GUINEA PIG Qatar Airways will be the first carrier to be audited for safety under the International Air Transport Assn.'s newly developed worldwide standards. Audits using IATA's internationally accepted criteria, succeeding sometimes less-than-consistent measures of safety, will last two years and eliminate the need for repeated examinations--to qualify for code-share agreements, for example. Audit organizations--AQS GmbH. of Germany and United Airlines of the U.S.
Alaska Airlines pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Assn., have offered to enter early talks with airline management. Under the current contract, negotiations are set to begin in March 2004, with a new agreement to become effective in May 2005--if both parties are in accord.
MIXING IT UP In an effort to realign its workforce toward what President and CEO Tom Risley calls a "good mix" of military and commercial business, Vought Aircraft Industries is looking for new opportunities. About 70% of its current business is building large aerostructures for Boeing and Airbus airline transports, as well as wings and wing center boxes for Gulfstream and Cessna business jets. About 30% of its work comes from military customers. Risley is looking for a 50/50 balance. He certainly got a mix through Vought's acquisition in July of The Aerostructures Corp.
Business jet manufacturers expect to deliver no more than 450-500 new aircraft in 2003 and 2004, a 26-33% drop from last year, with only a small upturn in 2005, as orders struggle to recover from the worst slump in a decade (see pp. 63-66). But the long-term outlook for business aviation remains bright, according to Honeywell Aerospace's 12th annual Global Business Aviation Outlook.
Chuck Zdeb is mistaken in discouraging aspiring aerospace engineers (AW&ST Sept. 8, p. 6). The aspirant needs only one job, so the broad state of the industry is irrelevant to him. I urge Zdeb to scan any issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology and note the array of fascinating projects underway in the aerospace industry, and the future they point to.
Amit Yoran has become director of the National Cyber Security Div. of the Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection Office at the Homeland Security Dept. He was vice president-managed security services at the Symantec Corp. David Bolka has become director of the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency within the HSD Office of Science and Technology. He was vice president-special projects for Lucent Technologies.
USN Rear Adm. David C. Nichols, Jr., has been nominated for promotion to vice admiral and assignment as commander of U.S. Naval Forces within U.S. Central Command and commander of the Fifth Fleet in Bahrain. He is commander of the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center, Fallon, Nev. Rear Adm. Mark R. Milliken has been named director of the Navy International Programs Office in Washington. He was deputy commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command at MacDill AFB, Fla., and of naval support activity at Bahrain.
Barry P. Simon has become managing director of the global aviation practice of the New York-based Seabury Group. He was senior vice president-international for Continental Airlines.
WORLD NEWS ROUNDUP 30 Malaysia pushing ahead with aircraft acquitions, upgrades 31 Startup rocket maker wins U.S. satellite launch pact 31 Busy time for ESA and NASA at IAF congress WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS 36 Honeywell, other analysts see gradual bizav upturn 38 Honeywell aims for new mar- kets with reduced-size APU 39 Delta subsidiary unveils business jet 'card' program 41 ESA Moon mission aims to produce mineralogical map
USAF Col. John Insprucker, Titan Rocket Program Manager (Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles AFB, Calif.)
The Titan IVB launch team is proud of our technicians and wants to clarify that the nitrogen tetroxide spill mentioned in the news article on the Sept. 9 launch (AW&ST Sept. 15, p. 21) was a result of a malfunction with the propellant pump and not caused by anything done or not done by the Lockheed Martin propellant team.
Regina Nicholson (see photos) and Faye Young, both engineers for the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. (LMAC), have been honored by the Women of Color Research Sciences and Technology Awards organization. Nicholson works in F/A-22 specialty engineering at the Marietta, Ga., facility and received a Community Service Award, while Young, a materials and processes engineer at the Palmdale, Calif., facility, received a Research Leadership Award.
RULES, RULES, RULES As collaboration continues to grow on aerospace's biggest projects (think Joint Strike Fighter, A380, 7E7), one big headache is ensuring that design rules are followed by all team members even as the designs themselves change during the manufacturing process. Keeping everyone on the same page with a static design is one thing, keeping them in sync with continuous updates is quite another. Too often, updates require lengthy, labor-intensive sessions of keying in changes to preserve the original design concepts.
Bombardier's Challenger 300 is due to enter customer operations later this year. The super-midsize-cabin business jet is powered by two Honeywell AS907 turbofan engines, and has a range of 3,100 naut. mi. with eight passengers (see p. 79). The company has orders for 125 of the 300s, with 25 going to its NextJet operations. Paul Bowen photo.
Marc Wilson has been appointed senior aerospace engineer and John Darbo director of quality assurance at the Cavok Group Inc., Keller, Tex. Wilson was managing director of technical services for American Eagle. Darbo was a manager at American Airlines.
ADAM AIRCRAFT 700 Adam Aircraft announced the all-composite, twin-engine A700 in October 2002 and flew a prototype in July 2003. The 1,200-lb.-thrust Williams FJ33-1 engine is scheduled for certification in December 2003. The aircraft incorporates the twin-boom tail and airfoil of the company's piston-powered, "push-pull" A500, which was designed by Burt Rutan, but its fuselage has been stretched by about 30 in. to accommodate a lavatory and four passengers in a cabin just under 16 ft. in length. Duncan Aviation is assisting with the interior design.
USN. Rear Adm. (ret.) Joe Carnevale has been named vice president/general manager of the Arlington, Va.-based Professional Services Div. of the EDO Corp. He has been director of Army and Navy programs for AERA Inc., which has been acquired by EDO.
Mike Kelly has become vice president-sales and marketing of the Applied Technical Services Corp., Bothell, Wash. He was Northwest U.S. manager for future electronics.
Gary Girotti has been appointed vice president-transportation practice for Atlanta-based Chainalytics. He succeeds Chris Caplice, who will return to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as executive director of the Master of Engineering in Logistics program. Girotti was vice president-logistics products at i2 Technologies.
MOVING ON U.S. Navy-Japan will move the headquarters of the 1st Patrol Reconnaissance Air Wing from Yokohama to Misawa air base in northeast Japan. U.S. military flight operations are frequently the target of anti-noise protests, but residents near Misawa have shown little reaction since the move was announced, apparently because the relocation will involve headquarters staff only, and U.S. Navy P-3C Orions operate from the base already.
On the surface, it would appear that UAL Corp., parent company of United Airlines, is well down the path toward exiting from Chapter 11 protection. The carrier has achieved all of the targets required under its debtor-in-possession financing package thus far.
Weeks after India signed $1-billion deal for 66 advanced jet trainers with BAE Systems, the U.K.'s chief of defense staff, Gen. Sir Michael Walker, said during a visit to Delhi that the two countries will hold joint military exercises in India next February.
In response to letters and your article on information technology staffing (AW&ST Aug. 18, pp. 6 and 57), abandoning aerospace engineering is not unique to aerospace. Despite a 23-year software career and a master's degree in computer science focused on parallel programming, I'm turning away from computer careers.
LOGJAMS As the new federal fiscal year begins, the FAA and Defense Dept. remain mired in congressional controversy--over privatizing more VHF control towers (FAA) and protecting U.S. industry through "Buy America" restrictions (Defense). As expected, Republicans rejected Democratic attempts to extend the FAA's authorization six months beyond its Sept. 30 expiration, buying time to resolve differences on the reauthorization bill, but the continuing resolution on appropriations preserves most of the agency's activity through Oct. 31.
