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.
Falling prices, improved technology and new market entrants are leading to major growth this year in the use of low-end Wintel workstations by the technical community. That's good news in that Wintel systems (meaning Microsoft's software running on Intel's CPUs) offer attractive performance for price characteristics. But the low-end RISC/UNIX workstation market has a very large installed base, easy access to historical UNIX-formatted data and a strong preference among engineers for UNIX. That creates some design dilemmas for workstation applications developers.
Zaheer Faruqi has been appointed director of international sales for the Avatar Alliance, Fairburn, Ga. He was manager of marketing and business development for the Gulf Aircraft Maintenance Co., Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Delta Air Lines has turned to DFI-Aeronomics for an upgraded revenue management system that Delta President and CEO Leo F. Mullin expects to provide an additional $100-200 million in annual revenues within three years, through more effective yield management. Delta was an Aeronomics customer before its merger with DFI; the companies are based in Atlanta and Mountain View, Calif. Implementation will come in phases, with a concentration on demand forecasting and overbooking systems the immediate goal.
Tidal change in world militaries and new definitions of security are focusing attention on ``asymmetrical'' threats. The term refers to weapons and tactics that relatively weak enemies could use to foil or circumvent the West's technological supremacy. Current speculation suggests that 21st century cyber forces or insurgents, fighting in urban terrain and equipped with robotics and nonlethal weapons, might be able to end-run U.S. superiority in stand-off warfare, in which speed, precision and range are crucial.
U.S. CUSTOMS SERVICE INSPECTORS seized $1.5 million in cash last week at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. The discovery came during X-ray inspection of bags checked for a Continental Airlines flight to Bogota, Colombia. The currency was hidden in shrink- wrapped games such as Monopoly. The passengers who checked the bags did not board the flight, but one Colombian woman was later arrested.
Airlines continue to come up with big alliances. One has to wonder if this trend won't throw a match on a political tinderbox of discontent about competition--or lack of it--in the industry. In one move last week, American Airlines and US Airways agreed to a marketing relationship. Initially, the carriers would effectively merge their frequent-flier programs and airport clubs. Officials of the two carriers said they would like to share computer reservations system codes, which would draw the two carriers closer together, but are hindered by labor contract provisions.
Angelo V. Fiataruolo and Kurt P. Johnson (see photos) have been named executive vice presidents of the VisionAire Corp. of St. Louis. Fiataruolo was senior vice president-finance and administration for Canadair, and Johnson vice president-engineering of BFGoodrich Aerospace.
Canada's Defense Research Establishment in Medicine Hat, Alberta, is offering the first commercially available broad spectrum chemical and biological warfare agent detector capable of remote, autonomous operation. Called CIBADS 2, it is intended to protect high-value assets such as airfields and detect chemical and biological agents and sound an alarm in time to allow personnel to don protective gear and take appropriate medical countermeasures. The system also collects vapor and liquid samples for agent verification.
The first commercial-level facility using Howmet's Spraycast-X process for creating large, near-net shaped components from superalloys will begin operation by early next month.
The MP Series of Position Transducers is designed for use with digital flight data recorders. The sensors use a spring-loaded cable extension mechanism. They are available with electrical outputs of 0-10 volts and 4-20 milliamps. Electrical outputs are proportional to the linear position of the stainless steel cable. Extending the cable rotates the shaft of the internal electrical sensor. Patriot Sensors&Controls Corp., 650 Easy St., Simi Valley, Calif. 93065.
DUBAI HAS SELECTED DASSAULT ELECTRONIQUE to supply radar coverage for its international airport. Two Rapsodie electronically-scanned fixed antennas will be used to monitor aircraft on final approach and all ground movement between parking areas and runways. The first two Rapsodie systems were installed last year at Paris-Orly and Norfolk, Va.
Japan's aerospace manufacturers saw sales rise 8% to $7.24 billion in 1997 despite the fact that defense orders--the industry's traditional strength--were dropping 8%. The 1997 data indicate that manufacturers are finding success in their goal to move from defense to civil production. Defense spending has typically accounted for about 75% of orders since the post-World War 2 industry got underway in the late 1950s. It was 73.5% in 1996 but accounted for just 62.7% last year.
THE U.S. ARMY'S AH-64 APACHE HELICOPTERS will replace monochrome CRT displays with color, active matrix liquid crystal displays from Optical Imaging Systems. AlliedSignal will integrate the 6.25-in.-sq. displays into the AH-64 cockpits. Delivery of OIS' 1,400 displays is to start this October and run through September 2000.
The Clinton Administration is scrambling to dispel perceptions that a presidential line-item veto of three military space programs last year derailed critical U.S. space control developments at a time when the control mission is becoming increasingly important.
CONTINENTAL AIRLINES REPORTED pre-tax income of $137 million in the first quarter, the 12th consecutive period the airline has reported record quarterly earnings. Net income was up 9.5% to $81 million. The carrier's traffic and capacity increases were nearly matched at close to 11% and load factor was at a record 68.9%. The airline, which is taking delivery of 64 new aircraft this year, ended the quarter with $853 million in cash and short-term investments.
