Fred P. Moosally has been appointed president of Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics&Surveillance Systems (NE&SS)-Surface Systems, Moorestown, N.J. He was vice president/general manager. Frank M. DeBritz has become president of NE&SS-Undersea Systems, Manassas, Va. He was senior vice president-ocean systems for NE&SS in Syracuse, N.Y. John O'Neill has been appointed deputy to the president of NE&SS-Undersea Systems, while remaining vice president-warfare systems in Manassas. Michael A.
To some observers, Swissair, an operating unit of SAirGroup, may seem an unlikely candidate for top honors among major airlines in the Index of Competitiveness. Formed nearly 70 years ago and designated Switzerland's national airline in 1947, the company has operated under the government's protective wing for much of its existence. Until a few years ago, moreover, collaborative marketing arrangements with other airlines weren't very effective.
Paul Migliacio (see photo) has been named vice president-customer support for Crane Aerospace, Lynnwood, Wash., parent company of the Eldec Corp., Hydro-Aire Inc. and Lear Romec. He was head of the Eldec Telecommunications Power Products and Systems Group.
Delta Connection regional carrier Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA) began jet service on July 1 between Dallas' Love Field and Atlanta using Canadair Regional Jets (CRJ). ASA, which is leasing gates from startup Legend Airlines at its new terminal, is operating six nonstop flights daily to Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport. The airline also recently began CRJ service from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to Amarillo, Tex., and Savannah, Ga.
A Pentagon initiative to explore concepts for a naval Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle could resolve a dilemma the Defense Dept. faces in allowing these systems to become operational (see p. 35). Language in the 1988 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty that outlaws ground-launched cruise missiles effectively bars most land-based UCAVs. But weapons deployed from ships aren't affected by the treaty, which is why the Navy is allowed to use its Tomahawk cruise missiles and why it should be able to deploy a ship-based UCAV without treaty hurdles.
Tyrolean Airways, which is based in Innsbruck, Austria, has ordered the Rockwell Collins Flight Dynamics Head-up Guidance System for installation on its 12 Bombardier Dash 8-300 regional turboprop aircraft. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in September.
Capt. Jeffrey Wieringa has become commander of the F/A-18 Program Management Office at NAS Patuxent River, Md. He succeeds Rear Adm. (select) James B. Godwin, 3rd. Wieringa was principal deputy manager of the program.
Veteran airline industry executive Jeffrey Katz has been appointed president, chairman and CEO of Orbitz, the travel Web site founded by American, Continental, Delta, Northwest and United airlines. Until very recently, he was president and CEO of SAirGroup's Swissair (see p. 78). Prior to Swissair, Katz, 45, was an executive at American Airlines and head of Sabre's computerized reservation systems business.
The German science satellite Champ and two piggyback payloads are undergoing final preparations for launch on July 15 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia.
Air Command Systems International, a joint venture of Raytheon and Thomson-CSF, has been awarded a $125-million work order by the NATO Air Command for the validation of four additional air command and control systems in Belgium, France, Germany and Italy.
Opening Reagan Washington National Airport to 24 more slots a day ``will create a pro-consumer and pro-competitive environment, and meets the criteria set by Congress,'' brags Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater. Since 1969 the number of aircraft slots--each slot allows a landing or a takeoff--has been restricted to cut delays at four high-density airports: National, Chicago's O'Hare, and New York's LaGuardia and JFK. But the FAA reauthorization that became law in April required Slater to grant 12 exemptions to those restrictions for flights within 1,250 mi.
Ask the ``Best-Managed'' companies in the 2000 Index of Competitiveness how they got to where they are today, and they'll credit painstaking reengineering of their organizations as well as individual processes, and a commitment to quality initiatives, multidisciplinary teams of workers and employee empowerment programs that raised efficiencies. Strip away the business jargon, and it comes down to this: These companies, like a growing number of other aerospace contractors and airlines, are learning to do more with less.
DRS Technologies Inc. will provide deployable flight incident recorder sets for U.S. Air Force electronic surveillance aircraft, under a $1.6-million subcontract awarded by Raytheon Aircraft Integration Systems. Deliveries will begin this October.
The company responsible for the first unmanned aerial vehicle flight across the Atlantic, in August 1998, is at it again. Insitu Group's latest project is a 33-lb.-maximum-takeoff-weight, long-endurance UAV intended to provide low-cost aerial reconnaissance from sea-going vessels as little as 20 ft. long, according to Tad McGeer, president of Bingen, Wash.-based Insitu. Called Seascan, the UAV uses a nose-mounted, internally stabilized video camera and downlink system developed in collaboration with Hood Technology. An onboard automated flight control system and 1.3-hp.
The quest for competitive advantage has been reshaping the industry landscape for much of the last 10 years, prompting aerospace companies and airlines around the world to reexamine their business models and adopt more innovative approaches to delivering the greatest value to their customers. That's not to say organizations at or near the top of their game today can afford to rest on their laurels and expose their operations to the business malaise known as creeping complacency.
The fate of International Space Station assembly and near-term crew operations rests on the scheduled launch this week of the 42,000-lb. Russian Zvezda Service Module, which has delayed the $50-billion program two years and stranded the ISS in U.S. political purgatory. Liftoff of the $300-million Service Module (SM) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome atop a Proton booster is set for about 12:56 a.m. EDT July 12.
The Pentagon is significantly expanding its work on Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles (UCAVs) with contracts to Boeing and Northrop Grumman to explore stealthy versions for the Navy that would introduce air-to-air surveillance to the unmanned systems.
Boeing added 1.5 terabytes of data to its myboeingfleet.com airline e-business Web site last week, including millions of engineering drawings for nearly all of the Boeing and former Douglas worldwide commercial fleets. The enhancement allows searches of parts lists, more than 11,000 component maintenance and overhaul manuals and a fleet status report called Boeing Fleet Team Digest. All of this is intended to replace the aperture cards that airlines are accustomed to.
Pilots for Cathay Pacific Airways voted last week to refuse to work on scheduled days off, a move expected to disrupt flights. The problem centers around the rapid pickup in traffic with pilots forced to work on their days off. But Cathay spokeswoman Lavina Chan said the action will not cause any disruptions. She claimed the pilots already have enough rest time--including 42 days of annual vacation and another 92 guaranteed days off.
Lockheed Martin will restart production of the IA-63 Pampa tandem-seat jet trainer at its Cordoba, Argentina, aircraft factory. Lockheed Martin Aircraft Argentina recently won a five-year, $230-million contract from the Argentine government to provide military aircraft maintenance and modification services at the facility. This includes work on the A-4AR fighter, C-130 transport and IA-58 Pucara light attack aircraft as well as 14 Pampas built starting in the 1980s, when the factory was government operated.
Matt Roden has been appointed national director of sales and Nina Cox sales/marketing research manager at the Orlando, Fla., office of Signature Regional Maintenance Centers. Roden was a completion sales executive for the Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., Savannah, Ga., while Cox was manager of advertising and promotion for K-C Aviation. Robert Hohlowski has become director of technical services at the West Palm Beach, Fla., center. He was director of the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Service Center of Bombardier Aviation Services.
Talks between Air Canada and the Air Canada Pilots Assn. were scheduled to resume last Friday following a 48-hr. recess. Analysts believe the two sides will reach an agreement without an interruption in scheduled service.
