Andrew Lewis has become Wharton, England-based director of sales support and Xavier Pourpardin vice president-communications and marketing for Eurofighter. Lewis was commercial director for the Future Large Aircraft program, based at Airbus Industrie, Toulouse, France. Pourpardin succeeds Arnaud Hibon, who now heads Aerospatiale's Bejing office.
Starting this month, Lufthansa German Airlines will offer new services to first-class and business passengers on long-distance routes. The services, which cost DM250 million ($150 million), will provide passengers a choice of a la carte menus, a wider selection of video programming, increased seat pitch and all-new fully or almost fully reclining seats. The seats are expected to be installed on 47 long-haul aircraft by this summer. The new services are intended to help improve load factor on long-distance routes.
David Kay has become director of the Center for Counterterrorism Technology and Analysis of the Science Applications International Corp., McLean, Va. He was chief nuclear weapons inspector of the U.N.
Information warfare is one of the hot topics among Pentagon leadership, but some computer security experts question how powerful it can be. They note that while a concerted computer attack could cause temporary havoc among civilian systems, military systems are usually so isolated and uniquely programmed that there is little assurance they could be disabled in a military strike.
The U.S. delivered the first three of seven KC-135R tankers to the Turkish air force earlier this month. The remaining KC-135Rs should be delivered by May. Value of the aircraft, all reengined versions powered by four GE/Snecma CFM-56 engines, is estimated at $298 million. The price includes four additional engines and spares. Turkey plans to use the aircraft, equipped with a refueling boom, until 2030. A previous lease for two interim KC-135s expires this year.
BEGINNING IN MAY, AMR Eagle will consolidate its four American Eagle carriers into a single entity known as American Eagle Airlines Inc. AMR Eagle President Daniel Garton said the merger of Simmons Airlines, Flagship Airlines, Executive Airlines and Wings West Airlines will streamline operations, help the airline market its services, and simplify labor relations. Eagle pilots ratified a single contract for all four carriers in August of last year, and the airline last week reached a tentative agreement with the Assn.
THE EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY has awarded Daimler Benz Aerospace a DM212 million contract to build four Cluster 2 satellites intended to explore the interaction between the Sun and Earth. DASA was also prime contractor for the initial group of Cluster satellites, which was destroyed when the first Ariane 5 booster failed on June 4, 1996. The new spacecraft are to be ready for launch in mid-2000.
Ron Frederick has been named president of Garrett Aviation Services of Phoenix. He was president of UNC Manufacturing. Frederick succeeds Dave Clemons, who has resigned.
Frank Klaus has been named general manager of the Small Commercial Turbofan Dept. at GE Aircraft Engines, Lynn, Mass. He succeeds Lloyd Thompson, who has been promoted to general manager of GE-affiliated Nuovo Pignone, Florence, Italy. Klaus has been CF34 growth program manager.
David E. Henderson has become Washington-based vice president of Edelman Public Relations Worldwide. He was director of corporate communications for the Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., Savannah, Ga.
For most of the 1990s, Southeast Asia has been the land of opportunity to U.S. and European satellite builders, providing a seemingly unquenchable demand for telecommunications spacecraft. The Asian market for geosynchronous satellites was unsurpassed, as rapid economic growth fueled demand for ``instant'' communications capacity.
Eric Dautriat has been appointed launcher director of the CNES French space agency. He succeeds Daniel Mugnier, who is now vice president-technical and industrial affairs of Arianespace.
Daniel S. Hapke, Jr., has been promoted to senior vice president/general counsel from vice president of the Thiokol Corp., Ogden, Utah. Nicholas J. Iuanow, who is treasurer, and Edwin M. North, the corporate secretary, were given the additional title of vice president. And, Brad Stout was named vice president/corporate chief information officer. He was vice president-information systems.
THE BOEING CO. HAS ORDERED 35 sets of Virtual Prototypes Inc.'s software development tools. The ``VAPS'' order is the largest ever for the Montreal-based company. The virtual prototyping tools, developed by the company in 1985, are used in more than 400 high-tech industries to automate the development and deployment of real-time, data and event-driven graphical human-machine interfaces and applications. The tools allow users to intuitively draw objects, select automation and connect application data with a triggering event or desired response.
DASSAULT AVIATION will determine in May if a supersonic business jet will be developed early in the next decade with the support of a U.S. risk-sharing partner. ``We are in exploratory talks with major U.S. manufacturers. Dassault's partner must be a U.S. company, because the U.S. is the biggest potential market for a supersonic business jet and will guide the aircraft's operational needs,'' Jean-Francois Georges said last week. He is Dassault Aviation senior vice president of civil aircraft.
Aerospace manufacturers are beginning to use wireless local area networks to link workers on the factory floor and production and quality processes to various company computer systems, including inventory control. The technique, which operates similarly to a cellular phone network, allows high-speed data transfer to and from non-fixed and ``roving'' terminals worn by workers and supervisors within a building or campus. Wireless LAN also is easier to introduce and more flexible than a similar hard-wired capability.
James R. Carlson has been named vice president/treasurer and a corporate officer of the Sundstrand Corp., Rockford, Ill. He was vice president-treasury operations. Other corporate officers named recently are: Neil Traubenberg, who is vice president-tax; and Patrick Winn, corporate vice president-human resources. Ilene S. Gordon has been appointed to the board of directors. She is vice president/ general manager of Tenneco Packaging.
SPANISH FLAG CARRIER IBERIA has reached an agreement in principle with its domestic rival Air Europa which will see 11 of the latter's 34 aircraft operating in Iberia colors starting this summer season. Details of the long-term commercial pact, which does not involve any equity sharing, are to be worked out over the next two months. But Iberia executives said it would most likely take the form of a franchise agreement. The move could be questioned by European Union competition authorities, however.
Kenneth Payne will become director of logistics operations at the Kennedy Space Center on Feb. 1. A member of the Senior Executive Service, he has been deputy director of requirements for the Air Force Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.
NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., has commissioned the world's largest adjustable speed drive and electric motor system to provide air flow for its transonic wind tunnel. The new drive and synchronous motor, rated to 135,000
FLS Aerospace, based at London Stansted Airport, is close to finalizing the establishment of a maintenance center in continental Europe, at the former facilities of Pemco World Air Services in Copenhagen. The company is seeking to expand its facilities to meet a rapidly growing workload. Danish-owned FLS is negotiating a contract with British Airways to maintain its A320s. FLS also has a team in Dublin to conduct a due-diligence assessment of Aer Lingus' maintenance division, which it hopes to acquire.
TWO PILOTS AND 20 PASSENGERS were injured when a Turkish Airlines RJ100 overshot the runway and plowed into a field while landing in dense fog and heavy snow at Samsun airport in Turkey's Black Sea region on Jan. 11. Eyewitnesses said the plane, with 67 passengers and five crewmembers on board, touched down in the middle of the 1,620-meter-long (5,300-ft.) runway during its second attempt to land. The pilot was then apparently unable to stop the aircraft which skidded some 50 meters into a field, causing considerable damage to the fuselage.
AEROSPATIALE will transfer its Airbus business to a stand-alone subsidiary in the next few months. The French company's initiative is set to facilitate Airbus Industrie's transition into a stock company, which is planned for January 1999.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created ``virtual machining'' software that allows designers to create and evaluate the performance of expensive machine tools and manufacturing equipment in a computer before ordering them. The technique, called Machining Variation Analysis (MVA), allows designers to ``use'' planned machine tools and manufacturing systems to build virtual parts, according to Dan Frey, assistant director of the System Design and Management Program at Cambridge, Mass.-based MIT.
