Robert W. Reding has been appointed senior vice president-technical operations for American Airlines. He succeeds Dan Huffman, who has retired as senior vice president-maintenance and engineering. Reding was chief operations officer of American Eagle. He has been succeeded there by R. S. (Stan) Henderson, who will continue as senior vice president-customer service.
A Russian-built Mi-17 helicopter with eight people on board crashed while attempting to land near the Mount Everest base camp for mountain climbers on May 28, killing a Nepalese flight attendant and Sherpa guide, according to the Associated Press. The other six people on board and one on the ground were injured. Hundreds of climbers had gathered at the camp to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay's first known ascent of the 29,035-ft. peak, on May 29.
WORLD NEWS ROUNDUP 19 Virgin Atlantic denies any deal is in works with BA WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS 22 Researchers push civil, military scramjet flight tests 26 Green lights for Galileo satnav system, A400M 27 Pentagon promises more aircraft, after tanker deal OK 28 U.K. to acquire new satellite intel-analysis system 29 U.S. Navy solidifies de- velopment plans for EA-18G 30 Money, technical hurdles for B-52 electronic attack role
BLUE GRASS GROWING Lexington (Ky.) Blue Grass Airport attributes its 20% traffic growth spurt to a combination of new low-fare, nonstop services and relative convenience in the security clearance of passengers and their baggage. The airport anticipates a record year in 2003 of more than 1 million passengers if the trend of the first four months is maintained. The 20% growth compares to traffic in the first four months of 2002.
Alliant Techsystems will build parts of Israel's Arrow-2 ballistic missile defense system. The company received an initial $17.6-million contract from Boeing to prepare production of filament-wound first- and second-stage rocket motor cases, electrical cabling, first-stage nozzle components and propellant materials, as well as a metallic skirt and interstage parts. Boeing became a second supplier for Arrow components to boost production rates for the interceptor missile.
Regarding the discussion of why the Boeing 767 over the 777 as a tanker, the 767 has a current cargo version. The 777 with the fiberglass floor beams cannot take the loads of the aluminum 767-200F. The KC767 will be a tanker version. As with the KC-135, the services want the KC-767 to haul cargo when not in use as a tanker.
This Is Not Deja Vu Major changes in cockpit technology seem to show up about once every 20 years. And what Honeywell is attempting to do with software in the Primus Epic integrated avionics system mirrors what was achieved two decades ago with the introduction of electronic flight instruments in business jets--which was a significant break with conventional cockpits.
JUST IN CASE NASA and Boeing gave up on the High-Speed Civil Transport program in 1999, but if anyone ever picks up the baton on the development of a commercial supersonic airliner, the FAA will be ready with noise regulations.
LOOKING FOR DAYLIGHT The Army has taken another look at its RAH-66 Comanche procurement plans, but so far can't find an opening to move to boost the production number. The service review came after the Pentagon cut the Comanche production plans nearly in half last year to 650 helicopters. The service is sticking to its position that it needs at least 819 of the reconnaissance helos, while accepting for the time being that production is limited to 650, says one Army official.
Phil Condit, chairman/CEO of Boeing, has received the Spain-U.S. Chamber of Commerce Business Leader of the Year Award in recognition of his commitment to Spain and leadership in building partnerships with that country's business community, including establishment in 2002 of the Boeing Research and Technology Center in Madrid.
Imbalance of Power? The outcome of Atlantic Coast Airlines' regional contract negotiations with United Airlines, and its move to revise the delivery schedule for 42 RJ aircraft, could signal the final upheaval in the balance of power between legacy carriers and their regional partners.
Michael A. Taverna (Paris), Douglas Barrie (London)
Burst of Life Europe's normally slothful procurement process lurched notably into activity last week with two flagship programs gaining key approvals. The demonstration and validation phase of the Galileo satellite navigation system, effectively a Euro-GPS, got the nod from the European Space Agency. Meanwhile, the Airbus A400M airlifter also was formally launched on May 27 with the inking of the development and production contract.
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Boeing Co.'s military business continues to gather momentum and soon will become the dominant source of the corporation's revenue. As this sea change continues to play out, one can't help but wonder how much of a drag the commercial side of the business will be on the corporation's market valuation.
U-36A CRASH A U-36A, a Japanese naval version of the Learjet 36A, crashed May 21 near the the U.S. Marine Corps Iwakuni AB, near Hiroshima, during touch-and-go training. The aircraft ran off the runway during takeoff, shearing the fuselage. All four crewmembers on board were killed. The navy bought six U-36As for training support missions.
Charles S. Stees has become chief financial officer of Denver-based Space Imaging. He was vice president-marketing, sales and strategic planning for Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems, Newtown, Pa. Mark E. Brender has been promoted to vice president-corporate communications from executive director of government affairs and corporate communications, based in Reston, Va.
L-3 COMMUNICATIONS' INTERSTATE ELECTRONICS CORP. (IEC) will create and test a high-performance GPS anti-jam capability under contract from the Office of Naval Research. The company's design will use scalable multi-element space-time-adaptive processing (STAP), a multi-element adaptive antenna and powerful digital signal processor to null jamming signals. STAP is a technique for processing signals that uses both spatial and time filtering to develop a weight, which is applied to incoming data in the beam-former.
MORE COMBAT POWER The U.S. Navy and its sister service, the U.S. Marine Corps, are trying to figure out how to get more operational use out of their large- and small-deck aircraft carriers. Under a new concept being worked on by the Navy, maintenance on aircraft carriers following one of their regular six-month deployments would be better scheduled to ensure it can be done in a shorter time to make the ship available for emergency deployments.
James W. Hlavacek has been appointed vice chairman of the ATA Holdings Corp., parent of American Trans Air. Hewas executive vice president. Gilbert F. Viets has been named chairman of the Audit Committee of the board of directors. He succeeds Robert A. Abel, who has resigned as committee chairman but remains on the board. Viets is a clinical professor in the systems and accounting graduate program at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business. William D.
PARIS AND BEYOND Upgraded facilities and enhanced public transportation between the city's center and Le Bourget airport are being planned by a joint venture of Gifas French aerospace industries association and CCIP Paris chamber of commerce and industry.
The first piece of the U.S. Air Force's emerging electronic attack architecture should be ready in four to six years, but the path to using the B-52 in a standoff jamming role still faces several hurdles.
As a former Australian air traffic controller and now senior search and rescue officer, I disagree with some of the content of "Privatizing ATC Is A Bad Idea." ATC in Australia is run by Airservices Australia, which is a government enter- prise, and is not privatized, contrary to Elliot Sclar's Viewpoint. In part, his article states, "In Australia, excessive demands on controllers have led to a series of strikes, while failures with new technology have led to radar blackouts and major traffic disruptions." This is not true.
A SIGNIFICANT STEP TOWARD INCREASING THE POWER of fiber lasers is a fiber amplifier developed by Northrop Grumman, which has produced 155 watts from a single, slender optical glass thread. The energy that emerges--infrared light with a single polarization--offers the possibility of combining coherent output from a number of amplifiers to deliver high laser power. Fiber amplifiers offer weight and efficiency savings, and their optical efficiency cuts waste heat that needs to be rejected, scientists at the Redondo Beach, Calif., facility said.
AIRBUS SELECTED BARCO TO DELIVER 18-IN. MODULAR RUGGED flat-panel displays with surface acoustic wave touch-screen technology for use in visualizing test data on board its A380 during the flight-test program. General Dynamics, U.K., recently picked Barco to provide more than 300 displays in the same product line for the Defense Ministry's Bowman Combat Infrastructure Platform.
