Arno Peels has been appointed chairman of Thales Netherlands. He succeeds Rob Boswijk, who has retired. Peels was an executive at Philips Semiconductors.
Passenger traffic on U.S. airlines returned to the growth mode in August compared to the same month a year ago, but carriers stimulated traffic by lowering prices. Continental Airlines, one of the pacemakers with a 7.9% growth in the domestic market, reported its revenue per available seat mile (RASM), a measure of price level, dropped 12-14%. David A. Swierenga, the Air Transport Assn. chief economist, expected industry traffic growth of between 1-2%. That's better than July's decline of up to 1%.
Bell Helicopter Textron is laying off as many as 275 union and white-collar workers this month in the wake of sagging sales of commercial aircraft and program setbacks associated with the V-22 tiltrotor.
Lufthansa Technik Philippines is investing close to $100 million to expand the capacity of the former Philippine Airlines engineering facility at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport here. LTP is to become a heavy maintenance and overhaul specialist for Airbus A330/340 aircraft.
Gary R. Daniels has been named general manager at Dallas Love Field and Robert Grant general manager at Atlanta DeKalb Peachtree Airport for Signature Flight Support. Daniels held the same position at Chicago Midway Airport, while Grant was special projects manager for Raytheon Aviation Services, Wichita, Kan.
U.S. Air Force officials are starting to explore options for a new target drone in anticipation of dwindling supplies of the current system and the need for a more realistic threat representation. The QF-4, a modified F-4 that can fly unmanned and is instrumented for testing, represents the backbone of the Pentagon's full-scale target program. Several are shot down each year to assess the effectiveness of the military's new weapons. However, supplies are expected to run out by the end of the decade, forcing planners to debate how to replace the QF-4.
The Pentagon is struggling to persuade Congress that replacement of old equipment cannot wait any longer, but a new congressional analysis says that modernization decisions should not be based on the common assumption that aging systems are the root cause of higher operations and maintenance spending.
In a major milestone for the U.S. Air Force/commercial Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program, the first test EELV rocket stage has been mounted on its launch pad at Cape Canaveral.
NASA's top staff and center directors probably are feeling a little battered. A rough and tumble number-crunching ``retreat'' was set here over the weekend. The Fiscal 2003 budget is in preparation and the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is holding firm against a plus-up. So, lame-duck Administrator Daniel S. Goldin and Chief of Staff Courtney Stadd called on senior managers to squeeze the agency into the $14.985-billion top line set for the year.
After selling assets and reorganizing, Philippine Airlines is gaining back lost routes and looking for a third year in the black Three years after it was grounded by bankruptcy and forced into receivership at the height of the Asian financial crisis, Philippine Airlines is in its second year of profitable operations and is paying off its debts.
Construction of a second runway at Tokyo Narita airport is ahead of schedule, which will allow the 2,180-meter (7,150-ft.) runway to open a month early, on Apr. 21. The addition will allow Narita to push up its annual aircraft movement rate to 200,000 from 135,000. The airport says it will buy a 22.2-acre plot next to the airport for 4 billion yen ($33 million) on which to add three cargo buildings. Narita trailed only Hong Kong's Chek Lap Kok in terms of international cargo loads last year with 1.84 million metric tons.
AN INTERSTATE ELECTRONICS CORP. software package permits turnkey visualization for analysis of GPS performance in high-dynamic vehicle maneuvers. The GPSView 2000 integrates 3D visualization and joystick control with the company's SCS2400 GPS satellite constellation simulator. The new system reproduces terrain, fuselage and inertial effects on GPS performance, and the joystick control helps users quickly isolate receiver anomalies, according to the company.
U.S. Space Command trackers believe a blazing object in the sky that startled early risers on the East Coast last week was a spent Russian SL-3 Vostok booster reentering after a quarter century in orbit. A command spokesman said the Space Control Center in Cheyenne Mountain, near Colorado Springs, had predicted the rocket, tracked since August 1975, would reenter at 6 a.m. EDT on Sept. 6. That was about the time police switchboards began lighting up with reports of the burning object, which Space Command said reentered about 100 mi. off Delaware.
The credit line on satellite imagery of Lajes Field in the Azores was omitted from last week's issue (AW&ST Sept. 3, p. 35). The picture was supplied by Space Imaging.
Preussag, the leading charter/tour operator, will expand its air travel operations into Poland by acquiring a 29% interest in Polish charter/air taxi carrier White Eagle Aviation. White Eagle has a fleet of 13 aircraft, including two Boeing 737-400s and one ATR 42 turboprop. The purchase will expand the group's charter fleet to seven airlines in six European countries, flying a fleet of 90 aircraft. Preussag also decided to adopt a common livery and brand name for its operations.
John A. Pope, who was a member services employee of the Washington-based National Business Aviation Assn. from 1961-84, has been selected to receive the organization's Staff Lifetime Achievement Award. After retiring, Pope became a free-lance writer and founded a company that prepared operations manuals for corporate aviation departments.
A group of top German aerospace executives led by EADS Co-CEO Rainer Hertrich and Lufthansa German Airlines boss Wolfgang Mayrhuber have released a report demanding major upgrades for the country's air transport system. The report said capacity must be expanded rapidly if Germany is to remain competitive and become a growth engine for Europe. Specifically, it recommended that Germany take a lead role in implementing Europe's Single Sky Initiative and Galileo satellite navigation system, and foster further restructuring and integration of the European supplier industry.
British Airways plans to cut its workforce by 1,800 employees by next April, a move analysts say is consistent with the carrier's strategy to reduce overall capacity by about 16% by 2003. BA's tactic includes replacing Boeing 757s and 767s on European routes with smaller Airbus A320s and phasing out older Boeing 747s on long-distance routes to increase yields. BA has already reported a 12% boost in yields on North Atlantic routes.
Aerojet has ground-tested a 67-ft.-long monolithic solid rocket motor destined for heavy-lift versions of Lockheed Martin's new Atlas V and perhaps other space launch vehicles as well. The motor generated 285,000-390,000-lb.-thrust in the horizontal test, which lasted 95 sec. Engineers determined the motor burned nominally, validating the new manufacturing processes Aerojet developed for the large motor. Two more tests in the Atlas V configuration are planned.
NASA/Langley Research Center plans to conduct further experiments this autumn of an upgraded Runway Incursion Prevention System (RIPS) using the Center's Research Flight Deck and pilots from major U.S. airlines.
Albuquerque International Sunport set an all-time, single-month record for passenger traffic in July, serving 643,632 travelers. That was a 9.6% increase over July 2000 and topped the previous record set in October 1996 during the airport's rapid growth spurt. Aviation Director Jay Czar attributed the recent peak to ``great air fares and a healthy summer travel season.'' Southwest Airlines saw a 17% year-over-year increase, Continental rose 18.5%, and Frontier posted a stunning 98% jump. Delta, American, TWA and Mesa registered declines.
