The committee's chairman, John McCain (R-Ariz.), opened last week's hearing on delays with a blistering verbal assault on airline pilots for their work stoppages this summer. McCain compared the nearly $342,000 annual salary that top United pilots will make in 2004 to the paltry $20,000 per capita income nation-wide in 1998. Lost vacations that middle Americans plan months in advance, which they literally cannot afford to alter, are ``due to pilot greed,'' McCain fumed.
U.S. Marine Corps officials last week grounded for 24 hr. all aircraft of the third Marine Air Wing to review safety procedures. While the Marines said the decision was not prompted by any one event, it followed the death of two Marines last week in the crash of an F/A-18D during training near Yuma, Ariz.
Tail buffeting problems uncovered during RAH-66 Comanche flight tests have prompted program officials to implement changes to the helicopter's vertical and horizontal tails. As a result, the vertical tail will be ``slightly'' reduced in height and vertical endplates will be added to the horizontal stabilizer to compensate for any reduction in directional stability.
BAE Systems expects to close its acquisition of Lockheed Martin's Control Systems business by the end of the month after securing U.S. regulatory approval last week. The U.S. Justice Dept. has asked for additional information on BAE Systems' purchase of Lockheed Martin's Aerospace Electronics Systems business. Senior BAE executives expressed confidence that the deal was on track to be approved before the end of the year. Last week, BAE Systems posted pretax profits of 480 million pounds ($677 million) for the first six months of the year, a 34% increase over 1999.
Air Canada plans to inaugurate daily nonstop service between Vancouver and Shanghai, effective Nov. 21. Flights will be operated with wide-body Boeing 767-300 aircraft.
Transport Minister Ammon Lipkin-Shahak's hint that the Israeli government was considering allowing state-owned El Al to operate on the Jewish Sabbath has drawn fire from religious political parties. The ban has been a major stumbling block to government plans to privatize the carrier. Earlier this month, El Al President Joel Feldschuh, whose relationship with Lipkin-Shahak has been poor, said he would resign at the end of October. Under Feldschuh, El Al planned to buy new aircraft from both Airbus Industrie and long-term supplier Boeing.
Tim Hall (see photo) has been appointed U.K. sales manager at Litton VEAM/ TEC, Enfield, England. He was head of sales and marketing for Litton Precision Products.
American Airlines plans to restructure flights at delay-prone Chicago and elongate block and ground times at its Dallas-Fort Worth hub in an attempt to reduce delays that have plagued the airline's network, according to Donald J. Carty, chairman and chief executive officer of AMR Corp., parent of American Airlines.
NTSB investigators are examining electrical relays that may have caused dense smoke in the cockpit of an AirTran DC-9 soon after departure from Piedmont Triad Airport near Greensboro, N.C. Preliminary information from the NTSB indicates that shortly after takeoff the captain and first officer smelled smoke in the cockpit, and they donned goggles and emergency oxygen masks. The smoke became increasingly dense and impaired their ability to see and interpret instrument readings, as well as identify outside references.
Consumer research suggests self-defeating airline practices are destroying passenger loyalty to individual carriers. Customers are learning a harsh lesson from the industry's crackdown on carry-on bags, limits on child safety seats, jack-in-the-box ticket prices, misleading flight information and unsavory food, according to university analysts. The lesson: airline loyalty has little tangible value anymore. Fealty to a favorite carrier is irrelevant.
Pentagon officials are becoming aware that one area where troops are most vulnerable to an attack with biological weapons is inside a building. Deploying biological weapons outside buildings is more difficult because the agent can be dispersed by wind, and its effect can be reduced by exposure to ultraviolet light, oxygen or pollutants (AW&ST Sept. 4, p. 95). To counter that concern, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) is launching a program to determine how to design and construct a building to make it immune to such attacks.
Major hardware and software for the Canadian Space Agency's Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) for the International Space Station (ISS) is advancing through integration and test at NASA's Kennedy Space Center and the MacDonald Dettwiler facility in Canada. The manipulator arm, capable of maneuvering 100 tons of mass in zero-g, has passed its integration testing at Kennedy and is being prepared for launch to the ISS in April. Initial software for the SSRMS has been delivered ahead of schedule.
A French engineering team is developing a system that would allow airline passengers to use their own personal cellular telephones on board commercial transports, instead of cumbersome and expensive in-flight phones, and to transmit data and access the Internet. Aerospatiale Matra Airbus, the French arm of the future Airbus Integrated Co., is completing validation tests of the concept, dubbed the In-Flight Telecom System (IFTS), at its Toulouse, France, research facilities.
South Korea appears to be sustaining its large military procurement program in spite of the apparent easing of tension between Seoul and North Korea in recent months. In fact, aerospace industry officials note that rather than a weakening in commitment, they have seen the South Korean defense ministry accelerate a number of programs. The development is being greeted warmly by U.S. defense contractors who are competing for a number of the contracts ranging from airborne early warning aircraft to fighters and attack helicopters.
In the aftermath of the Air France Concorde accident, a political controversy is heating up over the need to reconcile Paris Charles de Gaulle airport's robust traffic growth with local residents' flight safety-driven fears and demands. In addition, differing views on the future of the supersonic transport are emerging in France and in the U.K. Dissension could further complicate the civil aviation authorities' tentative plan to reinstate Concorde's airworthiness certificate after implementing additional wheel/brake and airframe protections.
National missile defense is moving closer to 2010 than 2005, as a drive for more numerous and time-consuming flight tests bumps harder against a legal mandate for early deployment. Tightening the test/deployment knot, the Bush campaign's call for a higher-performance, multifaceted NMD system with more weapons and varied basing schemes to protect the allies as well as the U.S. also might slow deployment, perhaps considerably.
Brian Knight has been appointed director/group controller for Smith Industries Aerospace in London. He was director/group controller for the company's industrial business. Knight succeeds Ron Albrecht, who has been named president of Smiths' Invensys, Leland and Actuation Systems companies.
The crew of America West Flight 2037 made an engine-out landing after the Boeing 757's left engine quit during descent to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Sept. 11. The cause of the engine shutdown, which occurred about 7:15 p.m. as the pilot reduced power for descent, is yet to be determined.
Steve Bridge (see photo) has been promoted to president from vice president/chief operating officer of Frontier Technology Inc., Santa Barbara, Calif. Michael VonPlinsky has been appointed vice president-corporate business development, Edward Crowder vice president/director of the Engineering Analysis Group, Ronald Shroder vice president/director of the Acquisition Support Group and Curt Stahl director of infotech solutions operations.
The Indian Defense Ministry has ordered 10 Mirage 2000s from Dassault Aviation at a cost of 15 billion rupees ($340 million). The aircraft are intended to compensate for attrition within the fleet of 40 Mirages acquired by India in the 1980s. The acquisition follows a FF10-billion ($1.3-billion) order from Greece for 15 Mirage 2000-5s late in August.
Charles E. Martin has become vice president-customer service for the Southern U.S. for US Airways. He was managing director of cargo operations for Airport Group International.
Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Electronic Sensors and Systems Sector has formed a strategic alliance with Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Indigo Systems Corp. to develop an advanced infrared detector fabrication capability. The imaging modules and IR detectors they expect to produce will be incorporated into Northrop Grumman targeting and navigation systems, as well as IR countermeasures systems.
The U.S. Navy may not admit it, but the addition of Lockheed Martin's Lantirn targeting system has converted the vaunted air-to-air F-14 fighter into one of the sea-service's best ``air-to-mud'' ground-attack aircraft. The ``Black Aces'' of Fighter Sqdn. 41 (VF-41), based at Naval Air Station Oceana, Va., recently became the first Tomcat unit to receive the Rear Adm. Clarence W. McClusky Award for air-to-ground strike warfare excellence. The award traditionally is won by A-6 Intruder or F/A-18 Hornet squadrons.
The captain of All Nippon Airways Flight 559 from Nagoya lost consciousness minutes before the aircraft touched down at Saga airport on Kyushu island on Sept. 11. The Airbus A320-200 was at about 1,000 ft. altitude when the co-pilot, who was at the controls, noticed the captain was unconscious. He landed the aircraft without incident.The 53-year-old captain, Fusao Horie, who successfully passed a medical check in June, apparently suffered a stroke and was hospitalized. A high-blood-pressure condition caused Horie's license to be suspended for all of 1993.
