Raytheon will soon embark on a much-needed restructuring of its newly forged defense business, but the effort will be costly in the short term. Management last week announced a fourth-quarter pretax charge of $495 million to cover the expense of cutting 8,700 jobs, or about 10% of the workforce, in Washington-based Raytheon Systems Co., the part of the corporation where the defense and electronics businesses are grouped.
Concerns about relying on Global Positioning System satellites for sole-source navigation have escalated in Europe with an airline protest against a continental system to enhance the accuracy of wide area navigation with GPS and the Russian Glonass systems. Instead of augmenting two foreign systems, the airlines argued, the money should be spent to build a separate, civil-controlled one. The system under fire, the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay System (EGNOS), is a European Space Agency project that previously had good support.
In the next 10 flight hours, the U.S. Navy's E-6 Tacamo community will have two engines that have surpassed 10,000 hr. of service on-wing. The two GE/Snecma CFM56-2A-2 powerplants are on E-6 No. 163920. The aircraft was expected to reach the milestone by the end of last month. The Navy's Tacamo fleet is based at Tinker AFB, Okla. The Tacamo, a derivative of the Boeing 707-320 airframe, is a multimission and flying command post transport. They are maintained under an ``enhanced'' phased maintenance program performed in association with on-base depot artisans. The U.S.
Karen Geldner (see photo), president of the Shannon and Luchs Insurance Agency of Washington, has been elected chairman of the board of the Gaithersburg, Md.-based International Council of Air Shows and has received its 1997 Sword of Excellence.
The FAA's air traffic control authority stretches from the western Atlantic halfway across the world to 500 mi. east of Tokyo. Some 55% of the world's aircraft in flight are separated by FAA controllers. The agency's massive, complex system has been criticized as inadequate to present needs and, if not rebuilt, destructive to the future economy. Many users were contacted for their critiques of the system. The operations of the FAA's Air Traffic Services and plans for the National Airspace System are addressed.
Air travelers in the U.S. will face serious delays by 2005 and gridlock at most airports by 2014 unless the air traffic control system is modernized, and that effort needs to get well underway by the year 2000, according to Bob Baker, American Airlines executive vice president of operations.
The U.S. Air Force 's Wright Laboratory at Dayton, Ohio, is seeking contractors for a U.S./French cooperative technology program involving unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAVs). The program is designed to develop, integrate and demonstrate flight control and flight management technologies required for combined strike packages of manned and unmanned combat aircraft.
The Air Force claims there were no near-misses during the past two years when the service's F-16s caused the activation of the collision warning systems on Japanese airliners 28 times. No fighter came within a mile of any civilian aircraft, service officials insisted. Responding to recent complaints from Japan's Transportation Ministry and the Japanese Pilots Assn.
Aviation leaders next week plan to launch the first of two campaigns aimed at focusing public debate and government spending on initiatives that they argue can best improve flight safety.
Poorly coordinated actions by FAA field managers may continue to undermine agency efforts to make its air traffic control system run more efficiently and safely, according to controllers, some senior FAA managers and industry observers. Such managerial actions are among several factors helping to drive the morale of the controller workforce down to what participants in and observers of the U.S. air traffic system consider dangerous levels.
Roy Resto has become vice president-operations of Quality Management Solutions of Milwaukee and its general partner, FlightQuality Inc. He was quality assurance manager of American Airlines.
The House Transportation Committee approved, 39-28, a bill to rename Washington National Airport to honor former President Ronald Reagan. With majority control of Congress, Republicans hope to rename the airport by Feb. 6, Reagan's 87th birthday. It is questionable whether Congress has the authority to do so, however, having relinquished control of the airport to an interstate body and approved a 50-year lease to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority to run both National and Washington Dulles International.
Cedric D. Beckett (see photo) has been appointed president of Barnes Aerospace, Bristol, Conn., and vice president of Barnes Group Inc. He was president of the original equipment manufacturer and advanced fabrications divisions of Barnes Aerospace.
This spring, the Assn. of Flight Attendants (AFA) will seek regulatory action by the FAA to resolve two chronic cabin safety hazards affecting crews and passengers. The AFA is preparing petitions for rulemaking: one to set limits for carry-on baggage, the other to establish rules to better enable cabin crews to protect themselves and passengers from turbulence in flight.
Mary Nickolas has become vice president-tariffs of the Airline Tariff Publishing Co. of Washington. She succeeds Daniel Mingledorff, who has retired. Thomas C. Roberts (see photo) has been appointed director of communications business development for the Aerospace/Communications Div. of the ITT Defense and Electronics Group, Fort Wayne, Ind. He managed the group's Hong Kong office.
Pamela F. Carter has been named vice president/general counsel of the Cummins Engine Co., Columbus, Ind. She was attorney general of Indiana and later a partner in the law firm of Johnson, Smith, Pence, Densborn, Wright and Heath.
The Boeing Co. is likely to remember 1997 as a bittersweet year, with the company's first loss in half a century taking the luster off of record 12-month sales. As expected, the company posted a fourth-quarter loss of $408 million, or 51 cents a share on a diluted basis, compared with net income of $444 million, or 46 cents per share, in the same period last year. For the full year, the company lost $178 million, or 18 cents a share on a diluted basis, versus net income of $1.82 billion, or $1.85 a share, in 1996.
The European Space Agency will present a new package of proposals at the next ESA ministerial summit in June that takes into account the strategic impact of programs and their effect on the industry. According to ESA Director General Antonio Rodota, the projects will be selected to a large extent on their strategic and economic interest, and in particular on their potential effect on employment. ``We must no longer look at spending on space as an expenditure but as an investment,'' he said.
Boeing is matching the range and takeoff performance of the Airbus A340-500 with a new offer of the 747 that should get it past some Asian carriers' concerns about ultra long-haul operations with the 777-200X.
Thomas Horton will become vice president-Europe for American Airlines, succeeding Hans Mirka, who is retiring this month. Jeffrey Jackson will succeed Horton as vice president/controller. Jeffrey Campbell, currently managing director for corporate finance, will succeed Jackson as vice president-corporate development/treasurer.
The Royal Australian Air Force is expected to issue a request for proposals this month for three or four aircraft to replace its fleet of five Dassault Falcon 900s used for VIP transfer. Several business jet manufacturers are expected to bid, including Dassault, Bombardier and Gulfstream. The Royal Danish Air Force recently selected the Bombardier Challenger 604 to replace its Gulfstream 3 special mission/VIP transport aircraft. Denmark has ordered one Challenger 604 for delivery in mid-1999 and placed options for two more.
Boeing has submitted an unsolicited proposal to the U.K. Ministry of Defense to lease several C-17 transports for up to 12 years to meet strategic airlift requirements.
Japan's Ministry of Transport, the New Tokyo International Airport (Narita) and airlines that serve the airport are discussing ways to prevent a recurrence of the chaos that developed after a United Airlines 747-100, outbound to Honolulu, returned to the airport with seriously injured passengers after encountering turbulence Dec. 28 (AW&ST Jan. 5, p. 47). Airport authorities say they were advised that 46 passengers and crew had been injured, so they ordered only seven ambulances.
Walt Rossbach has become executive vice president of Global Media Services, Herndon, Va. He was president of the Aerospace and Defense Group of Stackig Advertising and Public Relations.
