Jim Keohane has become a non-executive member of the board of the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority. He will serve on the CAA's policy committee. Keohane succeeds Bryan Austin, who is retiring.
Aeroflot, the struggling Russian airline, may acquire Virgin Express' Irish operations, which are up for sale. Aeroflot is interested in a small-size European airline and said Virgin Express Ireland ``could be a very attractive candidate.'' Virgin Express officials said they are in discussions with several parties, but declined to identify them. The Irish subsidiary of Brussels-based Virgin Express will continue to fly between London Gatwick and Shannon and Brussels until Mar. 12.
BFGoodrich Co. last week reported a 19% improvement in fourth-quarter earnings per share on 10% higher sales, while Honeywell International posted a 10% drop in income, partly due to decisions related to the company's pending acquisition by General Electric Co. Precision Castparts Corp., Hexcel Corp., Ladish Co. Inc. and Triumph Group Inc. also managed to significantly improve their performance in the quarter ended Dec. 31. Titanium Metals Corp., the U.S.' only supplier of titanium sponge, posted a loss, before special items.
The coup by Yugoslav air defenses of shooting down a U.S. Air Force F-117, a first-generation stealth aircraft, in 1999 reflects growing efforts to develop systems that stymie the operation of radar-evading U.S. aircraft.
The National Mediation Board is considering simultaneously releasing Northwest Airlines and the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Assn. (AMFA) from mediation and recommending the White House appoint a ``presidential emergency board'' to help resolve their four-year-old contract dispute. The board's idea comes following the adjournment Jan. 31 of contract talks between Northwest and AMFA, which represents 10,000 mechanics and cleaners. The sides remain miles apart on issues of salary and benefits.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's administration has been busy re-forging military and technical ties with Asian neighbors which have spawned a series of arms export deals that could revitalize the nation's flagging defense industrial base. Arms sales during 2000 earned Russia at least $4.3 billion, according to the latest estimates, the largest result since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. That compares with arms sales worth about $3.5 billion in 1999. The biggest customers were China and India.
Rick Beaulieu has become program director/principal engineer for Product Genesis, Cambridge, Mass. He was an executive with General Electric Aircraft Engines.
India's air force base at Bhuj was hard hit by the earthquake that killed thousands in the northwest part of the country. Cracks in the runway and taxiway had to be repaired quickly to allow emergency relief supplies and equipment to be brought to the affected region. None of the aircraft at Bhuj, mainly MiG-21s, was damaged. In the first 24 hr., the Indian air force flew more than 50 sorties into the airfield with five Il-76s, 14 An-32s and five HS-748s. Supplies have also been airdropped from helicopters, including a total of 15 HAL Cheetaks, Mi-8s, Mi-17s and Mi-26s.
SENSIS CORP. AWARDED A $3.6-MILLION contract to Raytheon to manufacture an advanced surface movement radar and controller display subsystem for the FAA's airport surface detection equipment (ASDE-X). The FAA recently selected the Sensis/Raytheon team to provide an integrated ASDE-X system to aid in preventing runway incursions. ASDE-X will combine Sensis' transponder multilateration sensors with a radar to display aircraft positions in the control tower. The sensors identify aircraft and their locations, which are shown on high-brightness color displays in the tower.
Herbert B. Armstrong has become vice president-academic affairs at the College of Aeronautics in New York. He was acting dean of the school of business and school of aviation and transportation at Dowling College, Oakdale, N.Y.
The merging of charter operators Canada 3000 and Montreal-based Royal Aviation will create the second largest airline in Canada and may force No. 1, Air Canada, to cut fares even further. Last week, Toronto-based Canada 3000 said it would acquire all of Royal's shares for $56 million in order to bolster its domestic network. The combined carriers will have a 34-aircraft fleet and 30 domestic city pairs, numbers that are expected to grow this summer.
Patrick Dempsey has been named president of the East Granby, Conn.-based Windsor Airmotive Div. of Barnes Aerospace. He was president of Pratt&Whitney HAC, Grand Prairie, Tex.
While new U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is taking measure of the Pentagon, which has changed considerably since he was last in charge there in the mid-1970s, the Pentagon is sizing up Rumsfeld. Navy officials have been passing around a series of memorandums describing first impressions of the new chief and how to avoid running afoul of his fast-moving style.
Karl J. Krapek, president/chief operating officer of the United Technologies Corp., has been elected chairman of the board of governors of the Washington-based Aerospace Industries Assn. for 2001. Other officers elected were: vice chairman, Marshall O. Larsen, president/COO of BFGoodrich Aerospace; president/CEO, John W. Douglass; and secretary/treasurer, George F. Copsey. They have been joined on the executive committee by: Michael R. Brown, chairman/CEO of Litton Industries Inc.; Daniel P. Burnham, chairman/CEO of the Raytheon Co.; Nicholas D.
David Ball (see photo), former research director at Kidde plc, based in Colnbrook, England, has received a 2000 Stratospheric Ozone Protection award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The award, in recognition of technical achieve- ments in eliminating ozone-depleting substances, was presented to Ball for groundbreaking work on halon alternatives.
The Air Transport Assn. has called upon the federal government to spend millions of dollars of already allocated funds sooner on new technologies and additional personnel as a way to reduce delays and improve the air traffic control system.
The Wings Club has selected Harry C. Stonecipher, president and chief operating officer of the Boeing Co., to receive its Distinguished Achievement Award for 2000. The award has been given each year since 1975, when Gen. James H. Doolittle was honored. The club will hold its award dinner in New York on Oct. 16.
Sikorsky Aircraft will provide 24 new-manufactured Black Hawk helicopters to the Israel air force under a $211.8-million Foreign Military Sales agreement. Aircraft deliveries will begin in the spring of 2002 and conclude later that year.
The cloud hanging over the V-22 just got darker. Already under suspicion because the commander of the training squadron allegedly inflated readiness numbers, the Marines now have had to confess they have been using several different standards in talking about the tiltrotor publicly and privately. Most notably, Brig. Gen. Jim Amos, the service's aviation chief, told reporters last year that the aircraft's mission-capable rate had improved to 73% for the first part of November, compared with 57% during the operational evaluation. Not so.
Lockheed Martin's Missiles and Fire Control-Orlando group is successfully melding disparate corporate cultures, expertise and weapons systems into a cohesive unit that is winning one contract after another. In so doing, it is defying what had become conventional wisdom in the aerospace/defense industry: Consolidation doesn't work.
MACDONALD DETTWILER HAS SELECTED Interstate Electronics Corp. to supply its ruggedized Warrior Visiona for the robotic workstation (RWS) on board the International Space Station. The lightweight 11 X 8.25-in. color, active matrix liquid crystal displays will give astronauts a visual reference to control the robotic arm, which on the U.S. space shuttle is known as the Canadarm. Two RWSs will be located in the U.S. laboratory module, Destiny, and one in the Cupola, where astronauts build and perform station maintenance.
The State of Minnesota has purchased two Bombardier CL-215 amphibious airplanes for use in fighting forest fires. The piston-powered aircraft, built in 1985 and 1987, were leased by Minnesota's Natural Resources Dept. last summer and flew about 500 missions delivering fire-fighting foam and water. North Carolina acquired a CL-215 in 1998, and 88 of the 125 CL-215s built between 1969 and 1989 remain in service worldwide. The Los Angeles County Fire Dept. operates two turboprop-powered CL-415 amphibians under a long-term lease. In related news, on Jan.
Commercial aerospace component and subsystem suppliers generally are bullish about their growth prospects this year, despite a U.S. economy that is virtually stalled.
When I flew the V-22 from Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., in late 1998, I did not realize that my experiences with the tiltrotor would come to reflect the concerns of operational success and safety quite so soon. My final comment in our pilot report was that ``the true test of the Osprey will come once it is in service with the Marine Corps and the Air Force, as to whether the reliability and maintainability of the aircraft meets the projected goals'' (AW&ST Dec. 14, 1998, p. 58).
Boeing offers more clues about the intended direction of its new Air Traffic Management Group. But its president, John Hayhurst, says its proposal for systemic changes to the ATC will not be announced until the spring. There was general surprise in the industry last November when Boeing announced its entry into the ATC arena, with the bold statement that it would develop new approaches for enhanced air traffic control and airport operations.
