Immediately after the explosion of a Thai Airways Boeing 737-400 on the ramp at Bangkok's Don Muang Airport Mar. 3, Thai officials seemed to favor the theory that it was the result of a homemade bomb. The airline posted an $11,000 reward for information that will help police catch the perpetrator(s). But the Thais also asked for assistance from the FBI and National Transportation Safety Board. After analyzing a flight recorder in its labs here, the NTSB says the audio signature from the explosion is consistent with a center fuel tank blast.
Boeing and Alenia Spazio have entered into an unusual barter arrangement in which Boeing will buy Alenia tanks for its Delta II rockets, and Alenia will get a price break to use Deltas to launch its satellites. The deal involves fuel tanks for the Delta II upper stage and unspecified Alenia Spazio satellites.
Hawaiian Airlines and the Assn. of Flight Attendants (AFA) have reached tentative agreement on a new 3.5-year contract that calls for increases in benefits and pay for the airline's 895 flight attendants. The AFA negotiating committee, which was unanimous in its approval, now sends the accord to the rank and file for ratification. Unlike other U.S. major airlines, relations between Hawaiian and labor have been relatively good. In January, the airline signed a new 42-month contract with its pilots represented by the Air Line Pilots Assn. (ALPA).
A far-reaching restructuring is expected to significantly enhance Snecma Services' efficiency and support the company's quest for a bigger share in the engine maintenance, repair and overhaul market. Snecma Services, the French Snecma group's MRO arm, was formed in 1998 to unify and streamline industrial facilities and carry out a strategy involving cross-border joint ventures. Such initiatives are designed to support the Snecma group's plans to significantly increase revenues in the next few years through businesses that reach across Europe's boundaries.
This water-based, heavy-duty cleaner and degreaser is finding acceptance as a replacement for aircraft detergents that no longer meet environmental standards. Cortec VCI-415 is formulated to be non-toxic and non-corrosive and to contain no nylphenolethoxylates. It conforms to MIL-PRF-87937C and to a wide variety of ASTM standards required for aircraft and airplane components. It meets requirements for protecting aircraft against corrosion and oxidation.
Paul Cofoni (see photo), who has been president of the Technology Management Group (TMG) of the Computer Sciences Corp., El Segundo, Calif., has succeeded Milton E. Cooper as president of CSC's Federal Sector. Cooper is scheduled to retire at the end of May. Mary Jo Morris (see photo), who has been president of the TMG Application Services Div., has succeeded Cofoni.
Roy C. Carriker (see photo) has been appointed vice chairman of Teleflex Inc., Plymouth Meeting, Pa. He was president of the company's TFX Sermatech Group.
Canada 3000 has merged with Canadian domestic carrier Royal, acquiring 94.1% or 19,169,978 outstanding Royal Aviation Inc. shares. The Toronto-based ``affordable'' carrier Canada 3000 now operates to more than 90 destinations worldwide and last year carried 5 million passengers. Its merger with Royal is in keeping with its growth strategy of operating into different market segments. Canada 3000 President, Angus Kinnear, said the combination would create ``a strong alternative as Canada's second national airline.''
Privatizing air traffic services has been touted as a better way to modernize ATC systems and gain efficiency in day-to-day operations, but reviews from countries that have gone that route, or considered it, are mixed. Strong opinions were voiced at a recent forum on privatization sponsored by the European Guild of Air Traffic Services (EGATS), in conjunction with ATC Maastricht 2001. The one clear message that came out was this: proceed with caution.
With upgrades to the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint-STARS) set to significantly improve its ground monitoring capability, U.S. Army officials are planning to develop a new communications system to interface with the aircraft. The Multi-Platform Common Data Link is an adjunct to the Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion program being developed by Northrop Grumman and Raytheon. The system would provide Army surface units with command/control access to surveillance products, according to the Army.
The space shuttle Discovery returned to Earth early Mar. 20 with the first crew of the International Space Station after spending an extra day aloft because of a heavy logistics workload on the ground teams calculating reentry weight and balance factors for the Italian Leonardo module.
EADS' Military Transport Aircraft Div. has unveiled a maritime patrol aircraft based on the CASA C295 transport and a tactical weapon system it is installing on Spanish air force P-3B Orions. The Spanish-based unit of EADS displayed a C295 MPA demonstrator last week at the IDEX defense exhibition in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. EADS is looking to interest the UAE in the C295 MPA with an antisubmarine warfare capability, as part of the country's Shaheen I maritime patrol program.
EUROCOPTER IS AIMING THE EC130 B4, an upgraded version of the AS350B3, at the air touring market. According to the company, the aircraft has a noise signature of 84.3 EPNdb.--well within ICAO limits but marginally below the maximum permitted by the U.S. National Park Service for operations in Grand Canyon National Park, Ariz. The reduction in noise is achieved chiefly by the helicopter's fenestron tail rotor, which is identical to the unit installed on the twin-engine EC135. Initial deliveries of the EC130 B4 are scheduled to begin in September.
Pratt&Whitney has used a building block approach to develop the mechanical, structural and thermal technologies as well as the analytic codes needed to produce a hydrocarbon-fueled supersonic combustion ramjet or scramjet. Tests during the past several years have focused on developing scramjet inlets and combustors, as well as exploring the cooling techniques and structures needed by an actively cooled scramjet.
Predator unmanned reconnaissance aircraft were scheduled to head for Kuwait next month to relieve the unit now watching over Iraq, but escalated fighting in the Balkans caused the move to be reconsidered and then changed.
Airlines, ground handlers, food service vendors and fixed base operators will be able to share real-time operations data worldwide as individual flights are tracked by a system being developed by AirSphere Corp., a 35-employee New York-based e-business startup. The company will begin testing its Internet-based airline service management technology at the Newark, Dallas/Fort Worth and Tel Aviv airports next month. CEO Niv Schwartz said the new software suite also will send invoices, pay bills and resolve disputes.
The National Security Agency (NSA) has lost its once-vaunted supremacy in computing power, warns Rep. Porter J. Goss (R-Fla.), head of a House intelligence panel. In his words, the ``800-lb. gorilla'' is competing with a ``lot of 400-lb. gorillas'' as a result of the agency's growing technical obsolescence, budget shortfalls and understaffing.
Two years after the Kosovo air war, the U.S. military's gravest worry about NATO remains the transatlantic technological gap. Despite Europe's repeated assurances it will bridge the technology divide laid bare by the Kosovo conflict, the gap is widening, U.S. Air Force Gen. Joseph W. Ralston, commander-in-chief, U.S. European Command, told Congress last week.
The SAirGroup, parent of Swissair and regional carrier Crossair, has named Mario A. Conti chairman, succeeding Eric Honegger who will step down on Apr. 25, a year earlier than expected. Conti, who leaves his post as chief financial officer at Nestle next month, has been a member of SAirGroup's executive management board since last year. He was a driving force behind a move to abandon SAirGroup's ``hunter'' strategy of investing in smaller, financially troubled carriers as a way to expand the company's European presence.
Regulations that make it virtually impossible for families of soldiers killed in accidents to hold the military accountable mean that Bell Helicopter Textron and Boeing will shoulder the brunt of the legal attacks from last year's V-22 crashes. The strategy to hold the contractor, rather than the military, accountable became clear when attorneys representing some families of last April's crash of a V-22 laid out their case during a public hearing.
The European Commission plans legislative proposals this year that could take effect in 2005, moving from today's balkanized setup toward a European air traffic management system. With traffic congestion causing delays for 21% of all flights last year, and growth expected to continue at 7% a year, the countries have little choice.
William J. Lynn, former comptroller of the Defense Dept., has been appointed vice president of Washington-based DFI International and a principal of its investment subsidiary SwannStreet Ventures.
Small and medium-sized businesses that don't want to spend the time and money on their own computerized logistics system will soon be able to obtain that service over the Internet from Ixedius. It is a new company formed by a partnership of SAirLogistics, the airfreight and logistics arm of SAirGroup, and Manugistics, the supplier network specialist. Logistics data will be fed to Ixedius via the Web, which will return an optimized flow of goods to customers.
