In a world of topsy-turvy airline leadership, Singapore Airlines is an exception. After a long deliberation, it said last week that it has found a successor to Cheong Choong Kong, who has led that profit-machine for 19 years. The airline's board said Chew Choon Seng, 56, now senior executive vice president for administration, will take over as CEO in June.
Howard Farr has been named managing director for Europe of Loral Skynet, Bedminster, N.J. He was vice president-European sales at New Skies Satellites.
Top-level British defense ministry officials met earlier this month to draw up a hit list of procurement programs valued at some 1 billion pounds ($1.58 billion) that could face the ax. The defense ministry's Policy and Plans Steering Group (PPSG)--made up of senior armed forces officers and civil servants--met the second week in January to discuss cuts as part of the ongoing planning round.
U.S. Army officials this month expect to take delivery of the first of 121 Army Airborne Command and Control Systems (A2C2Ss), but already see signs that homeland security missions could increase demand for the specially configured Black Hawk helicopters. The first batch of five A2C2S helicopters will serve as prototypes and be dedicated to validating the system's performance during development and operational tests throughout the year. The command and control gear is to be housed in a UH60L-type Black Hawk.
Increasing concerns about aviation security, and the expectation that women will comprise more than one-half of all business travelers by 2005, helped prompt Air Security International to expand its safety seminars with one designed especially for women.
USAFR Col. Kim Dougherty has been appointed vice president-national security for the Washington-based U.S. Chamber of Commerce. She was principal deputy assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, specializing in National Guard and Reserve matters.
Darleen Druyun (see photo), former principal deputy assistant Air Force secretary for acquisition and management, has become deputy general manager of Washington-based Boeing Missile Defense Systems.
While it awaits the arrival of its first Boeing 767 tanker/transport in fiscal 2006, Japan's air force will conduct the first operational inflight refueling exercises in its history. The exercises for its F-15J air interdiction fighters will use Boeing KC-135 tankers operated out of the U.S. Air Force's Kadena AB on Okinawa. Eight Japanese pilots using four F-15Js will take part in the training exercise over the East China Sea.
Astronomers believe they have spotted some of the first stars to shine in the Universe, poking through the hydrogen cloud that blocked light in the "cosmic dark ages" to form faint images in the Hubble Space Telescope's newest instrument. The Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) installed last year has found about 30 faint red galaxy-like objects in a dark section of sky in the constellation Virgo that, based on their color, could have formed when the Universe was a little less than 1 billion years old (image shows three of the objects).
The Russian air force is planning to upgrade 20 Sukhoi Su-27s fighters up to the level of fourth-generation multirole combat aircraft, according to air force commander Alexander Mikhailov. Enhanced systems will include a new radar, avionics suite, weapons control system and modified flight deck. Russia also plans to upgrade Mil Mi-24 tactical helicopters to enable night/all-weather operations.
A federal court has approved a plan for GE Capital Corp. to take a 5% stake in US Airways Group Inc. in exchange for $830 million in financing. The deal was included in a series of motions approved by Judge Stephen Mitchell of U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia that are crucial to the carrier's efforts to reorganize under Chapter 11.
Changes the Army is making to the requirements for its future airborne signals and imagery intelligence collection program are driving the service to buy a more sophisticated system that calls for an aircraft with more performance.
Speaking of the Senate, if history is any guide, the chamber's new majority leader, Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), will be a strong advocate for science and technology. He was one of the founders of the Senate S&T caucus. Sure, the Princeton- and Harvard-educated physician is more interested in the life sciences. But Frist has complained about military test program expenses being hidden in research budgets, and pushed for all federal research spending to be doubled. He also has complained about sloppy accounting at NASA.
Spectrum Astro has received a contract worth up to $34.4 million from the U.S. Missile Defense Agency to work on the kinetic energy interceptor project, through August 2004. Spectrum is to deliver a spacecraft to collect near-field infrared experiment data. The goal is to measure plume, hardbody and background data to develop seeker algorithms for the future kinetic energy interceptor.
Richard Ashooh has been named Washington-based vice president-legislative affairs for BAE Systems North America. He was vice president-public affairs for BAE Systems Information and Electronic Warfare Systems, Nashua, N.H.
Rockwell Collins Inc. last week posted flat year-over-year sales and net income for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2002, while Precision Castparts Corp. (PCC) reported a 19% drop in net income on an 18% decline in revenues. Despite these anemic results, both commercial aerospace suppliers produced clear evidence they are successfully managing their overall businesses through the worst aviation downturn since World War 2.
The U.K. Defense Ministry may unveil this week the result of its light force antitank guided weapon competition, with the U.S. Javelin touted as the winner. The Raytheon-Lockheed Martin team is understood to be preferred to the MBDA-Rafael Spike bid.
Record cargo, passenger and aircraft movements at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) last year and a busy holiday season in Japan have provided strong evidence of a turnaround from the Asia-Pacific region's turn-of-the-century recession and the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S.
NASA is moving ahead smartly with its new space transportation plan, leaving the normal legislative and executive policymaking processes to catch up later. Because of time pressure, Congress won't get a chance to focus on the plan released late last year as an amendment to NASA's Fiscal 2003 budget request until after the Fiscal 2004 budget is released early next month. Meanwhile, some details of the plan conflict with Clinton-era presidential policy that has yet to be revised by the Bushies.
The Big Three engine makers will use manufacturing, fuel burn and environmental improvements they would have applied to the Sonic Cruiser as they answer Boeing's call for powerplants for the 250-seat aircraft that will go instead.
CESSNA AIRCRAFT CO. HAS SELECTED the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW615F turbofan engine to power the new Citation Mustang business jet tentatively scheduled to receive FAA certification in 2005. Each engine will be rated at 1,350 lb. of static thrust at sea level flat-rates to ISA +10C, and incorporate dual-channel, full authority digital engine controls. Cessna had been considering a similar engine designed by Williams International.
