Boost-phase interception has moved into the spotlight as resistance mounts to the Administration's national missile defense program, but top Pentagon officials caution that BPI is also highly demanding operationally--and fiscally.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) is blocking the confirmation of Phil Boyer, head of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assn., to serve on a new FAA management advisory panel. The rub: McCain wants user fees on corporate aircraft, and Boyer says that would unfairly lump together a lot of AOPA members' piston-powered planes with high-rollers' bizjets. The ex-presidential candidate gave the nod to Senate floor votes on six other nominees, but withheld Boyer's name.
New startup carrier National Jet Italia has joined as the 11th member of British Airways' franchise operations and the first in Italy. The airline is to start a four-times-daily service from Rome to Palermo, Sicily, on July 11 employing two BAe 146 aircraft. A similar service from Rome to Catania, Sicily, is planned soon after. National Jet Italia has been developed out of Australian domestic carrier National Jet System which operates as a franchise partner to Qantas, a partner of BA in the Oneworld alliance.
James Loftin has been promoted to director of operations from director of quality and Geneva Whalen has been appointed director of finance for the Turbo- meca Engine Corp., Grand Prairie, Tex.
Cargo traffic on U.S. carriers represented by the Air Transport Assn. of America jumped 11.2% in March compared to the same month last year. Of the total, international cargo increased by 13.8% and domestic by 8.9%, as measured in revenue ton miles. ATA represents 23 U.S. airlines which transport more than 95% of all passengers and cargo traffic in the U.S.
The long-awaited radar upgrade to the E-8 Joint-STARS aircraft--enabling it to detect stealthy cruise missiles at 200 mi. or more--is officially in trouble. The radar technology insertion program (RTIP) was to cost $2.2 billion to upgrade only five aircraft. Now the Air Force's chief of staff, Gen. Mike Ryan, says he is looking for better, cheaper alternatives, maybe long-dwell drones or a family of RTIP platforms that are less people-intensive. The subject is under discussion with acquisition boss Jacques Gansler and others.
Patrick Phelan has been appointed vice president of the Defense, Aerospace and Technical Services Corporate Banking Group of First Union Securities, Tyson's Corner, Va. He was vice president/relationship manager for Wachovia Securities. Sam Pearlstein has been named a director/senior analyst for the aerospace industry for First Union in New York. He held a similar position at ING Barings.
ONE OF HONEYWELL'S BIG GOALS after acquiring AlliedSignal is to expand so it ``owns'' the information backbone on commercial aircraft. Stretching far beyond classic avionics communication and navigation equipment, the strategy includes management of utilities, hydraulics, fuel, lighting and environmental control systems. The nose-to-tail integration would include maintenance support, auxiliary power unit control and fire protection. Beyond the airplane, Honeywell is expanding its work in aviation and airport information services.
With the Navy shifting its focus to the littorals from open-ocean operations, service officials are eyeing upgrades for the E-2C Hawkeye to improve its air-to-air radar and potentially add an air-to-ground surveillance capability.
Lockheed Martin Fort Worth has developed a ballistics model good enough that it won the 1999 Modeling and Simulation Acquisition Award from the Pentagon's Defense Modeling and Simulation Office. The Advanced Ram Analysis Method (ARAM) calculates how exploding projectiles affect aircraft structure and systems, and does so with sufficient confidence to ``make the appropriate tradeoffs very early in the design stage of new aircraft,'' before live-fire testing would normally be conducted, said Frank J.
Substantial increases in defense budgets approved by Canada's government will allow the nation's air force to upgrade its CF-18A/B fighters, replace aging helicopters, reinstate an air-to-air refueling capability and start a process to obtain a few outsized strategic airlift transports. This year's defense budget was C$400 million ($272 million) over last year's. For 2001, another C$100 million will be added, followed by increases of C$50 million in each of the next two years, according to defense officials here.
Matthew Haggerty has been appointed to the board of directors of Thermedics Detection Inc., Cambridge, Mass. He is CEO and founder of Product Genesis. Charlene Wheeless has been promoted to vice president from director of corporate communications of DynCorp, Reston, Va.
In Hong Kong, air services have long meant big jets because in Asia the emphasis has always been on moving a lot of people among a relatively few airports. But the prospects of new flight opportunities to secondary sites in China and elsewhere has started some rethinking. At Hong Kong's two-year-old Chek Lap Kok airport, fees are being relaxed for helicopters as a ``timely incentive to boost helicopter services, which have considerable potential given our reviving economy,'' CEO Billy Lam Chung-lun said.
A news item on the European Commission's investigation of Boeing's proposed acquisition of Hughes Electronics' satellite business incorrectly stated the relationship of that unit to DirecTV and PanAmSat (AW&ST June 5, p. 33). While Hughes owns a majority of PanAmSat, that company is not an operating unit of Hughes. In addition, the satellite fleets of both DirecTV and PanAmSat include spacecraft that were not manufactured by Hughes.
Raymond Pellichero has been elected president of Gebecoma Belgian aerospace industries association. He succeeds Christian Jacqmin, chief executive of Sonaca. Pellichero is chief executive of Sabca.
Robert P. Perkins has been named interim chief financial officer of the Laser Power Corp. of San Diego. He has been a company director and succeeds Paul Wickham, who has resigned.
New Zealand, which canceled its F-16 lease earlier this year, says it will spend hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade its army, air and maritime transport, and maritime surveillance. The Labor government's defense policy was announced last week, and Prime Minister Helen Clark said the armed forces could not be deployed overseas again with the current aged equipment. But there has been no answer yet on a replacement for the country's A-4s.
Nancy S. Berg has been named executive director of the Dearborn, Mich.-based Society of Manufacturing Engineers. She was director of its Expositions Div.
A House of Commons Defense Committee report warned that the U.K. government's revised proposals for partial privatization of the Defense Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) continued to pose risks that ``outweigh the still hypothetical benefits.'' Despite changes to the original plan, including retaining a larger portion of DERA under government control, the committee said the latest proposal provides ``insufficient details'' and leaves ``many issues to be resolved.'' These include questions about how ``genuinely open collaboration'' with U.S.
