Alcatel has completed the acquisition of a 49% stake in its Alcatel Space subsidiary owned by defense contractor Thales. The 795-million-euro ($675-million) purchase was made half in cash and half in Thales shares, reducing a parallel stake in Thales held by Alcatel to 20% from 25.3% previously (AW&ST May 21, p. 45).
Rolim Adolfo Amaro, founder, owner and president of TAM Brazil, was killed on July 8 while flying his helicopter to Pedro Juan Caballero, Paraguay, from his ranch in Brazil. He was 58. Also killed was Patricia Dos Santos Silva, a TAM manager. Amaro had built up TAM from a small regional airline to Brazil's second largest carrier. He is to be succeeded by his brother-in-law and TAM vice president, Daniel Madelli Martin.
The FAA is looking to the Free Flight Steering Committee of the RTCA, an avionics advisory group, for help in jump-starting its recently released Operational Evolution Plan (OEP) to increase airspace capacity. Success of the 10-year effort to bridge the gap between demand and capacity will hinge on the ability of the agency, airlines and other users, and airports to modernize in parallel. For the airlines this means investing before the FAA infrastructure is in place, which will require a higher than normal level of trust and confidence.
Relocation of noise-affected residents near Louisville International Airport will be accelerated over the next four years due to the commitment of $98 million to the project by the Regional Airport Authority of Louisville and Jefferson County, Ky. In the last 12 years, about 2,900 families have been relocated. Under a traditional program, the airport authority acquires the affected house and allows the homeowner to select a replacement.
Vicki Bretthauer has become senior vice president-administration, Steven A. Rossum senior vice president-corporate finance/general counsel and Jeffrey J. Simmons senior vice president-finance/chief financial officer, all of DHL Airways Inc. Bretthauer was director of flight attendant scheduling and support for United Airlines and Rossum vice president/treasurer of AirTran Airways. Simmons was vice president-finance/CFO of Atlantic Southwest Airlines.
A $5.45-billion defense supplemental bill heads to a congressional conference committee, following Senate approval on a vote of 98-1. At the Administration's behest, senators turned back amendments that would have augmented readiness and other accounts with emergency appropriations, an habitual Clinton-era practice. The Bush team is keen to stamp it out, in the interest of more responsible and accurate budgeting.
The United Airlines-US Airways merger chips, after rolling around helter-skelter this month, have finally settled--maybe. United's parent UAL Corp. says it will continue its pursuit of a US Airways buyout and abide by the terms of the original merger agreement, at least until the Justice Dept. makes a final ruling on the proposed $4.3-billion deal. Both parties notified Justice within the 21 days required to ``obtain a determination of its position on the pending merger,'' according to US Airways.
Astronauts on Atlantis and the International Space Station are this week installing the station's 6.5-ton airlock, after the shuttle was launched here using the first new Boeing/Pratt&Whitney Block II main engine. As the 10th station assembly flight got underway, NASA continues to assess shuttle program cost cuts, including possibly mothballing the oldest orbiter Columbia.
When Continental Airlines asked Bruce Tesmer in 1995 to find out how well the carrier's crew resource management (CRM) program was working in the cockpit, he knew the typical line check wouldn't do the job. Tesmer, a Continental pilot and manager of human factors at the time, was sure pilots would be tight-lipped and unnaturally attentive under the magnifying glass of a company check airman.
The common saga of infotech--replace paper with software and reap the efficiency benefits--has come to two airport ground handling companies. Worldwide Flight Services, which does business at 96 cities from its headquarters near Dallas, and Laufer Aviation at Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport have both implemented operations management software from AirSphere, a New York-based applications service provider (ASP). AirSphere was started last year with backing from Genesis Partners, an Israeli venture capital company.
OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY'S CENTER for Aerospace and Hyperbaric Medicine will use a low-cost (under $100,000) motion-based flight trainer to supply a hands-on spatial disorientation experience to civilian pilots. Environmental Tectonics Corp.'s General Aviation Trainer (GAT-2) has a three-axis motion platform that provides realistic cues for recovery from unusual attitudes, stalls and spins. The visual display has a photo-realistic terrain database, selectable weather conditions, all FAA-listed airports and navaids, according to the company (see related story on p.
Lee Monson is expected to become president of Boeing Business Jets upon the planned retirement of Borge Boeskov early next year. Monson has been vice president-sales.
It was only a year ago that B/E Aerospace Inc.'s fortunes were sagging badly because of major operational problems in its seating products unit. The debacle shook some customers' confidence, and for a while it seemed as though investors had all but given up on the stock. As it turns out, B/E has shown a dramatic turnaround during the last 12 months, with airlines apparently continuing to feel comfortable with the company's seating business recovery.
Aviastar of Russia says China is on the verge of placing its first order for new Russian-built civil air transports in a decade. According to the Ulyanovsk, Russia-based airframer, China will sign an agreement for 10 Tupolev Tu-204-100 or higher gross weight Tu-214 twinjets, perhaps during a visit to Moscow this week by Chinese President Jiang Zemin. The deal would be a further sign of displeasure with the U.S., which has been negotiating to place 30 Boeing New-Generation 737s (AW&ST July 9, p. 51).
Jim Jensen has been promoted to vice-president-information technology from director of management information systems and Necia Clark-Mantle to vice president from senior director of people for SkyWest Airlines.
Iberia's 1,900 pilots rejected an offer from the airline to submit their pay dispute to voluntary arbitration and were expected late last week to call additional strike days. The offer followed the Spanish carrier's decision to break off talks with SEPLA, the pilots' union, which had already called for a series of 10 24-hr. strikes this summer through the end of August. The third and latest occurred on July 10 and forced the recently privatized carrier to cancel 230 of 1,022 flights.
The DCAG French civil aviation authorities so heartily endorse flight data monitoring as a safety tool to identify decision errors and operational deviations that they plan to implement it further in France and, with strong support from Airbus, will soon recommend that their international counterparts adopt it as well.
Wolfgang Weiss has been named chief financial officer of Fairchild Dornier. He was managing director of marketing, sales and finance of the TWD group. Weiss succeeds Rudi Lenz, who is now president of Fairchild Aircraft Services.
Early 20th century. Flight training for aspiring aviators at the Wright Company School of Aviation near Dayton, Ohio, consisted of a series of 5-15-min. flights in ``a machine equipped with duplicate control levers,'' a method of instruction that ``provides almost perfect results.'' The 1910 school brochure promised fledglings they would learn to fly in 2-3 hr. of actual practice and become competent pilots in 8-10 days following first flight--as well as learn ``the principles of flight and construction of flying machines''--all for $250 in tuition.
Economics and the pilots' scope clause at Northwest Airlines motivated officials of the St. Paul, Minn.-based carrier last week to select Canada's Bombardier over Brazil's Embraer and acquire 75 44-seat CRJ440s under a flexible lease-finance agreement valued at $1.68 billion. A loan to Northwest from the Canadian government, covering 80% of the cost, may stir embers of an ongoing trade dispute between Canada and Brazil over the degree of governmental support of aircraft acquisitions.
Emanuel Brady, Jr., (see photo) has been named vice president-information technology of Raytheon Electronic Systems, El Segundo, Calif. He was senior manager for project management and strategic planning. Brady succeeds Rebecca Rhoads, who is now vice president/chief information officer of the Raytheon Co., Lexington, Mass.
India said last week it tested an Indo-Russian supersonic cruise missile, the PJ-10, on June 12 that may have Mach 2 capabilities at a test range in Chandipur in eastern India. Ministry of Defense officials said the missile, also called Brahmos, has a range of 280 km. (175 mi.) and is intended for sale to the Indian and Russian armed forces. Officials also indicated it would be marketed internationally. Developed jointly by India's Defense Research and Development Organization and Russia's NPO Mashinostroyenia, the PJ-10 uses a Russian engine and Indian guidance system.
British low-cost carrier Go will challenge Ryanair and Aer Lingus on the market between Ireland and Scotland. Go said it will begin flights from Edinburgh and Glasgow to Dublin starting in September. The London Stansted Airport-based airline plans to increase its fleet to 18 737-300s from 13 this year. Go was sold last month by British Airways to The 3i Group, a British venture capital firm.
Supporters of the B-1B bomber have declared war on a U.S. Air Force proposal to cut and reallocate the fleet, contending the plan would incur significant costs, rather than generate savings.
