Tom Wilson (see photo) has been promoted to CEO from senior vice president of Swales Aerospace, Beltsville, Md. Swales' founder and current CEO, Tom Swales, will remain chairman. Dennis McCarthy has been appointed vice president-engineering services and instruments and Art Chomas vice president-business development. Other promotions were: Frank Hornbuckle to senior vice president-engineering, Mike Cully to director of spacecraft systems and Burt Squires to director of engineering services at Swales' Pasadena, Calif., office.
Textron Inc., which posted a fourth-quarter loss last week, plans to cut more than 3,600 jobs or 5% of its global workforce as part of a broad restructuring covering the company's fastening, industrial and automotive divisions. About 20 manufacturing sites worldwide will be closed as a result of declining sales in some businesses. The company lost $218 million or $1.53 a share in the fourth quarter, compared with a profit of $201 million or $1.33 a share in the same period in 1999.
The French government will inject $72 million in state-owned SNPE in preparation for restructuring of the country's solid propulsion and munitions industries. SNPE is negotiating an alliance with Snecma to rationalize Europe's launcher and ballistic missile propulsion business (AW&ST Jan. 1, p. 42). A missile propulsion linkup between Celerg, Royal Ordnance and Bayern Chimie, and a munitions merger between SNPE, Rheinmetall and Ruag of Switzerland are under discussion.
Wayne Moni has been appointed vice president-marketing, Karen Rice vice president-business development, John Wright vice president-operations, Richard Turnock vice president/chief technology officer and Bob Monette marketing director for Military Aircraft Systems, all for Atlantis Systems International, Brampton, Ontario. Moni was director of business development for Raytheon/Hughes, and Rice was head of the business unit marketing staff for L-3 Communications.
Dassault Falcon Jet reports selling 90 business jets last year including 78 to commercial customers, not fractional ownerships. The lucrative North American market accounted for 60% of sales followed by the international market at 40%. In addition, 20% of sales were from first-time buyers of business jets. Falcon Jet officials expect to deliver 73 airplanes this year.
Jean-Cyril Spinetta, chairman/CEO of Air France, has been elected president of the Assn. of European Airlines. He succeeds Xabier de Irala, chairman/CEO of Iberia.
Sweden's Volvo Aero and Astec Helicopter Services have agreed to form a joint venture for repair and overhaul of turboshaft engines. The move will position both companies for maintenance work stemming from the Nordic Standard Helicopter (NSH) program as well as international opportunities. Astec is the Norwegian-based subsidiary of CHC of Canada. Under the NSH program, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden are seeking to jointly acquire a multirole helicopter for their military forces.
Rockwell Collins Flight2 Avionics standard open systems architecture has been chosen for the U.S. Army's fleet of MH-60, MH-67 and AH/MH-6 helicopters. The work order includes service life extension and avionics upgrades for up to 150 aircraft.
Officials for BE A PILOT (BAP), a general aviation initiative aimed at recruiting new pilots, said the program has received 1,110 responses since it began in 1997. Reaction from all media outlets was up 21% last year compared with 1999, and the response rate to cable TV advertisements rose by 11%. About 1,600 flight schools in the U.S. and Canada participate in BAP. In addition, a survey indicated the average school has 3.4 full-time flight instructors, 2.9 part-time instructors, 16-20 student pilots and five airplanes.
After Greece agreed to buy the Eurofighter, U.S. aerospace officials started digging for the price per aircraft--a number guarded jealously by the European consortium that builds the aircraft. The Americans say the Greeks told them they're paying roughly $85 million for each ``relatively stripped'' version of the twin-engine Eurofighter. U.S. officials argue that if they'd just wait, nations could get more for their money with the single-engine JSF, predicted to cost about half as much. A total of 620 Eurofighters are going to the U.K., Germany, Italy and Spain.
David F. Stafford, director of business development and strategic planning for electronic warfare programs in Northrop Grumman's Bethpage, N.Y.-based Airborne Early Warning and Electronic Systems business area, has received the 2000 Business Development Award from the Assn. of Old Crows. He was cited for ``leadership in obtaining resources to support the EA-6B upgrade programs and providing the vision that resulted in the integration of both command and control warfare and information operations into the concept of network-centric warfare.''
The proposed cost of building the new Bangalore International Airport has been more than halved to make the project more financially viable. Both Siemens and Hochtie, the two German consortia that are short-listed to handle the project, have stated that a huge investment was unnecessary considering traffic projections for the next decade. So, the government cut the proposed cost from 20 billion rupees ($430.4 million) to 9 billion rupees.
Contract negotiations between United Airlines and the International Assn. of Machinists, which represents the carrier's 15,000 mechanics, have been recessed once again by the National Mediation Board. On Dec. 13, the board first recessed talks to allow both sides to reassess their bargaining positions. No date has yet been given to restart talks.
European officials are hoping that fresh Italian backing for Galileo will provide new impetus for the stalled European satellite navigation project. The Italian parliament a week ago approved a 310-million-euro ($291-million), three-year funding package for full-scale development of Galileo and related national applications initiatives.
AIRSYS ATM WILL SUPPLY the Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority with a new radar system for Cairo International Airport, consisting of the Star 2000 solid-state primary surveillance radar and the RSM 970S monopulse secondary surveillance radar. The radars are being installed as a turnkey system under the 9-million-euro ($8.46-million) contract, which will augment contracts that Airsys ATM already has in place to modernize the Cairo Air Navigation Center, based on the Eurocat 2000 system.
PTC has begun renting its Pro/Engineer suite of design and engineering software products. The move is a response to the huge swings in the volume of work that Pro/Engineer's customers are experiencing. Licenses of 30-120 days available from PTC's online store at www.ptc.com give customers flexibility to ramp up for short-term, high-volume workloads when they have a chronic need for contract staff.
After months of Pentagon wrangling with NATO allies over whether arming unmanned aerial reconnaissance aircraft violates arms control treaty limits on cruise missiles, all the allies have agreed at least that testing the concept won't do any harm. As a result, the Air Force will conduct three launches of Army Hellfire anti-armor missiles from RQ-1A Predator UAVs on the Nevada test ranges next month. The initial tests will involve three missile launches against stationary targets.
UNITED AIRLINES IS CONDUCTING INFLIGHT EVALUATIONS of an Electronic Flight Bag (EFB), which uses laptop computer technology to replace the paper Jeppesen air navigation charts, approach plates and aircraft technical manuals that a flight crew today carries on board in a large briefcase. For the evaluation, the EFB will be a Fujitsu 3400 Pen Tablet. It has a 10.4-in. diagonal color display, the same size as approach plates, which leads Capt.
Stephen N. Heath has been named president/CEO of International Aero Engines, East Hartford, Conn., effective Feb. 5. He has been vice president-customer service for Pratt&Whitney. Heath will succeed Mike Terrett, who is returning to Rolls-Royce as managing director of its airlines business. He succeeds John Cheffins, who has become an executive director following his appointment as president of Rolls-Royce Civil Aerospace. Succeeding Heath at Pratt&Whitney is Ardell Anderson, who was vice president-Asia/Pacific sales and marketing.
Lockheed Martin Aircraft&Logistics Centers have been selected by the Defense Logistics Agency to manage parts support for the C-5 Galaxy, under a $1.1-billion three-year contract.
Sabena Belgian World Airlines faces an uncertain future as its owners, the Belgian government and SAirGroup, are set to meet early next month to iron out a desperately needed recovery plan to address the carrier's dire financial situation.
Financially troubled Vnukovo Airlines will soon merge with Novosibirsk-based Siberia Airlines, creating the second-largest airline in Russia. Fast-expanding Siberia, with a fleet of 28 aircraft, grew 17% in 2000, carrying 870,000 passengers on a route network which includes 150 destinations. Moscow-based Vnukovo has a fleet of 50 aircraft and carried 500,000 passengers last year on international charters and scheduled flights to 60 domestic destinations. But the carrier has been struggling financially, with debts estimated as high as 500 million rubles ($17.5 million).
It turns out the financial performance of the U.S. airline industry last year wasn't quite as disappointing as Wall Street had forecast, based on recently released December quarterly results for the major carriers. Instead of posting its first quarterly loss since March 1996, the industry generated net income of $87 million on sales of $21.4 billion, versus a projected loss of $8-10 million. But that's still poor. ``This is an uneconomic industry with dismal returns on invested capital,'' Morgan Stanley Dean Witter analyst Kevin Murphy said.
