The long-debated Transatlantic Common Aviation Area (TCAA) is obtaining growing support among the European Union's 15 member states, according to Xabier de Irala, Iberia's chairman/CEO and president of the Assn. of European Airlines. The proposed TCAA, an unrestricted free-trade area covering transatlantic services between the U.S. and EU, could become a reality on the condition the European Commission gains a mandate to negotiate such a pact with the Transportation Dept. According to airline officials, the U.S.
Vicente Cervo has become New York-based director for North America of Varig Brazilian Airlines. He succeeds Carlos Muzzio, who will head the carrier's European operations. Cervo was Buenos Aires-based director for South America.
TRW IS MOVING TO BECOME A LEADING, HIGH-VOLUME supplier of solid-state laser products with the purchase of Cutting Edge Optronics. The privately held St. Louis-area company designs and manufactures solid-state lasers, laser diodes and other components. TRW purchased the company for about $19 million and assumed approximately $5 million in debt.
SGI WILL PROVIDE THE SERVERS FOR MOBILE SATELLITE stations for the U.S. Air Force's Space-Based Infrared Systems (SBIRS). Aerojet awarded the $8.1-million contract for 18 SGI Origin 3000 series servers and 27 SGI Onyx 3000 series visualization systems for the mobile satellite ground stations for SBIRS, the U.S.' next-generation ballistic missile early warning system. Each mobile ground station (two servers plus three visualization systems) will be in an 8 X 8 X-20-ft. module capable of transport by military cargo aircraft down to C-130 size.
Automated Weather Observing Systems (AWOS) recently installed at two ski resorts and at four mountain passes should provide pilots with more reliable information about potentially dangerous atmospheric conditions when flying over Colorado's mountains. The Vaisala Inc.
Conflicting projections of air traffic controller retirement rates during the coming decade put the FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. at odds on an issue that will strain their relationship--and the FAA's budget--if NATCA is right.
Stan Soloway, deputy undersecretary of Defense for acquisition reform/director of the Defense Reform Institute, has been named president of the Arlington, Va.-based Professional Services Council.
LTU has sold its regional affiliate, RAS, to Wings Factor of Moenchengladbach. RAS flies two 35-seat Shorts 360-300 turboprops between Moenchengladbach, Berlin/Tempelhof, Westerland and LTU's main hub at Dusseldorf. Charter carrier LTU has been reviewing its core leisure travel activities to return to profitability. Parent company SAir Group transferred control and part of the equity in LTU to Rewe Group of Germany in September.
The BAA is circulating a consultation paper on plans to increase capacity at Stansted Airport to 25 million passengers a year by 2010. London's third largest and fastest growing airport is in the midst of an expansion project to increase passenger capacity to 15 million per year. The report said the 25-million capacity level can be met without adding a second runway or seeking more night flights. A further extension of the current terminal is envisaged.
A funding breather for the F-22 was sidetracked when Congress dissolved into budgetary confusion late last week, apparently headed for a lame-duck session. Language is being crafted for early release of some $900 million in F-22 procurement monies to avert work-stoppages (AW&ST Oct. 30, p. 27). But lawmakers are determined to avoid relaxing the legislature's strict F-22 test regimen, and will fight any attempt by the Air Force to manipulate bridge funding into an automatic commitment to procure all of the 330+ aircraft it hopes to buy.
Airline delays across the U.S. during September soared an aggregate of more than 40% compared with the same month in 1999, according to the FAA. Delays were caused primarily by weather. Although weather was a major factor, the strain on airport capacity increased delays due to volume 72.4% from the previous September and 47.7% from August of this year. The number of flights at New York LaGuardia Airport, for example, increased 14.9% from last September, but delays increased more than 14 times because of capacity restrictions (AW&ST Oct. 9, p. 54).
The ISS Expedition 1 crew is the vanguard of dozens of multinational crewmembers who will visit the new station over the next 15-20 years. But Expedition 1 will be much different from most of the following flights. ``We have some very serious flight test work to do,'' said U.S. Navy Capt. Bill Shepherd, Expedition 1 commander.
Maj. Gen. Walter Jertz has succeeded Lt. Gen. Gerhard Back as commander of the German air force's Tactical Command North, as well as director of NATO's Reaction Forces Air Staff and commander of the Combined Air Operations Center 2 for Allied Air Forces North. Back relinquished the posts and is now deputy chief of staff of the German air force. Jertz was commander of the 1st German Air Div.
The first U.S./Russian long-duration crew to the International Space Station has embarked on the equivalent of a complex 17-week aircraft flight test program at 235-mi. altitude, following the successful docking of their Soyuz spacecraft with the 80-ton outpost on Nov. 2. The flawless Russian launch and docking of Expedition 1 initiates what is planned to be a permanent human presence on the ISS for at least the next 15-20 years. Managers hope this will lay the groundwork for manned flights to Mars or a return to the Moon.
Investors may be rediscovering U.S. airline stocks, although some industry observers believe caution should remain the order of the day because domestic unit revenues are likely to be under pressure in coming months due to a weaker economy.
The Russian Satellite Communications Co. has awarded Alcatel Space a contract for three new telecom payloads and concluded an agreement with Eutelsat to help finance a fourth, as it continues a fleet-wide replacement program. The accords were signed during a visit here last week by Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Russian-European Union summit. The summit, like a previous meeting in Moscow in May, was marked by warming relations aided by the winding down of the Chechen conflict and the sudden revival of the Russian economy.
Stephen J. Lewis has been appointed director of corporate business development for the Air Methods Corp. of Denver. He was a consultant to emergency health care service organizations and an area managing director for MedTrans.
An 11-week FAA special audit of Boeing Commercial Airplane Group found systemic problems in the company's manufacturing and engineering operations that led it last year to deliver aircraft that did not comply with airworthiness regulations and to accept parts that did not meet specifications. The company said it has increased inspection personnel and will tighten internal controls on its operations. Both Boeing and the FAA emphasized that none of the problems revealed in the audit raised ``immediate'' safety issues.
The FAA is investigating US Airways for possible safety and sanitation violations in allowing a rather boorish passenger to board an Oct. 17 Philadelphia-Seattle flight.
Ball Aerospace&Technologies Corp. has shipped EarthWatch Inc.'s first QuickBird commercial remote-sensing satellite to Russia for launch on Nov. 19 on a Cosmos rocket from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome (see photo). QuickBird 1 will be placed in a 66-deg. Sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 600 km. (372 mi.), and collect 1-meter panchromatic and 4-meter multispectral (color) images. It and a second QuickBird spacecraft--scheduled for launch nine months later--will each image a 22-km. swath of the Earth's surface.
The General Accounting Office is recommending that the U.S. Border Patrol ``reassess'' future purchase of additional MD600N helicopters until ``safety, handling and availability issues raised by pilots and mechanics'' are addressed, according to a GAO report. The agency has purchased 11 MD600Ns and had planned to buy another 34 for about $1.3 million each. The report states that pilots find the aircraft ``generally difficult to operate and fatiguing to fly''--a complaint shared by two of three local law enforcement agencies that operate the MD600N, according to the GAO.
TRW Aeronautical Systems has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Navy to retrofit its entire F/A-18C/D fleet with a power transmission shaft. The two-year contract is valued at $7 million.
The future of Flight Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA) programs used by major U.S. airlines may be threatened if the FAA enacts a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would remove immunity except in cases where criminal action was involved. The proposed rule would allow the agency to use data in enforcement actions--a provision airlines and pilot unions understood would not be the case, except for criminal actions. FAA Administrator Jane Garvey supports FOQA, but strong opposition from the Justice Dept. regarding immunity provisions is blocking further progress.
Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Electronic Sensors and Systems Sector has won a $122.8-million contract from the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command for 12 Tactical Exploitation Systems to be used by warfighting organizations.
