Despite slow though sporadic progress in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the failure of Israeli-Syrian talks over the Golan Heights has left the wider prospects for peace in the Middle East in question.
William T. Powers (see photo) has become chief financial officer of Rolls-Royce North America, Reston, Va. He was chief executive of Rolls-Royce Capital and director of mergers and acquisitions.
Worried that Congress may oppose a demonstration of the Discoverer-2 satellite surveillance system, Defense Dept. officials are trying to bolster their case for the space-based radar by arguing it will deliver intelligence that so far has been unavailable. They contend the system could provide both target location and elevation data with enough accuracy for the use of precision weapons and simultaneously do other tasks such as collecting electronic and communications intelligence.
HONEYWELL SOLD ONE OF ITS TWO TRAFFIC ALERT and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) product lines to L-3 Communications Corp., fulfilling a condition required by regulatory authorities for the merger of Honeywell and AlliedSignal. The new Honeywell retains the larger TCAS line of AlliedSignal, which has approximately 9,500 units installed in air transport, business and military aircraft.
Kent Kresa is chairman, president and CEO of the Northrop Grumman Corp. This piece is adapted from a speech he gave last month to the Institut Francais des Relations Internationales in Paris.
US Airways flight attendants ratified their new labor contract last week by a margin of nearly 4-to-1, with about 85% of all eligible employees voting. The new five-year agreement provides the 10,000 flight attendants with immediate 5% raises plus a 5% signing bonus, with three additional raises of 2% each spread over the next 42 months. The airline now has agreements with all of its major labor groups.
Surrey Space Center's Snap-1 nanosatellite--it weighs just 6 kg.--is due for launch on a Cosmos booster from Russia's Plesetsk Cosmodrome between June 14 and 30. Its primary payload is a vision system designed to inspect other spacecraft in orbit, so Snap (Surrey Nanosatellite Project) will fly in formation with Tsinghua-1, which will be launched at the same time.
Is China finally opening its skies to private aircraft? Li Anli, manager of a Shanghai-based private company, has purchased a Bonanza A36 on installment payments from Raytheon Aircraft. The aircraft will be used for recreation as well as flight training, she said. The Education and Training Co. of China Eastern Airlines in Shanghai has been signed to manage the aircraft and use it to provide general flight training as part of a comprehensive ``amateur'' pilot training curriculum leading to a pilot's license.
Despite a history of incessant combat with employees, the airlines may be entering a period of improved labor relations. An official of the Newfoundland Group, which tracks work issues within the industry, said airline officials are ``actively engaging labor in productive negotiations'' and that ``smart managements at Continental Airlines and Alaska Airlines clearly recognize the benefits of concluding negotiations in a reasonable time and not letting ill will fester.'' Even American Airlines and the Allied Pilots Assn.
Dan Janka (see photos) has been promoted to vice president/general manager from general manager, John Judge to senior vice president-sales of that division from vice president-sales for key accounts and Dwaine Isenberg to vice president-quality and engineering from director of quality, all for the Advanced Systems and Services business of Cincinnati Machine. Rich Curless has been appointed the division's vice president-product and technology development. He was vice president-technology. And, Jeff Price has been named vice president-operations of the Oakley facility.
The European Space Agency and researchers from academia and industry plan to prepare a space bioreactor for biomedical applications intended for the International Space Station. Companies and institutes from Germany, Italy and Switzerland will participate in the project, one of more than 50 recommended by an independent peer review panel in response to an initial ESA announcement of opportunity for physical sciences and biotechnology issued in 1998. Led by Prof.
President Bill Clinton pulled the plug on Selective Availability (SA), the intentional degrading of the GPS signal, on May 1 at midnight. The long-awaited decision will be a boon to most civil users and will remove an irritant for the international community, but will have little impact on aviation use because eliminating SA will not improve GPS integrity--the major roadblock in the use of GPS for vertical guidance on instrument approaches--according to the FAA's Satellite Operational Implementation Team (SOIT).
Portland International Airport's aviation-related activities had a $3.6-billion impact on the surrounding region in 1999. This included almost 10,000 direct jobs and another 7,000 indirect and ``induced'' jobs in the metropolitan area, according to the Port of Portland. These figures don't include 3.7 million visitors who flew into the airport and spent about $3.1 billion at hotels, restaurants and retail stores.
Nations of Africa are making rudimentary progress toward infrastructure improvements that are sorely needed to support growth of commercial aviation. Fostering this progress is a change of attitude on the part of a new generation of government leaders that bodes well for Africa, a continent often torn by famine, civil wars and political upheaval.
The 12 European airlines that complained to the European Commission about an Italian government order to shift operations to the new Malpensa airport near Milan plan to redouble efforts to convince the Commission to have the order reversed (see p. 42). Terming the Italian move ``an absolute scandal,'' Lufthansa Chairman/CEO Juergen Weber implied the group would apply all the pressure it could bring to bear to ensure that the EC ruling, to be issued at the end of this month, is in its favor.
Boeing is quietly pointing out the bottom-line strengths of all-737 ``no-frills'' operators in major world markets. In Europe, fast-rising Ryanair returned a blistering 23% operating margin in 1999, compared with less than 5% for full-service carriers Air France, British Airways and KLM. In Canada, WestJet logged a 15% operating margin for the year, versus 7.7% for Air Canada and -4.3% for Canadian Airlines International. Among the U.S. majors, Southwest Airlines achieved a 16.5% operating margin in 1999, compared with 6.2-9.2% for American, Northwest and America West.
The French government approved the NH-90 frigate helicopter's production plan and a $1.15-billion budget to participate in the development's final phase and procure 27 aircraft. Italy plans to acquire 127 NH-90s, Germany 80 and the Netherlands 20. The four participating countries' go-ahead is expected to be signed next month.
Aviation Week&Space Technology presented its 1999 Laureate and Laurels Legends awards at a dinner at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington on Apr. 12. The 1999 recipients also were inducted into the Laureates Hall of Fame, which is in the museum. The following photos are of Laureates, Laurels Legends, Outstanding Service Academy Cadets and the Top Student from Aviation High School in New York. Two Legends were unable to attend: Frank Borman, former NASA astronaut and airline executive; and former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn.
Italy will become the 16th country to ratify the new convention of Eumetsat, which recognizes operational surveillance of the climate and climatic trends as a fundamental task of the Paris-based organization. Only Greece has yet to formally approve the convention.
LEICA GEOSYSTEMS WILL SUPPLY MX412 DGPS receivers to Sweden for use in its military Vertol 107 helicopters. The Swedish Defense Materiel Administration awarded a contract to Leica's Swedish distributor, C.A. Clase of Gothenburg, to provide 15 Leica receivers. The 12-channel receivers are being modified to meet the vibration protection required for helicopter operations, and will have a navigation accuracy of 1-5 meters, according to Leica.
Aerolineas Baleares, a regional startup linking the Balearic Islands to the Spanish mainland, is to acquire three Boeing 717-200 twinjets.The agreement includes options for 17 more aircraft. AB was formed recently by Spanair, a private carrier with close ties to Scandinavian Airlines System and Lufthansa. Aircraft deliveries are to begin in June.
Steven Westberg has been promoted to executive vice president/general manager from senior vice president/chief financial officer and Paul Kinstedt to vice president-customer service from director of flight operations for Midway Airlines. Timothy Smith, a real estate developer, has been named to the board of directors.
For airlines based in Latin America, it is the proverbial best of times, worst of times. Domestic traffic in most nations is on a healthy trajectory of growth, traffic to and from other parts of the world is growing fast, and international traffic within the region is growing even faster. Many nations' economies have stabilized, and all except Cuba have democratic governments. Privatization and open skies agreements have reenergized some flag carriers and spawned energetic startups.
The Pentagon is mapping plans for future military satellites that include pushing new missions into space and getting more capability out of single spacecraft.
