Robert Myers (see photo) has become chancellor of the Extended Campus of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He was executive vice president/chief operating officer of the University of Maryland's University College and will remain an adjunct faculty member there.
EADS' new facility at Augsburg, Germany, is to provide extra capacity for the A380 ultrawide-body transport and A400M airlifter. The 6.8-million-euro ($6.7-million), 5,400-sq.-meter shop, located at a German air base in Lechfeld, will be capable of turning out up to 100 A380 wing bathtubs per year. It will initially be used to produce keel beams for Airbus narrow-body aircraft.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. extended until Dec. 31 its approval of antitrust immunity for United Airlines, British Midland and some of their Star Alliance partners. United and British Midland asked for a six-month extension, through Apr. 4, 2003 (AW&ST Sept. 23, p. 15), but the difference might not matter much. The approval is conditioned on agreement by the U.S. and the U.K. on an open skies accord, an elusive goal that the U.K. may not be free to pursue in the new year.
U.S. airlines could lose $1.7 billion before taxes in the first three months of a war with Iraq, a Credit Suisse First Boston analyst estimates. The analyst, James Higgins, drew from experience with higher fuel prices and lower traffic during the 1991 war and added that a number of airlines that haven't been in a financial crisis are Chapter 11 candidates this time. Speaking at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce meeting here, Higgins offered what have become mainstream estimates of U.S. industry losses in the absence of a war--$7 billion this year and $2.5-3 billion in 2003.
United Airlines shifted its labor-concession talks Oct. 9 to what it termed ``bilateral negotiations'' with each of its unions. The company had been dealing with a coalition of all its major unions. United said it had expected the change all along, but analysts saw it as a setback in attempts to get more than the $1 billion per year in cost reductions offered last month by the coalition. The airline seeks an $1.8-billion federal loan guarantee and is trying to stay out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Only hours after NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe indicated here that the launch of game show winners to the International Space Station could be a frivolous use of a unique laboratory by unqualified personnel, the Russian Space Agency said it planned to cooperate with Russian and U.S. television moguls planning such a flight. Space tourism will be one topic at the World Space Congress in Houston this week.
Administrator Sean O'Keefe's efforts to lasso the disparate elements of the U.S. space agency into a unified organization notwithstanding, the civilian space guilds are still feuding. At a World Space Congress panel on space operations last week, veteran shuttle flight director Wayne Hale discounted Space Launch Initiative concepts as ungrounded in reality.
Efforts are brewing to reopen competition in the ever-changing Multimission Command and Control Aircraft (MC2A) program. The latest catalyst is the imminent retirement of one of USAF's senior acquisition officials, Darleen A. Druyun, principal deputy assistant secretary for acquisition and management.
Richard Reid was expected to change his plea last week to guilty on eight charges associated with the attempted inflight destruction of an American Airlines aircraft. The flight was en route from Paris to Miami with 197 people on board when Reid tried to ignite a makeshift bomb in his sneakers. Flight attendants and passengers quashed his attempt, and the flight was safely diverted to Boston. Reid faces life imprisonment if found guilty of charges that include attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted homicide.
Japan's DRTS data relay test satellite is expected to arrive at its geosynchronous orbital slot by mid-month following its Sept. 10 launch, but without as much station-keeping fuel as expected. During the third of three orbital maneuvers, the positioning thrusters shut down automatically, apparently because too much oxidizer was used on the first two maneuvers. The National Space Development Agency recovered the mission with an attitude control adjustment, but its service life is expected to be shortened. NASDA said DRTS' 3.6-meter- (12-ft.-) dia.
William A. Feess has received the Trustees' Distinguished Achievement Award, the highest honor of The Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, Calif. Other awards were presented at the ceremony. Feess, a senior engineering specialist, was recognized for his work on the GPS satellite constellation. He belonged to the core team that defined the first GPS and was credited with helping to resolve numerous difficulties in the navigation software. Feess later played what is considered a major role in defining and implementing improvements to GPS navigation capabilities.
Charles Toups (see photos) has been named vice president-programs at Boeing Satellite Systems, El Segundo, Calif. He was head of Boeing Electron Dynamic Devices, Torrance, Calif. Toups will be succeeded there by Chris Stephens, who was vice president-business operations at Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, Seal Beach, Calif.
A report for the House Science Committee raises questions about NASA's Space Launch Initiative (SLI), playing right into the hands of Administrator Sean O'Keefe, who is said to have some questions of his own about the $4.8-billion effort. The General Accounting Office cautions that NASA will be hard-pressed to set reasonable requirements for a second-generation reusable launch vehicle (RLV) until it completes the space transportation plan the vehicle would serve.
Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is emphasizing development of the new Centrair international airport to open in Nagoya in 2005 and upgrades to Tokyo's Haneda airport in its $4.1-billion airport improvement budget for fiscal 2003. The ministry has budgeted $1.1 billion for construction of a fourth runway at Haneda, which is Asia's busiest airport even though it serves mainly domestic Japanese routes. The requested amount is $45 million more than current spending on the project.
Critical U.S. communications systems have been upgraded considerably since Sept. 11, 2001, because President Bush was unable to adequately communicate with his national security staff after terrorist attacks. His aircraft, Air Force One, was configured with aging communications gear designed for nuclear hardness, not capacity. As a result, Bush could not conduct a video teleconference while inflight, or receive necessary data from key people on the ground. ``He couldn't even watch CNN,'' remarked Adm. James O. Ellis, Jr., commander of Strategic Command.
U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command has awarded a $626-million, four-year contract to Kwajalein Range Services for logistics support and integrated range engineering at the Kwajalein Atoll/Reagan Test Site. Kwajalein Range Services consists of Bechtel National and Lockheed Martin.
Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus has become secretary-general of the Brussels-based Assn. of European Airlines. He was corporate vice president-international relations for Lufthansa German Airlines. Schulte-Strathaus succeeds Karl-Heinz Neumeister, who has retired.
In an effort to become ``a performance-based, constituent-centric organization,'' the Transportation Security Administration plans to conduct ``customersatisfaction'' surveys this fall among airline travelers passing through security checkpoints at three not-yet-named airports. The TSA intends to ask about 3,750 passengers, chosen at random, to fill out postcard-sized surveys and mail them to the agency postage-paid. The surveys are to be distributed during two two-week periods, one in November and the other in December, at each of the three airports.
Airlines got some of what they are seeking--but not big-money relief from security taxes and costs--when the House aviation subcommittee marked up a relief bill Oct. 2. The panel supported limiting airline liability for third-party damages in a terrorist attack to $100 million, extending federal war-risk insurance through December 2003 at current costs, and broadening the insurance to cover passengers, crews and aircraft, not just third parties. The application period for federal loan guarantees, closed since June 28, would be reopened if the U.S.
Taiwan's recent lifting of a 50-year-old ban on direct investment in China's aviation industry could also be the catalyst in opening a direct air link between Taipei and Beijing. Taiwan's decision was welcomed by China, which in August opened local industry to foreigners and now views the Taiwanese as potential investors in its booming aviation industry. Under China's new policy, foreigners may acquire up to a 25% stake in a Chinese carrier and up to 49% in an airport or aviation-related facility.
Russian aircraft designer MiG is trying to hammer out a deal with engine manufacturer Saturn-Lyulka to supports its ambitions to instigate a flight test program on what was once its fifth-generation fighter prototype. The aircraft, dubbed the 1.44, has flown only twice, with the Russian defense ministry having eventually passed over the design in favor of a Sukhoi-led program. MiG, however, wants to continue to use the airframe as a technology demonstrator. Vladimir Barkovsky, first deputy general designer at MiG, said, ``The aircraft has had two flights.
The RAH-66 Comanche has completed first flight with its Helmet Integrated Display Sighting System, one of the milestones the managers set to ensure the program is moving along. Boeing and Sikorsky had to complete the flight this month but were able to do it early, on Sept. 24. The Pentagon is slated to review the program in the coming days to determine how it will proceed.
