United Airlines, whose popularity among travelers and its labor force remains low, and whose proposed merger with US Airways has yet to be approved, is sticking business travelers with a hefty 10% hike on unrestricted business fares. The increase is intended to help pay for the recent four-year contract, which gives most of the airline's 10,500 pilots pay raises of 23% over the length of the pact. Several other airlines matched United's fare increase, which is the sixth this year among the major carriers.
Avionics technicians in the U.K. being trained to maintain the Tornado F3 are getting more practice diagnosing and repairing electronic problems using a ``virtual avionics'' simulator. Previously, the hands-on counterpart to classroom work used a cockpit mockup that looked like the real thing, but the avionics black boxes were just stacked in racks in the avionics ground test rig (AGTR), which bore no resemblance to the aircraft installation.
The desire of European Union nations for a joint military force that can operate separately from NATO will be reinforced by the EU's new role in defining space strategy.
Aerospan has turned to Extricity Inc. to provide it with business-to-business software to link its customers' operational systems. Extricity's B2B platform will allow Aerospan's customers to link their backend systems, including their huge enterprise resource planning software systems, directly to the Aerospan.com marketplace. The goal is to avoid manual transfer of information from legacy ERP systems to the Web site and vice versa. The difficulty in assuring that only certifiable parts are traded makes this hurdle one of the largest for any aerospace dot.com.
Matthew Talbot has been appointed regional operations manager in Sydney for Washington-based Universal Air Travel Plan Inc. Kay Boon Tan has been named Singapore-based marketing manager for Asia-Pacific and Simon J. Tongue as Geneva-based marketing manager for Asia-Pacific and for Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Talbot was senior business analyst for Air New Zealand.
The U.S./Canadian crew of Endeavour is set this week to launch the first large solar arrays and other critical electrical and cooling hardware to the International Space Station on the most ambitious manned space construction mission ever flown. Endeavour is set for liftoff at 10:06 p.m. EST Nov. 30 carrying the $600-million Boeing P6 photovoltaic module, a 17.5-ton payload that is larger than the Hubble Space Telescope.
Niki Lauda has resigned as chairman of Lauda Air in reaction to criticism by external auditors over foreign currency dealings. The audit had been ordered by Austrian Airlines, which owns 36% of the carrier and has been severely critical of Lauda's management. The resignation is expected to facilitate plans by Austrian, a member of the Star Alliance, to take control of Lauda Air (AW&ST Oct. 30, p. 55).
A Raytheon Aircraft Co. official said late last week FAA certification of the Premier I business jet will be delayed until March or April of next year, not next month as anticipated. Reasons for the setback include failure to meet regulations applicable to rudder centering and main landing gear tire burst testing. The rudder system has been reworked to add a centering spring and a small ventral fin, and a shroud has been installed around the tires to prevent damage to wheel well components.
CargoLifter AG has completed work on a giant hangar for assembly of prototypes and series variants of its CL 160 heavy-lift dirigible. The 107-meter (351-ft.) high, 5.5-million-cu.-meter building, located in Brand, near Berlin, is billed as the world's largest self-supporting structure. Almost twice the size of Lockheed Martin's Airdock in Akron, Ohio, the facility will be capable of producing two dirigibles, each able to carry a 160-metric-ton (352,000-lb.) load (AW&ST June 5, p. 88).
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov has proposed the sale of 4-6 Beriev A-50E advanced early warning aircraft to China. Klebanov told reporters in Beijing that the offer, made to Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji and chief of staff Gen. Zhang Wannian earlier this month, was likely to be accepted. The aircraft, worth an estimated $200 million, could be delivered by 2005. Until U.S. pressure forced its cancellation, China had been counting on the acquisition of Israeli Phalcon AEW aircraft to meet this requirement.
James R. Wilson and Ronald D. Sugar have been appointed to the board of directors of Litton Industries Inc., Woodland Hills, Calif. Wilson is past chairman/CEO of Cordant Technologies Inc., and Sugar is president/chief operating officer of Litton.
Air France plans to combine Flandre Air, Proteus Airlines and Regional Airlines in the next few months to form a unified regional carrier. The proposed restructuring is tentatively scheduled to be completed in mid-2001. The carrier, unnamed-as-yet, will operate about 400 domestic/European short-haul flights per day with 80 aircraft and have an estimated $335 million in annual revenues. Air France's external growth policy recently was further strengthened by the acquisition of Brittany-based Brit Air.
William L. Meaney has been appointed CEO of the Chicago-based Star Alliance, effective Feb. 1. He will succeed Friedel Rodig, who is scheduled to retire. Meaney has been executive vice president-alliances, network management and global sales for South African Airways. Other Alliance Management Team executives who were named recently are: Louise McKenven, vice president-marketing; Rick S. Mer- katz, vice president-sales; Horst E. Findeisen, vice president-global network; and Brock Friesen, vice president-strategy.
Bill Rankin of the customer support group and Curt Graeber of the aviatiion safety organization, both at the Boeing Commercial Airplane Group, have received Whittle Safety Awards for a BCAG team of human factors specialists from the International Federation of Airworthiness. The team was cited for developing and implementing the Maintenance Error Decision Air Process, which is used to identify and analyze factors leading to maintenance errors in airline operations and provide the basis for improvements in maintenance practices.
Japan Airlines has arranged with Boeing to replace its fleet of 10 MD-11s with two newly ordered 767-300ERs and eight 777-200ERs in 2002-04, but the carrier did not disclose terms of the agreement. Five MD-11s are to be replaced in 2002 by two -300ERs and three -200ERs. The remaining five are to be replaced by new -200ERs, two in 2003 and three in 2004.
Buenos Aires International Airport has completed the installation of a network of common use terminals enabling shared check-in across the airport's new terminal. The network's 119 workstations--to be complemented soon by 24 more in the VIP lounges--will add automated ticket and boarding capability and enable the facility to cope with an expected 25% rise in traffic, to 7.5 million passengers, next year.
Michael Zellner has been appointed vice president-finance/chief financial officer of Wind River Systems Inc., Alameda, Calif. He was senior director of finance. Zellner succeeds Richard Kraber, who will continue as a vice president until he retires next year.
Robert J. Naglieri has been appointed senior vice president/chief financial officer of Teledyne Technologies of Los Angeles. He held the same posts in the agri- culture business unit of CNH Global.
EarthWatch Inc.'s QuickBird 1 imaging satellite was destroyed in a launch accident involving its Cosmos-3 booster. The launch took place from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia on Nov. 20 at 6 p.m. EST. The 1-meter panchromatic resolution (4-meter multispectral) imaging system was insured. A second satellite, QuickBird 2, is under construction and slated to be launched next year. Last week's launch failure represents the second loss of a satellite for EarthWatch. In 1997, its EarlyBird 1 spacecraft failed.
United Technology's Pratt&Whitney and Hamilton Sundstrand are joining to form a single business unit responsible for aircraft powerplant controls, accessories, gearboxes and external components. Under plans outlined last week, Pratt's Electronic&Mechanical Systems Module Center will be combined with Hamilton Sundstrand's Engine Systems group at the beginning of the new year. The merged organization will retain the Engine Systems name.
A group of 10 investigators probing the Oct. 31 crash of Singapore Airlines Flight SQ006 this week plans to travel to the carrier's home base and join Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore officials in scrutinizing SIA's training and safety operations, according to SQ006 chief investigator Kay Yong, who is also managing director of the Taiwan Aviation Safety Council.
It could rightly be called the ``bottom feeder'' among the dozens of aerospace electronic marketplaces that have sprung up in the past year. Aerospace Hardware Exchange (AHX), the brainchild of a group of former Fairchild Fastener employees, was incorporated in June and is to enter beta (field) testing in December.
