Robert Crandall, A.B. (Sky) Magary and Joe Ueberroth have been named to the board of directors of MilePoint.com of Minneapolis. Crandall is the retired chairman/CEO of American Airlines and chairman of the Sabre Group. Magary was president of United Airlines' Shuttle by United and executive vice president-marketing for Northwest Airlines. Ueberroth is a partner in Contrarian Group Inc.
Lyndall Lambert and Thomas E. Ice have been named partners in the aviation litigation practice of law firm Holland&Knight of Miami. Both were with Barwick, Dillian, Lambert&Ice.
USAF Lt. Gen. Eugene L. Tattini, who has been commander of the Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles AFB, will become deputy director of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., upon his retirement in early July. He will succeed Larry N. Dumas, who will retire.
Some analysts believe SkyWest Airlines investors have grown more comfortable with the carrier's ability to execute a major growth phase, based on the stock's strong rebound following two difficult quarters. Shares have risen about 60% since March, although in trading last Wednesday, they dropped 1.05 to close at 28.71.
The 2001 Index of Competitiveness takes into account more than 85% of the approximate market capitalization of all publicly traded aerospace companies and roughly 92% of the commercial air transport industry's market cap.
The corporate saga of who controls Air New Zealand and Ansett Australia has taken another turn. Qantas Airways, long eager to take a strategic position in the New Zealand market, has proposed a ``partnership'' with the Auckland-based carrier in a stock swap that would give Singapore Airlines control of Ansett.
Roy H. Norris has been named to the board of directors of Advanced Aerodynamics&Structures Inc., Long Beach, Calif. He is president of aviation and aerospace consulting firm The Norris Group, Birmingham, Ala., and was president of the Raytheon Aircraft Co.
The Assn. of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) has rejected an offer of arbitration from the National Mediation Board (NMB), clearing the way for a 30-day cooling-off period and a possible strike against American Airlines as early as July 1. Negotiations, however, have been scheduled to resume in Washington on June 5.
Dan Derby, vice president-service merchandise of Atlantic Aero, Greensboro, N.C., and treasurer of the Independence, Mo.-based Aircraft Electronics Assn., has been named Member of the Year. Robert Kauffman, retired founder of ElectroSon- ics, Columbus, Ohio, has won the AEA Lifetime Achievement Award.
The U.K.-based GKN Aerospace is stabilizing and enlarging the fabrication business it bought from Boeing nearly six months ago. GKN has moved assembly work for Boeing's Delta IV satellite launch vehicle program to St. Louis from California, and has begun transferring technology to use the resin transfer molding process to produce aircraft parts. The transfer won't be complete until mid-2002, but the plant will have enough equipment to produce some products by year-end. GKN plans to move final assembly for commercial aircraft engine pods to St.
UPS is adding more Boeing 727-QF and 757 freighters to its European network, decreasing the number of smaller aircraft leased-in and cutting down on the number of night flights at its Cologne hub. A pair of company-owned 727-QFs will be assigned to the Oslo and Munich lines, replacing three smaller leased-in or chartered aircraft. Similarly, three 757s will be used on lines to Budapest-Vienna, Treviso-Rome and Istanbul-Tel Aviv, on which six aircraft are presently needed.
Lori Garver, who has been an associate administrator for policy and plans of NASA, has been appointed director of space program development for DFI International of Washington.
Singapore Airlines, whose superior margins and top ranking among global airlines depend on high yields from satisfied, free-spending customers, focuses on keeping its fleet young and its on-board amenities at the cutting edge.
Herley Industries designs and produces microwave and millimeter wave components and subassemblies, mostly for aerospace/defense applications. But Chairman and CEO Lee N. Blatt wants it understood right up front that ``engineering is secondary to profits.'' The company has good technical skills and invests in programs, but doesn't pursue technology development unless it is part of a broader financial goal, he said. ``The direction of the company is strictly bottom line, and we merely employ technology to get where we want to go.''
Sandra T. Reehorst has been appointed chief of the Power and Propulsion Office at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. She was program development manager for the Space Directorate there.
NASA astronaut Patricia Hilliard Robertson died May 24 in Houston from burns suffered in the crash of a Wittman Tailwind aircraft on May 22 (AW&ST May 28, p. 19). She was 38. Robertson was a physician who became a member of the astronaut class of 1998 after joining Johnson Space Center's Flight Medicine Clinic in 1997. She was a support astronaut for the crew now on board the International Space Station at the time of her death.
Thales has agreed to buy Orbital Sciences Corp.'s satellite navigation and positioning activities, in a move that will establish it as a major player in this fast growing market.
In Aviation Week's annual Index of Competitiveness study, otherwise known as the Best-Managed Companies issue, top honors go to companies that have demonstrated the highest performance in the latest fiscal year. But awards in the stock market don't necessarily go to the most profitable company. Instead, stock price improvements are most often associated with the change in performance or the greatest positive momentum, rather than the level of performance, according to Michael McConnell of HOLT Value Associates.
Russia's Military Space Forces were reestablished as a separate branch of Russian military forces last week, after a long stint under the Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN). The move was engineered under a broad-ranging plan to modernize the Russian armed forces. The Military Space Forces, headed by Col.-Gen. Anatoly Perminov, run launch installations at Plesetsk, Svobodny and Baikonur; a central control/test complex and 11 outlying control and monitoring facilities; and armed units specialized in early warning, anti-missile defense and space-monitoring activities.
The Bush team wound up one-and-one at the NATO ministerial summit in Budapest last week. The alliance did not endorse the Administration's initiative for a broad missile defense, but it notably omitted the heretofore canonical language in diplomatic communiques that the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty is ``a cornerstone of strategic stability.'' Defense Secretary Donald H.
Meanwhile, UPS and 200 other foreign parcel express operators, including FedEx and DHL, are under investigation by the Chinese authorities for illegally infringing on monopoly rights of the China Post. Foreign firms--led by UPS, which opened its first direct services between the U.S. and China in April--argue that they were issued bona fide licenses to operate in China and that the move is simply meant to allow China Post to maintain the monopoly of its parcel express service, EMS, until China is admitted into the WTO.
Edo Corp. has received a $2.8-million contract form the U.S. Navy for continued development and manufacturing of its BRU-55/A smart bomb rack. The BRU-55/A is slated for F/A-18 Hornets that will be equipped with smart weapons and Joint Direct Attack Munitions.
CAE will upgrade the U.S. Army's AH-64A Apache Combat Mission Simulator installed at Storch Barracks, Illesheim, Germany. Improvements include equipping the simulator's visual system with sensor capabilities and new visual databases, and integrating a new tactical threat environment. The unit's computer system and instructor station will be modified to match configuration of the AH-64A fleet. The upgrades are scheduled for completion in January 2003.
NASA space science managers are near a decision on whether to continue working on a mission to reach Pluto and the Kuiper Belt by 2020 or give up the effort and with it a chance to perform science that may not be possible again for ``a quarter of a millennium.''
