Failing Grade? Regardless of what company executives think their operating results are telling them, the U.S. Air Force isn't happy with the overall performance from most of its major equipment suppliers.
Magdalena Jacobsen has been appointed to represent Communications Workers of America-member passenger service agents on the US Airways board of directors. She fills the board seat vacated by CWA President Morton Bahr. Jacobsen is a former chair of the National Mediation Board.
Delta Air Lines, detailing its plans for $2.5 billion in 2002-05 cost reductions and revenue increases, said the largest single category of cutbacks will be "employment costs," which it intends to slash by $300 million, mainly in benefits, pensions and outsourced jobs. The company's contract-concession proposals to its Air Line Pilots Assn. unit aren't counted, and benefits from a newly identified initiative, aircraft turn-time reductions, aren't estimated.
David Roberts, director of Indianapolis International Airport, has received an FAA Partnership in Runway Safety Award for Proactive Airport Management. He was cited for addressing potential safety issues by installing runway guard lights at intersections and working to increase awareness of those lights among runway users. Roberts added runway safety as a regular agenda item at his recurrent user meetings.
An article on NASA wind tunnels incorrectly reported the status of the 16-ft. transonic tunnel at the Langley Research Center (AW&ST May 26, p. 40). Not yet closed, it remains in operation with multiple projects. But it is expected to be mothballed in late 2004.
U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Richard B. Myers said the coalition's overwhelming advances in Iraq were attributable to a "faster decision cycle" that was enabled by timely intelligence (AW&ST May 12, p. 38). He also said, "The new American way of war demonstrates that we can strike directly at the enemy's pillars of power."
Hong Kong's Dragonair will add six 747 freighters by 2007 to the three 747-300s it is currently operating. It will receive two of them next year. It also is considering orders for four 747-400s converted from passenger services as part of a cargo expansion effort to the U.S. The first two could arrive next year. Dragonair, which is facing new competition from Cathay Pacific Airways in China services, will gain 30% of its revenue from cargo operations. CEO Stanley Hui said the price of used -400s has fallen so much that freighter conversions are attractive.
LESS IS MORE . . . Sukhoi Design Bureau and its numerous manufacturing facilities are scheduled to be integrated under the control of a state-owned holding company in the third quarter of this year, Sukhoi general director Mikhail Pogosyan said. The new entity will be called Sukhoi Aviation Holding Co. and absorb state-controlled stakes of Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aviation Production Assn. (KnAAPO), Novosibirsk Aircraft Production Assn. (NAPO), Irkut Corp.
Ray Loehner (see photo) has become senior vice president of operations for GeoLogistics, Santa Ana, Calif. He has been a senior executive at American Airlines, BAX, BDP International and Airborne Express.
Carol B. Tome, who is chief financial officer of The Home Depot Inc., has been named to the board of directors of Atlanta-based UPS. She succeeds Philadelphia civil rights lawyer William H. Brown, 3rd, who has retired.
KIBO AT THE CAPE The Kibo pressurized module--Japan's major contribution to the International Space Station--has finally arrived at the Kennedy Space Center for prelaunch processing, after a development effort that took almost 17 years. The 15-ton Mitsubishi-built module is part of a $3-billion Japanese contribution to the overall ISS effort. The module is scheduled for launch to the ISS in 2005-06 on the space shuttle, and will be the focal point for Japanese astronaut operations on the station.
Thales Canada plans to restructure by merging its operations in Halifax and Ottawa with those in Montreal. The move is expected to lead to increased R&D investment and strengthen the company's participation in defense and homeland security-related markets.
Space Streamlining With the start of fiscal 2004 in October, Japan will gain a new space agency, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), which will bring together the launch, satellite technology development, deep space exploration and basic space and aeronautical research operations now conducted under the banners of three separate agencies.
'Sweetening' GPS A clever procedure for minimizing GPS satellite errors over Iraq improved navigation performance 25-30% during the war, freeing planners to launch air strikes with GPS-guided weapons any time of the day. Each satellite's performance depends primarily on "how precisely we know where that [spacecraft] is, and on clock errors. The satellite's position error and clock errors [determine] navigation accuracy, and that can translate to targeting errors," said Col. David W. Ziegler, 50th Operations Group commander.
Queuing Up To Serve Iraq The U.S. Transportation Dept. lifted its 13-year ban on air service between the U.S. and Iraq and said it will establish procedures for authorizing such operations. Several airlines are waiting for the new rules.
Star Power The Star Alliance plans to focus on joint initiatives to cut costs and increase purchasing power--regional jets, for example--as the group underpinned its market leading position with the addition of US Airways.
HIRE AND FIRE The Defense Dept. needs a more flexible civilian personnel system, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld tells the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. The current system is so inflexible that managers often put uniformed military personnel in positions more suited for civilians, because the military people are easier to reassign and relocate. In fact, Rumsfeld avers, 320,000 uniformed personnel are in jobs civilians should be doing. What the Pentagon wants is the ability to hire on the spot in some cases, rather than taking five months to make an offer.
Karl E. Bennett has been named director of the Systems Design and Engineering Dept. in the Aerospace Electrobics and Information Technology Div. at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Hewas manager of the Avionics and Test Systems Section.
COMPLICATED CONTROL FACTOR The pending acquisition of DHL Airways by U.S. citizen John Dasburg and investor colleagues has not modified the related foreign ownership issue now before the U.S. Transportation Dept. law courts, but "it makes it more complicated," according to Judge Ronnie Yoder. The $58-million acquisition is scheduled to take effect June 30. At a recent session, lawyers debated information requests for pre-buyout DHL Airways and for post-buyout Astar Air Cargo, the expected new name of the company (AW&ST May 26, p. 51).
DEJA VU It's a business model that has failed in the past, but the business-travel market has changed radically since 2000. So here comes Primaris Airlines, a Las Vegas-based startup seeking U.S. Transportation Dept. authority for domestic and international operations offering all-first-class service at fares "significantly lower" than walk-up economy at major airlines. With directors and officers drawn partly from National Airlines, America West and Air One veterans, but also including former Sen.
BURSTING FORTH Adm. Vern Clark, the chief of naval operations, predicts burgeoning acquisitions of unmanned air, surface and under-the-surface vehicles that will provide the persistence--"my new favorite word," he says--that manned systems cannot. That change will greatly affect the anti-submarine mission, he said. P-3 patrol aircraft are now used almost totally for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. So, both airborne and undersea systems would likely be used more intensively in the anti-submarine role.
Pilots Sign Up The future of Air Canada now appears to be in the hands of its unionized work force, with the Air Canada Pilots Assn. last week joining other members of organized labor in agreeing to a new contract. Collectively, the accord will save the Montreal-based carrier (US)$766 million a year.
LONG-HAUL CONNEXION Lufthansa German Airlines will equip some 80 long-haul aircraft, including Boeing 747400s and Airbus A330/340s, with Boeing's Connexion inflight Internet service beginning early next year. Lufthansa was the first carrier to test the broadband service and made a believer out of Wolfgang Mayrhuber, the incoming chairman of the airline's executive board. He indicated recently that passengers would be willing to pay a $30 service fee (AW&ST May 12, p. 46).
