Kenneth E. Gazzola, former executive vice president/publisher of Aviation Week & Space Technology, has become a Washington-based marketing consultant to FlightSafety International of New York.
Upgrades and repairs planned for the Hubble Space Telescope may help astronomers reset the cosmological zeitgeist for future space exploration. But regardless of the scientific outcome, the astronauts who carry out the newly announced servicing mission in the spring of 2008 will work in an operational environment reshaped by NASA's shift to human exploration beyond low Earth orbit.
Safran appears close to selling off its troubled Sagem cell phone unit. Last week, it acknowledged long-running rumors that it is in talks to sell part or all of the unit to Motorola. The company also named Jean-Paul Herteman to replace Jacques Paccard as head of Sagem Defense and Security. Paccard, like another long- time Sagem veteran, Gregoire Olivier, who resigned earlier, are thought to have resisted moves by Safran chief Jean-Paul Bechat to break up Sagem's commuications business.
Sea Launch successfully orbited XM Radio's XM-4 digital audio radio system satellite, marking its fifth mission of the year. Built by Boeing with a payload supplied by Alcatel Alenia Space, XM-4 was launched on Oct. 26. It is intended to replace two ailing spacecraft, - XM-1 and 2, dubbed Rock and Roll by the satellite radio operator, that were orbited in 2001, but will reach the ends of their expected lives around the first quarter of 2008. They will become in-orbit spares for as long as they last after that.
PIAGGIO AMERICA SAYS A FULL FLIGHT SIMULATOR FOR the P.180 Avanti turboprop business aircraft has been qualified by the FAA as a Level D device. The simulator was built by FlightSafety International (FSI) and has been installed at the company's Learning Center in West Palm Beach, Fla. FSI is responsible for Piaggio Aero pilot training. Plans call for a second Level D unit for the Avanti II to be built, with the location determined by customer demand.
USN Capt. (ret.) Ken Ginader has been appointed director of authentic fighting systems for tactical aviation in the Aircrew Training Systems Div. of the Environmental Tectonics Corp., South- ampton, Pa.
Mary Kay Burch (see photo) has been named vice president-logistics services for the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Baltimore-based Electronic Systems Sector. She has been the sector's vice president-Eastern Region Manufacturing.
A gunship without guns? Maybe, the way Air Force Special Operations Command sees it. The command wants a replacement for the AC-130 gunship, which it has internally dubbed the Next-Generation Gunship, or NGG. But answering a reporter's query on the subject, AFSOC officials make clear that it's not that simple. It seems no one wants to offend the non-gun-toting gunships of the world.
FedEx is preparing for the holiday onslaught of shipments. The Memphis, Tenn.-based overnight delivery giant has predicted that for the ninth-straight year it will set a record in the days just prior to Dec. 25 for one-day shipments. The prediction: 9.8 million packages will move through its global FedEx Express and FedEx Ground networks on Dec. 18, breaking the previous record of 8.9 million packages set on Dec. 19, 2005. This year's total will include 5 million packages moving through the FedEx Express air freight network.
Russia's Federation Council, the upper chamber of Russian Federal Assembly, has cleared the Indo-Russian space cooperation agreement signed in New Delhi in December 2004. This sets the stage for joint space exploration and transfer of Russian space technology to India. Once signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the accord will hasten completion and the beginning of the collaboration on the Global Navigational Satellite System.
An article on the Applied Physics Laboratory's control of the Messenger spacecraft mission to Mercury misstated the dates of the spacecraft's next trajectory correction maneuver and second Venus gravity assist. The trajectory correction will occur on Dec. 12, followed by the second Venus flyby on June 5, 2007 (AW&ST Oct. 30, p. 35).
Boeing appears close to signing its first customer for airline passenger versions of the 747-8, but with the program moving from concept to design, some of its milestones appear to be slipping. First flight of the freighter version is now planned for January 2009, says Boeing 747 Vice President Dan Mooney. The event was planned for the last quarter of 2008, though a company official backtracked and acknowledged that 2009 seems more likely. No single program development is seen as causing the delay.
Thomas Duffy, Jr., has been promoted to vice president from managing director of technical services, Jeffery H. Domrese to vice president from managing director of maintenance and Paul K. Kinstedt to vice president from managing director of system control for Republic Airways Holdings. Gary Weatherlow has been named director of crew resources.
Southwest Airlines will open pilot and flight attendant crew bases at Las Vegas's McCarran International Airport by next October. The bases will occupy a 17,000-sq.-ft. facility near Concourse C, which is scheduled for expansion to initially accommodate 350 pilots and 600 flight attendants. Planned growth projects 600 pilots and 1,000 flight attendants at Las Vegas.
The U.S. Air Force is considering whether to expand the scope of the Space-Based Space Surveillance pathfinder satellite program, says the Air Force space program's executive officer, Lt. Gen. Michael Hamel. Boeing and Ball Aerospace are building the pathfinder satellite for launch in December 2008. However, Hamel says successes in its design are prompting the service to considering buying more of them to begin populating a small constellation.
Subodh Karnik has been named president/CEO of ATA Airlines, effective Jan. 1. He will succeed John G. Denison, who will continue as chairman. Karnik has been senior vice president-marketing planning at Delta Air Lines.
Part 135 on-demand charter operations are in the safety spotlight in the wake of the NTSB's final hearing on a runway overrun accident at Teterboro, N.J.
The Transportation Security Administration is investigating how test results of screener trials at New Jersey's Newark-Liberty International Airport were leaked to The Star-Ledger newspaper.
Nigeria's efforts to become a full member of the international air transport system are likely to suffer a significant delay as the country grapples with the latest aircraft accident that killed more than 100 people. Nigerian officials were hoping to gain approval in the coming weeks to resume direct flights to the U.S., and they were gearing up for an important audit by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) this month.
William E. Goss (see photo) has been named executive vice president/chief financial officer of the St. Louis-based Westar Aerospace & Defense Group. He succeeds Doug Childress, who has resigned. Goss was senior vice president/ CFO of Affiliated Computer Services' IT Outsourcing Group.
Dazed and confused by aviation regulations? Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) is offering a solution. This month CASA launches a new--and free--monthly e-newsletter, The CASA Briefing, aimed at presenting easy-to-understand key safety regulatory issues. The first issue's topics will include CASA's revamped relations with industry, progress on a review of pilot medicals, and a proposed new category of airline pilot license. See www.casa.gov.au to sign up for a free subscription.
Alix Li has become manager of cargo marketing for the Vancouver International Airport Authority. He was head of marketing support for the Vancouver Port Authority.
U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Marvin K. McNamara has been appointed director for joint and futures in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff in Washington. He has been deputy director of the Missile Defense Agency. McNamara will be succeeded by Brig. Gen. Patrick J. O'Reilly, who has been MDA's Huntsville, Ala.-based program director for ground- based midcourse defense.
European industry is about to start noise tests on a new, high-bypass engine fan, which developers say could be a critical element in an engine offering for Airbus and Boeing next-generation single-aisle aircraft. The fan features 22 highly shape-optimized fan blades. A third-scale model of the design, developed by German air and space agency DLR, Snecma and Romanian engine development institute Comoti, has been shipped to France for acoustic measurements. The fan is designed to provide a 12-to-1 bypass ratio, compared to more traditional single-digit ratios.
New airline business models and new aircraft technology are likely to force Europe's maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) industry to retool its strategies and to invest in new skills and product offerings. That's the message that came across loud and clear at Aviation Week's MRO Europe 2006 in Amsterdam.
