Pilot hiring continues at record levels, with 6,145 slots filled in January, according to Air Inc., airline career consultants. Major airlines hired 498 new pilots, the nationals, 579. The remaining categories, including helicopter operators and fractionals, accounted for 1,077 hires. Air Inc. forecasts that continued hiring at the January rate would yield about 20,000 pilot jobs in 2000. Meanwhile, the number of pilots on furlough at the end of January totaled 164, or 0.2% of 82,790 active pilots.
After a year of negotiating, Air New Zealand is nearing completion of a complete takeover of Ansett Australia. ANZ holds 50% of the carrier's owner, Ansett Holdings Ltd., and is to buy the remaining half now owned by News Ltd. for a reported A$600 million ($378 million). Three months ago the half-ownership was valued at A$900 million, but that was before Virgin Atlantic Chairman Sir Richard Branson vowed to start a discount carrier this June in competition with Ansett and Qantas.
Everything from El Nino to FAA bulkhead regulations has become part of the story of Asia Pacific Airlines, but the startup cargo airline is building a niche connecting Micronesia with the fish-hungry markets of Japan and garment centers in Hong Kong.
DataSoft Systems had developed a module containing all the necessary hardware and software to permit easy conversion of serial data to infrared light signals. The converter is said to meet the complicated IrDA world standard for IR communication. The module can be used for interference-free data transfer between almost all computer equipment that has a serial interface. IR transfer can replace radio modems and cables and may be used in environments where radio communication is prohibited or unsuitable, such as in aircraft and laboratories, according to the company.
Rockwell Collins has stepped up its focus on e-business by creating a separate Electronic Business unit. Heading the unit is former Enterprise Resource Planning Director John-Paul Besong, who has been named a company vice president. He is charged with consolidating the company's infotech, enterprise resource planning and e-commerce departments. Collins' customers can go online with password security to check the status of parts and equipment repairs as an aid in schedule planning.
NASA is asking Congress for another $35 million to buy Russian hardware that would enable it to dock the backup Interim Control Module (ICM) to the International Space Station's ``Zarya'' FGB tug. That comes on top of a $60-million bailout for Russia that Congress approved in late 1998--a fund from which Moscow has ``borrowed'' to help reactivate its aged Mir space station. Meanwhile, Administrator Daniel S. Goldin last week railed against what he said was double-dealing by Russia's RSC Energia company.
Air Canada has selected the Megadata Corp.'s Passur Flight Tracking System for its station operations control center at Toronto's Lester Pearson International Airport.
Shortages have forced Japan's Defense Agency to resume contracts with 11 major fuel suppliers that were suspended last October for bid rigging. The JDA, concerned about shortfalls in aviation fuel for the army and air force (the navy uses a different fuel base and is unaffected), sought stepped-up deliveries from Esso and Mobil, which were not touched by the scandal. But the two suppliers could provide only 85% of the services' needs, hence the decision to obtain the rest from the Japanese firms that were under a nine-month suspension.
Air Force Secretary F. Whitten Peters is concerned about the tendency of some members of Congress to support one weapon program over all the others: ``What we want to avoid is irrational exuberance for a single platform.'' That narrow support is hurting the service's efforts to build ``an integrated force.'' Of course, critics of the Air Force charge that the service is irrationally exuberant about the F-22. There already are signs that USAF will sacrifice in other areas before trimming the F-22 program any further.
Larry Coyne, CEO of Coyne Airways and parent company Coyne Aviation, has been elected vice president of The International Air Cargo Assn. (TIACA). Coyne, who also chairs the Miami-based TIACA's Industry Affairs Committee, succeeds Guenter Rohrmann, president of AEI.
Delta Air Lines has entered a marketing partnership with electronic personal financial services company, E*Trade. Delta SkyMiles members who open accounts with E*Trade could earn up to 50,000 bonus miles per year, the number of miles scaled to the amount invested. Delta has just revamped its Web site, offering a corporate purchasing function, which the carrier claims is the first for a major carrier, and plans to introduce an online travel agency service center in March.
A new duct finger cutting tool is now available from Panduit Corp. It is specifically designed to cleanly cut away duct fingers in tight spaces where there isn't enough room to remove them by bending and breaking them away. It easily cuts 2-in. tall fingers. Taller fingers can be removed by taking multiple cuts. The tool can also be used to remove NR1 nylon rivets. Product Management, Network Systems Group, Panduit Corp., 17301 Ridgeland Ave., Tinley Park, Ill. 60477-3091.
Yet another launch failure has led to talk of consolidating Japan's two major space agencies, the National Space Development Agency and the Institute for Space and Astronautical Science. Japan's space establishment has been hit by one after another launch or in-orbit satellite failure for the last six years. The latest blow came Feb. 10 when an ISAS M-5 launcher's first-stage exhaust nozzle apparently suffered a burn-through due to a failure of its carbon graphite fiber lining.
Safety investigators plan to scrutinize U.S. airline maintenance programs and the production records of Boeing and its suppliers in a bid to understand why a critical flight control mechanism apparently wore out to the point of failure on an Alaska Airlines MD-83 that crashed in the Pacific last month.
Scandinavian Airlines System has selected the International Aero Engines V2500-A5 powerplant for the 12 Airbus Industrie A321 aircraft the carrier has on order plus the additional 10 it has on option. The value of the order for the 30,000-lb.-thrust engine is about $265 million, according to IAE. The first aircraft is scheduled for delivery in the fall of 2001. SAS uses the same engine on its MD-90.
The Spaceport Florida Authority, a state government organization, will finance $300 million in launch infrastructure at Cape Canaveral to support Lockheed Martin Atlas V Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle operations. Under the unprecedented plan, the authority will own massive Launch Complex 41 and adjacent facilities and lease them back to Lockheed Martin for Atlas V missions.
Galaxy Scientific's Atlanta office is conducting a detailed physiological measurement of the aircraft maintenance work environment and technician rest periods. The goal is to characterize work conditions and rest patterns of maintenance personnel around the clock and identify error-prone situations, according to Bill Johnson, chief technology officer for Galaxy. Equipment includes a workplace environment monitor that records temperature, light and sound levels.
THE U.S. AIR FORCE IS TESTING THE AVIATION Weather Information (AWIN) program in a C-135C Speckled Trout aircraft. AWIN is designed to give both military and civil pilots a real-time look at current weather conditions all over the globe. Boeing is leading the AWIN development in cooperation with NASA, USAF and industry suppliers of real-time graphic weather. The C-135 flight follows earlier tests conducted in a USAF NC-21 last October and in a Federal Express MD-11 in November.
Boeing is considering upgrades to the second stage of its planned Delta IV launch vehicle in order to keep pace with anticipated payload weight increases. The program would bring in Japanese industry as a major player in development of the Boeing Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle for launch of commercial and U.S. military payloads. Central to that decision would be a new 60,000-lb.-thrust cryogenic engine that is being developed by the company's Rocketdyne division in partnership with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
BAE Systems has lost a key executive with the decision of Peter Gershon to become head of the U.K.'s new Office of Government Commerce. Gershon, previously a senior executive at Marconi Electronic Systems, was one of two chief operating officers in BAE Systems' new management structure. He will be succeeded by Steve Mogford, who was group managing director for programs and Eurofighter.
Kimberly C. Miller (see photo, p. 26) has become regional sales and support director for AirLiance Materials of Chicago. She was vice president-sales and marketing for the AAR Corp., Wood Dale, Ill.
Munich-based RapidEye AG has signed an agreement with Surrey Satellite Technology to provide spacecraft platform supplies for the $100-million RapidEye constellation of four Earth observation mini-satellites.
Tom W. McClelland (see photo) has been promoted to manager of the QuickTurn division of SimuFlite Training International Inc. from Cessna Citation instructor pilot.
Boeing reports that it has the fifth largest e-commerce site, in terms of sales volume, on the World Wide Web. The Seattle-based aerospace manufacturer logs more than $1 million in Internet-based sales every 24 hr., according to Dave Swain, senior vice president for engineering and technology. Most orders are for aircraft spare parts.
