The Metropolitan Airports Commission is studying an $860-million expansion plan for Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport. The 20/20 Vision plan, endorsed by Northwest Airlines, calls for the addition of gates at the Lindbergh Terminal, to 153 from 117, and at the Humphrey Terminal, to 20 from 8. Other project elements include new ticket counters, passenger security screening lanes and an improved baggage-handling system. Construction of a 400-room hotel at the airport is also on the agenda.
American Airlines, developing its 2005 operating plan and schedules, is emphasizing cost reductions because attempts to leverage revenue don't work any more, CEO Gerard Arpey tells securities analysts. Building on this summer's experiment with keeping pilots and aircraft together, American will limit overnight maintenance to a single aircraft type everywhere except at Dallas/Fort Worth: New York JFK will handle only A300s; Chicago O'Hare, MD-80s; Los Angeles and San Francisco, 767s. The carrier will remove 737s from Chicago and MD-80s from Miami.
Former U.S. Rep. Lee H. Hamilton has been named to the board of directors of BAE Systems North America, Rockville, Md. He is president/director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and was vice chairman of the 9/11 commission.
Ministries and agencies involved in the Japanese space program are seeking $3.688 billion for space research in fiscal 2005, a 13.1% increase. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) wants $1.672 billion, while the Cabinet Office is requesting $1.094 billion for Japan's military reconnaissance satellites. Among programs covered in the JAXA request are $466.2 million for the International Space Station, $92.7 million for the Selene lunar orbiter and $87.4 million for the Winds wideband Internet demonstration satellite program set for launch in 2006.
President Vladimir Putin has approved the formation of a state-controlled defense electronics holding company as part of a plan to consolidate and streamline the country's still-fragmented aerospace and defense sector (AW&ST Sept. 27, p. 19). The company initially will include seven avionics and systems suppliers.
John J. Walsh has become president of Los Angeles-based Ducommun Inc.'s Ducommun Technologies subsidiary. He was executive vice president/chief operating officer of Special Devices Inc.
The House and Senate Appropriations committees accept the administration's FAA facilities and equipment cutback, from $2.9 billion in Fiscal 2004 to $2.5 billion in '05, each with its own gripes. The House panel rejects FAA attempts to shift responsibility for some navigation aids and landing systems to airports, diverting Airport Improvement Program grants. The Senate committee criticizes the agency's "complete failure to impose acquisition management discipline" despite management and budgeting reforms enacted eight years ago.
The upheaval within Russia's aerospace industry continues with the sacking of Valery Toryanin as the head of the MiG Corp. He was shown the door at the state-owned fighter manufacturer on Sept. 27, to be replaced by Alexei Fedorov, who has been president of the Irkut Corp. Toryanin was in charge at MiG for only eight months, and his avowed intent to keep MiG as an independent manufacturer, rather than work toward a merger with a larger company, likely played a part in his downfall (AW&ST Sept. 6, p.41).
James McMichael has been promoted to director from associate director of the Georgia Institute of Technology's Aerospace, Transportation and Advanced Systems Laboratory in Atlanta.
Seasoned journalist Joseph C. Anselmo has rejoined Aviation Week & Space Technology as the magazine's new business editor. He came to Aviation Week from Congressional Quarterly, where he was the Washington-based defense reporter. Anselmo worked at Aviation Week from 1995 to 2000 as space technology editor. He has won numerous awards, including Royal Aeronautical Society's space story of the year in 1998. The following year, he shared with Senior Editor Craig Covault an RAS award for breaking news story of the year.
NASA isn't stopping at its executive suites as it restructures itself to carry out President Bush's deep-space exploration plans. It will also reorganize the NASA Advisory Council (NAC), an extended panel of outside experts that helps top agency managers make policy decisions. No details yet, but it's known that the new NAC will adhere to the four-part structure NASA has adopted--exploration systems, space operations, science and aeronautics--and will be further subdivided into separate panels for general policy and scientific and technical advice.
Ben Darnell has become managing director of Delta Air Logistics. He was director of safety, security and ground operations within Delta's Airport Customer Service (ACS) Div. Darnell succeeds Tony Charaf, who is now senior vice president-technical operations at Delta Air Lines. Rob Maruster has been promoted to vice president-Atlanta Worldport from director of strategy, planning and performance for ACS. He succeeds Lem Wimbish, who has retired.
NASA has picked an Atlas V for the planned April 2008 launch of the Solar Dynamics Observatory, a scientific probe designed to study solar magnetic fields and other factors influencing space weather.
Scaled Composites pilots Brian Binnie, Mike Melvill and Pete Siebold have won the Society of Experimental Test Pilots' (SETP) Iven C. Kincheloe Award for their envelope expansion of the company's SpaceShipOne rocket glider, making it the first purely private aircraft to exceed the speed of sound and then the first to reach space with its 100-km. ascent on June 21. The award recognizes professional accomplishment in the conduct of flight-testing. Scaled President Burt Rutan received the J. H. Doolittle Award for technical management for engineering achievement.
The U.S. Army is pressing forward with its strategy to boost its special operations MH-47 inventory and also modernizing the regular Army's CH-47 force. Boeing last week received contracts totaling more than $140 million for Chinooks. Almost $30 million is for long-lead items for MH-47Gs as part of the Army strategy to field at least 95 of the helicopters by around 2011. First flight of the new special ops Chinook took place earlier this year.
The five biggest U.S. carriers stand to improve their combined cash position by about $1 billion through the prospective acquisition of the Orbitz web-based ticket sales outlet by Cendant Corp., which was announced on Sept. 29. American, United, Delta, Northwest and Continental airlines founded Orbitz four years ago with a collective investment of little more than $200 million. They still own 68%.
Chicago O'Hare airport's modernization program has a lot of support as the main hope for increasing capacity and easing congestion, but that doesn't make it any easier to get the program started. As the FAA lumbers through development of an environmental impact statement (EIS) covering the work, the agency tells stakeholders it wants to "facilitate early involvement of the public in the EIS process," in order to save time overall.
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Air Canada is the first legacy carrier to adopt a low-fare, low-cost business model. Emerging last week from its 18-month-long creditor protection, the airline announced finalization of previous purchase agreements with Bombardier for up to 90 CRJs and with Embraer for up to 90 Embraer 190s. The value of the Bombardier contract is estimated at US$2.45 billion, including options. The carrier holds 30 firm orders (15 CRJ700 Series 705 and 15 CRJ200s), 15 conditional orders (CRJ200s), and options on 45 aircraft.
Michael Dehring has been promoted to manager of Lidar systems from manager for ground- and balloon-based Lidar systems for the Michigan Aerospace Corp. of Ann Arbor.
Eutelsat shareholders have approved a revamped management structure with a single 10-member board of directors intended to streamline decision-making and bring it into line with typical industry practice. The shift reflects the structure of private equity firms that now control most of the satellite operator's capital. Formerly, Eutelsat was governed by a 15-member supervisory board and four-man management board, a setup common in Europe.
iNavSat, one of the two consortia vying for the right to deploy and operate Europe's Galileo satellite navigation system, has added Italy's Vitrociset to its team bidding for the concession to be decided at month's end. Specialized in advanced electronics, information technology and integrated logistics, Vitrociset was added through an agreement with iNavSat team leader EADS that could subsequently be extended to such other areas as telecommunications and launch vehicles.
How can NASA and the President promote sending men to the Moon and Mars when we can't even travel the 100 miles or so to the Hubble Space telescope? The robotic mission is a waste of money; it must be a congressman's pork-barrel project and should be shelved. Or perhaps the bad management and decision-making at NASA that has caused so many failed missions has finally reached the top. Maybe a historical society should adopt NASA, make it a landmark and its demise impossible.
U.S. Navy Rear Adm. (lower half) Andrew M. Singer has been nominated for promotion to rear admiral. He is vice commander of the Naval Network Warfare Command, Norfolk, Va.
Mike Wetle (see photo) has been appointed vice president-marketing for the Watlow Electric Manufacturing Co. of St. Louis. He was senior vice president/general manager of CyberOptics' semiconductor products groups.
