Larry McCracken, vice president-public relations for Boeing, has been appointed chairman of the Aerospace Industries Assn.'s Communications Council for 2002. He succeeds Dennis Signorovitch, vice president-communications for Honeywell. Vice chair will be Phyllis Piano, vice president-corporate affairs and communications for Raytheon.
U.S. Navy officials plan to operate unmanned and manned aircraft in a single unit as they explore how UAVs can best augment existing intelligence, surveillance and electronic warfare systems. The tie-in between manned aircraft and UAVs will first be tried with P-3 units and Global Hawk high-altitude endurance UAVs. The Navy wants to buy a small number of the UAVs to evaluate maritime surveillance concepts and to determine whether some P-3 missions can be carried out by the unmanned system.
Jim O'Neill has been appointed president of the TASC business unit of the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Information Technology Sector, Herndon, Va. He was senior vice president/general manager of Oracle Services Industries. O'Neill succeeds Jim Frey, who is retiring.
Federal agents arrested more than 92 airport workers at Washington's three major airports last week as part of a nationwide crackdown on employees with access to secure areas who have falsified employment information. Those arrested include construction workers, janitors, food workers and at least two baggage screeners. Charges include social security fraud, falsifying criminal history in employment papers and immigration fraud.
THE U.S. ARMY IS BUYING two more mobile ATC systems and five fixed-base systems from Raytheon, under a $20.8-million production option. Each self-contained AN/TPN-31 air traffic navigation, integration and coordination system (ATNAVICS) is mounted on two wheeled vehicles and two trailers, and can be carried in a single C-130. With an S-band air surveillance radar, L-band secondary surveillance radar/IFF, X-band precision approach radar and the company's AutoTrac air traffic management system, it provides all-weather surveillance to 25 naut. mi.
Keith Andersen has been named chief financial officer of AOG Air Support Inc., Kelowna, British Columbia. He succeeds Debbie Barron, who will be vice president-operations.
An experimental mechanical cryocooler installed last month on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has cooled the infrared detectors on the Near-Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (Nicmos) to their target temperature and held it there ``rock solid.'' That means the instrument could begin returning images again early next month. Darrell Zimbelman, the NASA systems engineer responsible for the cooling system, said Nicmos was switched on Apr. 18 to begin a 17-day checkout after the cryocooler held the detectors at 74.8K.
The Aviation Safety Council of Taiwan's final report on Singapore Airlines Flight 006, scheduled for release Apr. 26, provides no probable cause for the Oct. 31, 2000, accident that killed 83 people. Rather, it identifies complex multiple safety deficiencies--including procedural errors and airport infrastructure problems--found during the 18-month investigation. The report also outlines recommendations to correct deficiencies and remedial actions that have been taken.
NASA's decision to shift major shuttle orbiter modification work from Boeing's Palmdale, Calif., facilities to Kennedy Space Center will allow orbiter upgrades to take place more routinely, rather than delaying significant work until major teardowns at Palmdale every 3-4 years. Large-scale inspections and addition of hardware--such as the new glass cockpit to be installed in Discovery at Kennedy as part of its first major mod at the launch site--will still only be performed on multiyear cycles.
Each year, Aviation Week&Space Technology gives special awards of recognition to young people who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and academic skills, and have chosen to pursue careers in aviation and aerospace. These are the people who will take over where today's leaders and visionaries leave off, and they deserve our wholehearted encouragement and support. Outstanding cadets at the service academies, with a demonstrated interest in aviation, receive Breitling Aerospace watches, courtesy of Breitling USA.
Photograph: Laureate for Lifetime Achievement Noel W. Hinners stands between AW&ST's David North and Kenneth Gazzola. Noel W. Hinners, a former special-assignment vice president for Lockheed Martin Space Systems-Astronautics, devoted a lifetime to American aerospace, serving in both industry and government prior to his retirement in January. He headed the company's Flight Systems unit for six years, overseeing development and operation of spacecraft for several NASA Mars programs, as well as the Stardust and Genesis Discovery missions.
Weapons experts are pressing Congress to enact specific security precautions against radiological terrorism, along with preemptive measures to block the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons (see p. 34). Sig Hecker, the veteran weapons authority at Los Alamos National Laboratory, told a Senate panel last week that if the synchronized aircraft attacks of Sept.
Maj. Gen. Thomas J. Fiscus has been named the U.S. Air Force judge advocate general. He was a staff judge advocate at the wing, numbered Air Force and major command levels.
David Sislowski has become vice president/general counsel and Ian Arthur senior director of marketing and brand management of Frontier Airlines. Sislowski succeeds Arthur Voss, who is retiring as is chief executive Sam Addoms. Sislowski was senior vice president/general counsel of Alexander Capital. Arthur was president/managing partner of Tretorn.
In every major military conflict, a few innovative developments seem to stand out. There were radar and guided missiles in World War II, Korea yielded helicopters and swept-wing jets, and the Persian Gulf war saw the debut of Joint-STARS and the stealthy F-117. The war in Afghanistan was no different. This time, the U.S. Air Force's Global Hawk high-altitude, endurance unmanned aircraft stepped into the spotlight.
Don Stephens has been promoted to director of operational planning and performance from general manager of operational performance and Delta Connection Inc.
A bird strike has forced Lockheed Martin to postpone delivery of the eighth F-22 to Edwards AFB, Calif. One of the two F119 engines ingested part of a hawk early in flight. The chase plane saw the incident and alerted the F-22 pilot, who returned to Lockheed Martin's Marietta, Ga., facility. The aircraft and engine performance remained nominal, although USAF safety officials have since seen engine damage and will likely replace the F119.
Lawrence W. Clarkson has been named chairman and USN Rear Adm. (ret.) Stephen K. Chadwick has been appointed to the board of directors of Hitco Carbon Composites Inc. of Los Angeles. Clarkson is a retired senior vice president of Boeing and was president of Boeing Enterprises. Chadwick is CEO of Prodesco.
A Senate push to spend more on keeping weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists is up against a host of competing defense priorities that are likely to leave counter-terrorism coffers billions of dollars short. Spurred by Sept. 11, senators want to go the Bush Administration one better, raising to about $2.5 billion the President's roughly $1.6-billion request for Fiscal 2003 to prevent terrorist outfits such as Al Qaeda from tapping into illicit sources of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons technology.
The U.S. State Dept. has taken delivery of the first of eight Olney, Tex.-based Air Tractor AT-802s for use in narcotic crop eradication in Colombia. The remaining aircraft are set for delivery in the next few months. The aircraft have been modified with self-sealing fuel tanks, armored cockpit enclosures and bulletproof glass windshields. A fire-extinguishing system has been installed in the engine compartment, which houses a Pratt&Whitney PT6-series turboprop powerplant.
Paul J. Casey has become vice chairman/president of Hawaiian Airlines. He succeeds Robert W. Zoller, Jr., who has resigned as president/chief operating officer. Casey was vice chairman/CEO. H. Norman Davies, Jr., has been promoted to executive vice president-operations from vice president-safety and security.
David J. Leonard has been named to the board of directors and audit committee of Alpine Air Express, Provo, Utah. He succeeds the late Charles L. Bates. Leonard is president/CEO of VeloCom.
