Israel Farchi has become executive vice president-commercial affairs of Elbit Systems, Haifa, Israel. He was corporate vice president/chief financial officer and has been succeeded by Joseph Gaspar, who was corporate vice president-strategy, technologies and subsidiaries. Jacob Gadot, corporate vice president-mergers and acquisitions, will also be chief technology officer. Marco Rosenthal has been named corporate vice president-manufacturing and purchasing. He was vice president-operations. Gideon Sheffer is now corporate vice president-strategy and policy.
AIR ROUTE TRAFFIC CONTROL CENTER Mode C intruder software should be modified to ensure that all aircraft operating under ARTCC radar control receive full conflict alert and Mode C intruder services, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. Its recommendation to the FAA stemmed from an investigation of a near-midair collision between a Boeing 757 on an IFR flight plan and a VFR F-117A over Los Angeles International Airport. Both aircraft had properly operating traffic-alert and collision avoidance systems (TCAS) and Mode C transponders.
THE FIRST OF TWO Bombardier Aerospace Global Express business jets configured for special missions has been delivered to Itochu Corp., prime contractor for the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB). The long-range business jets will be operated by JCAB to inspect and calibrate en route and approach navigation aids within Japan's airway system. The airplane was the first Global Express to be completed by Marshall Aerospace, Cambridge, England, and features modifications to the airframe to accommodate an array of automatic flight inspection system antennas.
Officials of the Society of Japanese Aerospace Companies (SJAC) are trying to include flying exhibitions at the next Tokyo air show. The event, held at a convention hall in a suburb of the city, has not featured flying because of potential public complaints about noise. But officials want to include helicopter demonstrations at the next show, scheduled for autumn 2004. Manufacturing and assembly of helicopters under license is a major aerospace activity of SJAC members.
Randy Marlar has become vice president-technical operations planning for American Trans Air. He was vice president-maintenance and engineering. Marlar has been succeeded by Terry Kerber, who was vice president-line and base maintenance.
ESA has signed up to buy seats for its astronauts on more Russian Soyuz missions to the International Space Station in an open-ended deal that will give ESA astronauts more flight time on board the ISS. Under the ``framework agreement,'' ESA astronauts will serve as flight engineers on ``taxi flights'' that change out the Soyuz vehicles used as station lifeboats, and on ``increment flights'' that replace crews on board ISS. ESA has astronauts trained as Soyuz flight engineers already.
The U.S. Navy is working to increase the ground attack capability of the F-14 Tomcat by testing new versions of the GBU-24 guided hard target penetrator bomb.
The sleek new $1.4-billion Terminal 4 at New York's JFK International Airport opened for business last week, supplanting the airport's International Arrivals Building that had been in operation since 1957. About 35 international and domestic carriers have already moved into Terminal 4, which will be operated by a private consortium, JFK International Air Terminal LLC (JFK IAT). It includes Schiphol USA, a subsidiary of the Schiphol Group; LCOR, a national real estate developer, and investment bankers Lehman Brothers.
John Carr has been named senior vice president-supply chain management operations and Oliver Evans Amsterdam-based vice president-global sales for Europe, the Middle East and Africa for BAX Global Inc. Carr was group vice president-business development for North America for the Carr Cos. Evans was vice president-alliances at KLM Cargo.
Boosted by one-time gains from the public listing of two subsidiaries and the sale of aircraft, Singapore Airlines posted a fiscal 2000 pre-tax profit of S$1.61 billion ($904 million).
Fees at Kansai International Airport are in the news again. Objections by the International Air Transport Assn. have prompted the Kansai Airport Corp., the airport's owner, to delay a scheduled 4% fuel service rate hike. The KAC wanted the rates to go into effect in April, expecting to add $3.28 million to its annual revenues. But IATA balked, so the old rates still apply.
The European Commission has informed IATA that its agreement to set tariffs--chiefly to facilitate freight interlining--restrains competition and is no longer necessary in light of the liberalized airfreight market and widespread bilateral and global alliances. The EC gave IATA two months to reply to the finding. The EC also extended by one year, until June 2002, a similar agreement applying to passenger flights, to allow additional time for comments.
Ryanair, Europe's largest low-cost carrier, has signed a power-by-the-hour maintenance contract with Israel Aircraft Industries' Bedek Div. for its fleet of 21 Boeing 737-200s. Under the five-year, $40-million contract, Bedek will provide maintenance for the aircraft's auxiliary power units, wheels and brakes, landing gear, avionics and other components. The airline began operations on Apr. 26 from its first continental European base at Charleroi, Belgium.
The Royal Australian Air Force is facing considerable volatility. Parts of its primary area of strategic interest are in turmoil, and in modernizing the force, the introduction of several new weapon systems won't be without hurdles. Two events have brought the situation into focus: the deployment of peacekeepers to East Timor, which highlighted several military needs, and last year's release of the Australian defense white paper allowing aggressive modernization.
Boeing has delivered the first 737-900 aircraft to Alaska Airlines, the launch customer for the largest of the four Next-Generation 737 models. The delivery aircraft is the first of 11 Alaska Airlines is scheduled to place in operation through April 2003. The 138-ft.-long 737 will carry 172 passengers in Alaska's two-class configuration. As to revising delivery schedules due to the sluggish economy, Boeing's Chief Financial Officer Michael Sears said the company has not seen any evidence of airlines moving scheduled delivery dates back, unlike in the past when the U.S.
Daniel Rappanello has been appointed director of human resources of Snecma. He succeeds Francoise Deschee Maeker, who has become vice president- communications. Rappannello was vice president-labor relations of Labinal.
Officials negotiating to get the Navy EP-3 off China's Hainan Island say they can't get an aircraft big enough to carry the boxed-up Navy surveillance craft off the short airfield with unreinforced runways where it landed. The U.S. had been negotiating for a Russian An-124 to haul the disassembled aircraft home. Beijing seems determined to make the U.S. destroy the aircraft to get it back.
Japan's NASDA has reiterated interest in cooperating with NASA and French space agency CNES on the Hope-X reusable launch vehicle project, but only after the project has been restructured into a combined effort between NASDA, ISAS and the National Aerospace Laboratory (AW&ST Apr. 9, p. 36). The restructuring will be facilitated by the decision in January to place the three agencies under a superministry of education, science and technology.
The U.S. Air Force has approved replacing the 1960s-vintage instruments in Lockheed U-2S reconnaissance aircraft with modern color displays. The old instruments are difficult to support, and Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. is installing off-the-shelf avionics under the Reconnaissance Avionics Maintainability Program (RAMP) awarded in October 1998 (AW&ST Apr. 12, 1999, p. 60). Production was approved in April.
France is moving ahead with plans to decrease the state's holdings in two major aerospace firms and to open up its defense market to foreign contractors.
The German Cabinet has approved a multiyear space spending plan that will ensure steady funding for domestic projects and international programs such as the International Space Station.
THE SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION DISPLAY WILL HAVE AN UNUSUAL SIDE-BY-SIDE DEMO WITH A NUMBER OF DISPLAYS, each will have an unusual side-by-side demo with a number of displays, each with the same images and test patterns, at its exhibition in San Jose, Calif., June 3-8. Among the products will be the first 3,200 X 2,400 LCD monitor, a 37-in. monitor comprising three LCDs in a nearly seamless array, and the first Taiwanese plasma display shown in North America. Sony will have its new 13-in.
In a major shake-up of the Scandinavian air travel market, Scandinavian Airlines System has agreed to acquire a majority stake in its Norwegian competitor Braathens from KLM and the Braathens family.
A tiny microthruster designed for use on micro-, nano- and pico-satellites has had a successful hot-fire test on a suborbital sounding rocket. Based on micro-electromechanical systems that use silicon chip fabrication technology to create tiny structures, the microthruster is smaller than a small coin (see photo), yet was able to fire more than 20 1-sec. bursts in tests on board a Scorpius rocket launched from White Sands Missile Range, N.M.
