The Clinton Administration has unveiled draft legislation that would transform the FAA's air traffic control services into a separate management unit within the agency and fund it directly through cost-based user fees. Although the concept has wide support within the aviation industry, representatives last week were raising questions about the particulars in suggesting the legislation might be premature. It also is not clear how easily the measure will get through Congress, or when.
Aviation Week&Space Technology presented its 1997 Laureate and Laurel Legends awards at a dinner at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington on Apr. 8. The 1997 winners also were inducted into the Laureates Hall of Fame. A permanent Hall of Fame display is now located in the museum. The following photos are of the Laureates, Laurel Legends, Outstanding Cadets and Top High School Student who attended the dinner. Photography by Tracey Attlee.
National Express Group Plc. was named the preferred bidder to lease Stewart International Airport at Newburgh, N.Y., the first airport set to participate in the FAA's Pilot Privatization Program. The British company, which operates scheduled bus services, trains and airports in the U.K., hopes to establish intermodal transportation links between Stewart and the New York metropolitan area in order to increase domestic and international passenger and cargo traffic at the underutilized airport, a former military base now owned by the State of New York.
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) has received the John F. Kennedy Astronautics Award from the Springfield, Va.-based American Astronautical Society. She was cited for her support of U.S. space, science and technology programs.
A SYSTEM TO ENABLE U.S. NAVY Aegis class cruisers to identify a specific hostile radar from its unique signal characteristics, using commercial off-the-shelf technology, will be developed by Condor Systems Inc. of San Jose, Calif., under a $6.6-million Navy contract. The new Shipboard Advanced Radar Target Identification System will be a COTS version of the SARTIS earlier developed by Condor Systems, which is now operational on several Aegis class cruisers. The noncooperative target recognition technique employed is one developed by Scope Inc.
THE FAA ISSUED CESSNA AIRCRAFT CO. a full type certificate for the new Excel business jet, without any limitations, on Apr. 22. Cessna has orders for more than 200 of the twin-engine jets and an order backlog worth more than $1.6 billion, a company official said.
Earl S.Washington now will oversee both marketing and communications as a senior vice president of the Rockwell International Corp., Seal Beach, Calif. He was senior vice president-communications.
James Swindells (see photo) has been appointed vice president-completion sales and marketing for business aircraft for Bombardier Aerospace of Montreal. John Slack has been named president of Titan Technologies and Information Systems of San Diego. He was president/CEO of DBA Systems.
London Gatwick-based carrier AB Airways is looking to fund its expansion plans by floating 35.6% of its equity on the London Stock Exchange. The sale is expected to generate 8.3 million pounds ($14 million). The independent carrier currently operates three leased BAC 1-11 aircraft from Gatwick to Shannon, Lisbon and Berlin. It expects to start operating two leased Boeing 737-300s next month at the same time it launches its new alliance with Irish carrier Aer Lingus. This will involve code-sharing on two new flights from London Stansted and Birmingham to Shannon.
Meanwhile, in the Transportation Dept. inner sanctum, the feeling is strong that a fresh crop of low-cost airlines would remedy the problems of competition in the airline business. The department has taken a swipe at the big carriers, proposing standards of airline behavior and threatening probes and penalties for violations. Officials there also have heard the outcry over fare levels and charges that hub markets are monopolized. So the department had an ulterior motive in issuing its recent policy on unfair competitive practices (AW&ST Apr. 13, p. 24).
RAYTHEON LAST WEEK reported record first-quarter earnings and sales--tangible evidence that the speedy integration of Hughes' and Texas Instruments' defense businesses is helping the company improve its operational and financial performance. Earnings were $214.9 million on record sales of $4.6 billion, compared with $183.4 million on sales of $2.9 billion in 1997's first quarter. Raytheon's operating income soared 55%, to $525.8 million. That increase was attributable to the performance of Raytheon Systems Co. and Raytheon Aircraft.
Charles Allen Parlier, 2nd, (see photo) has been named vice president/chief operating officer of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott, Ariz. He was chief information officer for Raytheon Aircraft, Wichita, Kan.
USAF Brig. Gen. James C. Bobick has become acting commander of the Civil Air Patrol, headquartered at Maxwell AFB, Ala. He had been national vice commander. Bobick succeeds Brig. Gen. Paul M. Bergman, who has resigned.
A growing number of U.S. strategists believe the ``revolution in military affairs'' epitomized by Persian Gulf war technology may not have been a revolution after all. Defense technology, spending and strategy might be heavily affected if the new thinking takes hold. Inside the Pentagon and out, skeptics of the revolution (RMA) are pressing the case that the U.S.-led victory over Iraq in 1991 resulted from rapid but incremental technological advances, not from a radical altering of total military capability.
Boeing is offering second-shift liaison engineer jobs to juniors and seniors at the Parks College of Engineering and Aviation at St. Louis University. The offers are being made to students majoring in aerospace engineering and aircraft maintenance engineering and who are maintaining 3.0 grade-point averages or better. Wages run between $14-15 per hour plus medical, vacation and savings benefits. Participants must continue working toward their degrees although maintaining a full course load is not required, according to Parks.
Larry W. Levey has been appointed director of sales and marketing for corporate aviation and transparency services for the Regency Aerospace Corp., Valencia, Calif.
CONTINENTAL AIRLINES and General Electric Engine Services have signed a 10-year, $1-billion engine overhaul and maintenance agreement. General Electric will maintain the carrier's CFM56-3 and -7 engines at GE's Strother, Kan., facility; and the airline's CF6-6, -50 and -80 engines at a facility in Prestwick, Scotland.
U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY William Cohen called upon Turkey and Greece to end their decades-long disputes over Cyprus and the Aegean during a trip last week to the Middle East. In talks with Turkish officials, Cohen reportedly promised to do his best to convince the Cypriot government to abandon plans to buy Russian-made S-300 missiles, although he urged Ankara to tone down its rhetoric in response to the move.
Durand M. Smith has been appointed vice president-research and development of the Cyclopss Corp. of Salt Lake City. He was science adviser to the governor of New Mexico and the state's director of science and technology.
Jim Davidson has been named president/CEO of System One Amadeus in Miami. He was vice president-marketing and sales. Davidson succeeds Bill Diffenderffer. Thomas A. Coffey (see photo) has been appointed vice president-human resources of Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems, Marietta, Ga. He was vice president-human resources at Raytheon Aerospace, Madison, Miss.
Corporate-funded research by Lockheed Martin Mission Systems into interoperability of diverse command and control, communications, computers, surveillance and reconnaissance defense systems is showing promise, the company reported last week at the Software Technology Conference in Salt Lake City. Called Project Rainbow, the effort is an attempt to develop a prototype architecture that can be employed in cross-diverse Defense Dept. systems using commercial off-the-shelf products.
Tracor Inc., the $1.2-billion U.S. systems engineering company that quintupled in size largely through acquisitions since 1992, itself will be swallowed by the U.K.'s General Electric Co. PLC. The purchase price is $1.1 billion in cash, or $40 a share, plus the assumption of $258 million in debt.
