Christophe Bernardini (see photo) has been appointed chairman of the executive board/CEO of France-based TAT Industries. He succeeds Alain Corbel as CEO. Corbel is now head of the supervisory board.
Turkey's Sky Airlines has become Boeing's first customer in Europe for the long-range, high-capacity 737-900ER that will have its rollout Aug. 8. Sky's three aircraft, valued at $226 million (at list prices), give Boeing 302 orders for the year for the 737. The company has total orders of 405 aircraft so far. Sky exercised an option for blended winglets and took purchase rights on two additional airplanes. First delivery is set for early 2009. Sky's existing fleet includes seven 737s.
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Steve Landry (see photo) has been promoted to president/chief operating officer from vice president-marketing of Cox and Co. of New York. He succeeds Warren Achenbaum, who will remain chairman/CEO.
STARTUP, REGIONAL ON-DEMAND CARRIER Point2Point Airways has begun operations serving North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Montana, Wyoming and portions of Canada with a fleet of Cirrus SR22 airplanes. The airline caters to people "who do a lot of regional travel and are driving literally tens of thousands of miles every year to support business activity," says John Boehle, who founded the company. The service is targeting travelers in the Great Plains region and communities where airline service is poor or nonexistent.
Robust business aircraft sales continue to mitigate, somewhat, the impact of sagging demand for regional jets at Bombardier Aerospace. The world's third-largest commercial airplane builder delivered 53 business aircraft during the quarter ended Apr. 30, up from 43 during the same period a year earlier. There was one red flag: New orders for business aircraft, an indicator of future deliveries, were down to 33 from 39 a year earlier.
China Aviation Industry Corp. II (AVIC II) and Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. signed a memorandum of understanding on June 1 to collaborate on development and manufacture of commercial helicopters in the light-, intermediate- and medium-weight classes. In addition, both companies plan to discuss the Changhe Aircraft Industry Corp., a subsidiary of AVIC II, as a second source for the S-76 airframe. Sikorsky and AVIC II have collaborated on development of the S-92A, and Changhe builds the tail pylon.
Spacewalkers on the International Space Station were making good progress June 1 as they moved through a catch-all extravehicular activity (EVA) designed to restore normal oxygen production inside the hull and replace an external camera that will be needed when station assembly resumes.
Three of 60 people on board a United Express Embraer 170 suffered minor injuries in a night emergency landing at Washington Dulles Interna- tional Airport on May 30. An unsafe landing gear indication led the flight crew of Flight 7512 from Houston, operated by Shuttle America for United Express, to declare an emergency. The FAA says the aircraft skidded on Runway 19L, and rescue crews foamed the runway. The passengers, says United, were safely evacuated by slide from the rear of the aircraft.
French defense officials say they are rethinking their strategy for a medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle in a final bid to move the long-stalled European initiative off the drawing board or find a replacement solution.
Finding stuff in the International Space Station is becoming harder and harder with each arriving load of fresh supplies, and there won't be a significant increase in stowage space until the European and Japanese modules are added late next year and early in 2008. Expedition 13 crewmates Pavel Vinogradov and Jeff Williams had to improvise a carrying bag and foot restraint for their latest spacewalk because they simply couldn't find the custom-made hardware they needed.
Israel Aircraft Industries' Bedek Aviation unit has received FAA and Israel civil aviation authority type certification for conversion of Boeing 747-400 combis from passenger to freighter. U.S. leasing company Guggenheim Aviation provided the prototype used in the supplemental type certification process. European and Chinese aviation authorities are expected to approve the modification soon, according to IAI.
Under a new agreement, Vietnam Airlines and Philippines-based Milcon Gulf Group are to conduct a study on establishing a maintenance, repair and overhaul facility in Vietnam. The new company would provide MRO services within Vietnam, Asia and the Middle East, and focus primarily on Airbus A320 and A321 and Boeing 777 aircraft.
Brian McKeon has become managing director of U.K.-based Raytheon Systems Ltd. He has been vice president-command and control systems for Raytheon Network-Centric Systems and was chairman of Raytheon subsidiary Houston Associates. He will continue as chairman of ThalesRaytheonSystems.
Despite fuel surcharges that led to ticket price hikes, passenger traffic growth for April increased sharply-- 6.5% compared with April 2005--with international traffic up 10.7% and domestic 4%, says Airports Council International. Worldwide traffic was up an average 4.8% in the past 12 months and international traffic 6.1%, with the Middle East (19.9%) and Europe (10.2%) having the highest growth rates year over year. Fuel prices, however, continued to divert freight traffic to truck and rail in certain markets. Overall domestic U.S.
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. hopes to boost its position as a provider of end-to-end space imaging systems with its acquisition of the Sira Group's imaging and scientific-instrument activities. Sira is a U.K. company currently in Britain's version of Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. The acquisition was announced Apr. 13, but no purchase price was given. Sira makes hyperspectral imagers, ozone and fire monitors, space-debris cameras and inter-satellite broadband optical communications links. It supplied the imaging camera for SSTL's Beijing-1 microsatellite.
David Borkowski has become vice president-worldwide sales for the Wing- speed Corp., Concord, Mass. He was director of sales and business development for the Americas at Rockwell Collins.
The long-term survival of Aer Lingus could be threatened if a planned initial public offering (IPO) is not approved. "If we don't do this, we won't have Aer Lingus flying in a few years' time," Irish Transport Minister Martin Cullen said last week. "The government is not going to make another decision." The harsh statement comes as Aer Lingus is in the midst of becoming a more independent airline and trying to persuade its unions to support the move.
Boeing has won a $13.2-million U.S. Air Force contract to build mission planning software for the F-15 Suite-6 upgrade. The software, which is designed to provide the best options for an aircraft or weapons to complete its mission, is to enter service in 2007.
Malaysia has bought a ride to the International Space Station on a Russian Soyuz vehicle next year as part of a planned $1-billion order for Su-30 MKM fighters, according to the Itar-Tass news agency. A primary and backup Malaysian astronaut will be picked to begin training for the flight in the extra "taxi seat" on a Soyuz mission scheduled for September 2007. Meanwhile, Takao Doi, the first Japanese astronaut to perform a spacewalk, may get a chance for a repeat performance on the space shuttle mission that will launch the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module to the ISS.
Antonio Fernando Siqueira Rodrigues is among the five new members of the fiscal council of Brazilian airline TAM. The others are: Edvaldo Massao Murakami, Nilton Maia Sampaio, Luiz Alberto de Castro Falleiros and Livia Xavier de Mello.
The FAA, after reassessing Ecuador's civil aviation authority, raised the country's safety rating under the International Aviation Safety Assessment program to Category 1, which means the authority's ability to license and oversee carriers complies with International Civil Aviation Organization standards.
Boeing's rivals in the $11-billion Air Force Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR-X) aircraft competition are taking its HH-47 entry seriously, even though it's based on the 1960s-vintage Chinook cargo helicopter. Stephen Moss, CEO of AgustaWestland North America, ranks Boeing's heavy-lifter offering at No. 2 behind his group's US101 entry and ahead of Sikorsky's smaller HH-92. AgustaWestland is teamed with Lockheed Martin Corp. and Bell Helicopter to produce the US101, a variant of which won the VXX presidential helicopter replacement competition last year.
