Thierry Aucoc has become director general-southern Africa of the Alitalia/ KLM Royal Dutch Airlines joint venture. He was director-general for France and Belgium for Alitalia. Aucoc is succeeded by Marmix H. Fruitema, who is now Alitalia/KLM director-general for France, Spain and Portugal.
Comptek Research has demonstrated improvements to the Joint Defensive Planner (JDP) that allow people at different locations to share information at the database level. The JDP translates a theater commander's strategy into antiair and antimissile warfare plans, and is managed by the USAF Research Laboratory. JDP tools derive the commander's objectives from the operations plan, develop and analyze defense designs, and then automatically produce the air defense plan and related standard-formatted messages.
The Royal Australian Air Force is starting to upgrade cockpit video recording equipment on most of its F/A-18 fighters to better track and evaluate pilot performance after each mission.
In a dose of reality, Peters laid out some of the challenges the service faces, including continued recruitment problems that threaten to leave the Air Force 1,700 recruits short. Furthermore, 30% of Air Force scientists and engineers are eligible for retirement soon, while only 2% of those slots are staffed by personnel under the age of 30. Says Peters, ``We have downsized some of our most promising scientists.''
Chris A. Davis, executive vice president/chief financial and administrative officer of the Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., Savannah, Ga., has received the 1999 CFO Excellence Award from CFO Magazine and Arthur Andersen. She was cited for leadership in multiple, diverse growth initiatives including the G-V.
The Ectron T/CMate Series 200 thermocouple cold-junction compensator allows almost any instrumentation amplifier to be used as a thermocouple amplifier with the thermocouple input, according to the company. It accepts thermocouple signals, provides precision cold-junction compensation to copper wires and adapts the signal for amplification. A jumper allows selection of the appropriate compensation for four thermocouple types. The optical isolator provides power for compensation circuitry from any 5-15 VDC power source, eliminating the need for batteries.
The NTSB dispatched a seven-member team late last week to investigate the Feb. 16 crash of a DC-8-71 freighter in Sacramento, Calif. The Emery Worldwide aircraft had departed Mather Field for Dayton, Ohio, when the pilot reported difficulty controlling the airplane, possibly because the cargo had shifted. The pilot was attempting to return for landing when the aircraft struck a used car lot about 1 mi. from the airport and burst into flames. Both pilots and the flight engineer were killed.
The European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co., to be formed in June, is gradually emerging as Europe's most complex cross-border industrial undertaking. Last week, Aerospatiale Matra, DaimlerChrysler Aerospace (DASA) and Construcciones Aeronauticas (CASA) named the unified group's top executives and defined its ``lean organization.'' EADS' designated executives also confirmed they are seeking an agreement with Finmeccanica/Alenia Aerospazio to form a defense-oriented joint venture. BAE Systems has submitted a rival offering to Italy.
Several of the U.S.' most acclaimed weapons used during the Kosovo air war still have technical problems, a report from the Defense Dept.'s top official in charge of weapons testing shows. Among the systems generally credited with good performance during the war but still found lacking in some areas are the B-2, B-1B, Joint Direct Attack Munition and Joint Standoff Weapon. In his annual report to Congress, Philip E. Coyle, the Pentagon's director of operational test and evaluation, included accounts of the systems' performance during the war.
Dustoff, the Memoir of an Army Aviator by Michael J. Novosel is the story of an extraordinary man who served his country for more than 40 years, and won the Medal of Honor for his exploits as a medical evacuation pilot in Vietnam. The author flew B-29 combat missions against Japan in WW II, left the Air Force in the early '50s and joined the Army as a helicopter pilot in the '60s. His tours in Vietnam included flying missions with his son as copilot, and actually rescuing him. With 2,038 hr.
James Maucere has been promoted to vice president-aircraft base maintenance from managing director and Valerie Henry has been named director of customer care, for Delta Air Lines. Henry was district manager for reservation sales in Los Angeles. Richard W. Cordell has become director of Delta's station at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. He was its general manager.
The U.S. Air Force has selected teams led by TRW and Lockheed Martin to compete for a $1.5-billion, 15-year Integrated Space Command and Control (ISC) contract. A Raytheon-headed team was dropped. ISC2 would integrate approximately 40 air, space and missile defense command and control systems into one that will allow commanders to share real-time data ( AW&ST Nov. 15, 1999, p. 101). Each team received a $2.5-million contract to cover the next competitive stage, which ends with a contract award in September.
After taking the lead in establishing customer-friendly, reliable service, India's private airlines are now laying the groundwork for the country's first true regional airline service, and are seeking new lines of air transport activity.
Year after year, Washington has debated whether national security or economic interest should take precedence in its prickly relations with China. That security and commercial interests often collide has been evident all along in Washington's hand-wringing over how to handle trade with an ancient civilization that, paradoxically, can be as peevish, infantile and pride-filled as a mutinous teenager.
The F-22 Combined Test Force is adding more than 200 people to its ranks during the next five months, quickly ramping up in preparation for almost 2,000 hr. of avionics flight testing. The test force currently comprises about 500 military and contractor personnel.
Boeing Phantom Works in St. Louis has flight tested a ``wrapping'' method of combining legacy and new software in a modern processor. The technique, developed under the U.S. Air Force's Incremental Upgrade of Legacy Systems (IULS) program, consists of software that ``wraps'' around both the legacy avionics code and new code, allowing both to operate in an upgraded system. The Boeing F-15E fighter's legacy Overload Warning System (OWS), written in Ada and formerly running on a Mil-Std-1750A processor, was combined with new C++ software and run on a PowerPC/VME processor.
The U.S. Defense Dept. is finding that one of its newest initiatives to support small business is paying off. Under the Fast Track program, small businesses working on a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) contract stand a much better chance to get funding for follow-on work.
Dan R. Garner and Thomas J. Smith have been named to the board of directors of Kitty Hawk Inc. of Dallas. Garner, a consultant on technology manufacturing, was director of Ernst&Young's Entrepreneurial Services practice and founder of the Entrepreneur of the Year Awards. Smith owns the Omega Management Corp. and is a trustee of the Southwest Research Institute. He was president/CEO of the Fairchild Aircraft Corp. and a senior executive of Fokker.
Indigo Systems Corp. has introduced the UL3 Alpha, billed as the world's smallest, lightest, infrared camera. It was jointly developed with the U.S. Army's Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate and operates in the long wavelength IR range (8-12 microns). The camera weighs 6 oz., is about 1.5 times the size of a D cell battery and provides analog video in monochrome RS-170A format with optional CCIR, as well as real-time 12-bit corrected digital video. Images are displayed at 30 frames per sec.
South Korea is stepping out to become one of Asia's largest purchasers of military equipment in the next several years, even though it is unlikely to match Japan's long-term record as a buyer of foreign hardware.
Congress appears ready to grant China normal trade relations on a permanent basis, barring Chinese saber rattling or worse in the run-up to Taiwan's presidential election Mar. 18. Congressional leaders hope to complete action on permanent NTR (formerly MFN, Most Favored Nation) this summer, before the U.S. presidential campaign shifts into high gear.
Ever the trend setters, Asian airlines are again a center of focus as manufacturers try to give birth to larger and longer range aircraft. The gestation period was suspended partly because the region was suffering through a two-year recession. Other factors--corporate reorganization, technical challenges--also delayed the introduction of these aircraft. But if Airbus' 550-seat-plus A3XX and its longer range A340-500/600 family, or Boeing's ultralong-range 777X and possible stretch of the 747-400 are to succeed, they need a healthy Asian market.
