Thomas Stuger (see photo) has become chief executive for products and services for Lufthansa Technik, effective Nov. 1. He will succeed Gerald Gallus, who will be retiring. Stuger heads the aircraft maintenance division in Frankfurt.
James R. O'Neill (see photo) has been appointed corporate vice president of the Northrop Grumman Corp. of Los Angeles and president of its Information Technology sector, effective May 1. He will succeed Herb Anderson, who will become corporate vice president-special projects for the CEO until retiring on Nov. 1. O'Neill has been president of the IT sector's TASC business unit.
So-called low-fare carriers have become all the rage in Asia, and the Civil Aviation Administration of China is keeping up with the times. It's ready to approve applications to run them, so long as it understands what the applicant has in mind.
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. of Guildford, England, will build for the Los Alamos National Laboratory an experimental satellite that will be launched as one of seven payloads on the Pentagon's planned Space Step Program 1 flight mission. Based on a satellite bus that has flown 23 times, the Cibola Flight Experiment will test a reconfigurable processor package against real-world phenomena such as lightning. The contract is worth $11.8 million to Surrey. "The award of this contract maintains SSTL as the leading non-U.S.
Despite tight constraints resulting from massive losses, Alitalia's reshuffled top management is devising a new fleet plan for future capacity growth. The team is likely to lease rather than purchase aircraft. Airbus and Boeing are expected to submit rival proposals for next-generation aircraft to replace 84 aging MD-80s and complement 23 in-service Airbus A320-series twinjets. For long-haul operations, the Italian flag carrier will focus on the Boeing 777. Alitalia's 10th 777 is scheduled to enter service in May and another six are to follow, to complement 14 767s.
EADS executives are predicting that 20% of the European conglomerate's total sales will come from the Asia-Pacific region within five years and 30% by 2015. To reinforce that goal, the company is pushing establishment of new joint ventures in India.
Gregory A. Feest, deputy director for requirements at Headquarters Air Combat Command (ACC), Langley AFB, Va., is among the U.S. Air Force colonels who have been nominated to become brigadier generals. Others are: Frank Gorenc, commander of the 1st Fighter Wing of ACC; Blair E. Hansen, commander of the 366th Fighter Wing of ACC, Mountain Home AFB, Idaho; Mary K. Hertog, director of security forces at Headquarters ACC, Langley AFB; Jimmie C. Jackson, Jr., commander of the 305th Air Mobility Wing of Air Mobility Command, McGuire AFB, N.J.; Frank J.
Swiss International Air Lines' cash flow is becoming stronger and an agreement with a consortium of banks is at the ready to help ease the carrier's financial problems, according to company executives. In the aftermath of its chief executive's resignation, Swiss' management is confident its restructured business plan is already producing promising results.
The France-based Latecoere group's decision to acquire a stake in Corse Composites Aeronautique (CCA), a composite materials supplier, is unrelated to expectations that Latecoere will win a component supply order for the proposed Boeing 7E7, said Raphael Bolzan, Latecoere's senior vice president for marketing and international affairs (AW&ST Mar. 15, p. 13). The 7E7 components would be produced in Toulouse, he added. His statement was intended to forestall any misinter-pretation because Airbus' French arm also owns a stake in CCA.
NASA's Messenger Mercury probe has arrived at Astrotech Space Operations near Kennedy Space Center, where it will be prepped for a May 11 launch to Mercury. Designed and built by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, the 1.2-ton spacecraft completed three months of environmental testing at Goddard Space Flight Center before being shipped to Florida in an air-conditioned truck.
Despite tight constraints resulting from massive losses, Alitalia's reshuffled top management is devising a new fleet plan for future capacity growth. The team is likely to lease rather than purchase aircraft. Airbus and Boeing are expected to submit rival proposals for next-generation aircraft to replace 84 aging MD-80s and complement 23 in-service Airbus A320-series twinjets. For long-haul operations, the Italian flag carrier will focus on the Boeing 777. Alitalia's 10th 777 is scheduled to enter service in May and another six are to follow, to complement 14 767s.
European Union leaders were expected to approve a slate of antiterrorism measures at the EU's annual spring summit on Mar. 25-26. Naming a homeland security czar to coordinate antiterrorist actions and improving intelligence data-sharing were among the steps proposed. Also on the summit agenda was a proposal to end the embargo on selling arms to China.
Boeing employees Shreekant Agrawal, Viet H. Nguyen and Lawrence Y. Dong have won Asian-American Engineer of the Year awards. Agrawal, an engineering manager for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems (IDS), Huntington Beach, Calif., and a Boeing technical fellow, is considered an expert in high-speed aerodynamics. He oversees development of technology and tools, and promotes common processes and best practices among Air Force Space Systems programs.
The Pentagon's decision to consolidate its unmanned combat air vehicle programs under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is raising some questions in Congress. Late last year the Pentagon folded the separate Air Force and Navy UCAV programs into a combined Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems project, but Rep.
Bringing to an end months of speculation, BAE Systems has announced that Dick Olver is to succeed Sir Richard Evans as chairman on July 1. Olver is to resign as deputy group chief executive of oil giant BP to take the reins at BAE. Evans retires from the BAE board on July 1. Numerous candidates had been touted as being in the running for the position, including at least one senior American industrialist.
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. of Guildford, England, will build for the Los Alamos National Laboratory an experimental satellite that will be launched as one of seven payloads on the Pentagon's planned Space Step Program 1 flight mission. Based on a satellite bus that has flown 23 times, the Cibola Flight Experiment will test a reconfigurable processor package against real-world phenomena such as lightning. The contract is worth $11.8 million to Surrey. "The award of this contract maintains SSTL as the leading non-U.S.
Plans are afoot to name the next director of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) to head a new global network operations task force for U.S. Strategic Command. It is part of a plan to simplify how the government can strengthen network-centric operations. Moreover the DISA chief will become deputy commander of Stratcom. The new organization is to complement the task force for Computer Network Operations that integrates computer defensive and attack capabilities into the military forces.
The GE-P&W Engine Alliance anticipated running the first GP7200 for the Airbus A380 at full power late last week, following earlier trials conducted at flight-idle speeds. Full power tests had been delayed a couple of weeks while engineers modified the operating schedule of the powerplant's variable stator vanes. Meanwhile, the General Electric core of the second GP7200 is now being mated to its low-pressure section at Pratt & Whitney facilities in Connecticut. On completion, the engine will be shipped to GE's Peebles, Ohio, test site.
General Dynamics' plan to buy crosstown neighbor Spectrum Astro for its C4 Systems unit (AW&ST Mar. 22, p. 18) should boost the two companies' ability to compete for government and commercial communications satellite business. Scottsdale, Ariz.-based C4 Systems and its heritage companies have a long history of building advanced communications gear, including space-rated systems, for government customers.
How could SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, with a current staff of only about 50, possibly take on the already proven hardware and talent at Orbital Sciences for small payloads and Boeing for larger missions? Mike Griffin, the new head of the Space Dept. at the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University and a recognized technology innovator, makes several points:
Australia's Defense Science and Technology Office (DSTO) and the Pentagon are collaborating on a five-year radar research program. One beneficiary is likely to be the Boeing 737-based Wedgetail Airborne Warning and Control system being purchased by Canberra. Australia's Project Arrangement 35 will conduct the effort, which also includes modeling and simulation of radars and radar detection under various conditions. U.S. involvement will center on input from Darpa and the Air Force Research Laboratory.
The NBAA's Secure Access plan, if approved by the U.S. Homeland Security Dept., could help general aviation win back air rights lost after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Access to Washington Reagan National Airport (DCA) and restricted airspace now traversed only by scheduled airliners could come by Aug. 1, the date that the National Business Aviation Assn. requested the HSD implement its program.
Marc Holtzman and Lon Levin have been elected to the board of directors of the Colorado Springs-based Space Foundation. Holtzman is president of the University of Denver, while Levin is vice president of Mobile Satellite Ventures and co-founder/senior vice president of XM Satellite Radio.
Australia's Defense Science and Technology Office (DSTO) and the Pentagon are collaborating on a five-year radar research program. One beneficiary is likely to be the Boeing 737-based Wedgetail Airborne Warning and Control system being purchased by Canberra. Australia's Project Arrangement 35 will conduct the effort, which also includes modeling and simulation of radars and radar detection under various conditions. U.S. involvement will center on input from Darpa and the Air Force Research Laboratory.
General Dynamics' plan to buy crosstown neighbor Spectrum Astro for its C4 Systems unit (AW&ST Mar. 22, p. 18) should boost the two companies' ability to compete for government and commercial communications satellite business. Scottsdale, Ariz.-based C4 Systems and its heritage companies have a long history of building advanced communications gear, including space-rated systems, for government customers.
