An intense national debate over arming airline pilots to protect air transports from terrorists will be decided within the next few weeks amid furious behind-the-scenes political maneuvering. Pilots claim the decision is a potential life-and-death matter for flight crews and their passengers.
A succession of commentators has started to argue that NATO has been marginalized and that its future is in doubt. This is not the first time that predictions of this kind have been made. When the Berlin Wall fell, some critics suggested that NATO had completed its mission and could pack it in. Then, after the success of the Persian Gulf war coalition, they suggested that all future operations would be exactly like Desert Storm--and that, as a result, NATO wasn't needed.
TSA chief John Magaw says a cadre of interim federal security directors--security experts on loan from the FAA and deployed to airports late last week--will see to it that checkpoint screeners conduct themselves appropriately while the new TSA workforce takes over later this year. Magaw's comments follow a Feb. 8 letter from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) asking how the TSA intends to fix its screener training regime to account for recent complaints by women--both flight attendants and passengers--that they had been ``improperly'' patted down by male security guards.
Chris Bowers, who has been senior vice president-North America for United Airlines, has become senior vice president-marketing, sales and reservations. Bill Hobgood, who has been senior vice president-people, will be senior labor adviser to the chairman. He will be succeeded by Sara Fields, who has been senior vice president-onboard service. She will be succeeded by Larry De Shon, who has been senior vice president-marketing. Senior Vice President Pete McDonald will head the airport operations division.
Ansett of Australia is tentatively scheduled to take delivery of up to 40 Airbus A320-series twinjets in the next few years. Tesna, Ansett's new parent company, signed a memorandum of understanding covering the acquisition of 30 150-185-seat A320/A321s and options on 10 additional aircraft. First delivery is planned for the end of 2002.
An Iran Air Tour Tupolev Tu-154M crashed into a mountainous region blanketed by fog, rain and snow the morning of Feb. 12 while on approach to Khorramabad, Iran. All 105 passengers and 12 crewmembers on board were killed. According to Iran's IRNA state-run news agency, the Tu-154M disappeared from radar about 1 hr. after departure from Tehran's Mehrabad International Airport and lost radio contact with the tower at Khorramabad minutes before crashing in the Sefid Kouh mountains, about 230 mi. southwest of Tehran.
L-3 COMMUNICATIONS CORP.'S INTERSTATE ELECTRONICS CORP. has received Defense Dept. design approval and will be the first company to begin production of Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module (Saasm)-equipped GPS receivers. The Saasm assembly is a multichip security module that contains the core logic devices to track the GPS P (Y) code, plus a Key Data Processor II cryptographic device provided by the National Security Agency (NSA). Hardware and software embedded in Saasm, along with an NSA-approved tamper-resistant coating, help protect security functions.
The Transportation Security Administration will study the movement of passengers and cargo through security systems at 15 U.S. airports in an attempt to come up with procedures and processes that improve passenger service as well as security. TSA staff and business process consultants will analyze security operations at 10 of the largest airports--Atlanta, Baltimore-Washington, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago O'Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York Kennedy, Orlando and San Francisco--plus Anchorage, Grand Rapids, Louisville, Mobile and Spokane.
The ultra-long-range Airbus A340-500 is scheduled to obtain FAA and European JAA certification by the end of the year, after having made its first flight on Feb. 11 from Toulouse, France. The A340-500, which is powered by four Rolls-Royce Trent 553 turbofans, is a shortened-fuselage derivative of the 380-seat Dash 600 and retains the same systems. Its maximum range is 16,000 km. (8,640 naut. mi.) in a typical 313-seat, three-class cabin configuration.
Boeing's Phantom Works has completed the wings for the X-37 experimental spaceplane, and transported them to the company's High Desert Assembly Integration&Test Facility in Palmdale, Calif.
The Southwest Airline Pilots' Assn. (SWAPA) issued a ``crew concept'' policy last week, encouraging pilots and flight attendants of each flight crew to stay together until they all clear airport security screening checkpoints. Ideally, this will ``avoid possible confrontations with overzealous security screening staff,'' and ``provide all crewmembers with a witness to potential mistreatment by security screeners, National Guard, police'' or other airline and airport personnel, the advisory said.
Charles Claveau has become president of the Helicopter Engine Program Div. of Turbomeca. Christian Hamel has been named vice president-engine commercial strategy for Turbomeca, Francois Pepin representative in Italy and Helene Seguinotte president of Turbomeca Canada.
Crossair, soon to be Swiss Air Lines, plans to restore Switzerland-U.S. routes of bankrupt Swissair about Mar. 31, the effective date of its designation by the Swiss government to operate the service. Seeking authority from the U.S. Transportation Dept., Crossair projected nearly 764,000 passengers, an average load factor of 50% and more than $460 million in revenue during the last nine months of 2002 from single daily round trips between Geneva and New York JFK, and between Zurich and seven U.S.
Carlton D. Donaway, who has been president/chief operating officer of Airborne Inc. of Seattle, also will be CEO and will become chairman on Apr. 30. Robert S. Cline has retired as CEO and will retire as chairman on Apr. 30 along with Vice Chairman Robert G. Brazier. Lanny Michael has been promoted to executive vice president/chief financial officer from senior vice president/CFO and Richard Corrado to senior vice president from vice president-marketing. Jack Bunyan and Carl Rodriguez have been promoted to senior vice presidents-field services from vice presidents.
The Federal Communications Commission has given the go-ahead to use ultrawideband technology for a broad range of applications, despite aerospace industry concerns about possible interference with GPS and other safety-of-life signals. The ruling does protect GPS signals from intentional UWB emissions.
British Airways aims to ax 650 million pounds ($923 million) in annual costs as the result of its latest round of cuts, unveiled last week, which sees employment tumble further, and the airline retrench at London's Heathrow airport. The recommendations of the review mean that 5,800 more jobs will go, in addition to those already announced in September 2001. The airline's operations at Gatwick airport will also be drastically reduced, and it will relinquish five long- and five short-haul routes, yet to be determined.
ADVANCING THE PRACTICAL USE OF PLASTIC OPTICAL FIBER (POF) for data applications has been hampered by a lack of source information. This has been remedied by publication of the POF Sourcebook which lists 150 companies and organizations involved in the technology in the U.S., Europe and Japan. See: www.IGIgroup.com.
The preliminary report on Air Transat Flight 263 is scheduled for release in April, according to the Portuguese Accident Investigation Authority. The report on the Aug. 24, 2001, incident involving an Airbus A330-200 twin-engine flameout over the Atlantic Ocean was to have been released last month. It was delayed when members of the BEA French accident investigation bureau were transferred to the Nov. 12, 2001, American Airlines Flight 587 crash probe, which also involved an Airbus aircraft, an A300-600.
Nimbus Group officials said the company has received a $1.2-billion commitment toward the production of 1,000 Eclipse 500 lightweight, entry-level business jets. The twin-engine aircraft is under development by Eclipse Aviation in Albuquerque, N.M. The funding was received from DAFIN Asset Finance Ltd., an affiliate of the Royal Bank in Scotland. Tentative plans call for the first of the jets to be delivered to Nimbus in 2004.
Arianespace plans to launch the Satmex 6 communications satellite, under construction at Space Systems/Loral, atop an Ariane 5 vehicle in the first quarter of next year. The 5,700-kg. (12,540-lb.) spacecraft will carry 36 C-band and 24 Ku-band transponders for service to Mexico and other markets in North and Latin America from an orbital slot at 109.2 deg. W. Long. It will mark the fourth flight on an Ariane for Mexican satellite operator Satelites Mexicanos S.A. de C.V.
French government officials, including Defense Minister Alain Richard, are closely monitoring the war in Afghanistan with an eye to reinstating manned bombers. The French air force still operates Dassault Aviation Mirage IVPs in long-range reconnaissance configuration, but the delta-wing aircraft's original bomber version is long forgotten. Airbus executives, who are keen on acquiring more military business, are aware that no program is in the works for the foreseeable future but are alert to possibilities.
U.S. Air Force officials still hope to jump-start replacement of the service's KC-135 tanker fleet with a 10-year lease agreement with Boeing, but they believe the odds are against their being able to seal a deal. ``It is going to be a tough road ahead to make this work. I will tell you right now, at best, it is a 50-50 shot,'' the Air Force's new acquisition chief Marvin R. Sambur said.
The Transatlantic Common Aviation Area between the U.S. and the 15 European Union member states, considered the long-overdue and much-needed substitute for bilateral air transportation accords, would establish fair and competitive rules, according to Loyola de Palacio, the European Commission's vice president and transport commissioner.
Sally Sullivan has become vice president-business development and resources for TRW Systems, Reston, Va. She was vice president/executive director of ChoicePoint. Sullivan succeeds Charles H. Shorter, who has been appointed a vice president in the Washington office.
French defense planners are studying a novel air-ground force multiplier concept that they hope to inscribe in the country's next multiyear spending plan, and to develop in cooperation with allied nations. Called Boa (the French acronym for operational air-ground bubble), it would combine advanced armor and unmanned ground/air vehicles with beyond-visual-range weapons to permit ground troops to be deployed in combat, peacekeeping or urban warfare environments of the type encountered in Afghanistan, Kosovo or Lebanon with minimum casualties.
