James J. Martin (see photo) has been appointed director of marketing and business development for Northrop Grumman Electronic Sensors and Systems in Baltimore. He was director of surveillance systems marketing.
Lockheed Martin, in conjunction with Joint Strike Fighter team member Northrop Grumman, is conducting airborne tests of a prototype multisensor avionics suite for the team's JSF Concept Demonstration program. Northrop Grumman's multimode radar featuring an electronically scanned array antenna, an infrared sensor system, a Kaiser helmet-mounted display and a Lockheed Martin processor have been installed in Northrop Grumman's BAC 1-11 testbed for up to 150 hr. of flight testing.
Honeywell expects to announce a new dealership organization soon, part of a corporate rationalization plan following the merger with AlliedSignal late last year. Honeywell presently has a network of 800 dealerships around the world. The new plan will allow the company to focus separately on business aviation and general aviation/helicopter markets, something not possible with today's setup, said Pierre Darpoux, vice president for business and general aviation in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
THE NAME OF A PIONEER COMPANY in aviation training and simulation has disappeared. Reflectone, founded in 1939, acquired by British Aerospace in 1997, and now part of BAE Systems is renamed the Flight Simulation and Training business unit.
These new high-pressure hydraulic collet closers are designed for heavy-duty clamping in workholding applications. They operate at 5,000-psi. line pressure and accept all standard 5C, 16C and 3J collets. These all-steel closers are designed with a fixed length so the collet and part do not move, maintaining a fixed height from part to part. A small compact profile allows several closers to be clustered on a fixture and operate simultaneously with only one hydraulic fitting. Lexair Inc., 2025 Mercer Road, Lexington, Ky. 40511.
Evergreen International Airlines is tapping the enormous growth in freight through Singapore, with the commencement of two weekly 747F services between the U.S. and Changi Airport. The EIA service, which started on Apr. 12, joins five all-cargo scheduled airlines that serve Singapore. Last year freight increased 17%.
Moshe Pniel, who has been science project manager of Japan's Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer on board NASA's Terra Earth-observing spacecraft, has been appointed manager of scatterometer projects at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Joseph Higgins (see photos) has been named vice president-finance and administration/chief financial officer and Arthur Leaderman chief procurement officer/general counsel of Swales Aerospace, Beltsville, Md. Higgins was vice president-finance and administration of Ozark Aircraft Systems, Rogers, Ark., and Leaderman a partner in the law firm of Smith, Pachter, McWhorter and D'Ambrosio, Vienna, Va.
Southwest Airlines ranked first among 10 major U.S. airlines in the 1999 edition of the Airline Quality Rating summary, but a surge in consumer complaints suggests the airline industry as a whole is losing the battle to improve customer service.
International auditors found that the U.S. generally adheres to aviation-safety standards, answering critics in other nations who claim that they have suffered from similar audits conducted by the FAA.
LOCKHEED MARTIN IS FORMING a new company, Synchronetics, to provide satellite and ground-based systems to augment GPS and other satellite navigation systems. The primary focus would be on navigation services for civil aviation authorities. The company applied to the Federal Communications Commission last June for permission to launch and operate a global system of geostationary satellites, to be called the Regional Positioning System (AW&ST July 5, 1999, p. 18).
With no evidence of design flaws in the V-22, and the stated intention of the U.S. Marine Corps to start flying again soon, Congress is not likely to ask for hearings or launch an investigation into the second fatal crash of a tiltrotor aircraft, say lawmakers and congressional staffers. Congress is on a tight schedule to finish legislative business in time to return to their home districts for the presidential campaign season.
BAE Systems Avionics has received a contract worth 3 million pounds ($4.77 million) to supply Terprom ground proximity warning systems for U.K. Royal Air Force Tornado F3 aircraft.
Gilles P. Ouimet, who has been president/chief operating officer of Pratt&Whitney Canada, Longueuil, Quebec, will now be president/CEO. He succeeds L. David Caplan, who will remain chairman until next Apr. 1.
Arkia Israeli Airlines is positioning itself for rapid growth in the Middle Eastern leisure market--including a tripling of its international charter business--with the addition of two new Boeing 757-300s.
Alcatel has contracted with Starsem to launch 32 SkyBridge satellites on 11 Soyuz/ST-Fregat launch vehicles beginning in 2002. Under the deal announced last week, Starsem becomes an equity partner in the SkyBridge high-speed, interactive multimedia satellite network. The Soyuz/Fregat boosters are able to carry up to three satellites into orbit per launch. Financial details were not disclosed.
A decidedly mixed European versus U.S. reaction to the prospect of joining the e-marketplace portal to be established by Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and BAE Systems emerged last week. Northrop Grumman said it was likely to decide by late last week whether it would take the four companies up on an invitation to buy up to 20% of the subsidiary business-to-business Internet address they are establishing. If it doesn't join, Northrop Grumman will establish its own site, Integration and Engineering Director John Loonam of Logicon, a Northrop Grumman subsidiary, said.
Airline operating profits could be as much as 45% lower for the first three months of this year than in the same period in 1999, according to PaineWebber analyst Samuel Buttrick. The main reason is the $1 billion run up in fuel costs in the first quarter, though oil prices have fallen sharply in just the last 30 days. But the damage already is done, and Buttrick thinks airlines will continue to feel the effects through the second quarter, with operating profits off by about 10% in the next three months.
THE FAA WILL BUY UP TO 105 MK. 20A instrument landing systems in a congressionally mandated procurement. The contract to French supplier Airsys ATM is valued at $22 million. Four of the first five installations will go to airports that do not have ILS. The fifth will equip another runway-end at McCarren International Airport in Las Vegas, which already has several ILSs.
A USAF decision to slow Airborne Laser development will add $831.6 million to the program's cost, the Pentagon said late last week. The price for the initial development phase has increased to $3.5 billion from $2.7 billion. As part of the restructure, the first attempt to intercept a ballistic missile with the 747-based laser system has been delayed two years.
Conair Aerospace of Abbotsford, British Columbia, has been contracted by Aloha Airlines to perform repair and modifications on nine 737-200s. Work to be accomplished by the Canadian maintenance, repair and overhaul provider includes lap joint modifications on all nine aircraft and supplemental structural inspections on four. The first Aloha 737 arrived in Abbotsford in January, and the others will follow through November. Conair plans to open a new maintenance facility in October.
Training and image makeovers are mandatory if airlines are to attract and retain a workforce of airframe and powerplant mechanics with the critical skills needed to repair increasingly sophisticated aircraft.
Cessna has handed over its first Citation CJ1, the initial model of a new line of twinjets intended to replace the CitationJet family. The CJ1 received its FAA certificate on Feb. 26. Trevor Esling, Cessna's sales director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said the company had received more than 135 orders for the CJ2, a longer, faster version of the CJ due to be certified in May. Another new jet, the Encore, is scheduled to be certificated this month. Cessna recorded its best year ever last year, delivering 1,210 aircraft and toting up sales of $2.2 billion.
