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.
Following trials last summer, the U.S. Navy is refining its requirements for the Broad Area Maritime Surveil- lance unmanned aerial vehicle program. Rather than simply require the winning platform to identify a ship target's class, the Navy plans to demand that sensors positively verify a ship's name and survey for "deck activity." Currently, P-3s swoop down for "eyes on target" to obtain IDs. Navy officials are working on an operational concept to handle that task in a UAV.
Joseph Warren has been appointed business development strategist for the aircraft charter and management divisions of Dallas-based Business Jet Access.
An updated U.S. National Space Policy (NSP), released last month, provides new top cover for military space commanders, who now are discussing "space control" and "space superiority" issues with unusual candor. For years, both of those politically sensitive terms were off limits, and senior officers rarely mentioned them in unclassified forums.
Mary Frost, who is CEO of GlobeCast America, has been appointed to the board of directors of the New York-based World Teleport Assn. She succeeds David Sprechman, GlobeCast America's former chief executive.
The growth outlook for Singapore Changi's Budget Terminal (BT) is positive, according to Singapore's Transport Minister Raymond Lim. At the start of flight operations in March 2006, the terminal handled 124 weekly flights to 12 destinations. Now, BT's operations have doubled to 244 weekly scheduled flights to 16 cities. More than 106,000 passengers passed through its doors in September, compared with 72,800 in its first month of operations. As of Oct. 26, the terminal had handled a total of 657,000 passengers.
A push is underway in Ottawa to leverage $11.5 billion in planned military aircraft purchases to win Canadian companies a larger role on hot new aerospace programs such as Boeing's 787 and Crew Exploration Vehicle. Canada is negotiating to acquire four C-17 strategic lift aircraft and 16 CH-47 helicopters from Boeing and is considering buying 17 C-130J tactical lift aircraft from Lockheed Martin. The Aerospace Industries Assn.
Calvin Humphrey has been named CEO of Viva International Inc., Traverse City, Mich. He succeeds Rodolfo Dominguez, who has resigned. Humphrey has been an executive of aerospace companies and regional airlines. Roger F. Larreur and James Paquette have been named to the board of directors. Larreur is director of sales and marketing for Canada and the Eastern U.S. for Swissport USA Inc., while Paquette is vice president-government programs and special missions for Zenith Aviation.
UNITED STATES Editor-In-Chief: Anthony L. Velocci, Jr. [email protected] Managing Editor: James R. Asker [email protected] Assistant Managing Editor: Michael Stearns [email protected] Senior Editors: Craig Covault [email protected], David Hughes [email protected] Editor-at-Large: William Readdy NEW YORK 2 Penn Plaza, 25th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10121 Phone: +1 (212) 904-2000, Fax: +1 (212) 904-6068 Senior News Editor: Nora Titterington
Your article "A Fistful of Dollars" (AW&ST Oct. 9, p. 42) documents the new standards in the Fiscal 2007 budget. It indicates the budget bill requires Government Accountability Office "investigations of laws and rules governing the employment of former senior Defense Dept. officials by defense contractors." The article did not indicate if any of these rules would apply to members of Congress or their staffers.
This SafeRoute system display of the Surface Area Movement Management function shows what a pilot will see when arriving at Louisville (Ky.) International Airport (see p. 56). Aviation Communication & Surveillance Systems is developing SafeRoute for UPS. SafeRoute displays will appear on Class 3 electronic flight bags from Astronautics Corp. A moving map shows its own ship position (white triangle where aircraft is rolling out after landing on Runway 35L) and the location of other ADS-B equipped aircraft (light brown with UPS flight identification) and vehicles.
United Airlines' parent company UAL Corp. has been through a wild ride on the stock market since it exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection early this year. UAL shares debuted on the Nasdaq exchange at $40 on Feb. 2 and peaked at $43 on Mar. 22. The stock then took a tumble--exacerbated by high oil prices-- losing nearly half its value before bottoming out at $21.90 on Aug. 10. Since then, shares have been on a steady rebound, closing at $35.03 on Nov. 2. The question now is whether UAL can sustain the upward momentum.
MARKET FOCUS UAL investors waiting to see if stock sustains momentum 14 NEWS BREAKS Raytheon rolls out ground-based cockpit for unmanned aircraft pilots 20 Iran fires weapons in response to nearby exercise 22 U.S. Navy declasssifies electro-optical images taken from Global Hawk UAV 22 New high-bypass fan design to undergo noise testing 23 Air Show China showcases booming commercial aircraft sector 24 WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS
Executives who believe NASA's taxpayer-funded research and development (R&D) products will help only U.S. companies build spacecraft, satellites and other space systems to give them an edge in global competition can forget the notion. NASA Administrator Michael Griffin burst that bubble during a luncheon address to the Society of Experimental Test Pilots last month. Scaled Composites President Burt Rutan asked Griffin about NASA R&D support for commercial U.S. space-access businesses.
BOMBARDIER BUSINESS AIRCRAFT DELIVERED THE 100TH Challenger 300 on Oct. 27 to Gutmen Investment Corp. The Challenger 300 entered service in 2004 and features transcontinental range and a cabin for eight passengers.
