Ginger Evans (see photo) has been named associate principal/vice president-aviation of Carter and Burgess Inc. of Denver. She was chief aviation engineer for CH2M Hill.
THE RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY has approved a program to modernize 150-180 MiG-29 fighters produced in the last 10 years to the MiG-29SMT multirole configuration. The upgrade effort is due to start in September at the Kubinka military aircraft-repair plant and MAPO MiG. The first batch of 10-15 MiG-29SMTs is due to be delivered before the end of the year. Another 20-30 fighters will be upgraded in 1999 and by 2000, the rate is to reach 40 aircraft per year.
Japan's Ministry of Transport and its Defense Agency have agreed to build a 2,700-meter (8,860-ft.) runway at Hyakuri air force base to relieve congestion at Tokyo's Narita airport, the nation's main international gateway. Hyakuri is 43 mi. northeast of Tokyo and 27 mi. north of Narita. The runway is to be built west of an existing 2,700-meter runway used by two F-15 squadrons. It is to be in operation by about 2005. The plan is to shift some traffic from the congested Narita. As such, it would become Japan's fourth facility to serve both civil and military traffic.
A bipartisan band of U.S. senators is mounting a last-ditch effort to block approval of NATO expansion, warning it will cost taxpayers untold billions of dollars and wreck nuclear arms control efforts with Russia. Conservative and liberal opponents alike hope to delay a Senate vote for a year or two, even if they cannot attract the 34 votes needed to block the induction of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic into the Atlantic Alliance.
Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Denver has chosen Auxilium Inc.'s Info*Engine Intranet applications software to link product data management and enterprise resource planning applications with legacy systems and suppliers for its Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program. . . . Federal Express has chosen AD OPT Technologies' Altitude Pairing software for pilot scheduling. . . .
Martin C. Faga (see photos) has been promoted to executive vice president of the Mitre Corp., Bedford, Mass., from senior vice president/general manager of its Center for Integrated Intelligence Systems. Amr ElSawy has become a vice president/corporate officer based in McLean, Va.
Continuing delivery delays and production problems with its new next-generation 737 transport family saw Boeing first quarter profits plunge over 90% compared to the same period last year. Including an after-tax $251-million writedown attributed to 737 troubles, the Seattle-based aerospace manufacturer eked out a small first quarter profit, however, of $50 million. Still, Boeing Chairman and CEO Phil Condit could not rule out further charges related to cost overruns in the twinjet's beleaguered flight test, certification and manufacturing program.
Andrew J. Butrica's book, ``To See the Unseen: A History of Planetary Radar Astronomy,'' published by NASA, has been selected by the Organization of American Historians as winner of the 1998 Richard W. Leopold Prize.
Gregory P. Young has become program manager for regional airlines and OEMs in Dallas and Gordon Pettigrew director of AE 3007 programs in Maryville, Tenn., for Standard Aero. Also named were: Steve Brozina and Dave Walmsley as Northeast U.S. and South Central U.S. sales managers, respectively.
MAASTRICHT UPPER AIR CONTROL CENTER and a Lufthansa Boeing 747-200 have made the first European commercial flight using controller-to-pilot data link communications. The center used a mix of voice and data exchanges for normal air traffic services in the center's airspace on a flight from Frankfurt to Miami. The flight was part of the Preliminary Eurocontrol Test of Air/Ground Data Link (Petal-2) project, which links controllers and aircrew for routine ATC and airline operations. The step is a major move from ATC toward air traffic management.
Loss-of-control accidents will be receiving scrutiny from a joint industry-government team because this category may have caused the greatest number of fatalities over the last 10 years, except for controlled flight into terrain. But some officials question whether many of the crashes were mis-categorized, and whether the new effort will add much to already well-developed training programs.
BOEING'S DOUGLAS PRODUCTS DIV. received a strong boost last week with orders for 24 MD-83 aircraft from Trans World Airlines and three MD-11 freighters from Federal Express.
Mary Ann Hynes has been named a corporate officer of the Sundstrand Corp., Rockford, Ill., in addition to being vice president/general counsel/secretary.
DigitalXPress, a St. Paul, Minn.-based satellite communications software company, says it has a way around the jerky images on desktop video displays. It has enhanced its XpressData software to deliver 30 frames a second at VHS resolution (video on the Internet is typically capped at 15 frames/sec.). Higher bandwidth and improved compression technology also are intended to improve transfers of large, cumbersome files on corporate intranets and wide-area networks.
Flight crews for All Nippon Airways have returned to work, at least temporarily, rather than continue the walkout they started Apr. 6 on international Boeing 747-400 flights (AW&ST Apr. 20, p. 35). The start of Japan's traditional ``Golden Week'' spring break, Apr. 29-May 5, is thought to be behind their gesture. Neither ANA's management nor the unions are offering concessions, and the strike may resume after May 5. The walkout forced ANA to cancel 120 flights and transfer more than 21,900 passengers to services on rival airlines.
Statistics compiled by the Washington-based National Business Aviation Assn. indicate three of the largest North American-based fractional ownership operators have a combined fleet of nearly 200 turbine-powered business aircraft, with hundreds more on order. Since the shared ownership concept was widely introduced in 1986, Executive Jet's NetJets, FlexJet and Raytheon's Travel Air programs have signed up more than 1,050 different ``owners,'' some with multiple shares, according to the NBAA.
Recent conservative estimates by industry officials indicate that as many as 1,000 Pratt&Whitney F100s and General Electric F110s could be sold abroad over the next 10-15 years to power U.S.-designed fighters. Those sales, many to nations in Europe, the Middle East and possibly Asia, could include up to 500 engines for versions of the F-15 and 300-500 powerplants for the F-16 family.
Robert W. Elliott has become president of FedEx Europe. He was senior vice president-Europe. Elliott succeeds David J. Bronczek, who is now in the U.S. as vice president-operations. Also appointed were: Bernard Mercier, vice president-southern European operations; and Alain Chaille, vice president-sales for Europe, Africa and Middle East.
Southwest Airlines and Boeing are testing a new flexible weight program that allows the Dallas-based carrier to fill its new 737-700s up to the maximum allowable taxi weight while initially paying for aircraft based on a lower, base-weight price.
New software for airborne traffic-alert and collision avoidance systems (TCAS), which should reduce the number of unnecessary aircraft evasive actions, is now expected to make its debut in European airspace rather than in the U.S.
Luis A. Nunez and Donna Pressley have become sales directors for CityBird Airlines in the Western and Southeastern U.S., respectively. Nunez was Western U.S. sales manager for Grupo Taca, and Pressley was district sales manager for Carnival Airlines.
Airline maintenance managers are looking for increased on-line data support, digitized data for out-of-production transports and ``intelligent'' graphics to help increase the safety, efficiency and capability of their aircraft repair and overhaul operations. The preferences are the result of feedback sessions at Boeing's recent digital maintenance symposium in Seattle. There, participants were given $20,000 worth of ``Boeing bucks'' play money to spend in $1,000 increments on 11 potential digital maintenance products and upgrades.
Keith A. Forcinito has become director of turboshaft engines for the Allison 250 and Twin Pac programs of the Airwork Corp. in Miami. He was Twin Pac program manager. Robert R. Swanson has been named Northwest regional manager and Herbert P. Beck, Jr., Northeast regional sales manager for turboshaft engines. Swanson was director of main- tenance for Sundance Helicopters, and Beck was manager of technical services for Innotech Aviation.
