Gregory D. Aretakis has been named senior director for planning and scheduling of Frontier Airlines. He was vice president-market planning for Vanguard Airlines.
As we celebrate the 100th anniversary of flight throughout 2003, Aviation Week & Space Technology is proud to introduce a new look. The world of aerospace is undergoing constant transformation, and AW&ST is committed to evolving with it. This redesign of the magazine will make it easier--and faster--for time-pressed readers to access the news and analysis they need. The look is contemporary and clean--continuing our goal to serve our readers more effectively, attract the next generation of leaders and demonstrate to all how dynamic our industry is.
Tom Mepham has been named president of the Cargo Systems division of the Goodrich Corp., Charlotte, N.C. He was vice president/general manager for regional, business and military programs for the Sensor Systems division.
Lufthansa German Airlines is asking Boeing to develop a stretched version of the 747-400. Nico Buchholz, the airline's senior vice president of corporate fleet, said the airline would have a requirement for a slightly larger 747 that would seat about 450 passengers in a standard three-class configuration. The aircraft would require range performance similar to the -400, but be less noisy and easier to maintain, Buchholz noted. He does not consider a new wing to be necessary.
Israel Aircraft Industries says it has "a broad list of areas" in defense electronics to explore with Nelco Ltd., a business unit of India's Tata Group, according to an IAI official. Nelco is a supplier of electronic systems and software. It recently completed a contract for unattended ground sensors for India's Defense Ministry "based on a transfer of technology from a leading U.S. company." The two companies expect to complete a contract within the next 15 months. Israeli companies are emerging as India's second-largest weapons supplier, after the Russians.
Pierre-Henri Ricaud has been appointed head of mergers and acquisitions and Christian Pechmann chief controller for EADS. Ricaud was secretary general and has been succeeded by Laurence Dors, who was secretary general of EADS International, the group's marketing arm. Pechmann was head of planning and control for Airbus.
Civil libertarians have latched onto yet another homeland-security issue--the Transportation Security Administration's proposed Aviation Security Screening Records (ASSRs), the database underpinning the next-generation Computer-Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening System (CAPPS-2) to profile airline passengers. TSA chief James Loy says libertarians will feel better once the agency has sought their "help and counsel" and explained that CAPPS-2 will simply validate the identities of passengers and look for matches against multi-agency watch lists.
Mar. 9-11--Air & Expedited Motor Carriers Assn.'s Air Cargo 2003. Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort & Spa, Phoenix. Call +1 (703) 519-0335 or see www.aemca.org. Mar. 10-12--University of California at Los Angeles Short Courses: "Space Remote Sensing Systems." Also, Mar. 17-21--"Structural Integrity of New and Aging Aircraft." Call +1 (310) 825-3344, fax +1 (310) 206-2815 or see www.uclaextension.org. Mar. 12-13--European Regions Airline Assn. Conference. Stuttgart (Germany) Airport. Call +44 (127) 685-6495 or see www.eraa.org.
Officials in the Navy's broad area maritime surveillance program, which is designed to integrate unmanned aircraft into the service's airborne patrol force, are being pressured by senior Pentagon civilians to maximize competition when they select an aircraft for the fleet. These patrol missions are often among the Navy's most tedious.
George R. Carruthers is among 17 inventors, whose ideas have advanced the fields of aviation and aerospace, that have been inducted into the Washington-based National Inventors. He was honored for the far electrograph ultraviolet camera. The other inductees and their work are: Frank Cepollina, satellite servicing techniques; Glenn Hammond Curtiss (posthumous), hydroaeroplane; Maxime Faget, space capsule design; Leroy Grumman (posthumous), retractable landing gear and the folding wing; Charles H.
The Robert J. Collier Trophy for 2002 has been awarded to the Sikorsky Aircraft Co.'s S-92 medium-lift helicopter program, by the National Aeronautic Assn. NAA officials cited the aircraft's many technical and safety advances including flaw and damage tolerance, performance with one engine inoperative, as well as being certified to the latest amendments of FAR Part 29 for transport category rotorcraft.
Spot Image has signed its seventh strategic partner under a plan intended to set up a global supplier network to handle marketing and distribution of the company's imaging products worldwide, and in particular those supplied by its new Spot 5 satellite. The new partner, Imagem of Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil, will have exclusive rights to market and sell Spot products in Brazilian markets. Previous agreements covered DigitalGlobe and Resource21 in the U.S.; ImageOne (Japan); Iunctus (Canada); BSA (Mauritania), and Raytheon of Australia.
Michael Marino has been appointed CEO of Seattle-based Aviation Partners Boeing. He was vice president-technical services and modifications for Boeing Commercial Aviation Services.
Soren Belin has been named chief operating officer of Scandinavian Airlines and executive vice president of the SAS Group. He succeeds Joergen Lindegaard. Belin was a partner in the consulting firm Carta Booz Allen & Hamilton.
Ryanair is to cut two-thirds of the staff from former rival low-cost carrier Buzz, which it recently acquired. All Buzz flight operations will cease during April to allow for the restructuring, with its aircraft fleet to be reduced from a dozen to eight. Buzz's route structure will be cut in half, with ticket prices on the surviving routes to fall by 50%, according to Dublin-based Ryanair. It also cautioned that Buzz may close altogether if the restructuring package is not accepted. Ryanair claims Buzz is losing 1 million euros ($1.08 million) a week.
The FAA has certified a cockpit display that joins Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) capabilities with the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) on large jets. UPS Aviation Technologies of Salem, Ore., developed the correlated system, incorporating advanced Global Positioning System circuits that work with the FAA's Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) to deliver reliable position reports. The company conducted system tests last month in a UPS Boeing 757.
The calculated risk of meteoroid and orbital debris impact to the space shuttle is higher than generally thought, and it is not surprising that NASA officials were pointing to it as a potential cause of the Columbia accident despite dramatic footage showing the orbiter wing being pummeled by external tank debris during the ascent.
The U.K.'s recent bailout of BAE Systems plc (AW&ST Feb. 24, p. 34) as a result of its poor performance on two highly troubled programs--the Nimrod MRA4 maritime patrol aircraft and Astute submarine--was a huge relief to the financial and investment community. And for good reason. Under the agreement the company struck with the Defense Ministry, BAE's financial exposure to cost overruns on the programs will be capped.
Osama Bin Laden's taped message last month suggests the possibility of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil or abroad in the event of war with Iraq, and yet the U.S. remains as ill-prepared as it was on Sept. 11, 2001. So far, the U.S. government has closed the door as much as possible on the avenue of attack last used. So security at airports and on commercial passenger flights has been improved greatly with a layered defense that does provide some measure of deterrence.
Swiss International Airlines, effective Mar. 30, will eliminate 700 jobs and reduce its fleet by 20 aircraft. The moves are among the emergency measures approved by the airline's board of directors last week in an attempt to gird against a deteriorating economy, threat of war and deep crisis in the global aviation industry. The carrier said revenues and passenger numbers are in sharp decline on the European network (AW&ST Jan. 27, p. 19).
Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington), Michael A. Taverna (Paris), Alexey Komarov (Moscow)
The International Space Station partners have agreed on a plan that can keep the orbiting laboratory occupied for at least 18 months without support from NASA's three surviving space shuttles, but only if Russia's backup space launch systems keep working.
One out of every five large-cabin business jets delivered in 2002 was a Falcon 2000, according to Dassault Falcon Jet Corp. Company President John Rosanvallon said the twin-engine airplane also is becoming a major player in the fractional ownership market where it competes with jets built by Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. An advanced version of the Falcon 2000--the Falcon 2000EX--is scheduled to begin initial deliveries in the next quarter. Rosanvallon said more than 50 are on order, with 50% slated to serve fractional operator NetJets.
Although there are some harbingers that business is picking up, resignation is growing in the commercial satellite industry that a full recovery from its present sorry state won't begin until 2006, a year later than many in the business were estimating only a few months ago.
Emir Pineda has been appointed Boca Raton, Fla.-based director of North American cargo sales for Netherlands-based Martinair. He was senior associate in Florida for Leigh Fisher Associates and had been director of cargo and trade development for Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.
European engine manufacturers, struggling with the contraction of the commercial sector, intend to shed jobs over the next couple of years. Rolls-Royce is aiming to cut around 5% of its British workforce--some 1,100 jobs--during 2004-05 as part of a restructuring program which will also see it merge and redevelop some of its sites in Britain. In a similar vein, French state-owned manufacturer Snecma is looking to trim staff.
