Michael F. Hill has become director of program management for the Group Technologies Corp., Tampa, Fla. He was vice president-operations for Hitachi Semiconductor.
Anthony D. Radford (see photo) has been appointed vice president-system sales for VertexRSI Systems, Duluth, Ga. He was director of system sales for the company's satellite systems unit.
Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center has issued individual $16-million contracts to Boeing and Lockheed Martin to assess architectural alternatives for the Global Positioning System III program in a 12-month study.
Atlantic Coast Airlines (ACA) new agreement with United Airlines gives the major more operational control over its Washington Dulles-based partner, but provides the regional a better form of compensation. The 10-year agreement allows ACA's United Express operation to increase its number of regional jets (RJs) to 108 from its present level of 46 by the end of 2003 by firming up previously announced conditional orders for 62 additional jets manufactured by Bombardier Aerospace and Fairchild Dornier.
Virgin Blue, Virgin Holdings' Australian discount carrier, has given Lufthansa Technik a contract to provide components for its fleet of Boeing 737-400s.
A senior Pentagon official has dealt a potentially major setback to the MV-22, declaring the aircraft operationally not suitable. The finding comes just days before Navy acquisition chief Lee Buchanan is expected to decide whether to allow the Marine Corps to begin full-rate production of the tiltrotor. It will be up to him to initiate production or wait until issues highlighted by the Pentagon's director of operational test and evaluation, Philip E. Coyle, are resolved.
The Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) and the International Air Transport Assn. plan to collaborate next year in developing worldwide standards for performing airline safety audits. Proposals call for qualified auditing teams to evaluate airlines every year or two years, ``working to a standard that everyone could accept,'' said FSF Chairman/CEO Stuart Matthews. Upon completion of the audit, it would be recognized by regulatory authorities and other airlines in a manner similar to financial audits performed by certified public accountants.
David J. McComas has become executive director of the Instrumentation and Space Research Div. at the Southwest Research Institute of San Antonio. He was founding director of the Center for Space Science and Exploration and program manager of all NASA projects at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Albuquerque, N.M. He will continue as principal investigator for two NASA projects: the Two Wide-angle Imaging Neutral-atom Spectrometers mission and solar wind experiments on the Ulysses and Advanced Composition Explorer spacecraft.
Spectrum Astro Inc. has received one of three agreements to develop on-orbit servicing system mission concepts for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The 14-month service contract is valued at $6 million.
Blake Fish has been appointed senior vice president-marketing and business development for Signature Flight Support, Orlando, Fla. He was senior vice president of the Atlantic Aviation Flight Support Div. and had been vice president-Eastern U.S. operations for Signature.
Many industry observers expect GE Aircraft Engines chief W. James McNerney to leave the company within months following the decision last week by General Electric Co. Chairman and CEO John H. Welch to choose another division head as his successor. Tapped to replace Welch was 44-year-old Jeffrey Immelt, who runs GE's Medical Systems division. His father is a retired GE Aircraft Engines engineer.
Japan Airlines Group for the first time published consolidated financial results for the mid-term, which ended Sept. 30. Sales revenues for the airline and all subsidiaries were 874 billion yen ($7.9 billion), operating profit 70.5 billion yen ($640 million) and net profit 42.3 billion yen. JAL's 144 consolidated subsidiaries contributed 35% of revenue. The group's subsidiaries include low-cost carriers JALways, JAL Express and Japan Trans Ocean Air, as well as credit card, travel planning and hotel and resort businesses.
For a company that has introduced a new or derivative aircraft model every year since 1992, Bombardier Aerospace follows what may strike some observers as an opposing--even heretical--set of guidelines when it comes to product design. ``We're not into technology for technology's sake, and we will not embark on any sort of `blue sky' program such as a supersonic business jet,'' said John Holding, executive vice president of engineering and product development. ``We will exploit technology only if it adds value to the final product.''
The Canadian government may soon impose up to $344 million a year in sanctions against Brazil regarding its ProEx subsidies to regional jet-maker Embraer, as allowed by the World Trade Organization (WTO) last August. The Canadian government's action is the latest chapter in a long simmering dispute in which the WTO initially found Canada, whose Bombardier Aerospace competes head on with Embraer, and Brazil to be in violation of international trading rules. Last July, a WTO panel sided with Canada after a lengthy seesaw battle.
SaabTech Electronics has been awarded a contract worth $14 million for an initial order of 300 BOL chaff/flare countermeasures dispensers for the Euro- fighter aircraft.
Russell E. Parris (see photo) has been named director of businss managment for MI Technologies of Atlanta. He was director of international business development for EMS Wireless, Norcross, Ga.
Plans to sell a 46% stake in the U.K.'s National Air Traffic Services to the private sector were approved by the House of Lords last week on the third attempt, but only after the government agreed to a three-month delay.
American Airlines admits to negligence that makes it liable for compensatory damages arising from the crash of a Boeing MD-82 at Little Rock, Ark., in June 1999 that killed 11 people. The nation's second-largest carrier, however, vowed to fight allegations that it is responsible for punitive or exemplary damages, and stated that the admission of negligence does not affect American's right to recover damages from other parties that may have contributed to the cause of the crash.
The big pig probe has ended. The FAA last week found US Airways not guilty of safety and sanitation violations for allowing an unruly porcine passenger on board an Oct. 17 Philadelphia-Seattle flight. Passenger Maria Tirotta Andrews said ``Charlotte,'' a Vietnamese potbellied porker whom she claimed weighed 13 lb., was a service animal--specifically a ``therapeutic companion pet.'' The airline approved Charlotte's boarding, even though at check-in it was obvious she was a little overweight. She remained relatively quiet in the first-class cabin until landing.
Virgin Atlantic Airways is close to a firm commitment for six Airbus A3XXs and options for another six of the huge jetliners, airline Chairman Richard Branson told Aviation Daily. ``We are in the final throes of negotiations,'' Branson said in an interview. Virgin first expressed interest in both the A3XX and Boeing 747X last summer, but Branson believes an announcement for the A3XX could come before year-end.
UHL Research Associates and Odetics have devised a family of inexpensive flight data recorders intended for flight instruction, logging maintenance data, accident investigation and monitoring of rental aircraft. The AeroView Flight Reconstruction System records GPS position and processed engine sounds, and with ground software reconstructs aircraft attitudes and flight paths. This Aviation Week&Space Technology editor tested the recorder in a light aircraft and observed the maneuvers as they were reproduced on the ground with good fidelity.
THE EUROPEAN JOINT AVIATION AUTHORITIES (JAA) HAVE ADOPTED a new rule governing Extended Twin-Engine Operations (ETOPS) on routes across the North Atlantic. The directive, which will amend JAR OPS 1.245 in February, will apply to commercial ETOPS flown by business jets and allow operators to continue flying direct routes between Europe and North America, within 180 min. of an alternate airport. A JAA proposal issued in 1996 would have prevented twin-engine jets from flying routes that were more than 120 min. away from an airport.
