Dassault Falcon Jet, a Dassault Aviation subsidiary, late last week concluded an agreement to acquire Philadelphia-based Atlantic Aviation Wilmington, a major FBO and approved maintenance center for Honeywell TFE731 turbofans, auxiliary power units and avionics suites.
Rockwell Collins plans to expand into new market niches--displays for tactical aircraft and optical technologies for instrumentation and communications--with the purchase of K Systems Inc., the parent company of Kaiser Aerospace and Electronics Corp.
The U.S. Air Force's Advanced Fighter Technology Integration (AFTI) F-16, equipped with a new, electrohydrostatic flight control system designed for the Joint Strike Fighter, made its first flight on Oct. 24, only 11 min. before Lockheed Martin's X-35A took off on its maiden flight in Palmdale, Calif.
James Burke has been named vice president-information technology and tele-communications for the Greater Toronto Airports Authority. He was head of information technology development for Terminal 5 at London Heathrow Airport for the British Airports Authority.
It sounded good when North Korean leader Kim Jong Il quipped to Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright in Pyongyang that the Taepo Dong missile's first satellite launch, in 1998, was also its last. But what Kim really meant will not be known until Albright's closed debriefings on Capitol Hill. Because North Korea is honoring its missile testing moratorium, Washington's goal now is to shut down Pyongyang's missile research and development program altogether. That the North Koreans might turn to Russia for satellite launches seems promising.
SGI Origin 200 servers will replace aging Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR) at 45 of the nation's busiest airports that also are susceptible to wind shear. The Doppler systems provide early detection of wind shear in the terminal area. Each TDWR will receive two new SGI servers--one active and one for backup. By upgrading existing TDWRs, the FAA is projected to achieve greater reliability at a fraction of the cost of maintaining the old computers.
John Menard (see photo) has been appointed director of business development for corporate aircraft products for BAE Systems Canada, Ville Saint-Laurent, Quebec. He was sales manager for the EMS Satcom Div.
F-22 funding relief was in the legislative works as the 106th Congress struggled toward its scheduled end late last week. A trio of key Republican appropriators--Reps. Randy Cunningham and Jerry Lewis (Calif.), and C.W. Young (Fla.)--was collaborating on last-minute language to provide for early release of $900 million-plus in Fiscal 2001 procurement monies to avert potential F-22 work-stoppages (AW&ST Oct. 23, p. 49).
Marcio Nogueira has been elected president of the International Astronautical Federation for a two-year term. He heads Brazil's Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais. Elected vice presidents were Oleg M. Alifanov, Jean-Jacques Dordain and Martin Sweeting.
The space shuttle Discovery landed at Edwards AFB, Calif., on Oct. 24 at the conclusion of Mission STS-92, which went to the International Space Station. The touchdown completed the 100th shuttle mission and was the 46th shuttle landing at Edwards, but the first there in four years. The landing at 1:59 p.m. PDT came after a two-day delay due to weather conditions at the primary and alternate landing sites.
Bob Bond, president of the Automation Group, Marwan Kashkoush, president of the Hydraulics Group, and Tom Mackie, president of the Instrumentation Group, have become corporate vice presidents of the Parker Hannifin Corp. of Cleveland.
GKN plc is acquiring Boeing's St. Louis-based structural component manufacturing operation for $61 million. The agreement includes long-term contracts with Boeing to produce metal and composite parts for military aircraft. The business, which employs about 1,200 workers, will be added to a new Aerospace Services subsidiary being created by the U.K.-based company as part of a restructuring plan that includes the closing of two facilities in the U.S., one in the U.K., and divestiture of Sitec, a German subsidiary.
China's decision early this year to allow Dragonair to establish freighter services to the mainland has shown early signs of paying off for the Hong Kong carrier. Long a preferred carrier into China for many Western business passengers, Dragonair could carry more than 80,000 tons of freight this year if it keeps up its current pace. It hauled 66,000 tons in 1999. Cargo represented 11% of Dragonair's revenues last year but is up to 16% so far in 2000.
The European Civil Aviation Conference's (ECAC) member states will seek to promote a common framework set to assist the relatives of aircraft accident victims. According to Estonia's transport minister, Toivo Juergenson, families suffer not only from sorrow and financial losses but also serious psychological damages in the aftermath of a crash. An ECAC meeting recently held in his country showed that such sensitive and complex issues require appropriate initiatives to be jointly considered by ECAC, the International Civil Aviation Organization and European Commission.
Johni Chan has become vice president-engineering of I-Bus/Phoenix of San Diego. He was director of systems engineering of Force Computers, San Jose, Calif.
Karen O'Donoghue has been named vice president-product marketing for Galileo International Inc., Rosemont, Ill. She was executive vice president of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp.
Completely fed up with the relatively slow progress of manned space transportation during the past few decades, one private group has taken lessons from aviation history, in an attempt to jump-start the commercialization of human spaceflight, by offering a cash prize as motivation. For four years the St. Louis-based X Prize Foundation has been gaining speed, inspiring private groups around the world to build a new generation of reusable launch vehicles to carry passengers into space.
Fraud is a real problem in dot.com companies, according to a study by the corporate security firm Kroll Associates that was reported last week in the Financial Times. Kroll conducted background checks on 70 Internet executives and board members and found 39% had ``unsavory backgrounds'' such as fraud, hidden bankruptcies, violation of SEC rules and links to organized crime. Kroll normally finds a rate of about 10%.
NASA and the University of California will establish a shared-use educational research and development facility at the proposed NASA Research Park at Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. The focus will be on information technology, biotechnology, planetary sciences, nano-technology, astrobiology and education, said Ames director Henry McDonald. UC-Santa Cruz Chancellor M.R.C. Greenwood said the research and education efforts will capitalize on Silicon Valley's technology and Ames' rich math and science environment.
Andrew Skaff has been named director of materials management, A. Eugene Hall director of planning and scheduling, Steve Gundersen manager at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Shantanu Kar manager in Boston for Frontier Airlines. Skaff was director of purchasing for AirTran Airways while Hall was director of scheduling and route planning for American Eagle. Gundersen was customer service coordinator at Salt Lake City and Kar associate trainer for Continental Airlines at Minneapolis/St. Paul.
Austrian Airlines is attempting to acquire a controlling stake in Lauda Air with which it has been involved in an escalating dispute over the future of the financially troubled carrier. Austrian is Lauda's biggest shareholder with a 36% stake. Top executives are seeking approval from the airline's supervisory board to obtain the 20% stake Lufthansa has in Lauda which would give Austrian 56%. It already has an option under an earlier agreement, which it says it will exercise, to buy 22.5% of the shares in Lauda next July from its founder, Niki Lauda.
Revitalized by today's powerful computer modeling tools, a once-abandoned gas-core nuclear rocket concept is now considered a feasible propulsion candidate for getting astronauts to and from Mars within nine months. An alternate nuclear-powered electric propulsion system could allow NASA to conduct deep-space exploration missions in much less time than would ever be possible using conventional chemical rockets.
Delta Air Lines has taken delivery of its 100th Boeing 767, the sixth -400ER (extended-range) model to be delivered this year. By year-end, Delta, the world's largest 767 operator, will add 55 new Boeing jetliners into the fleet, including 18 767s.
Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways says it is spending nearly $260 million on 30 e-business initiatives because it expects e-business activities to cuts costs by $65 million a year, by 2003. New passenger services include wireless access to flight status reports at airport lounges and gates, content in eight languages on its Web site (www.cathaypacific.com) and a booking engine that allows passengers to book one-way or multi-segment trips, including stopovers.
After successfully shooting down Katyusha rockets with the Tactical High-Energy Laser (Thel), U.S. Army officials are interested in a smaller, mobile version. Lt. Gen. John Costello, head of the Army's Space and Missile Defense Command, is vying for funding to build a prototype system while simultaneously exploring different laser options. A mobile system would be mounted in a trailer and use a smaller deuterium fluoride laser than the existing Thel design. The Army plans eventually to use solid-state lasers on a Humvee.
