Allen Hill has been named senior vice president-human resources for Atlanta-based UPS. He was senior vice president-legal and public affairs and will retain responsibility for public affairs. Hill succeeds Lea N. Soupata, who has retired. Succeeding Hill is Teri Plummer McClure, who has been vice president-legal.
Airbus expects more records to fall this year after establishing industry-leading benchmarks in 2005, but there is still a big question mark over how strong the sales performance for both it and rival Boeing will be in the coming months.
Following an incident involving an Evergreen Airlines Boeing 747 freighter April 2004, the British Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) has recommended the Civil Aviation Authority review guidance to air traffic controllers with regard to keeping vectoring aircraft away from built-up areas. The aircraft suffered an engine loss on a flight from Ramstein AB, Germany, to the U.S. Crew concerns that the remaining engines were not delivering the selected thrust resulted in their declaring an emergency.
The first three U.S. airlines to unveil 2005 financial results reported improvements that, however expected, suggest a healthier performance in 2006. Southwest Airlines, standing alone in its 33rd consecutive year of profitability, increased its operating earnings 48% over those of 2004. American and Continental Airlines, the only big network airlines carriers that have stayed out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, reduced their operating losses 78% and 83%, respectively (see table).
German defense ministry officials this year expect to place contracts for Patriot PAC-3 missile defense interceptors. The government late last year inked a contract to upgrade existing Patriot air defense batteries to the latest standard, which allows for use of the PAC-3 hit-to-kill missile.
Top aerospace industry officials say they expect a request for information, the initial move for a new Air Force tanker program, within 90 days. The arguments still in play are large tankers (777s or A330s) versus medium or tactical tankers (767s or KC-130Js). Experienced Air Force officers still claim the number of refueling booms is most important, not the amount of fuel the aircraft can carry. They also note that large tankers use too much ramp space and limit the number of aircraft in a war zone.
NASA's updated bidding document for the planned Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) drops a requirement for a U.S.-built docking mechanism, which was intended to keep Russia out of the "critical path" for U.S. human access to space in the post-shuttle era. The Low Impact Docking System (LIDS) was slated originally to replace a Russian device used in variations since the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz Test Project mission (AW&ST Sept. 26, 2005, p. 26).
Jeffery D. Stein has been named to the board of directors of AeroAstro Inc., Ashburn, Va. He is head of Peyton Investments Inc. and was founder/CEO of Convene International and On-line Business Systems.
New Horizons spacecraft controllers are calculating whether to tweak the spacecraft's trajectory this week, to adjust its flight path toward Pluto during a fling past Jupiter, following a flawless Jan. 19 Atlas V launch. The NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) spacecraft is already 4 million mi. from Earth and lining up for its critical Jupiter gravity assist maneuver in February 2007.
Rockwell Collins has signed up Singapore Airlines, EasyJet and NetJets for a new type of comprehensive information management system intended to link airline aircraft and business jets in flight or on the ground to ground-based computer networks. The company's creation of a comprehensive eFlight approach to data management comes as airline aircraft and business jets are increasingly being equipped with electronic flight bags. Rockwell Collins is supplying EFBs to these customers as part of its information technology solution.
USAF Maj. Gen. James A. Hawkins has been named commander of the 18th Air Force, Air Mobility Command, Scott AFB, Ill. He was director of operations at command headquarters and will be succeeded by Maj. Gen. Quentin L. Peterson, who has been vice commander of the 18th Air Force. Peterson in turn will be succeeded by Brig. Gen. Thomas E. Stickford, who has been director for weather under the deputy Air Force chief of staff for air and space operations at the Pentagon. Maj. Gen. Teresa M.
First, the 9/11 Commission complains that the Transportation Security Administration hasn't gotten much of anything right since its inception. Now comes the Reason Foundation, the self-described "free-market think tank," which finds in a study that aviation security would be better off in more capable hands. There's a place for the TSA, Reason says, but not screening airline passengers and baggage. Rather, the TSA should set and enforce standards for screeners responsible to airports, as employees of the airports themselves or TSA-certified contractors.
As part of a larger strategy to enhance its position as a viable long-term supplier to commercial aircraft makers, Saab is hoping to snag important A350 work from Airbus, particularly in the area of composites. In recent years, the Swedish company has been gradually expanding its involvement with Boeing and Airbus on commercial aircraft, and last year won a contract to provide large and bulk cargo doors, as well as access doors, for the Boeing 787. On top of that, it's already working with Airbus on the A380 and the A340.
Copa Airlines CEO Pedro Heilbron is the new president of the Latin American Airline Assn.'s Executive Committee. He succeeds Juan Emilio Posada. Heilbron was the committee's vice president and has been succeeded by TACA CEO Roberto Kriete. The committee also includes LAN CEO Enrique Cueto, TAM CEO Marco Antonio Bologna, Mexicana CEO Emilio Romano and Avianca CEO Fabio Villegas.
NASA has awarded the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory of Cam-bridge, Mass., a $34-million contract for engineering development and analysis in guidance, navigation, control and integrated avionics on the space shuttle and International Space Station. SGT Inc. of Greenbelt, Md., won an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity NASA contract worth $1 million-39 million for geophysics, geodynamics and space geodesy support on ongoing and new missions.
In 1976 on the 50th anniversary of the founding of the airline industry, you published a guest editorial by Andrew M. de Voursey, group vice president for finance and planning for United Airlines (AW&ST Feb. 16, 1976, p. 7).
Jeff Pinneo, president of Horizon Air, has been elected chairman of the Washington-based Regional Airline Assn. He succeeds Peter Bowler, president of American Eagle Airlines. Other new officers are: vice chairman, Paul Foley, president/CEO of MAIR Holdings; treasurer, Bryan Bedford, president/CEO of Republic Airways Holdings; secretary, Dan Wolf, president of Cape Air; and board members, Bryan Bedford of Republic Airways Holdings; Tom Cooper of Gulfstream International Airlines; and Ron Reber of SkyWest Airlines. Steve Alexandris of AIG Aviation Inc.
Boeing has turned to Korean Air's Maintenance and Engineering Div. to become its first authorized modification center in Asia for installation of Connexion by Boeing's high-speed in-flight Internet service on board aircraft. The carrier has been doing its own Connexion antenna installations for some time; it recently completed its 10th, which coincided with the 100th Connexion installation among the world's fleet. Korean expects 47 more installations in its long-haul fleet by mid-2007. Meanwhile, it's seeking third-party customers.
Alphonso V. Diaz has become vice chancellor-administration of the University of California-Riverside. He is the retired associate NASA administrator for the Science Mission Directorate and was director of the Goddard Space Flight Center.
Jennifer Richardson has been appointed vice president-engineering of Optical Alchemy Inc., Maynard, Mass. She held the same position at Diversified Optical Products.
On a recent trip to Europe, I forgot to remove nail clippers from my carry-on, and they were retained before I got to the boarding gate due to "security reasons." I decided to make a quick survey on the tightness of security, particularly in Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. First I bought three bottles of Scotch whiskey, specifically in glass bottles, which once broken are more lethal than nail clippers. I got the bottles on board with no problem. Before boarding, two carts were in the boarding area with bundles of bricks and cans of paint.
The U.S. Navy has selected Lock-heed Martin as lead systems engineer for its Distributed Information Operations (DIO) project. The idea is to make disparate Navy signals intelligence systems interoperable and ease tactical data exchange among space, airborne and shipboard platforms, even those that are unmanned. DIO is intended to help provide the framework for U.S. Navy interoperability and provide a growth path for integrating computer-based applications.
ESA intends to select a design option by midyear for its ExoMars sample-return precursor mission. Set for around 2011, the mission is envisioned as a lander/ rover combination to be carried aloft by a Soyuz booster. But with available funding higher than required--and Canada set to offer more money on top of that-- planners are looking at expanding its scope. One option under study is to add an orbiter and perhaps a communications payload that might draw more international cooperation. That would require switching to an Ariane 5 launch vehicle.
A new Transportation Security Administration (TSA) unit is being set up to coordinate risk management efforts across all modes of transportation. The unit, Transportation Sector Network Management (TSNM), will harmonize policy, programs, industry stakeholders and the assessment of threats, vulnerabilities and consequences. Each transportation mode will have a TSA general manager to coordinate policies and strategies and "interface completely, one-on-one with the industry," says Mike Restovich, the head of TSNM.
In the coming months, the British government will determine its course for acquiring the Joint Combat Aircraft--whether to try to secure U.K. final assembly of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The decision has far-reaching implications for the U.K. aerospace sector, while in the near term the Defense Ministry's approach will also help determine the tenor of negotiations with Washington.
