George R. Bravante, Jr., has become non-executive chairman of Houston-based ExpressJet Holdings. He succeeds Thomas E. Schick, who has resigned. Bravante has been a board member and is founder/general partner of Bravante-Curci Investors.
On Oct. 1, Emirates plans to operate four-times-weekly flights from its base at Dubai to Malta via Larnaca, Cyprus. Emirates will operate two-class Airbus A330-200s on the route and code-share with Air Malta on the Malta-Larnaca flights. Emirates has been serving Malta since 1998 and Larnaca, since 1994. Demand spurred the additional services, according to Ghaith Al Ghaith, Emirates' executive vice president of commercial operations worldwide.
Europe's low-fare airlines will have to live with much flatter growth rates in the next five years and need to adopt new strategies in order to survive, according to a study released by McKinsey & Co.
Jack Carmola has become president for airframe systems of the Goodrich Corp., Charlotte, N.C. He was president for engine systems and has been succeeded by Cindy Egnotovich. She was president for electronic systems. Carmola succeeds John Grisik, who is now president for electronic systems.
The NASA/ATK Thiokol space shuttle solid rocket motor program has doubled ground test firings and enhanced manufacturing quality and process control to increase safety for Discovery's return to flight. "There are a number of places where we've strengthened our engineering and our processes," says Mike Kahn, ATK Thiokol vice president of space launch systems. Protecting the booster against corrosion in the humid Florida environment is one area that has been addressed.
AMERICAN HONDA MOTOR CO. WILL FLY ITS EXPERIMENTAL HondaJet on July 28 during the Experimental Aircraft Assn.'s AirVenture show. Powered by two Honda HF-118 engines mounted above the wing instead of on the aft fuselage, the HondaJet uses a wing featuring natural laminar flow and an airframe built of composite materials. In addition to Honda, Eclipse Aviation will fly its Eclipse 500 Very Light Jet at the show. American Honda has been flying and developing the HondaJet since 2003 at its base of operations in Greensboro, N.C.
Raymond J. Johnson has won the Nile Gold Medal of the Lausanne, Switzerland-based Federation Aeronautique Internationale in recognition of his contributions and achievements in the advancement and enhancement of aviation and space education. Among his projects has been to lead an effort to collect, catalog, digitize and distribute a CD of the FAI art contest paintings from 1986-2004. The medal is donated annually by the Aero Club of Egypt. Johnson, an American, was president of the FAI Aviation and Space Education Commission for the past five years.
Little progress has been made in reducing fuel tank flammability on transport aircraft, claim National Transportation Safety Board investigators, in the nine years since the July 17, 1996, crash of TWA Flight 800. "We are not significantly different than we were in '96," says NTSB Executive Director Dan Campbell.
RascomStar-QAF, a pan-African telecommunications satellite operator that will begin providing low-cost universal rural telephony services in late 2006, has contracted with Alcatel for the ground segment of the system. Alcatel's space unit is already providing the Rascom-QAF 1 spacecraft (AW&ST June 23, 2003, p. 32).
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin's remark regarding decisions affecting the space shuttle's return to flight ". . . if we goof I expect to be fired" (AW&ST June 27, p. 21) is disturbing. NASA has goofed before; astronauts have died, and their families have been devastated. Safety of flight requires a systemic, aggressive safety infrastructure and organizational culture. This mindset from the individual at the top of NASA's pyramid, who should be the prime advocate for flight safety, sends the wrong message to those responsible for flight safety.
Thomas J. Bach has been appointed vice president-network planning and revenue management for Northwest Airlines. He has been vice president-market planning and Airlink. Jim Cron has been named vice president-passenger marketing and sales as well as CEO of Northwest subsidiary MLT Vacations. He has been vice president-domestic pricing and yield management. Crystal Knotek, who has been vice president-reservations sales and services, now will be vice president-reservations and customer care.
Michele Toth (see photo) has been appointed vice president-human resources and administration for the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Information Technology Sector, McLean, Va. She was vice president-human resources for the company's Space Technology Sector, Redondo Beach, Calif.
In preparation for the A380 mega-transport's entry into service next year, Airbus is scheduled to complete in July 2006 an airport terminal-type delivery center located near its twin-aisle transports' final assembly lines.
There are a record-setting 30,000 flights a day in Europe, with 2,600 flights in the air at any one time, a 15% increase from 2000, says Eurocontrol Director-General Victor M. Aguardo. During peak activity, as many as 3,500 flights are in the air. One reason is the growth of traffic in Eastern Europe, where 10 new European Union member nations saw increases of 10% in 2004 alone. Low-cost carriers now have a 13% share of the market, from 10% last year. Aguardo says extra effort is needed to avoid a return to the level of flight delays in Europe during the late 1990s.
Vice Adm. (ret.) James B. Stockdale, recipient of the Medal of Honor, U.S. naval aviator, prisoner of war, teacher and vice presidential candidate, died July 5 after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. He was 81. Stockdale graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1947. His aircraft was shot down over North Vietnam in 1965 and he was captured while serving as commanding officer of Carrier Air Group Sixteen on board the USS Oriskany.
Military, technical and trade cooperation will be on the table when Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visits President Bush here. They will flesh out a cooperation agreement reached by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee that builds on defense cooperation talks in India last year. India's development of nuclear weapons kept it on the political outs with the U.S. for years, to the point of an arms embargo, but the two countries are reconciling. India's turn toward more robust capitalism and heavy trade with the U.S.
Investors in commercial aerospace stocks can be pardoned for being a bit skittish these days. Some of the brightest minds that track the industry are divided as to what the future is likely to hold.
The design team of Atlanta-Hartsfield-Jackson's new international terminal had until last week to offer solutions for projected cost overruns. The airport administration on June 30 delivered a default-of-contract notice to the team of four companies that designed the Maynard Holbrook Jackson, Jr., International Terminal (MHJIT), giving it seven days to "find a cure."
Cirrus Design Corp., based in Duluth, Minn., reports a 27% increase in deliveries of new airplanes in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period a year ago. Company officials say orders for new airplanes are exceeding initial projections. In related news, kit-built airplane manufacturer Glasair Aviation is experiencing a spike in sales numbers that already have exceeded total deliveries in 2004. Glasair officials attribute this to a strong economy and interest in building and flying a personal airplane.
Singapore Technologies Aerospace has won a five-year, $15-million contract to provide maintenance support and components management for 11 A319/A320s of China's United Eagle Airlines. This is STAero's third maintenance contract in China, following agreements with private carriers Okay Airlines and Spring Airlines.
Even though he was publicly berated in a hearing last year by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for the Air Force's lack of oversight during the KC-767 tanker-lease controversy, the Senate has confirmed Gen. T. Michael Moseley as the 20th USAF chief of staff, succeeding Gen. John Jumper.
Northrop Grumman may be one of the Pentagon's top suppliers, but don't make the mistake of calling it a weapons platform company within earshot of Chairman/CEO Ronald D. Sugar. "We fundamentally are an information and electronics company that also happens to build aircraft, ships and spacecraft," says Sugar. "Information in networks is central to warfare. Platforms are important, but electronics will be the discriminator."
The Society of British Aerospace Companies' (SBAC) annual health check of the U.K. industry reflects a welcome recovery--but it also flags a potential weakness on which the longer term prognosis hangs.
An improved order book and productivity gains in the U.K. aerospace sector for 2004 reflect a global upturn, but underlying concern remains over research and technology spending levels.
Computers on the plane can "talk" to computers on the ground now that the FAA air traffic control system is operational over the Atlantic. It's like having a phone system go from the switchboard era's party lines to the cell phone era's text messaging and built-in GPS positioning capabilities. The system is also due to go into action over the Pacific later this year so pilots can obtain preferred routes and save fuel as aircraft fly closer to each other than before.
