Aviation Week & Space Technology

John S. Fredericksen has been named vice president/general counsel of Sun Country Airlines. He was executive vice president-administration/general counsel of Mesaba Airlines.

Eurocopter's twin-engine EC145 flies over downtown Dallas. The aircraft, which made its debut in the U.S. at Heli-Expo 2003 earlier this month, is designed chiefly to meet the needs of law enforcement and emergency medical services operators requiring a large cabin and mission flexibility (see p. 44). Eurocopter photo by Paul Brou.

Joseph A. Czyzyk, who is president/CEO of the Mercury Air Group, has been elected to the board of directors of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.

Charles Aaron has been appointed helicopter sales manager and Julia Schmitt manager of corporate aviation sales for Max-Viz Inc., Portland, Ore.

Charles T. Cleaver has been named vice president/treasurer of ATA Holdings Corp., parent company of American Trans Air. He was director of aircraft programs.

The EC145 offers operators twin-engine safety, a rapidly reconfigurable cabin, high-altitude performance and mission flexibility in a package featuring both proven and advanced systems. Eurocopter is aiming the helicopter at law enforcement and emergency medical services (EMS) markets. As of late last month, the company had sold 53 aircraft and is scheduled to deliver 25 this year (15 were delivered in 2002). German and French certification occurred late in 2000 and in June 2001, respectively, with FAA approval following in October 2001.

Director of Inside Sales: Elizabeth Meyer; (212) 904-3675; Fax: 212-904-3993; e-mail: [email protected] Diane Soister; (212) 904-2897 or (800) 289-5813; e-mail: [email protected] Dept. Fax: (212) 904-3993 Europe/MidEast/Africa: See Vittorio Rossi Prudente above. United Kingdom, Ireland: Neil Walklett, Mongoose Ltd.; +44-(0)20-7306-0300; Fax: +44-(0)20-7306-0301; e-mail: [email protected]

Central/Southern US: (AR, CO, IA, KS, LA, MO, OK, TN, TX, UT), Central & South America: See Tom Davis above. Western US: (AK, AZ, CA, HI, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, WA, WY), Western Canada: (BC, AB) Soulek & Associates; (818) 762-9988; Fax: (818) 762-9972; e-mail: [email protected] Midwest/Northern US: (IN, KY, MI, OH, WV, IL, WI, MN, WY, ND, SD, NE), Central Canada: (MB, SK) Charles Talley; (312) 346-7330; Fax: (312) 346-4462; e-mail: [email protected]

Northrop Grumman Corp. will soon have a new chief executive, Ronald D. Sugar, and his agenda will be very different from that of his predecessor, Kent Kresa, whose vision in the early 1990s was to transform what was then "The B-2 Company" into an enterprise built around network-centric warfare--a concept that was still in its embryonic stage a decade ago.

To purchase, Call Aviation Learning at: (800) 424-3933 or (585) 328-9974 on-line at www.aviationnow.com/shop Promotion/Sponsorship, Video Licensing: call: (212) 904 3231

Stephen J. Cabot states: "Soldiers, police officers, firefighters and air traffic controllers are forbidden to strike. Similarly, airline personnel, as part of an essential industry, should be in the same category." He argues that while airlines are corporate entities, their employees should be nationalized. But government employees enjoy guaranteed pensions and have almost complete job security.

There was much discussion last year between NASA and the Defense Dept. about cooperation on a reusable launch vehicle (RLV), but no money changed hands. That may yet change, indicates Ronald Sega, the Pentagon's R&D honcho. The issue will be revisited as part of the Fiscal 2005 budget deliberations that are just now getting started. By the time NASA and Pentagon RLV discussions were moving forward, the military already had completed most of its Fiscal 2004 budget planning, so there was no room for an RLV.

Two Langley Research Center Mach 6 wind tunnels are being configured to help in the investigation of thermal and aerodynamic factors surrounding the Columbia reentry accident.

Airport fees and profits are riling members of the International Air Transport Assn. as its members are only beginning to emerge from the Asian economic slump and face record red ink in the rest of the world. Exhibit A for IATA Director General Giovanni Bisignani is Tokyo's Narita International Airport, the country's main international gateway, which he said has refused to budge on a fee dispute for more than a year.

CESSNA AIRCRAFT CO. has delivered three Citation Bravo business jets to The Company Jet--a new fractional operator based in Grand Rapids, Mich. Two additional Bravos are scheduled for delivery this year, according to Cessna. The Company Jet manages aircraft for its clients within a specific geographic area.

Is there much to fear from a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack on the Internet? That's where many computers start transmitting large amounts of data to critical Internet nodes, hoping to overwhelm them and topple communications. Eric M. Mantion, the senior analyst for networking technology at the Instat/MDR market research firm, asserts that a well-orchestrated DDOS attack would cause only 1-2 days of trouble, and more damage could be caused by "loss of confidence" than by the attack itself.

The prototype Bombardier Global 5000 business jet is scheduled to make its first flight this week from company facilities near Toronto. Following about 25 hr. of initial flights in Canada, the airplane will be transferred to Bombardier's Flight Test Center in Wichita, Kan., to begin a 350-hr. certification program. A second airplane is scheduled to fly about six weeks after the first, according to the company.

Martin van der Mandele has become head of Rand Europe, Leiden, Netherlands. He succeeds David Gompert, who is returning to Rand's Washington office as vice president emeritus. Van der Mandele was a senior fellow in Rand's Santa Monica, Calif., headquarters and had been managing director of the Dutch office of Arthur D. Little. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill has been named to the board of directors. He had been board chairman before becoming Treasury secretary.

In a desperate struggle for survival, Air Lib executives plan to appeal a French court's decision to force the independent carrier into bankruptcy. However, there's almost no chance that an 11th-hour reprieve will be granted to a company that never achieved profitability and accumulated massive losses.

Erin Pettigrew, (212) 904-6425; Fax (212) 904-3334

Commercial aerospace suppliers who sell products and services to both airframe manufacturers and airlines through the aftermarket are beginning to sense that UAL Corp., parent company of United Airlines, eventually may be forced into liquidation.

Goodrich Corp.--one of the most acquisitive aerospace companies--will make no major transactions for the next two years so management can concentrate on what may well be their biggest merger-related challenge thus far: integration of the former TRW Aeronautical Systems (AS) business.

Inside North America, call Edith Roman Associates, Inc. at: (800) 223-2194; Fax (845) 620-9035. Outside North America call The Prospect Shop at: 020 8481 8730; Fax: 020 8783 1940

The French national space agency CNES is getting a professional manager, Yannick d'Escatha, appointed by the government to head the troubled agency, as recommended by a blue-ribbon panel last month (AW&ST Jan. 27, p. 27). D'Escatha, formerly co-CEO of state-owned electric utility EDF, will be tasked with drawing up an initial list of measures to meet the most severe shortcomings, due to be released by the panel Mar. 6. Research Minister Claudie Haignere must deliver a revised space road map to the government on Mar. 19

U.S. airlines and the FAA, both strapped for cash for the foreseeable future, are settling further into a year-old trend toward cautious, lower cost approaches to increasing the capacity of the National Airspace System (NAS).