Jeffrey D. Grant has become vice president-intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance for TRW Space&Electronics in the Washington operations office. He was vice president/chief technical officer for Astrolink International.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed off on an agreement to integrate major air defense systems manufacturers into a single entity. The new company, Almaz-Antey Air Defense Concern, will bring Antey Concern, NPO Almaz and about 40 of their subcontracting companies under one umbrella.
ILA 2002 will be the first major aerospace exhibition in Europe since the beginning of the current industry downturn--a fact that, despite recent gains, is likely to be reflected throughout the show, which is scheduled for May 6-12 in Berlin.
John Severson has been promoted to executive vice president/chief financial officer from senior vice president/CFO and Scott Justmann to senior vice president-flight operations from director of flight operations for Spirit Airlines.
Boeing does not intend to rescue the ailing Fairchild Dornier. Boeing Commercial Airplane Chief Executive Allan Mulally said the company had no plans to enter the regional aircraft market now, and that he could not see the benefit of buying the German manufacturer. Boeing Vice-Chairman Harry Stonecipher added that it is nearly impossible to turn a profit in the regional market. Chairman/CEO Phil Condit said, however, ``we have looked at going [into the market] or buying somebody.'' But ``at this point have made no decisions.''
Sometimes if you wait long enough, problems go away. When US Airways asked the Transportation Dept. in December for exemption authority for daily round trips between Bermuda and Washington Reagan National Airport, American and Delta objected, arguing that service should be restored to pre-Sept. 11 levels in all of National's other markets before new international leisure service should be allowed (AW&ST Jan. 7, p. 23). National got back to 100% on Apr. 15, and voila, the department approved the Bermuda application Apr. 18.
Space activity is picking up at the White House again, following a post-Sept. 11 lull as members of the National Security Council's policy coordinating committee for space were distracted by more pressing events. Bretton S.F.
William Purdy, Jr., has been appointed as president-real estate and Linda Beech Cutler vice president-corporate communications for GenCorp, Sacramento, Calif. Purdy was managing director of development for the Transwestern Property Co. of Houston. Cutler was vice president-marketing and corporate communications for DSI Systems.
John O'Sullivan has been promoted to general manager of the Missile Defense Div. at The Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, Calif., from principal director of its Ballistic Missile Defense Architecture Directorate.
Gary Adkins has been appointed senior director for federal and national security sales for Orbimage, Dulles, Va. He was director of federal sales for the Space Imaging Corp.
The U.S. Air Force has told Berlin it has to delay a demonstration of the Global Hawk in Germany because of operational demands on the UAV. Global Hawk was to operate with an EADS signals intelligence sensor from an airfield near Nordholz, on the North Sea coast this fall. The demo is now slated for next year.
Boeing would be fined $764,250 for violating FAA regulations under a proposal made by the agency. The FAA determined in 1999 that adhesives used to fabricate flight deck dripshields--located behind instrumentation above the pilot's head to help control cockpit condensation--and environmental control system ducts resulted in parts that did not meet FAA flammability requirements. The FAA said Boeing failed to comply with an approved design on certain models by allowing material substitutions.
Glenn E. Hess has been named president/chief operating officer of Bell Helicopter of Fort Worth. The post was held by John R. Murphey before he became chairman/CEO. Hess was vice president/ general manager of Boeing's Military Aerospace Support Maintenance and Modification unit in San Antonio.
Many International Air Transport Assn. member airlines operating mainly within Europe may be forced to raise fares as a result of an average 13% increase in Eurocontrol air navigation charges that became effective Apr. 1, according to IATA Director General and CEO Pierre J. Jeanniot. Should the fare hike materialize, it would come at ``just the wrong time''--when airlines are beginning to recover from the economic slowdown of 2001 and events of Sept. 11, he said.
The Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center will start ``benchmarking contractors'' in an effort to improve the performance of space programs, according to the center's commander, Lt. Gen. Brian Arnold. The benchmarking process will involve reviewing a company's past performance on key programs and determining who is the best in each industry category and ``who's not,'' he said. Companies will receive feedback on ``rights and wrongs'' in order to improve the overall health of national security space programs.
A testbed version of USAF's next-generation, wide-body intelligence-gathering aircraft made its first flight this month, less than a year after it was conceptualized. The MC2A is being designed to replace the RC-135 Rivet Joint, E-8 Joint-STARS and E-3 AWACS aircraft and, as an added benefit, to spot stealthy targets such as low-flying cruise missiles.
David Schwarte, executive vice president/general counsel of the Sabre Holdings Corp., Southlake, Tex., has been appointed chairman of the American Bar Assn.'s Air&Space Law Forum. He succeeds Jeffrey N. Shane, who is now associate deputy secretary of Transportation.
Perception can be a powerful force in the investment world and that point was dramatically illustrated last week, much to the dismay of two leading aviation industry suppliers. U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta announced on Wednesday that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) would buy about 1,100 explosive detection systems. TSA is hoping to meet a deadline for 100% inspection of checked baggage by the end of 2002.
France's defense procurement and aerospace research agencies plan to strengthen their ties to the scientific community and industry in order to better exploit their combined resources during a period of low government spending.
Japan's National Space Development Agency has formally approved development of the H-IIA-204 vehicle with four solid rocket boosters for lifting 6,000-kg. (13,200-lb.) class payloads to a geostationary transfer orbit. The vehicle's debut will be the 2004 launch of NASDA's 5,800-kg. ETS-8 engineering test satellite. NASDA forecasts its launch cost as $72 million, versus $64 million for a standard H-IIA with two smaller SRBs.
NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission was remarkably successful, all the more so when its scientific output is measured against its relatively modest cost. The first planetary mission the U.S. space agency ever entrusted to an outside organization, the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft was developed by the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University. Under the leadership of project manager Thomas Coughlin, APL designed and built the spacecraft on time and under budget for a Feb. 17, 1996, launch.
Charles T. (Tony) Robertson (see photos) has been named vice president-business development for military aerospace support for St. Louis-based Boeing Military Aircraft and Missile Systems. He recently retired from the U.S. Air Force as commander-in-chief of the U.S. Transportation Command and commander of the Air Mobility Command, Scott AFB, Ill.
