Convinced that airline competition is facing extinction, lawmakers are readying bills to strengthen federal power over mergers, police high fares and prevent sweeping service cutbacks.
Wayne Crews has been appointed director of technology studies and Adam D. Thierer director of telecommunications studies at the Cato Institute in Washington. Crews was director of competition and regulation policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, while Thierer was a telecommunications expert at the Heritage Foundation.
R. Scott Litchard has been appointed director of customer care and service and Capt. David Bair director of flight operations safety for Frontier Airlines. Litchard was regional director of station operations, while Bair was a check airman and simulation instructor.
NASA/Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., is providing technical assistance and support for the FAA's Electromagnetic Hazards to Aircraft and Systems program, which is aimed at assessing the effects of portable wireless technology on the operation of airline passenger transports. Langley has conducted special tests of a Boeing 747 fuel system at the request of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board's investigation into the explosion and inflight breakup of TWA Flight 800 in July 1996.
The U.K. and U.S. have called for the Libyan government to compensate the relatives of those killed in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 following the guilty verdict against one of the two Libyan nationals accused of the crime.
French Space Agency CNES is planning a basic technology research program to prepare the way for the very large telecom satellites expected to be in demand later this decade. The program, geared to spacecraft in the 10-metric-ton, 40-kw. range--almost double the size now available--could begin in midyear with FF100 million ($14.3 million) in annual funding. CNES efforts will parallel satcom technology projects underway at ESA under the Artes research program.
The U.S. Navy has forced all F/A-18A/ B/C/Ds to undergo checks of their wing-fold mechanism before flying after an inspection found corroded and cracked lugs on several of the strike aircraft. Inspection takes about an hour. Aircraft with fractured lugs will be removed from service.
Bmi British Midland has asked the European Commission to rule on whether the current U.S.-U.K. aviation accord violates European competition law. The move intensifies the carrier's war against the so-called Bermuda II bilateral, which limits the number of carriers that can operate transatlantic services from slot-restricted London Heathrow to two from each country--American Airlines and United Airlines, and British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. U.K.-U.S. talks on liberalizing the agreement have been stalemated for years.
United Airlines is using San Francisco International Airport (SFO) as its base for expanded 180-min. daily ETOPS transpacific operations with 777s. The aircraft that made its inaugural flight last month to Beijing Capital International Airport is shown being serviced by Beijing Air Catering Co. in preparation for its return to SFO. San Francisco has become United's largest ETOPs operations center, with 777s also replacing nonstop 747 services to Tokyo, Honolulu and Maui.
Ricardo Milani has been named vice president-airports customer experience for Oneworld. He was director of central support at Oneworld member LanChile.
In a land of flight delays, LaGuardia is king. The FAA's latest Air Traffic Operations Network report released last week confirms there is no contender to the throne--a walloping 61,120 out of LaGuardia's total of 392,047 flights were delayed.
Having a robust space force could actually promote global stability, effectively deter a potential aggressor and avoid armed conflict. Simply being able to constantly monitor the buildup of an adversary's forces, then publicly display imagery of them, can be a major deterrent.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. has invited U.S. carriers interested in using fifth-freedom traffic rights for all-cargo services to and from Hong Kong to apply for three available frequencies given up by Air Micronesia, which ceased using them in March 2000. Several cargo carriers, including UPS and Evergreen International, have filed requests. The applications were to have been received by Jan. 31, with a reply from the department by Feb. 8. Under the 1995 U.S.-Hong Kong Memorandum of Understanding, U.S.
A Japan Airlines 747-400 and DC-10 took evasive action to avoid a collision at 36,000-ft. altitude on Jan. 31, creating negative gs and injuring 35 people on the 747. The aircraft passed within 10 meters (33 ft.) of each other, according to a report filed by a 747 crewman, an official of Japan's Ministry of Transportation said. The incident occurred in the late afternoon. The 747, Flight 907, had recently departed Tokyo's Haneda Airport headed for Okinawa to the southwest.
Drawing on technologies developed for other programs, Lockheed Martin is offering a menu of upgrades to its long-lived Lantirn targeting system. As of mid-January, the company had sold 1,780 targeting pods and another 1,664 navigation pods. These are now flying on aircraft in the U.S. and 12 foreign countries, and most are potential upgrade candidates.
Italy and France have approved a plan to jointly develop and operate an optical/radar satellite system that will vastly improve Europe's civil Earth-observation network while adding to its military intelligence capability.
Legend Airlines is facing possible liquidation of its assets if funding cannot be obtained. New York-based Legend Funding Group has failed repeatedly to provide a $20-million loan to the ailing carrier. A bankruptcy court judge last week denied a request by Legend to continue operating as a charter airline, after creditors objected to the plan.
Aviation Week&Space Technology presents its 44th annual Aerospace Laurels selections, honoring individuals and teams who made significant contributions to the global field of aerospace during the year 2000. Honorees were nominated by the magazine's editors in the categories of Commercial Air Transport, Aeronautics/Propulsion, Government/Military, Electronics, Space, Operations and Lifetime Achievement.
Earth-monitoring satellites from Europe and Canada have swung into action to support rescue efforts in El Salvador following a massive earthquake. Canada's Radarsat-1, the French-led Spot network and the European Space Agency's ERS-2 have been programmed to capture images of the devastation under the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters, a joint disaster alert and mitigation effort set up last November under U.N. auspices. In its first operation on Nov. 17, the Charter supported rescue operations after a landslide in Slovenia.
Boeing has signed an agreement with University of Sheffield to jointly develop an advanced aerospace research center in South Yorkshire, part of Boeing's push to expand its global research and development presence. Boeing will invest $22 million in the center, which will employ 70-80 researchers. The center is to focus on metallurgy research and advanced manufacturing processes for aerospace applications. The agreement is the first of many links Boeing plans to make with universities in the U.K. and throughout Europe in the next few months.
Rand's long-anticipated study of the Joint Strike Fighter is to be delivered to the Pentagon this week. As a courtesy, Boeing and Lockheed Martin JSF officials were briefed by the think tank late last week. Industry officials say Rand recommends a winner-take-all decision for selecting the prime contractor. It also says the winner should then make any decisions on apportioning work among the other major contractors.
Stealth--the ability of an aircraft to evade radar--is not the dominant focus for warfighters that it once was. After a decade at the pinnacle of combat tools and as a U.S. monopoly, it's being surpassed by anti-stealth as the primary interest of many foreign military planners. For the U.S. and its allies, stealth is now considered only one of several factors--including sound, sight, heat and leaking electronic signals--that must be controlled and manipulated to make warplanes survivable on future battlefields.
Burt Rutan, president/CEO of Scaled Composites Inc. and designer of the all-composite Voyager aircraft, has won the J.H. (Jud) Hall Composites Manufacturing Award for 2001 from the Dearborn, Mich.-based Society of Manufacturing Engineers. The award recognizes leadership, technical developments, patents or educational activities.
WILLIAM B. SCOTTRobert Wall contributed to this story from Washington.
Top U.S. Air Force leaders may be squirming when they finish reading the ``Space Commission'' report released in mid-January. Hidden between the lines is a subtle message from the panel chaired by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld: USAF, you have approximately five years to get serious about building and operating a true ``space force,'' or risk losing the entire military space mission.
