Mark Mazza has been promoted to vice president/general manager of U.S. international operations from international vice president-Western Region, Rick Whitaker to vice president-international gateways from international vice president-Central Region and Greg Davis to vice president-Latin America operations from international vice president-Eastern Region, all for BAX Global, Irvine, Calif. Dante Fornari has been named vice president-sales planning and support. He was director of field sales for the Northeast U.S.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China's control over airline ticket pricing is to relax somewhat, according to the official China Daily. Prices will be allowed to fluctuate with the market climate, and the role of the aviation authority is to be ``supervisor of air ticket prices'' rather than price fixer. With the airlines setting the figures, analysts say that Chinese passengers would welcome competitive pricing.
Despite record-breaking flight delays this peak summer season, the FAA claims its delay-reduction initiative is working. FAA boss Jane F. Garvey told vexed senators she had word from a number of airlines that collaborative efforts with the government have improved planning and execution of flight operations in advance of severe weather. Garvey hastened to admit delays would never be eliminated, but insisted they are being managed better.
Lori Krans (see photo) has become director of marketing for plans and proposals for Sextant In-Flight Systems, Irvine, Calif. She was senior marketing manager for Sony Trans Com, also in Irvine.
Allen E. Paulson, the self-made man who founded Gulfstream Aerospace, died in La Jolla, Calif., on July 19, after a long battle with cancer. He was 78. Born on a farm in Iowa, Paulson was passionate about aerospace and horses. After a stint in the Army Air Corps, he became a flight engineer for Trans World Airlines. In 1952, he formed California Airmotive Corp. In the mid-1960s, he became a Lear distributor. He formed American Jet Industries in 1970 and developed the Hustler.
Industry analysts continue to harbor deep skepticism about the long-term viability of Trans World Airlines, even though the carrier was able to narrow its losses and generate modest operating income in the second quarter. Despite TWA's best efforts to return to sustained profitability, it remains in the red, and market professionals on both the stock and bond sides see the carrier as ``muddling along.''
Mark Owen has been named vice president-operations and Robert Avery vice president-solution sales for Boeing Airplane Services of Seattle. Owen was vice president/general manager of Boeing military maintenance and modification centers in Wichita, Kan., San Antonio, Tex., Shreveport, La., and Jacksonville, Fla. Avery was president of the maintenance, repair and overhaul group of BFGoodrich Aerospace.
The Spanish air force has awarded a $19-million contract to Israel Aircraft Industries' Lahav Div. to upgrade F-5 aircraft with new avionics, including head-up displays, mission computers, LCD displays and electronic flight instruments systems. Work is scheduled to begin soon on four prototype aircraft. The contract includes options for upgrading 18 additional F-5s.
Belgium-based Techspace Aero, a Snecma subsidiary, has concluded an agreement with General Electric Aircraft Engines to become an 8% risk-sharing partner in the CF34-10 turbofan. Techspace Aero's share will include the design and production of the low-pressure compressor. The C34-10 has been selected to power the 90-100-seat Fairchild Dornier 928JET and Embraer ERJ-190.
Col. Donald S. Lopez (USAF, Ret.), deputy director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, has won the Golden Eagle Award from the Reston, Va.-based Society of Senior Aerospace Executives.
Thirteen major airlines from the U.S., Europe and Asia-Pacific have launched an Internet-based business market dubbed Aeroxchange. Carriers want to buy and sell aircraft-specific products and services in the venture, which is supposed to go online in a few months.
BFGoodrich Aerospace will maintain National Airlines' fleet of 12 Boeing 757 aircraft under a multiyear contract. The agreement includes nose-to-tail C checks and material support.
Airbus Industrie's and Boeing's record backlog, which further expanded last week, signals the airline industry's robust growth rate and continuing confidence in the future. Both aircraft manufacturers disclosed firm orders as well as letters of intent, options and purchasing rights for a total value of about $30 billion.
A long-awaited decision to allow the sale of high-resolution commercial space imagery is expected soon. Officials from the Defense, Commerce and State departments are in the midst of a series of meetings to determine whether to grant Space Imaging's request to sell 0.5-meter resolution imagery. The company already sells 1-meter-resolution pictures taken by its Ikonos remote-sensing spacecraft, and this year will have $200 million in revenue from the system, compared with $40 million last year. A senior Pentagon official says the application will be approved.
The signals of the Global Positioning System satellites are being used for more than position sensing on Germany's Champ satellite, which was launched by a Russian Cosmos 3M rocket from Plesetsk into a 450-km. polar orbit on July 15. Champ (Challenging Minisatellite Payload) is managed by the GeoForschungsZentrum agency, which was established in Potsdam in an attempt to stimulate space business in the former East Germany (AW&ST Sept. 6, 1999, p. 72). The 1,150-lb.
Matra BAe Dynamics hopes to boost export sales of the Mistral surface-to-air missile with an upgraded version (left). The ``fire and forget'' Mistral 2 has a 6-km. (3.7-mi.) range and can fly at Mach 3 at 6,600-ft. maximum altitude. The Mistral 2 will replace the initial version in the Franco-British company's product range after the delivery of an estimated 15,000 Mistral 1s to 24 countries. The Mistral 2 has a solid rocket booster and passive infrared guidance system, weighs 44 lb. and carries a 6.6-lb. warhead.
The first of 59 WAH-64 attack helicopters being built by GKN Westland for Britain's Army Air Corps made its initial flight earlier this month at the company's Yeovil facility. Crewed by GKN Westland project test pilot Richard Morton and Boeing production test pilot Walt Jones, the WAH-64 flew an 18-min. sortie on July 18 that included systems and other checks at speeds up to 140 kt.
U.S. Air Force officials took delivery of the first of 50 Bell Boeing CV-22 tiltrotor aircraft July 25 at Bell Helicopter Textron's Flight Test Facility in Grand Prairie, Tex. Plans call for beginning low-rate initial production of the electronic warfare systems this year, followed by flight testing and full-rate production in 2001.
Demonstrations of NASA's Aircraft Vortex Spacing System (Avoss) here indicate it could reduce arrival delays at major airports 5-10% by predicting wake vortex behavior, thereby allowing air traffic controllers to safely reduce aircraft spacing on final approach.
Chris Millich has been promoted to vice president-business development from director for product marketing for Northwest Airlines. He has been succeeded by Carol Fischer, who was a director of operations and director of sales.
A competition between Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Astrium to supply a privately financed military satellite communications system to the U.K. is spreading beyond Britain to the other NATO countries of Europe.
The Eurofighter consortium sees the potential for further delays in the Joint Strike Fighter program as a window of opportunity for additional export sales and is already trying to convince the Netherlands to join the four-nation program.
Boeing last week rolled out what it claims to be the longest 737 ever built. The -900 is 8.5 ft. longer than the -800 version and can seat up to 189 in a single-class, all-economy configuration. First delivery to launch customer Alaska Airlines is scheduled for April 2001, and first flight is planned for next month. Continental, Korean and KLM also have ordered the version. Boeing is predicting the 737-900 will be the most fuel-efficient, single-aisle transport on the market today, including the 757-300 and Airbus A321.
German and Austrian investigators released an interim report on the crash landing of the Hapag-Lloyd Airbus A310-304 in Vienna on July 12 (AW&ST July 24, p. 88). According to the preliminary report, about 130 kg. (59 lb.) of unusable fuel was found in the aircraft's tanks and all relevant instruments were operating properly. Initially, Austrian investigators said the aircraft was probably out of fuel. The pilots stated in an inquiry that they had calculated fuel consumption with the flight management system (FMS).
