David Vaughan has become Northeast U.S. regional vice president for Orlando, Fla.-based Signature Flight Support. He was general manager in Houston for Raytheon Aircraft Services. David Napier has been promoted to general manager from operations manager in Memphis, Tenn.
European and Russian space officials have published price lists for use of the International Space Station that they hope will entice customers unable to afford the conditions proposed by NASA.
Israeli defense officials selected Pratt&Whitney's F100-PW-229 engine to power the Israel Air Force's follow-on buy of fighter aircraft, a decision worth about $300 million. This is the third consecutive time the country has chosen the F100 to power front-line fighters, according to Maj. Gen. (Res.) Amos Yaron, director general of the Israel Ministry of Defense. The contract will cover 61 engines for delivery in 2005-08.
The European Commission is setting tough conditions for approval of the proposed merger between General Electric and Honeywell. Conditions are thought to include divestiture of Honeywell's regional jet engine unit and some of its avionics businesses, along with measures to separate or spin off GE's GECAS financing and leasing arm and prevent bundling of aerospace products. GE is willing to consider the jet engine sale and some limitations on bundling and GECAS operations, but is balking at more extensive remedies, Brussels sources say.
Petra Mayer has been appointed manager for market planning and product development, Malcolm Pryor manager of frequent-flier program development, Rob- ert Antoniuk manager for brand performance and development and Shelley Morrison airports customer service analyst, all for the Oneworld Alliance in Vancouver. Mayer was with British Airways, Pryor with Qantas Airways, Antoniuk from ICBC of Canada and Morrison from Canadian Airlines.
NASA needs to get to work soon on a facility to contain any microbes it may collect on Mars if it plans to mount a sample return mission in 2011, according to a National Research Council panel. The NRC Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration notes that protecting Earth from alien organisms and protecting those organisms from contamination at the same time so they can be studied will be difficult.
Dogged by airline delays, pilloried by travelers and pressed by Congress, the FAA is trying to accomplish two things with its newly issued National Airspace System (NAS) Operational Evolution Plan: accommodate a 30% increase in commercial aviation operations by 2010, and break the mold of its previous planning. Unlike acquisition-oriented schemes of the past, the ambitious new plan integrates dozens of hardware, operations and administrative initiatives into 20 program packages meant to solve specific problems that limit the capacity of the system.
While the U.S. airline industry is on the verge of another major consolidation move, European airlines are barely beginning to take the first steps down that road in spite of large-scale inefficiencies and a relatively widespread lack of profitability.
An advisory committee formed by Japan's new prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, is considering privatizing major government-owned airports as part of an overall budget-trimming effort.
China said it expects to choose 15 airports for a $600-million upgrade program to make them ready for international services. Work is to start in mid-2003 and be completed in time to support Beijing's entry to host the Summer Olympic Games in 2008.
At the upcoming Paris air show, the Boeing Co. expects to have little to add to what officials already have revealed about the proposed Mach 0.95 aircraft, according to Boeing Commercial Airplane Group President and CEO Alan Mulally. ``There won't be a lot of new stuff to present,'' he said. That probably will come as somewhat of a disappointment to the investment community, since some industry analysts believe further insight into the sonic cruiser's status could help offset slowing commercial orders and trigger a rise in Boeing's stock price.
The Indian Space Research Organization and French national space agency CNES have given final approval to a joint satellite mission intended to study how the water cycle affects atmospheric climate processes over the tropics (AW&ST Nov. 29, 1999, p. 37). The 500-kg. satellite, called MeghaTropiques, will be launched in late 2005 on India's PSLV booster. The next PSLV mission is set for September, carrying a pair of remote-sensing satellites. Two missions per year are planned through 2006-07.
The Pentagon's incoming test chief pledges ``absolute candor'' in evaluating the next national missile defense (NMD) testing plan. At his Senate confirmation hearing late last week, Thomas P. Christie said he would insist on repeated and demanding NMD tests, including countermeasures, for whatever NMD program the Administration endorses. Senators pressed Christie for an explicit pledge because of military concerns that the handful of tests to date for a limited land-based system were too few and too easy. That charge was leveled by Christie's predecessor, Philip E. Coyle.
Raytheon Aircraft Co. plans to furlough 470 hourly employees this month and reduce production rates for the Beechjet 400A and King Air aircraft in response to the economic downturn. In April, the company laid off 450 salaried employees. A Raytheon Aircraft official said deliveries of new airplanes this year will decline to 468 from the 508 originally anticipated. The reductions include 16 fewer Beechjets and 24 fewer King Airs.
Theodore S. Webb, Jr., has been appointed to the board of directors of Kellstrom Industries Inc., Sunrise, Fla. He is the retired vice president for F-16 programs at General Dynamics.
The European Space Agency and EADS Launchers have concluded a preliminary agreement to resolve a cost-overrun problem with the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), a key element of the International Space Station. If left unsettled, the overrun could have added 50% to the initial 360-million-euro ($305-million) development cost for the ATV, which is supposed to resupply and periodically reboost the ISS starting in 2004.
HITACHI AND TRW'S NEW SEMI-CONDUCTOR COMPANY, VELOCIUM, have agreed to jointly develop high-efficiency power amplifier modules for cell phones using Velocium's indium phosphide (InP) semiconductors. InP gives higher efficiency and an improved signal quality compared with other semiconductors, for wideband CDMA handsets for third-generation wireless telecommunications. The company hopes to capture 10% of the 700-million handset sales expected by 2005. Hitachi will manufacture the modules, anticipating initial samples in early 2002.
Eurofighter has successfully conducted the first test launch of a powered Amraam separation/control test vehicle to validate the separation trajectory from the aircraft. The May 17 test launch was conducted from Alenia-built protoype DA7 at the Italian flight test range at Decimomannu, Sardinia. On June 1, DA7 was employed for the first firing of a Matra BAE Dynamics Asraam missile.
As Comair's striking pilots and carrier officials were poised to meet last week with the U.S. Transportation secretary, the Cincinnati hub for the regional airline and its parent, Delta Air Lines, became a spoke in Air Canada's sprawling network based at Toronto.
Russia and India have pledged to cooperate on development and production of new weapon systems, including a fifth- generation fighter, a multirole transport aircraft and air defense systems.
NATO has awarded contracts to two industry teams to conduct feasibility studies for a layered theater missile defense (TMD) system. One group is led by Science Applications International Corp. while Lockheed Martin heads Team Janus, which also includes MBDA, BAE Systems, EADS' LFK and Astrium. The 18-month-long, $13.5-million studies are intended to assess technical feasibility of land-, sea- and air-based options, costs and timescales as NATO looks to decide on whether to proceed with a TMD system.
It's not often that the Airbus and Boeing corporate logos appear side-by-side, but they are in a mailing from Achim Krapp, manager of reliability analysis and improvement programs for Airbus, and Kenneth D. Porad, program manager for the permanent bar code identification program at Boeing. Krapp and Porad are promoting use of the Air Transport Assn.'s SPEC 2000 permanent bar code ID standard for all of their suppliers at European and North American conferences this fall hosted by Frontline Solutions Expo.
Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control of Dallas, the prime contractor on the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile, has selected its own production facility in Camden, Ark., as the final assembly site for the PAC-3. The company said the decision, announced last week, was largely based on the facility's outstanding performance, particularly on the Multiple Launch Rocket System. According to President James F. Berry, the per-unit cost on the PAC-3 could come in at or below $2 million, factoring in expected U.S.
Foreign sales are crucial to the U.S. in driving the cost of its first-generation of unmanned, long-range reconnaissance aircraft low enough to afford them in operationally effective numbers. However, succeeding presidential administrations have failed to confront arms control restrictions on the export of these unmanned aircraft. As a result, the Pentagon and aerospace industry are facing potentially huge obstacles to the growth of such programs.
