British Airways saw traffic decline by 8.9% in March compared to the previous year. The carrier attributed the drop to lost bookings due to a spate of computer reservation problems last month, the economic slowdown in the U.S. and tourists being deterred by the foot-and-mouth livestock disease which has hit the country.
Embraer plans, over the next five years, to invest $1.4 billion for new production facilities at Eugenio de Melio, move its flight test unit to Gaviao Peixoto and install an additional spare parts depot at Weybridge, England. Last year, Embraer delivered 159 regional twinjets, up from 97 during 1999, and cut production cycles to 4.9 months, down from eight. Embraer has secured 31 firm orders for the Legacy, a corporate derivative of the ERJ-135. The first Legacy is scheduled to be delivered in August.
The NTSB's investigation of the Mar. 19 inflight tumble of an ice-laden Comair EMB-120 twin-engine turboprop, en route from the Bahamas to Orlando, Fla., will likely heat up a simmering dispute with the FAA over the board's position that crews should hand-fly their aircraft when encountering icing conditions.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has sent its closely guarded draft final report on the Oct. 31, 1999, crash of EgyptAir 990 to Egyptian authorities, giving them 60 days to tell their side of the story before the NTSB issues a final report. The board and the Egyptian government still differ greatly in their analysis of what happened. NTSB investigators are likely to blame a crewmember for deliberate actions that sent the Boeing 767 plunging into the ocean from cruising flight at 33,000 ft. off Nantucket, Mass., killing all 217 on board.
NASA's cancellation of the X-34 reusable launch vehicle has added to the woes facing Orbital Sciences Corp., which is selling off subsidiaries to cover debt in the face of a disputed auditor's warning that the company may not be able to continue as a going concern.
Comair and its striking pilots are returning to the negotiating table this week at the invitation of the National Mediation Board after the company abolished 200 pilots jobs and reduced its fleet to cut rising costs of the four-week-old walkout. Both sides agreed to discuss issues Apr. 25-27 in Washington. A Comair official said the company hoped pilots will show ``a spirit of compromise.'' The Air Line Pilots Assn. (ALPA) spokesman, Paul Lackie, said: ``All along we have said we are willing to negotiate any time, any place.''
In a major move for the International Space Station to regain its required six-crewmember capability, the Italian Space Agency (ASI) in consultation with Alenia has signed a framework agreement with NASA to develop the crew habitation module killed earlier by U.S. budget cuts.
Although the U.S. government states it has shifted most of its software acquisitions to commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products, holdouts remain, particularly in the military space sector. Commercial products have a difficult time competing against highly tailored, in-house software packages. Part of the problem is the Pentagon's archaic budgeting system, which provides money for developing and maintaining software internally, but very little to buy COTS equivalents.
Japan's National Space Development Agency (NASDA) is planning the second launch of the J-1 in early 2002. The two-stage modified launch vehicle is to carry the Oicets optical communications experiment satellite. J-1's first launch, in 1996, was marred when the Hyflex test vehicle slipped from a flotation bag and sank in the Pacific Ocean. Later, soaring acquisition and launch costs and a dearth of commercial customers led NASDA to modify the J-1 (AW&ST May 10, 1999, p. 21).
Paul R. Kuhn, who has been president/ CEO of the Kaman Corp., Bloomfield, Conn., will now also be chairman. He succeeds company founder Charles H. Kaman, who did not seek reelection. Kaman has been named chairman emeritus. His son C. William Kaman, 2nd, has been appointed vice chairman. He is chairman/CEO of AirKaman, Jacksonville, Fla.
The moving vehicle--particularly one that stops and starts often, maneuvers and hides--might be the single, most difficult target facing the U.S. military.
Stephen A. Greene has been appointed to the board of directors of Atlas Air Inc., Purchase, N.Y. He is a senior partner in the law firm Cahill Gordon and Reindel of New York.
Raytheon Aircraft Co. rolled out its new Model 4000 Hawker Horizon Apr. 17 and plans first flight late this summer, followed by FAA certification in 2003. The airplane ``moves Raytheon Aircraft toward the `heavy iron' business jet category at a super-midsize price,'' said Chairman/CEO Hansel Tookes. Priced at $16.8 million, the twin-engine airplane is the largest jet built by the company to date and is about 30% larger overall than the midsize-cabin Hawker 800 XP.
Grant Palmer (see photos) has become group vice president-national sales for VertexRSI, Gastonia, N.C. He was general manager in Marietta, Ga., for StarBand Communications. At the Duluth, Ga., facility, Bradford A. Majeres has become vice president/general manager and Joseph Przygoda director of systems engineering. Majeres was vice president-engineering and operations, while Przygoda was a staff systems engineer.
Qantas postponed delivery of its first 13 Airbus A330 aircraft six months, to November 2002, to allow for installation of newly available flight deck technology.
U.S. Space Command is combining its computer network defense and attack missions into a single grouping, Computer Network Operations, according to Gen. Ralph E. Eberhart, the space command chief. Details are being worked out, and the Pentagon has yet to give final approval, but the switch is expected to initiate some minor organizational shifts. For instance, a Washington-area unit now handling day-to-day computer network defense activities would be renamed, becoming the Computer Network Operations Joint Task Force.
European and American business aviation leaders are wagering that by joining forces they can help jump-start demand for executive jets in Europe, which has stagnated for a decade around 2,000 units--one-seventh the U.S. level. The first European Business Aviation Assn. (EBAA) Convention and Exhibition, organized by the European Business Assn. and the U.S.' National Business Aviation Assn. (NBAA), was held here last week in a climate of cautious optimism fueled by relatively strong economic growth in Europe.
USAF Gen. (ret.) John Lorber has been appointed vice president-space and communications operations for Colorado for the Boeing Space and Communication Group. He has been vice president-international business development.
Georges Sangis has become executive vice president of France-based Snecma Moteurs. He was vice president-commercial engines. Sangis has been succeeded by Jean-Pierre Cojan, who was director-civil market.
Air Wisconsin Airlines selected Bombardier's CRJ200--75 on firm order, 75 on option--in a tight competition with Embraer's ERJ-145, but the Canadair Regional Jet won out in part because it is expected to operate with fewer restrictions than the Brazilian jet in summer at mile-high Denver International Airport.
International safety experts investigating the fatal crash of a Gulf Air Airbus A320-212 on Aug. 23, 2000, after a bungled night-time approach to the Bahrain International Airport, have issued a preliminary report detailing the final minutes of the flight.
Lockheed Martin's Sniper targeting pod continued to track targets and presented a stable image during a 4-min., Mach 1.12 ``speed-soak'' test recently. Shock waves from the inlet-mounted pod did not interfere with the F-16's engine operation, nor degrade infrared or visible-light images presented on cockpit displays. While supersonic, the pod tracked a taxiing B-52 bomber more than 20 naut. mi. away, and detected/tracked other ground targets from about 30,000-ft. altitude. A USAF test pilot commented that ``the jet was rock-solid.
Government and industry leaders are concerned that the shortage of scientists and engineers in the U.S. aerospace and defense complex is getting worse, despite the partial collapse of Internet companies that were consuming technical talent a year ago. Boeing recently acknowledged it cannot find enough information technology professionals to handle all its projects, and has extended searches to Canada, India and Australia.
