The Assn. of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) and American Airlines recently began negotiations in Washington for a new contract. The existing agreement can be amended in November. An APFA official said priorities will be increased pay and improved retirement benefits. APFA is an independent union representing all 20,000 flight attendants at American.
Alan Ladwig has been appointed senior adviser to the NASA administrator, Edward Heffernan associate administrator for legislative affairs and Lori Garver acting associate administrator for policy and plans. Heffernan was acting in his post and senior policy adviser in the Office of Policy and Plans. Garver was a senior policy analyst there and succeeds Ladwig.
Certification testing of Bell Helicopter Textron's twin-engine Model 427 is progressing smoothly, and company officials expect to obtain FAA and Transport Canada certification in December followed by JAA approval in the second quarter of 1999. Bell is displaying the fourth production 427 this week at the Farnborough air show, and the aircraft also will be exhibited at the National Business Aviation Assn. show in Las Vegas in October.
The Volpe Center of the U.S. Transportation Dept.'s Research and Special Programs Administration has awarded a contract to Rannoch Corp. to provide technical support for air, marine and ground-based communications, navigation and surveillance. The five-year contract is potentially worth $105 million.
Aerostar of Romania and Elbit Systems of Israel are offering an upgrade package for the MiG-21bis which is based on their MiG-21MF Lancer modernization program for the Romanian air force. Fifty-six of a total 110 upgraded MiG-21MFs have been delivered. The MiG-21bis variant package includes new avionics and a weapons system upgrade. A prototype, displayed at the Farnborough air show, will undergo a 40-hr. flight test program at Aerostar's facility in Bacau. Aerostar is also investigating an upgrade program for the MiG-29M and is seeking international partners.
Boeing has begun preliminary design and supplier coordination of a cockpit modernization program for the U.S. Navy's E-6 Tacamo that could open the market for similar upgrades of AWACS and other military special mission 707s worldwide. The modification will replace more than 100 round-dial instruments with a six-display electronic flight instrumentation system (EFIS) configuration similar to that installed in Boeing's new 737-700 transport. Award of a firm contract is expected by early next year.
Elbit Systems Ltd. has been selected by Lockheed Martin to develop a new data entry electronics unit for Block 40 and 50 F-16s based on advanced commercial technologies. A contract for the first 25 prototypes is expected to be worth $6.9 million, with a potential follow-on production order for 750 units.
The space shuttle Atlantis has a new Multifunction Electronic Display Subsystem cockpit, after refurbishment of the orbiter at the Boeing shuttle assembly, integration and test facility in Palmdale, Calif. The new flat panel displays--which replace many of Atlantis' cathode-ray tube displays, gauges and instruments--are intended to provide improvements in reliability, weight and power consumption. The cockpit upgrade was the highlight of a 10-month, $68-million overhaul of the orbiter.
Vern Dyer (see photos) has become vice president-procurement, Jerry Blessing director of flight operations, Bill Kamm director of the factory service center and Peter Hoi director of engineering, all for Galaxy Aerospace of Fort Worth. Dyer was vice president/general manager of On Command/ SpectraVision. Blessing was director of operations/chief pilot for Horizon Health Care. Kamm was Challenger program supervisor for K-C Aviation and Hoi director of structures engineering for SIP Technical Services.
James H. O'Brien has become Lockheed Martin vice president-environment, safety and health. He succeeds William R. Sorenson, who has retired. O'Brien was vice president-compliance validation. Marillyn A. Hewson has been named vice president-internal audit, effective Oct. 1. She will succeed Anne Woodyard, who will be vice president-corporate payroll systems development. Hewson was director of consolidated material systems and business management at the company's Aeronautics Material Management Center in Fort Worth.
Mindy West has been appointed director of worldwide business marketing for the QuickLogic Corp., Sunnyvale, Calif. She was regional marketing manager for Arrow Electronics Inc.
A U.S. Marine Corps/Bell Boeing V-22 at NAS Patuxent River, Md., set an unofficial world record late last month by lifting a 10,000-lb. external load and carrying it at speeds up to 220 kt. A Bell Helicopter Textron official said it was the ``fastest airspeed any rotorcraft has carried an external load.'' There are four engineering manufacturing development V-22s undergoing extensive flight tests at the facility. In addition, the tiltrotor has successfully demonstrated its aerial refueling capability by connecting with a drogue deployed by a U.S. Air Force KC-10 tanker.
Paige Hall has become Chesterfield, Mo.-based regional maintenance marketing manager and Al Krusz manager of maintenance training plans for FlightSafety International. Hall was an executive with Marketing Alternatives. Krusz was director of maintenance training for FSI's Gulfstream Center, Savannah, Ga.
The enlisted personnel's Heritage Room at Peterson AFB, Colo., has been dedicated to Chief Master Sgt. (Ret.) Charles P. Zimkas, Jr., who is chief operating officer of the United States Space Foundation in Colorado Springs. Zimkas was honored for his work as the first senior enlisted adviser to the chief of the North American Aerospace Defense Command.
British Aerospace executives, seeing tough new competition in the 70-110-seat regional jet market, have set a modest goal of selling 20 Avro RJs and new RJXs per year. ``We feel under threat from all these new competitors, but we feel confident that we can handle it,'' said Jeff Marsh, senior vice president for sales and marketing. ``We doubt the financial viability of [competitors'] brand new designs.'' Marsh said British Aerospace is aiming to attract one new customer a year to bolster reorders from existing customers.
Static random-access memory (SRAM) can be susceptible to neutrons at high altitude. Xilinx makes SRAM-based field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) with active pull-down and active pull-up transistors that resist radiation-caused single-event upsets. The FPGAs were tested by Ericsson Saab Avionics AB in Sweden with 100-MeV. neutrons, and showed that a 5.0-volt device containing 178,096 RAM-bits averaged 1 bit error per 1.3 million flight hours at an altitude of 10 km., or about 33,000 feet.
Quality Research Inc. has been awarded a contract for the operation, maintenance and associated services of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command's automated information system. With all options, the contract is worth $75.3 million.
DUBAI CIVIL AVIATION WILL UPGRADE its navigation aids with three Airsys ATM Inc., Mark 20A Cat. 3 ILS and DME systems at the Dubai International Airport in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Mark 20A is a third-generation ILS produced by Airsys ATM, formerly Wilcox Electric. The company will also deliver a VOR and DME to Turkey's Samsun-Carsamba Airport late this year and an ILS and VOR to Sharjah International Airport in the UAE later this fall.
The Venezuelan parliament will study a proposed order for upgraded AMX fighters and Aermacchi MB339FD trainers for the country's air force. The two aircraft were selected by the air force earlier this year, but no contract has been signed yet. The requirement is estimated to be 18-28 AMXs and 24 MB339s. Although the details of the new AMX version, for which Venezuela would be the launch customer, have yet to be worked out, the aircraft will probably feature advanced digital avionics similar to the suite installed on the MB339FD, according to Alenia officials.
Messier-Dowty delivered to Boeing the first landing gear components for the Joint Strike Fighter CV/CTOL demonstrator. The STOVL demonstrator's landing gear is scheduled to be delivered in March 1999.
In a bid to become a major player in the growing military maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) business, the Boeing Co. has begun operating a 1.3-million-sq. ft. modification facility at Kelly AFB, Tex.
Roland Knight has become chief operating officer of Radarsat International, Richmond, British Columbia. He will succeed Robert E. Tack, who will resume his position as president of Washington-based LionsGate International.
Gulfstream Aerospace and Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works Div. will jointly study during the next 12 months the feasibility of developing a supersonic business jet (SBJ). An SBJ would be the next major milestone in the evolution of business jets, assuming either Dassault or the U.S. team launch such a program.
The Transportation Dept. is allowing even more time for comments on proposed guidelines on competitive behavior in the airline industry. The controversial enforcement policy already has generated more than 1,570 separate filings. The department unveiled the proposal in April and extended the comment period once before in response to a petition from the Air Transport Assn., which opposes the policy. In an effort to encourage ``a meaningful dialogue on the issues,'' the department has been meeting with various parties and still has some to go, it said.
