Charles R. Chambers, senior vice president in the Washington office of InterVistas, has been elected chairman of the board of governors of the Alexandria, Va.-based Airport Consultants Council (ACC). He succeeds Laddie E. Irion of the URS Corp. Vice chair is Belinda G. Hargrove of TransSolutions, and secretary-treasurer is Brian P. Reed of Reynolds, Smith and Hills Inc. Other board members are: Courtney A. Beamon of Delta Airport Consultants; Paul H. Bowers of Airport Business magazine; Michael J. DeVoy of R.W. Armstrong and Associates; Marisol C.
The U.K.'s two main defense-aerospace lobbyists are taking the lead in creating a revamped industry-offset group. The Society of British Aerospace Companies and the Defense Manufacturers Assn. are establishing the British Industry Offset Group to provide a conduit for offset and counter-trade information. Offsets remain a significant element of the defense-export business, with suppliers and prime contractors having to meet requirements.
The Indian air force lost a MiG-21 Type 75 version on a routine training flight Jan. 4 from Nal air base in Rajasthan. The pilot ejected safely, and there were no casualties on the ground. Although an official inquiry has been ordered, a defense source said the aircraft crashed due to a technical failure. The air force lost 15 airplanes in 2004.
France's Helios 2A military reconnaissance mission last month featured sharply reinforced security measures reflecting concerns since the terrorist attacks of September 2001. The measures, which apply to all military launches and other sensitive missions at the European launch center here, are similar to protection now afforded to other high-risk events such as the Olympic Games in Athens and the Normandy landing celebrations last summer, said Col. Pierre Edery, who is in charge of airborne homeland defense within the French air defense command.
United Airlines' first direct flight from the U.S. to Vietnam launched last month marked the first time a U.S. carrier had landed in the country since Pan Am made its last flight out in April 1975. But both United and Vietnam Airlines hope the new flight signals the start of a lucrative international expansion planned for the year ahead.
The U.S./Russian crew on board the International Space Station is assessing the performance of the outpost's Elektron oxygen generation system after replenishing the supply of electrolyte fluids. The recharge reactivated the system after a week of problems.
Daniel L. Montgomery (see photo) will be corporate lead executive for the Huntsville, Ala., region for the Northrop Grumman Corp. He continues as vice president/deputy general manager of the Tactical Systems Div. in Northrop Grumman's Mission Systems Sector.
Both Mars Exploration Rovers are gearing up for new travels as they celebrate their one-year anniversary of operations--four times longer than the 90-Sol (90-Martian day; 92.5-Earth day) primary mission. In that time, the Spirit rover has traveled more than 4 km. (2.5 mi.), and Opportunity has traveled more than 2 km. Together they have sent back 62,000 images and 86 gigabits of other data, says James K. Erickson, the project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) here. Spirit landed on Mars on Jan. 3, 2004.
Text inadvertently was dropped from an article on the Airbus A350 on p. 20 of the Dec. 20/27, 2004, issue. The article should have stated that the proposed aircraft, an A330 derivative, will be equipped with a new auxiliary power unit that is to generate increased electric power. The landing gear will be reinforced to accommodate the A350's 374,000-389,400-lb.-maximum zero fuel weight and 484,000-lb.-maximum takeoff weight.
The Global Hawk operating with U.S. Central Command has been upgraded with an Advanced Informa- tion Architecture that allows soldiers and Marines to view imagery that the high-flying UAV has collected. The Air Force and Northrop Grumman have replaced Global Hawk's mission recorder with a 1.4-terabyte server that stores the electro-optical, infrared and radar images. A line-of-sight X-band antenna allows ground forces to tap into that data, using the field radios connected to a PDA or laptop computer.
While reading about the possible FB-22 derivative of the F/A-22 (AW&ST Nov. 29, 2004, p. 26), I still have to shake my head --because of cost and combat performance--at the Air Force's selection of the YF-22 over the YF-23.
Liu Shao Yong has been appointed chairman of China Southern Airlines. He succeeds Yan Zhi Qing, who has retired. Liu was president of the China Southern Air Holding Co. and was vice minister of the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
Though security concerns dominate the headlines in the airline industry, counterfeit parts remain a serious issue. Counterfeit and unapproved parts still populate the supply pipeline in areas of the aerospace/defense world, chiefly because they're cheap and, unfortunately, readily available. Plus, these parts can be devilishly difficult to detect, despite the high level of documentation required.
Frank C. Lanza founded L-3 Communications Corp. in 1997 with 11 defense electronics businesses, mostly spun off from the old Loral Corp. when it was acquired by Lockheed Martin Corp. While most investors were focused on the Internet boom, Lanza set off on an acquisition binge that continues today, scooping up dozens of companies in a bid to become the leading supplier of defense electronics and communications. L-3 has 67 operating units, and 2005 revenues are projected to reach $8 billion.
Substantial losses will continue to plague the international air transport sector in 2005 if fuel prices don't drop dramatically, the International Air Transport Assn. (IATA) says.
The An-148-100, Ukraine's entry into the regional twinjet sweepstakes, has made its first flight. The 70-seater took to the air for the first time on Dec. 17, following an October rollout (AW&ST Oct. 25, 2004, p. 67). The aircraft reached an altitude of 9,000 ft. and indication speed of 470 kph. during the 1-hr. 21-min. flight. The operation also served to check out handling characteristics of the aircraft's fly-by-wire flight control system. A second flying prototype is scheduled to join the flight test program later this month.
After closely tracking the S&P 500 index for the first quarter of 2004, aerospace stocks pulled away, embarking on a sustained bull run that made the industry one of Wall Street's top performers for the year. The Aviation Week Aerospace 25 stock index was up 23.7% heading into the year's final trading sessions. By comparison, the S&P 500 was up just 9.1%.
The fundamental structural change underway in the U.S. airline industry will accelerate and become even more dramatic in the next two years. That's the prediction from Delta Air Lines CEO Gerald Grinstein, who recently took a hard look at what's ahead for industry, and his airline, before a group of aerospace executives. The forces at work today include:
USN Rear Adm. (lower half) Michael H. Miller has been named commander of Carrier Strike Group Seven in San Diego. He has been deputy director of the White House Military Office in Washington.
Cessna Aircraft Co. will spend $20.4 million to expand its manufacturing facilities at Independence, Kan. Plans call for a 90,000-sq.-ft. building to house customer delivery operations and an 11,000-sq.-ft. structure dedicated to aircraft completions. Both facilities are slated to be completed next December and will support production of single-engine, piston-powered aircraft and the new Citation Mustang. The preproduction airplane is expected to make its first flight this year followed by FAA certification in 2006.
Harold W. Gehman, Jr., former chairman of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, has received the American Astronautical Society's 2004 Space Flight Award. Other honors presented were: Lifetime Achievement Award, E.C. (Pete) Aldridge, former chairman of the President's Commission on Implementation of U.S. Space Exploration Policy; Flight Achievement Award, Chinese taikonaut Yang Liwei; Carl Sagan Memorial Award (presented jointly with The Planetary Society), Steven Squyres of Cornell University; Military Astronautics Award, Rand Fisher; John F.
Frederic Gagey has been named chief financial officer of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. He succeeds Rob Ruijter. Gagey was vice president-finance of Air France.
