David Albritton (see photo) has been named director of media relations for the Washington office of the Raytheon Co. He was vice president-communications for the Caraway Group Inc.
In yet another sign of how Brussels is becoming Europe's center of power when it comes to air transport, Air France-KLM is opening a European Affairs liaison office there. The European Union has several important industry-shaping issues on the agenda, including talks with the U.S. on an open skies agreement and potential inclusion of air transport in Europe's emissions trading scheme. Air France-KLM says it wants to be closer to the institutions, policy makers and lobbying groups, such as the Assn. of European Airlines.
Oscar J. Schwenk, who has been president/CEO, has been named chairman of Pilatus Aircraft Ltd., Stans, Switzerland. He succeeds Peter Kupfer, who has resigned. Following Schwenk as CEO will be Thomas Bosshard, who has been president/CEO of Pilatus Business Aircraft Ltd. USA and chief operating officer of Pilatus Stans. Gratian Anda has been appointed vice chairman, and Bjorn Bajan a board member.
Joining transport authorities in Europe and Australia, the Transportation Dept. has issued a show-cause order that would end antitrust immunity for IATA's 50-year-old tariff conferences, at which carriers agree on international fares and cargo rates. The department approved immunity in 1985, even though it believed the conferences reduce competition, because other governments were in favor of collective fare-setting. Some of them even rejected non-IATA fare proposals.
Eric D. Evans has been appointed director of the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Cambridge, Mass. He has been head of its Ballistic Missile Defense Technology Div. and succeeds David L. Briggs, who has retired.
Ian McBain has become Asia-Pacific managing director for SkyWorks Capital, Greenwich, Conn. He was managing director for the Asset Finance Group of Citigroup's Global Structured Corporate Finance Group in Hong Kong.
Ironworkers are preparing to top out construction of a gigantic inertial confinement fusion facility here intended to enable France to simulate the reliability and safety of its nuclear arsenal without resorting to testing.
Regarding Face to Face with Boeing CEO W. James McNerney, Jr., "Only the Paranoid Survive" (AW&ST June 26, p. 48), launch aid is really a hard point. But we have to consider that launch aid is provided in forms beyond direct payments to aircraft developers such as Airbus.
Patrick DeWitt has been promoted to CEO from president of New York-based Space Systems/Loral. John Celli, who had been executive vice president, will succeed DeWitt as president/chief operating officer.
Milan's court of appeal has partially overturned the ruling of a lower court concerning culpability for the Oct. 8, 2001, crash at Milan Linate Airport, which killed 118 people when an SAS Scandinavian Airlines MD-87 was hit by a privately owned Cessna business jet on takeoff. The Cessna was crossing the runway when the two aircraft collided. The initial trial found two airport managers culpable and sentenced them to jail terms of 6.5 years and eight years, respectively. But now the appeals court has determined they were not responsible, and has voided the sentences.
The Bush administration's proposal to relax citizenship tests during airline fitness reviews is many things to many people. And few of these things are simple. For the U.S. Transportation Dept., which proposed the new citizenship standards last November and intends to decide on them soon, the measure is a complex clarification of how much influence foreign investors can have over a U.S. airline's business strategy and operations without violating U.S. law.
Andrea Rader has been appointed director of corporate communication for US Airways. She was a speechwriter for executives of Wal-Mart. Matthew J. Hart has been named to the board of directors. He is president/chief operating officer of the Hilton Hotels Corp. and a former America West Airlines board member.
All Weather Inc.'s RVR system features its 8364-E visibility and ambient light sensors, along with runway light intensity interface, producing an RVR system that combines the precision and accuracy of tranmissiometer with the reliability of a forward scatter visibility sensor. This means quick access to accurate measurement in any weather conditions, according to the company. It is suitable for all airport categories from Cat. I-IIIB, and meets all ICAO recommendations for RVR measurements. All Weather Inc., 1165 National Drive, Sacramento, Calif.
NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is moving toward key launch milestones for the next space shuttle flight even as the shuttle Discovery wraps up its mission to the International Space Station. Atlantis will launch the station's second port truss and second set of port solar arrays on the STS-115 flight (AW&ST June 26, p. 63). The orbiter, its external tank and its solid rocket boosters are being planned for rollout to Launch Complex 39B on Aug. 3-4. The mission's astronaut crew, commanded by Navy Capt. Brent Jett, is to fly in T-38s to KSC Aug.
Eric Ruff has become press secretary in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. He was a special assistant to the deputy Defense secretary.
I was glad to see the letter from Tari Taricco and see that someone else thought the same thing I did (AW&ST July 3, p. 6). I too am a pilot and mechanical engineer (retired Air Force and aerospace engineer). I have never heard of a Boeing aircraft losing its tail because of control input. The Airbus A300 should have been grounded until it was determined to be structurally adequate to handle these loads. The National Transportation Safety Board and FAA failed not only the flight crew, but the passengers and American people as well.
W. Keith Watkins asserts it is morally wrong to spend money on manned space exploration when there are unmet human needs in the U.S. (AW&ST June 19, p. 7). He cites universal health insurance, Gulf Coast reconstruction and Mexican border security as better uses of those funds.
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin says he will recommend that Congress continue to fund the troubled Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (Sofia) program. Sofia is a Boeing 747 modified to carry a 50,000-lb., 2.5-meter infrared telescope supplied by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Designed to fly at altitudes up to 45,000 ft., Sofia is expected to capture infrared images superior to those of even the largest ground telescopes.
John M. Doyle (Washington), William B. Scott (Colorado Springs)
The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee is campaigning to "accelerate" the Missile Defense Agency's capabilities to intercept incoming ballistic missiles in the wake of North Korea's July 4-5 tests.
Pierre Sparaco's article "Missed Opportunity" was his second plea for cultural change of the French aviation community's investigative priorities regarding the Air Inter Flight 5148 accident of 1992, which involved an Airbus A320. This is a study in what I term "aviation anthropology," or the comparative study of human societies, cultures and their development. It appears that this society's "cultural perspective" has allowed the judicial system to dominate the investigative focus while the critical needs of safety experts are being ignored.
Universal Fabric Structures Inc. (UFS) provides cost-effective engineered fabric structure systems for military and industrial needs as well as for sports and event applications, worldwide. Recently, Universal partnered with Bethesda, Md.-based Futron Corp. to deliver two 21.9 X 35-meter (71.8 X 114.8-ft.) Universal TFS structures to Al Taqaddum, Iraq, about 74 km. (46 mi.) west of Baghdad. The request stemmed from a U.S. Marine Corps need for secure facilities in which to handle the retrofitting of military vehicles at the site.
John S. Slattery, a managing director of the Royal Bank of Scotland and head of RBS Aviation Capital for the Americas, has been named to the board of directors of New York-based Orbis International.
The aviation industry needs to re-think radically the way it tackles environmental issues--or risk becoming increasingly treated as a "pariah" industry by politicians and community leaders.
