The French BEA accident investigation agency on Aug. 31 released a 76-page preliminary report of the July 25 Air France Concorde crash that leaves unresolved some aspects of the tire blowout (see related story, p. 75). ``We still don't know if tire pieces punctured the fuel tanks or entered into the aircraft motors,'' the report said. ``We will be able to determine that when we rebuild the aircraft.''
Worried that the other services are piggybacking too heavily on its expeditionary force bandwagon, the Marine Corps wants the issue threshed out in the approaching Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). In the Marines' judgment, the issue is straightforward: how much expeditionary capability does the nation need, asks Gen. Terrence Dake, assistant Marine Corps commandant. One concern is that there isn't enough airlift to support all the expeditionary needs being articulated within the Pentagon.
France's in-depth review of its long-term defense requirements, which should get underway soon, is expected to detail why a second nuclear-powered aircraft carrier would be needed to supplement the Charles de Gaulle.
Lanny Michael has been named acting chief financial officer of the Seattle-based Airborne Freight Corp. He succeeds Roy Liljebeck, who has retired. Michael will remain senior vice president/treasurer of Airborne Express.
After getting the European green light for its acquisition of Labinal's aerospace activities, French engine maker Snecma will now be able to target new product sectors, particularly rotary-wing applications. In approving the takeover, announced in May, the European Commission noted that there would be minimal overlap in the two companies' product lines and that their activities in specific sectors were unlikely to lead to dominant market positions--the EC's primary yardstick for okaying major mergers.
North Korea's recent overtures toward South Korea and the West are puzzling U.S. military and intelligence officials who for years have been struggling to understand motives driving policy decisions in the long-isolated country.
Boeing has completed 70 missions and more than 150 hr. of flight testing on the avionics suite for its Joint Strike Fighter candidate using a 737 transport modified as a flying lab. The effort is part of a coordinated Boeing approach to reduce risk in the JSF program as it heads toward down-select and the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) stage in mid-2001, according to Rod Leitch, AFL systems manager for software and sensors. JSF has a 5,000-aircraft, $300-billion potential, including 2,000 aircraft for non-U.S. operators.
Ronald L. McClellan has become vice president-maintenance of Vanguard Airlines. He was managing director for aircraft acquisition for Trans World Airlines.
John R. Reimers has been appointed president/chief operating officer and Timothy B. Nichols senior vice president-sales and marketing of the Compass Aerospace Corp., Long Beach, Calif. Reimers was executive vice president/COO.
STANFORD UNIVERSITY RESEARCHER Hongjie Dai, working with an atomic force microscope to deform tiny carbon pipes called nanotubes, found that the flow of electricity in a nanotube dropped sharply when the tube was bent and resumed when it straightened as the bending force was removed. Each 80-micrometer-long tube resembles rolled-up graphite sheets of carbon atoms, arranged in a honeycomb fashion.
Steven S. Szakacs has been named vice president-manufacturing for the Linwood, Pa., facility of Creative Precision East Inc. He was project manager for SI Handling Systems Inc., Easton, Pa. He succeeds Daniel Herrman, who has resigned.
GE Engine Services has been awarded a 10-year, $215-million contract to maintain, overhaul and repair China Southern Airlines' GE90-powered Boeing 777 fleet.
Astronics Corp.'s Aerospace and Electronics Div. has received three additional orders valued at up to $5.6 million for spare parts and services for its F-16 night vision program with the U.S. Air Force.
The Defense Dept.'s Central Contractor Registration system reports it has captured more than 160,000 registrants over the past year. Three new data elements that are points of contact have been added to the site (www.ccr2000.com) to enable vendors to conduct e-business with the federal government, establish a small business identification field and institute a credit card acceptance field. Additionally, the database for CCR vendors can now be searched simultaneously by geographic location, industry and socioeconomic factors.
Investigators scrutinizing Gulf Air Flight GF072's last 60 sec. are trying to determine whether the Airbus A320 twinjet's excessive speed during its final approach to Bahrain International Airport initiated a catastrophic chain of events. The aircraft plunged into the sea on Aug. 23, about 1.5 naut. mi. from the runway threshold, killing all 143 passengers and crewmembers on board (AW&ST Aug. 28, p. 22).
William C. Schaudt has been named vice president-maintenance and engineering and Karen J. Sykes director of inflight services for Frontier Airlines. Schaudt succeeds Jon Bartram, who has retired. Schaudt was manager of narrow-body quality assurance for American Airlines. Sykes held similar positions with the former Frontier Airlines and with Horizon Airlines. Ann E. Block, who has been vice president-human resources, also will oversee flight services. Elise R. Eberwein has been named vice president-communications and Sean E.
Developing software to make airline maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) operations more efficient has been attracting a lot of attention lately from database design specialists. It might seem that knowing how to juggle available shop space and manpower to maximize overhaul schedules would be second nature for MRO managers. But it isn't as intuitive as it seems. Unplanned maintenance issues that arise when technicians begin tear downs can play havoc with schedules, overhaul experts say. That's where MRO scheduling software is expected to make a difference.
The tentative contract between United Airlines and its pilots, which sets a new salary peak of more than $300,000 a year for senior captains of wide-body aircraft, is shaking up labor relations across the industry.
Candace J. Freedenberg has been appointed program manager of Web enablement and Peter J. LaPlaca Web product manager for images as information within Eastman Kodak Commercial&Government Systems, Arlington, Va.
``Flight problems'' ranked No. 1 of 11 complaint categories in the U.S. Transportation Dept.'s June Air Travel Consumer Report released last week. Of the 2,389 complaints lodged against U.S. and foreign airlines, travel agents and tour operators, 1,050 were related to flight difficulties that included cancellations, delays and missed connections. Customer service problems ranked second, with 497 complaints. Delays in June reflected the impact of 19 severe weather days, with United Airlines, US Airways and America West Airlines posting the worst performances.
William F. (Frank) Moore has become vice president/deputy manager of the Joint-STARS program within Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems and Aerostructures. He was deputy director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology.
Harris Corp. has been awarded a $67-million engineering, manufacturing and development contract from Boeing for avionics for U.S. Army RAH-66 Comanche helicopters. The new contract runs through February 2005 and is a follow-on to an earlier award. Including the previous contract, the overall value of the work for Harris is $230 million.
