Dennis Keith has become president of Bombardier's BusinessJetSolutions, succeeding Robert Gillespie, the new president of Bombardier Aerospace Regional Aircraft. Keith was vice president-sales and marketing of BJS and has been succeeded by Mike Riegel.
Boeing will open a new Engineering Design Center in Moscow, further expanding the company's five-year relationship with Russian aerospace research institutes and companies on a variety of projects. The design facility will become part of the Moscow-based Boeing Technical Research Center, which employs about 17 researchers and includes a computational fluid dynamics laboratory with 10 workstations.
Bill Strecker has been appointed executive vice president/chief operating officer of Vibra Metrics, Hamden, Conn. He was vice president-sales and marketing of Kinsbury Inc. of Philadelphia.
Geoffrey Gross has been appointed London-based managing director and head of European operations for D'Accord Financial Services. He held similar positions for Citibank.
It may be months before there is a clear indication of just how hard the Boeing Co. and other aerospace contractors will be hit by the softening in Asi a/Pacific air traffic.
USAF wants to add 250-550 more staff at 10-20 of its bases to better support its new expeditionary role while improving quality of life for personnel stressed by a high operations tempo. The additions, which should total about 5,500, will bring the typical base's support staff to about 3,000, leaving adequate resources at home when a unit is deployed overseas. About 5,500 USAF base support personnel now are deployed on a daily basis, according to Gen. Michael E. Ryan, chief of staff.
The FAA is evaluating a program which would allow its inspectors to issue ``on the spot'' administrative actions instead of its usual back-and-forth letter process. The shift would allow the FAA to take immediate action after a violation is discovered while streamlining enforcement paperwork. The agency successfully tested a similar program at a Flight Standards District Office in 1996. The proposed violation form is similar to a motor vehicle traffic ticket and can be used either as a warning notice or letter of correction.
ACTING ON INFORMATION FROM the Egyptian government, U.S. officials arrested Mohammed Rashid, a suspect in the 1982 bombing of a Pan Am aircraft. He was in custody in Egypt. The incident involved the detonation of a bomb on a flight from Tokyo to Honolulu. A 15-year-old boy was killed in the attack. In 1992, Rashid was arrested and convicted in Greece for that Pan Am bombing, but Greece refused to extradite Rashid to the U.S. and later released him.
Cathay Pacific Airways will see its longtime chairman and chief executive step aside next year to be replaced by an executive from John Swire&Sons, the London-based conglomerate that controls and manages the airline and dominates Hong Kong's air transport market.
Isaac (Ike) Gillam (see photo) has been named head of Deep Space Network programs for the AlliedSignal Technical Services Corp., Pasadena, Calif. He was director of the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif.
Samir A. Desai, president/CEO of the Systems Resources Corp., Burlington, Mass., has received the U.S. Small Business Administration's Massachusetts and New England Entrepreneurial Success Awards.
Massive foreign exchange losses and sagging traffic have forced Malaysia Airlines to both defer and sell aircraft to re-size the airline to match traffic levels. The company has deferred five 747s and four 777s from 1999 delivery to 2000-03. Four 777-300s have been converted to -200IGWs, reflecting the airline's shift from regional to long-haul traffic. Executive Vice President Dato Bashir Ahmed said Malaysia Airlines (MAS) wants to convert the deferred aircraft into improved models, the 747-400ER and 777-200X.
AS PRELUDE TO THE U.S.-CHINA summit in Beijing on June 25, President Clinton announced he will renew normal trading status for China again this year. Known officially as Most Favored Nation (MFN) treatment, the routine status grants China the same low U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports that applies to the bulk of American trade with other countries.
Boeing will phase out the MD-11 transport line it inherited in last summer's merger with McDonnell Douglas owing to poor sales. Approximately 3,750 Boeing employees work on the program and could be laid off. The last MD-11 delivery now is scheduled for February 2000. As of late April, the company had 22 commitments for MD-11s, including firm orders, options and reserves.
David FitzPatrick has become senior vice president/chief financial officer of the United Technologies Corp., Hartford, Conn. He was vice president/controller of the Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, N.Y.
Stephen Long (see photo) has been appointed general manager of the Electronic Systems Div. of Parker Aerospace, Smithtown, N.Y. He was vice president-operations and product line director/business team leader for fuel systems and measurement.
Battered by a 62% devaluation in the won, Korean Air has reevaluated its entire route network and business plan but, for the moment, is sticking to an expansion that will bring 34 Airbus and Boeing transports and freighters into its fleet. However, their delivery dates are elastic.
A Pentagon study on electronic warfare shortfalls calls for better coordination between intelligence-gathering and efforts to modify countermeasures for antiaircraft missiles and guns. The air defense threat evolves rapidly, says USAF Gen. Richard Hawley, chief of the Air Combat Command. ``People are always trying to modify the systems, upgrade the wave form and use new techniques.'' The latest Russian-made systems operate at high frequencies that many radar warning receivers and jamming aircraft can't counter.
HARDENED MEMORY MODULE This 1-gigabyte, radiation-hardened, solid-state memory module is designed for use in satellite applications. It uses the Dense-Pac Microsystems' three-dimensional memory stack module and Space Electronics' RAD-PAK technology. The hermetic module is configured for up to 32-bit word widths and is byte selectable. It can be used for solid-state recorders and as local memory for processor units. Space Electronics Inc., 4031 Sorrento Valley Blvd., San Diego, Calif. 92121. OPERATOR INTERFACE TOOL
Aviation Supplies&Academics of Newcastle, Wash., has started shipping a Personal Computer-based Aviation Training Device called the On Top PCATD on which student pilots can log simulated flight time toward their instrument ratings. The On Top is the fourth PCATD approved for use as an instrument trainer since the FAA allowed their use in May 1997, an agency official said. The other units are offered by Jeppesen Sanderson of Englewood, Colo., Aviation Teachware Technologies of Orlando, Fla., and Precision Flight Controls Inc. of Rancho Cordova, Calif.
TOP LEVEL U.S. AIR FORCE changes continue. The latest include moving Gen. Richard B. Myers from commander of U.S. Air Forces in the Pacific to head the U.S. Space Command. He will replace Gen. Howell Estes, who is retiring. Lt. Gen. Patrick K. Gamble, the deputy chief of staff for air and space operations, is taking Myers' job in Hawaii as a four-star. Changes at the Pentagon include Maj. Gen. Marvin R. Esmond taking over from Gamble with promotion to three-star. Esmond comes from the Air Warfare Center at Nellis AFB, Nev. In addition, Maj. Gen. S.G.
Lt. Col. Everett Thomas, commander of the USAF 45th Space Wing's 5th Launch Sqdn. at Cape Canaveral Air Station, has won the Explorer Award of the Florida Space Business Roundtable. Thomas was cited for helping to increase the state's academic involvement in space research and education.
The ouster of Suharto as Indonesia's president has caught up with the country's private regional carrier, Sempati Air, which was forced to close last week. The closure was accompanied by other signs of the loss of tourism and business traffic from Indonesia's economic and political crisis. The state's flag carrier, Garuda Indonesia, is being forced to return six MD-11s and six A330s.
