Sabena Belgian World Airlines' long-lasting efforts to restore profitability only produced short-lived results. An all-new plan, which is scheduled to be implemented rapidly, is expected to slash costs for the troubled carrier by nearly $350 million/year, according to newly-appointed Chairman/CEO Christoph Mueller. He added that, despite a robust traffic growth, Sabena is suffering from increasing competition, soaring fuel prices, the euro's unfavorable exchange rates against the U.S. dollar and massive investment in an all-Airbus fleet set to replace aging aircraft.
Bob Brazier has been promoted to vice chairman from president/chief operating officer of Airborne Express. He has been succeeded by Carl Donaway, who was promoted from senior executive vice president-field and air services. Lanny Michael has been appointed senior vice president/chief financial officer. He succeeds Roy Liljebeck, who has retired. David Billings has been named senior vice president/chief information officer. Harvey North has been promoted to vice president from director of human resources. He succeeds Dick Goodwin, who plans to retire.
Thomas H. Weidemeyer, who has been senior vice president-transportation and enginzeering/president of UPS Airlines will become chief operating officer of UPS following the retirement of Charles L. Schaffer at year-end. D. Scott Davis, who has been vice president-finance, will become senior vice president/chief financial oficer, succeeding Robert J. Clanin.
Andy Beal folded his hand last week. But before pulling out of a high-stakes game to develop a big space launch vehicle, Beal is estimated to have spent nearly $200 million (see World News&Analysis). Beal Aerospace of Frisco, Tex., once employed 200 people in the largest private rocket development effort in history. Beal was one of a handful of entrepreneurs betting they could make space transportation more like air transport--in other words reliable and low-cost. Most of the other startups are struggling financially, if not technically.
A Russian Ilyushin Il-18 military transport crashed in mountainous terrain 25 km. east of Batumi, Georgia, in fog on the night of Oct. 25. The 100-seat, four-engine turboprop is a type designed in the 1950s and produced until 1969. There were reported to be 64 passengers and 11 crew on board, all of whom were believed to have been killed in the crash, which is under investigation by Russian and Georgian officials.
The U.S. Marine Corps plans several enhancements and additional tests for the MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor to resolve remaining problems with the aircraft, which was declared partially operationally effective and suitable by an independent test team.
More than 260,000 passengers passed through Southwest Florida International Airport in September, making it the busiest September in the airport's history. More than 3.9 million passengers have used the airport so far this year. During 1984, the airport's first full year of operation, the passenger count for the year was 1.3 million.
Belgium's BarcoView, previously known as Barco Display Systems, and South Korea's Samsung Electronics Div. plan to jointly become major players in flat panel displays developed for air traffic control systems. The two companies recently unveiled a ``strategic partnership'' formed in mid-1999 to invest in development, marketing and production of high-resolution displays. Joel Maelfeyt, BarcoView business development manager, said the alliance will focus exclusively on Isis, a large liquid crystal display.
Gary Scott has been appointed president of FlightSafety Boeing in Seattle. He succeeds T. Wakelee Smith, who has left the company. Scott was vice president-finance and business strategy for the Boeing Commercial Airplanes Group's Commercial Aviation Services.
EADS-Sogerma, a France-based unit of the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co., and Northrop Grumman agreed on Oct. 26 to form EADS Aeroframe Services, a maintenance, repair and overhaul company, at Chennault International Airport in Lake Charles, La., to focus on large commercial transports.
A Sea Launch Zenit-3SL placed Thuraya-1 into orbit Oct. 21 from a floating mid-Pacific equatorial launch site. A Boeing Satellite Services (formerly Hughes) 702 GEM spacecraft, Thuraya was built for a United Arab Emirates firm under a $960-million turnkey contract. It will provide mobile telephone services across North Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Operations are to begin in the first quarter of 2001. Thuraya reports orders for more than 140,000 handsets and expects to sell 400,000 by the end of 2001.
NASA's reworked Mars exploration plan calls for a sample return mission no earlier than 2011 or 2014, slipping an attempt to bring back rocks and other material from the red planet once again. But in unveiling its new plan last week, the U.S. space agency emphasized the program is now more resilient and benefits from the hard lessons it learned in the wake of the failures of two missions in a row in 1999.
The U.S. Transportation Dept.'s recent order that airlines notify passengers of a possible cheaper fare on their Internet sites does nothing beyond what the carriers agreed to last year, but could expedite the process. ``We are reminding airlines of their obligation to give complete and accurate fare information to consumers,'' said Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater. ``This continues our effort to improve the flight information available to travelers.''
William Walthall has been appointed group vice president-engineered products in the Engineered Industrial Products segment of the BFGoodrich Co., Charlotte, N.C. He was president of the Safety Systems Div.
The U.S. military is increasingly likely to confront directed-energy (DE) weapons in combat situations, but Pentagon officials believe truly tactically relevant weapons of this type are still far from being fielded.
Jean Pierson, former managing director of Airbus Industrie, has received the Distinguished Achievement Award from The Wings Club of New York. He was cited for his contribution to the global commercial airline industry, including the launch of the A320, and positioning Airbus as a leader in aircraft manufacturing.
A new $200-million U.S. Air Force/Lockheed Martin DSCS III Defense Satellite Communications Spacecraft is undergoing checkout in geosynchronous orbit following a successful launch Oct. 19 from Cape Canaveral on board an International Launch Services/Lockheed Martin Atlas-Centaur. The satellite will eventually be parked over the eastern Atlantic.
Robert Davies (see photo) has become chief executive of Druck Holdings plc., Leicester, England. He was vice president/general manager of the sensors component division of TRW.
The National Air and Space Museum has acquired a Pioneer unmanned aerial vehicle for its collection. The little reconnaissance aircraft--its wingspan is just 17 ft.--has been in service for 15 years. An interesting footnote in the vehicle's career is that it may be the first unmanned system to which enemy troops surrendered. A video camera on one of the drones, launched off the battleship USS Wisconsin during the Persian Gulf war in 1991, captured images of Iraqi soldiers waving a white flag at the Pioneer.
As part of an effort to strengthen the naval component of the European rapid reaction force, France is planning major upgrades to its frigate and amphibious assault ship fleets but remains undecided about a second aircraft carrier group.
DDC-I of Phoenix has introduced a Very Smooth Migration (VSM) package to support flight-critical software when firms decommission their DEC VAX hardware, which is now being phased out by Compaq. The theory is that customers' operating systems and applications represent a far greater financial and intellectual investment than their underlying hardware. . . . SkyMall Inc., which reports reaching 500 million passengers with its inflight catalog, says it's time to tap into e-mail. It's joined inflightonline to create an inflight e-mail catalog. . . . Boothroyd Dewhurst Inc.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN CLAIMS great success in applying commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products, architectures and acquisition-reform concepts to the computer-replacement program for the Joint-STARS aircraft, which is entering the forward and retrofit phase. The 37-month, $140-million program to replace the general-purpose computers, workstations and paired-wire networks with COTS products began in 1997 with goals to minimize total life-cycle cost (LCC), get the benefits from COTS, establish a truly open architecture for future upgrades and technology insertion.
TAG Aviation is moving ahead with plans to develop Farnborough airport as a business aviation center, following approval by local authorities. Plans for the airfield, home of the biennial Farnborough air show, include doubling the number of air movements from 14,000 to 28,000 per year, including 1,500 movements for larger aircraft such as the Airbus A319 and Boeing Business Jet.
With chances for the rapid liberalization of postal services seemingly more remote than ever, parcel express companies are counting on legal action to maintain a level playing field between the two industries. Conflict between the two sectors first developed in the mid-1990s, when the Dutch post office acquired parcel express operator TNT and Deutsche Post AG (DPAG) acquired half of DHL with Lufthansa. In October, DPAG moved to gain full control of DHL (AW&ST Sept. 25, p. 70).
