Denmark's Cimber Air concluded an order with Avions de Transport Regional for four 64-seat ATR 72-500 twin turboprops. First delivery is scheduled for February 1999.
Abipartisan $270.5-billion defense authorization bill for Fiscal 1999 has been approved by a House/Senate conference committee, which held spending within balanced budget confines while buttressing funds for some aircraft and advanced technology programs, including missile defense.
Frank Festa has been appointed general manager of aviation services for Summit Security Services Inc. of New York. He was chief of the Contraband Enforcement Branch of the U.S. Customs Service at New York John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Annette Murphy has been appointed vice president-corporate and agency sales in North America for Northwest Airlines. She was senior vice president-customer service for Reno Air.
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Sector has chosen the SAP R/3 program to link certain functions of its business, while Boeing continues to implement the competing Baan software. Lockheed Martin plans to tie financial accounting, sales and marketing, program cost control, logistics, procurement, production and human resources with R/3, and the program is already being used at the Skunk Works, Tactical Aircraft Systems and other areas. When complete, the Aeronautics Sector will have 19,000 regular users of R/3.
Unigraphics Solutions is trying to increase the productivity of its Solid Edge computer-aided design software by anticipating the designer's next action with a feature called ``Stream'' technology. For example, open profiles suggest closed volumes, which are maintained when surrounding geometry changes. The ``align assembly'' relationship infers planar or axial alignment from the shape of the several parts. Unigraphics claims Solid Edge Stream reduces the keystrokes, mouse clicks and time required to complete a task.
NAS Dallas officially closed on Sept. 26. The facility had been operated since 1941 chiefly as a training base for pilots from the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and other services. Plans call for keeping a small Navy staff on site to supervise maintenance of about 120 acres owned by the government. The other 700 acres of the base, including runways and hangars, are owned by the city. City officials are trying to attract commercial businesses to the site.
FlightSafety Boeing's business plan to establish a worldwide network of convenient pilot and maintenance training ``hubs'' is betting on continued airline consolidation, globalization and outsourcing. The joint venture is establishing a single standard of training, which means carriers using the service will receive identical classroom instruction, simulator experience and supporting materials at any FSB site. This should appeal to carriers with crew bases in other countries or subsidiary airlines, according to T. Wakelee Smith, president of FSB.
John Cappadona has been named director of marketing for Loral Skynet, Bedminster, N.J. He was group sales director for media and entertainment for AT&T. Cappadona succeeds Jonathan Kirchner, who is now director of marketing for the Loral Global Alliance.
Following successful flight test of the Aviation Partners Inc.-designed winglets on the new Boeing Business Jet, the Seattle-based aircraft manufacturer is studying adding winglets to its other 737 models. A prototype set of API's ``blended'' winglets boosted specific range performance on the BBJ by up to 7%, enabling Boeing to eliminate one underfloor tank and still achieve the BBJ's promised 6,200-naut.-mi. range under instrument weather conditions.
Final numbers for ``Laima,'' the only one of four nearly identical Aerosonde unmanned aerial vehicles to cross the North Atlantic last month, indicate the long-range weather reconnaissance drone landed with 1 kg. (2.2 lb.) of fuel remaining (AW&ST July 27, p. 13). Fuel burn for the 26.75-hr.-long flight from Nova Scotia to Scotland was 4 kg. (8.8 lb.) and oil loss was 30 cc. out of a total of 220 cc. Laima's wind-aided but rain-swept ``south of great-circle'' route measured about 3,270 km. (2,044 mi.). The 3-ft. wingspan UAV is powered by a 20-cc.
Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Co. in Beijing is benefitting from spillover work from Lufthansa Technik in Hamburg. Ameco is jointly owned by Lufthansa and Air China and has become China's largest maintenance overhaul center. Its latest customer is Saudi Arabian Airlines, which is having a D-check, cabin reconfiguration, repainting, Sec. 41 and strut modification done on a 747-100 in Beijing. The work was shifted from Hamburg to Beijing because of Lufthansa's heavy workload and after Saudi had inspected and approved the Chinese facility.
France-based Regional Airlines late last week concluded an order for five 37-seat Embraer ERJ-135s and five additional 50-seat ERJ-145 twinjets. The contract is valued at about $150 million, according to Embraer officials. First delivery is planned for October 1999.
Korean Air expects to use IBM Global Services to run its computer systems, technical support services and management network. The carrier has provided a letter of intent to begin outsourcing its IT functions to IBM by the end of the year in a deal expected to be worth more than $400 million over a 10-year period.
Russia and China are exploring setting up an aircraft-building consortium to reduce their reliance on Western-made aircraft and preserve skilled aerospace jobs. Moscow has proposed that the starting point for such an effort could be joint production of Russian civil transports, such as the Tu-204, Tu-334, Il-114 and Il-96. But such projects have little chance for success unless these aircraft secure certification according to Western airworthiness standards, a process beset by delays.
In the past, American Eurocopter's reputation for customer support has been less than satisfactory, but new management at the company's facilities here has instituted a series of key changes that are reversing that trend. Based upon feedback from operators, ``We have made tremendous progress'' in improving services and ``are continuing to place a lot of emphasis on customer support,'' said Cary Brown, senior vice president for customer service, marketing and sales.
LanChile, the TACA group of El Salvador and TAM of Brazil have all selected AlliedSignal's enhanced ground proximity warning system for Airbus A320 series aircraft in contracts worth more than $100 million. The deal includes flight data and cockpit voice recorders and auxiliary power units.
Barry Eccleston will become senior vice president of the Fairchild Aerospace Corp., San Antonio, Tex., on Nov. 1. He has been president/CEO of International Aero Engines, Glastonbury, Conn. Stephen Marinshaw has been appointed vice president-328/328JET program, Stan Deal vice president-428JET, Jack Pelton senior vice president-728JET and Roland Rischer vice president-design engineering. Marinshaw was director of engineering at DynCorp Aerospace Technology.
An Italian government decreerestricting operations at Milan-Linate airport to routes handling more than 2 million passengers a year has been declared discriminatory and illegal by the European Commission. Alitalia's Milan-Rome is the sole route to meet the proposed conditions required to operate at Linate (AW&ST Aug. 17, p. 36). EC Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock said: ``Italy had months of repeated warnings that the arrangement posed legal problems.'' But the EC has no power to impose alternative solutions to the Italian government, Kinnock acknowledged.
William Jackomis(see photos p. 8) has become senior vice president/general manager and Ronald C. Hudson director of sales for G&H Technology, Camarillo, Calif. Jackomis was Great Falls, Va.-basedvice president-government affairs and business development, and Hudson was worldwide marketing manager for Amphenol Aerospace, Sidney, N.Y.
Thomson Training&Simulation (U.K.), Indra (Spain), Meteor (Italy) and ARGE STN-Atlas/CAE GmbH. (Germany) are forming a joint venture to provide aircrew synthetic training aid systems for Eurofighter. The company--Eurofighter Simulation Systems--will be based in Munich and work closely with Daimler-Benz Aerospace, the prime contractor for Eurofighter synthetic training aids. More than 30 training devices are expected to be required by the four air forces acquiring Eurofighter.
Nabil Sultan has become general manager for the U.K. and Ireland of Emirates. He succeeds Mohamed Qasim Al Ali, who has returned to Dubai as general manager of passenger services for Dnata, Emirates' ground handling division at Dubai International Airport.
Colin Judge has been appointed national sales director for Flight Environments Inc., Woodland Hills, Calif. He was completions manager for The Jet Center, Van Nuys, Calif.
