Richard Shuyler has been promoted to executive vice president-strategic planning from senior vice president/chief financial officer of Atlas Air Inc., Golden, Colo. Stephen C. Nevin has become vice president/CFO. He was senior vice president-finance/CFO of AirTran Holdings.
The danger of midair collision is high in Africa. Over much of the continent, air traffic control is notoriously creaky. An airline survey conducted by the Air Line Pilots Assn. of South Africa reported 77 near-midair collisions over the continent in 1996. This month, when the details of last year's USAF C-141 midair with a Luftwaffe Tu-154 became clear, the Pentagon decided to accelerate the installation of traffic-alert and collision avoidance systems (TCAS) on military transports (AW&ST Apr. 6, p. 21).
BOMBARDIER AEROSPACE OFFICIALS said last week they expect to receive Canadian certification of the Global Express business jet in June, followed by FAA and European Joint Aviation Authorities approval shortly thereafter. The four flight test airplanes have accumulated 1,711 hr. during 621 flights.
AIRBUS INDUSTRIE'S 253-SEAT A330-200 long-range transport, equipped with General Electric CF6-80E1 engines, obtained European Joint Aviation Authorities, FAA and Transport Canada certification after completing a 380-flight hours test program. First delivery will be late this month to Canada 3000, a Toronto-based charter operator. Additional -200 versions powered by Pratt&Whitney PW4000s and Rolls-Royce Trent 700s are scheduled to be certified later this year.
In April 1985, when Jean Pierson took the reins at Airbus Industrie, the European consortium had obtained orders for no more than 420 commercial transports over 15 years. Today, Airbus has sold more than 2,700 aircraft and delivered 1,700 to 143 operators. And it has a healthy 1,000-aircraft-plus backlog valued at $72 billion.
Astronaut John W. Young, lunar explorer and space test pilot for projects Gemini, Apollo and shuttle, and a retired U.S. Navy captain, has been at the forefront of space flight for 35 years. His six space missions include two Gemini flights, two Apollo lunar missions and two shuttle commands, including STS-1, the first flight of the hypersonic winged space transport.
The FAA and Pratt&Whitney are investigating the miscalibration of an ultrasonic cleaning machine that induced potential fatigue cracks in nearly 8,200 turbine blades used in four different types of the company's engines.
Outside of a small circle of aviation industry executives, few people are likely to recognize Richard T. Santulli as a pioneer. He's never been in space, he's not a test pilot and his name isn't synonymous with any sinister-looking aircraft. Nonetheless, the trail Santulli has blazed is indisputable.
Michael E. Kearney has been appointed vice president-marketing and sales of Spacehab Inc., Vienna, Va. Kearney was vice president-business development for Houston operations.
Just back from Moscow, House Science Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-Wis.) and Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Tex.), say the Russians admitted that the Service Module for the International Space Station will not be ready until late March 1999--three to four months beyond the official target of this December. After meeting with bigwigs, including President Boris Yeltsin's space adviser, Yevgeny Shaposhnikov, the two lawmakers left with grave concerns about the funny money Moscow is still using for station work.
Energy Secretary Federico Pena resigned last week to spend more time with his family. But he departed with a flourish, signing an agreement to help Russia convert 10 ``nuclear city'' complexes to civilian use. Pena won high marks for his stewardship of U.S. nuclear programs, which also include aid to Russia to secure dangerous nuclear materials at 53 sites. He lobbied hard for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which got a boost when Britain and France submitted their instruments of ratification to the United Nations, the first nuclear powers to do so.
Gary (Duke) Downey, chairman of Towne Air Freight Inc., South Bend, Ind., has been named Air Freight Person of the Year by the Air and Expedited Motor Carriers Conference.
For FedEx, the new U.S.-Japan air services agreement has a long reach--all the way to Jakarta. Two years ago, Indonesia tried to attract regular FedEx services, but the company begged off, in part because it was preoccupied with starting up its Subic Bay hub. But it also felt hamstrung by its lack of unlimited beyond rights from Japan into the Philippines. The bilateral has solved FedEx's access problems from Japan, while Indonesia has improved its case with access to Jakarta.
The first images from the new Spot 4 Earth observation satellite, launched on Mar. 23 by an Ariane 4 booster, are shown here. Spot 4 features significant improvements over previous Spot spacecraft, in particular a new band operating in the shortwave infrared portion of the radio spectrum (AW&ST, Mar. 16, p. 41).
Each Laureate Award winner from 1988 through 1997 automatically becomes a member of the Laureates Hall of Fame. But what of those legends of the past among Laurels winners prior to 1988? To make sure the legends of the past are remembered in Aviation Week's Hall of Fame, each class of inductees now includes the current year's winners and a number of legendary achievers selected from the years prior to 1988. This year, the following legendary Laurels winners have been selected for induction into the Hall of Fame.
PIT, THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH INSTITUTE in Warsaw, has selected SKY Computers to provide rugged signal processors for its next generation of mobile 3D radar systems. The TRD-1211 radar is designed as a C3I system, using eight separate beams to detect and track objects out to 350 km. (189 naut. mi.) and an altitude of 40 km. (131,200 ft.). The first system will use 180 processors to give 58-gigaflops performance, and will sell for about $1 million. In addition to front-end radar processing, SKY computers have been purchased for sigint systems for a U.S.
Southwest Airlines last week opened its new, $10-million flight operations training center at its headquarters at Dallas' Love Field. The 110,000-sq.-ft. facility houses five simulators, including one for the airline's growing fleet of Boeing 737-700s. The simulator is equipped with a head-up guidance system that eventually will be installed in all of Southwest's -700s. Other simulators include one for the 737-200 and three for the -300 version. Operating at maximum training capacity, the facility can accommodate up to 300 pilots daily.
Philip Odeen has been named executive vice president/general manager and John P. Stenbit executive vice president-telecommunications of TRW Systems and Information Technology Group in Cleveland.
Teledesic President Russell Daggatt outlined some of the business case for his company's planned wireless, broadband telecommunications services in a speech to Boeing's digital maintenance conference here last week.
Fire experts at the National Institute of Standards and Technology of Gaithersburg, Md., are investigating and evaluating technologies that could be used to prevent false alarms in aircraft cargo areas. The research, requested by the FAA as part of a NASA-sponsored program to improve fire safety in aerospace vehicles, is aimed at alleviating diversions and delays caused by improperly reported cargo bay fires.
Duane Brummet has been promoted to chief operating officer/general manager from vice president/general counsel of Manufacturing Technology Inc., Fort Walton Beach, Fla.
Steve Bence has been appointed vice president-Boeing programs for BFGoodrich Aerospace, Everett, Wash. Phil Rosnik has been promoted to vice president-sales and marketing from director of marketing for the Airframe Services Div. Bence was division vice president-business development.
Chris Cool has been named vice president-lean implementation and division integration and Gary L. Brown vice president and Integrated Product Team leader for C-17 and military programs for the Northrop Grumman Corp. Commercial Aircraft Div. in Dallas.
