David Albers has been named vice president-financial planning/treasurer of Trans World Airlines. He was managing director of financial performance analysis.
In the past, deicing has required spraying lots of glycol on aircraft--a costly, time-consuming and potentially environmentally hazardous operation. Last winter, Continental Airlines used an infrared (IR) alternative at its Newark International Airport hub. The system, developed by Radiant Energy Corp., is called InfraTek. After loading passengers, the aircraft taxis into a specially built hangar, where IR energy is directed down on the aircraft, melting ice and snow (see photo). Suspended inside the structure, ``energy process units'' convert natural gas into IR energy.
Having received the Pentagon's blessing, the U.S. Navy is preparing to start developing its next major satellite constellation, a $3-4-billion program to field a new generation of UHF military communications systems. The move comes despite inter-service haggling over the program structure, which could cause a bumpy start while differences over schedule and financing are resolved.
F414 technology upgrades now being proposed to the U.S. Navy by General Electric could save the service as much as $2 billion over the 20-year operational life of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fleet, according to company estimates.
SabreTech reports that the FAA has agreed to reduce the company's civil fine to $1.75 million from $2.25 million for alleged hazardous materials violations linked to the 1996 crash of ValuJet Flight 592 in the Everglades. In addition to dropping 10 of the original allegations against the now-defunct aviation maintenance company, the FAA also agreed not to pursue SabreTech's parent company, Sabreliner Corp.
Dietmar Loose has been appointed director of business applications of Fairchild Dornier, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. He was head of information technology and e-business applications at Hilti Germany.
The battle continues in Southern California to convert the closed El Toro military air base to a commercial airport. Orange County, the Local Redevelopment Authority for the conversion, is attempting to develop the dormant airfield into a 29-million-passenger-per-year facility. Those plans, however, have met with a barrage of safety, environmental and quality-of-life challenges over the last seven years, spearheaded by the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority (ETRPA), an anti-airport coalition funded by eight nearby cities.
Jefferson Davis (see photo) has been promoted to director of sales and marketing from regional manager for Europe and Africa for the Transparency Div. of the Nordam Group, Tulsa, Okla. Other promotions are: Bob Weiss (see photo) to group director of hushkit marketing from manager of hushkit administration; Mere- dith Siegfried (see photo) to director of international operations for the Repair Div. from manager of strategic marketing development; Deryl Blunt (see photo) to director of operations for the Repair Div.
Joanne Simpson, chief scientist for meteorology at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., has won the Charles F. Anderson Award of the American Meteorological Society (AMS). The award recognizes the promotion of educational outreach and service and diversity in the AMS and broader communities.
The Belgian government is poised to take a 2.5% stake in the Helios-2 surveillance satellite program, a first step toward transforming this French effort into a European initiative. Belgium and Germany had planned to take part in Helios-2, which, unlike the existing Helios-1, will offer day/night imaging capability, as had Italy and Spain, France's partners in Helios-1. However, they were scared off by budget considerations. Spain's defense ministry said last week it planned to decide by summer whether to join the program.
An O'Hare Delay Task Force, the second in a decade for Chicago, will begin work next week to identify means of reducing airline delays and increasing airport capacity at the nation's busiest airport. In this early stage, the task force is focusing on the controversial addition of runways, but that could change.
AVPK Sukhoi and several Russian aviation research and development companies have signed a strategic partnership agreement on development of a new fifth-generation fighter.
CALIFORNIA MICROWAVE SYSTEMS WILL START work on the Army's sixth RC-7B Airborne Reconnaissance Low-Multifunction (ARL-M) aircraft, under a $27.4-million contract, which includes purchase of the aircraft, modification and testing. The RC-7B, a modified de Havilland DHC-7, is a manned airborne collection platform, using imagery, synthetic aperture radar, communications intelligence and data links to provide tactical commanders with near-real-time intelligence (AW&ST Sept. 4, 2000, p. 38).
Larry Kellner has been promoted to president of Continental Airlines from executive vice president/chief financial officer. He succeeds Greg Brenneman, who is returning to his consulting firm. C.D. McLean, who was executive vice president-operations, is now executive vice president/chief operating officer.
U.S. aerospace companies are out of the Czech fighter competition. Boeing was offering F/A-18s, Lockheed Martin the F-16. A senior industry official says there were concerns about demands for huge, 150% offsets and the potential for bribery, because the selection process was ``not transparent . . . those were not the showstoppers.'' But what really derailed any U.S. sale was Czech insistence that the contract proposal be written in Czech and that the deal be negotiated in Czech currency and governed by Czech law.
The Lagardere group intends to remain a major player in EADS and has no plans to sell its stake in the consortium, according to Chairman/CEO Jean-Luc Lagardere. He was responding to increasing speculation that the highly diversified group will shift its focus from aerospace to media businesses. A clause in the cross-border protocol signed last year, shortly before EADS was incorporated, prohibits founding partners from disposing of their stake until mid-2003.
If there were any doubts about the seriousness of Northrop Grumman Corp.'s interest in acquiring Newport News Shipbuilding, the company put those to rest last week with a strong bid that should give rival General Dynamics Corp. pause. But that doesn't necessarily mean the industry will see a heated bidding war if GD decides to counter. ``Northrop Grumman will be prudent in its bidding, given its track record in its losing bids for Lockheed Martin Sanders and the Hughes defense business,'' SG Cowen analyst Cai von Rumohr said.
Preston A. Cooper has been named president of the Ingenuity Research Corp., Black Forest, Colo. He was an associate fellow member of the senior technical staff at CSC/Nichols in Colorado Springs.
NASA is reversing its strategy for developing a new reusable launch vehicle under the $4.8-billion Space Launch Initiative, letting technology drive the final shape of a new vehicle instead of driving the technology with the X-33 concept it dropped earlier this year.
British Airways posted a sharp rebound in profits for the full year, but warned of slower growth following lower traffic figures in the first few months of the current year. The U.K.'s largest airline saw pretax profits grow to 150 million pounds ($214.5 million) for the fiscal year ending Mar. 31 compared with just 5 million pounds the previous year. Operating profit more than quadrupled to 380 million pounds.
The Indian Space Research Organization is developing a largely reengineered version of its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle that is intended to double or triple the launch capability of the new medium/heavy booster, enabling it to compete with the Ariane 5, Delta IV, Atlas V, Proton and other heavy-lift launchers.
As a pilot with over 20,000 hr. of flight time, I speak from experience when I say that pilot fatigue is a very real and serious threat to aviation safety. And it's going to get worse if the FAA fails to update hours of service regulations quickly. Here's just one reason: more and more flights are being shifted to the off-peak hours in response to airport gridlock. Unfortunately, these ``red-eye'' flights are flown when human performance is known to be at its lowest level.
Construction has begun on MTU Aero Engines' Maintenance facility in Zhuhai, China. The joint venture with China Southern Airlines is planned to become operational in late 2002 with a staff of 730. MTU Maintenance Zhuhai will maintain and overhaul V2500 and CFM56 engines. MTU and China Southern expect sales to reach $220 million in 2009.
European Space Agency officials have agreed to launch the Artemis telecom relay satellite and Japan's BSAT-2b satellite on July 12. The agency shifted Artemis to Arianespace in February after the original agreement to use Japan's H-2A rocket had to be scrapped because of delays with the vehicle's development program (AW&ST Feb. 19, p. 21). The $720-million satellite, built by Alenia Spazio, will carry a key navigation payload for Europe's Egnos wide-area augmentation network along with experimental Ka-band, laser data link and L-band mobile systems.
UAL Corp. is holding discussions with U.S. and European business jet manufacturers in preparation for placing major orders to supply its new fractional ownership program.
