffic was down 2.1%, while premium traffic was up 2.2%. Despite this increase, BA remains cautious about the outlook for its premium cabin business, saying the “outlook for premium bookings is uncertain.” It adds that “market conditions for the industry remain very difficult.”
China and the U.S. are restarting talks on space cooperation as final preparations are underway for a major Chinese manned space endeavor. China is also preparing to loft the first spacecraft in a unique optical/radar imaging constellation to aid rescue and recovery from natural disasters around the world.
Howard Attarian has been named vice president-flight operations for United Airlines . He was a pilot for Northwest Airlines and has been executive administrator to the president of Air Line Pilots Assn. International.
Pamela Keeton (see photo) has been named a managing director in Burson-Marsteller ’s Washington-based U.S. Public Affairs Practice. She was a former U.S. Army public affairs officer and also was director of communications for Boeing’s missile defense business and later director of external communications for Boeing Integrated Defense.
The Sabre GDS has launched a customer-centric module of its SabreSonic suite of products that it says will allow airlines to generate additional revenue in every distribution channel. This portion of Sabre’s three-year investment in the products, which are rolling out in phases until late 2011, is designed to help airlines learn more about customers. The first to take advantage of one portion of this new capability is Midwest Airlines, which is now selling Midwest Class—better seats in the same coach cabin-—for higher fares, effective Oct. 21.
When Eclipse Aviation founder Vern Raburn was recently ousted, the very light jet manufacturer said no immediate layoffs were planned (AW&ST Aug. 4, p. 36). At least not that week. It didn’t take long for the company to issue pink slips to 200 employees, mostly temporary production workers. And now Eclipse is jettisoning 38% of its workforce as it slows its troubled production line through the end of the year and seeks to staunch the outflow of cash. Employment at the Albuquerque, N.M.-based company has sunk to 1,100, from 2,059 in late July.
