The U.S. Federal Reserve turned to the Iridium satellite telephone venture to help it coordinate monetary policy in case the year 2000 computer rollover caused a breakdown in communications networks. The Fed issued Iridium phones to key U.S. senators and other government officials so they could quickly be contacted anywhere in the country in the event Y2K problems disrupted terrestrial and cellular phone networks.
Richard J. Doubrava, who was system manager for security and regulatory affairs for Delta Air Lines, has been appointed managing director of security for the Washington-based Air Transport Assn.
Buzz, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines' newly formed low-cost subsidiary, this week is scheduled to begin operations on highly competitive European routes such as Paris/Charles de Gaulle-London/Stansted. Round-trip fares, which are as low as $100, could rapidly revolutionize the French travelers' cross-Channel habits. Air France in the last few months evaluated the merits of no-frills/low-cost airlines, but the French flag carrier's survey remained inconclusive.
Maersk Air Ltd. has signed a $5.1-million, three-year contract with FLS Aerospace for heavy maintenance of its five Boeing 737-500 aircraft based at Birmingham Airport in England.
U.S.-based Continental Airlines is showing improvement both on the home front and foreign shores. It was one of only two airlines named in Fortune magazine's soon-to-be-published list of 100 best companies to work for in America--Continental this year ranked No. 23, compared to No. 40 last year. Southwest was No. 1. Meanwhile, in Japan, Continental appeared for the first time in the Nikkei Business magazine's annual survey of the world's carriers.
David Deal has been appointed vice president-sales of Cimlinc Inc., Itasca, Ill. He was director of marketing and sales for Rockwell Collins' Air Transportation Div., Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Aviation Week&Space Technology is 84 years old as we enter the year 2000, and I am sure the founding editors could not have begun to envision what the aerospace industry--or the magazine--would look like at the end of the 1900s. We all now face the same challenge in trying to predict the future, not what it will be like in 2100, but more realistically what the requirements will be for a news organization covering the aerospace industry of 2020, or 2050.
BAE Systems' U.S. subsidiary, Reflectone, has received a contract from Lockheed Martin to build a KC-130J cockpit avionics part task trainer for the U.S. Marine Corps.
Charlie Adams, president of the Washington-based National Agricultural Aviation Assn., has been appointed to the U.S. Agriculture Dept.'s Advisory Committee on Agriculture Statistics.
Carl L. Aley has been appointed president and Robert B. Henstenburg chief engineer of Environmental Tectonics Corp. High Performance Composites, Southampton, Pa. They held the same positions at Ardco Composites, Chester, Pa.
Reports from Russia indicate a Russian SS-19 Khrunichev Rokot booster and its military spacecraft payload--being prepared for launch from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome--were ruined on Dec. 24 when stage separation pyrotechnics were accidentally fired while the vehicle was being checked in its launch silo. In addition to separation of the stages, the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces RVSN-40 spacecraft was ejected from the top of the booster and damaged beyond repair, according to Bart Hendrickx, a respected Belgian-based space analyst.
The cost to overhaul engines on U.S. Marine Corps CH-46D helicopters was misstated in a Dec. 6, 1999, story (p. 50). The costs are approximately $2 million per aircraft and less than $200 million for the entire program.
Look for increased systems-based procurement by major aerospace manufacturers. The purchase of whole systems from a supplier dramatically cuts related design team, supervisory, engineering, test and purchasing personnel requirements, as well as inventory and holding costs, according to Dick Harvey. He is industry participation manager, supplier management, for Boeing's Joint Strike Fighter program.
Robert T. Francis, the National Transportation Safety Board's vice chairman, left office Dec. 31, but his successor may not come along until the 21st century really starts--in 2001. President Clinton has nominated Carol Carmody, a former U.S. representative to the International Civil Aviation Organization, to succeed Francis as a board member. But there may be little reason for the Republican-controlled Senate to confirm Carmody.
It is said that predictions are the most gratuitous form of error. They are not only frequently wrong, but also completely avoidable and utterly unnecessary. But this takes fortune-telling too seriously. Predictions are both fun and provocative. So we invited some of the best minds in aerospace to share their insights and intuitions about the 21st century in Aviation Week's inaugural issue for 2000.
Japan Air System has signed a 10-year, $150-million agreement with Pratt&Whitney Engine Services to provide a fleet management program for the airline's JT8D-200-powered MD-80s.
US Airways Express recently expanded its network with the addition of Colgan Air, which is based in Manassas, Va. Nonstop service was introduced between Augusta, Bar Harbor and Rockland in Maine and Boston Logan International Airport. Colgan Air also introduced service between Hyannis, Mass., and Boston, and between New York LaGuardia Airport and Hyannis and Nantucket, Mass., and Charlottesville, Va. For Hyannis and Nantucket, these flights represent the return of year-round US Airways Express service to and from LaGuardia.
Aerojet and Ball Aerospace&Technologies Corp. has won a multimillion-dollar contract from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to build the Mars Micromission spacecraft, which is expected to be launched in 2003.
William L. Shillito (see photo) has been appointed executive vice president of Gastonia, N.C.-based Prodelin, a TriPoint Global Co. He succeeds Larry Bowman, who has retired. Shillito was vice president-operations and engineering.
Lynn Diamant has been named director of the Final Analysis Program at General Dynamics Information Systems, Bloomington, Minn. He was director of business development for General Dynamics Space Systems.
DY 4 Systems Inc. was chosen by General Dynamics Information Systems to upgrade the Advanced Mission Computer and Display System on F/A-18E/Fs, under a $1-million contract.
Charles M. Suma, president/CEO of The New Piper Aircraft Inc., has been elected chairman of the board of directors of the Washington-based General Aviation Manufacturers Assn. (GAMA). Suma, who had been vice chairman, succeeds L. David Caplan, chairman/CEO of Pratt&Whitney Canada. Michael A. Smith, president/CEO of Honeywell Aerospace Electronics Systems and acting president of Honeywell Space and Aviation Control, will be vice chairman.
Palma de Mallorca-based Air Europa plans to join Wings, Alitalia/KLM Royal Dutch Airlines' strategic alliance, in the next few months. The three carriers last month signed a ``tripartite letter of intent'' that is expected to pave the way for a far-reaching business agreement. Air Europa, a subsidiary of the Spanish Globalia group, operates 46 aircraft on domestic and European routes and charter flights to long-haul destinations in North America and the Caribbean. Air Europa tentatively plans to join Wings on Apr. 1.
Thomson-CSF has decided to fold its microelectronics, electron tube, semiconductor and automation system activities into a new business unit called Industrial Electronics. The move to combine civil-military product lines will create a business with annual sales of more than $950 million and 7,400 employees.
