Frederick Smith, CEO of the Federal Express Corp., has been named the 1997-98 chairman of the board of governors of the International Air Transport Assn. Yves Michot, chairman/CEO of Aerospatiale, has been elected chairman of the European Assn. of Aerospace Industries (AECMA) for 1998.
America West Holdings Corp. has announced intentions to build a new corporate headquarters complex in Tempe. Ariz., pending City Council approval. The $37-million, 225,000-sq.-ft. facility, which is scheduled to open in early 1999, will be home base for wholly owned subsidiary America West Airlines and the corporation's new leisure travel division, The Leisure Co. The effort is expected to consolidate headquarters operations, now spread out at five locations in the Tempe area, and more than 700 personnel as well as meet anticipated growth requirements.
The Australian Federal Airports Corp. (FAC) has refused to intervene in a fresh dispute between Qantas Airways and Aussie Airlines, a domestic startup that has battled for the past two years to force Qantas to sublease terminal gate space to it.
MESA AIR GROUP of Farmington, N.M., has ordered an additional 16 Canadair Regional Jet Series 200 LRs, doubling its firm order for the 50-seat aircraft. The new order, valued at about $350 million, represents the exercise of eight options for CRJs and the conversion of eight remaining orders for de Havilland Dash 8s to CRJs. Mesa, currently with nine in its fleet, will operate 12 CRJs for US Airways Express.
The emerging economic benefits of global alliances are now causing Asian airlines to rethink their traditional conservative approach toward regional and global partnerships. Open skies agreements with the U.S., privatization and an easing of government cross-border ownership conditions, frequent-flier programs, and economic and growth strategies are driving airlines toward alliances.
THE UNITED MISSILE DEFENSE CO., a joint venture formed by Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and TRW, has submitted its proposal for the Lead System Integrator (LSI) contract on the U.S. national missile defense system. The 10-year contract is expected to be awarded in March.
Boeing has returned the first ``next-generation'' 737, a -700 model, to its Renton, Wash., factory for refurbishment into passenger configuration. The new transport, which first flew Feb. 9, accumulated 653 hr. in 345 test and certification flights as one of four -700 flight test aircraft. It also underwent 853 hr. of ground tests. The aircraft, serial No. YA001, is scheduled to be delivered to launch customer Southwest Airlines in early 1998. Overall, the flight test program included 1,550 flights, 2,000 hr. of flight testing and 2,200 hr. of ground tests.
Congress has overridden President Clinton's line-item vetoes of $287 million from the Fiscal 1998 military construction appropriations bill, casting more doubt on the future of the new veto power.
Steven Hastings, a design engineer for the Boeing Co. and Ohio State University alumnus, has won the William Oxley Thompson Award from the OSU alumni association, for career achievements.
Frank W. Schneider has become president/CEO of GHz Technology Inc., Santa Clara, Calif. He was senior vice president/general manager of the Microelectronics Group of Sharp Electronics.
Weldon H. Latham, senior partner in the Alexandria, Va., law firm of Shaw Pittman Potts and Trowbridge, has been named to the board of directors of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.
Senior Pentagon officials believe they can cut Defense Dept. staffs by 30,000, streamline acquisition and decision-making and save $6 billion a year that can be applied to a goal that has eluded the Clinton Administration for three years--spending $60 billion annually to modernize the military.
James W. Myers has become executive vice president/general manager of DynSolutions, Reston, Va. He was president/ cofounder of Ideas Commercial Systems.
In an unusually timed piggy-back mission this week, Japan's H-2 heavy-lift booster is scheduled to carry a NASA-Japanese spacecraft designed to gain a better understanding of the forces behind global weather patterns and a second payload dedicated to remotely controlled rendezvous and docking procedures. The launch, the sixth for the National Space Development Agency (NASDA) of Japan's H-2 vehicle, is scheduled for 5:40 a.m. Nov. 19 (Nov. 18 U.S. time) from NASDA's Tanegashima launch complex in southern Japan.
More than 50% of the shipment documentation for FedEx will be prepared electronically by 2000, the Memphis-based express-package shipper predicts. U.S. shippers were the first to go on line to prepare waybill documentation for domestic shipments and to track their packages. A year ago FedEx introduced InterNetShip on its home page (http://www.fedex.com) to extend the service to international shipments to some 160 countries. That service has now been extended to Asian, European and South American clients. Following a survey by Hong Kong University, the U.S.
Concerns about safety deficiencies in African airspace have sparked commercial interest that has brought focus on a South African trade show, Aerospace Africa '98, scheduled for Apr. 28-May 2 at the Waterkloof air force base, near Pretoria. Some 200 exhibitors from a dozen countries are expected to participate. According to the sponsor, Showplan Exhibitions, the show will feature navigation equipment, on-board pilot communications systems, satellite surveillance systems, advanced ground control equipment and other products.
Claude Burgio has been named president of Lockheed Martin Telecommunications, Bethesda, Md. He succeeds Russell T. McFall, who will retire Mar. 31. Burgio was vice president-engineering for Intelsat.
Photograph: USAF/LOCKHEED MARTIN Titan 4A/Centaur lifts off from Cape Canaveral on Nov. 7, carrying a 6-ton signal intelligence satellite into a highly elliptical Molniya-type orbit for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). The Centaur flew an unusual three-burn profile to place the spacecraft into an initial 55-deg. parking orbit and then a final 63.5-deg. orbit, where it was released. The Hughes spacecraft, valued at $750 million-1 billion, carries a large antenna system developed by the Harris Corp. of Melbourne, Fla.
John Okas has become managing director of the Dunstable, England-based Phase Group business of Com Dev International Ltd. He was managing director of the telecommunications business of NTL.
Sheila Cloud has become director of institutional and program support at the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. She succeeds Grady Sherman Jobe, who has become director of science and engineering. Cloud was director of the Resources Management Office.
Anthony J. Broderick spent more than 20 years at the FAA, rising to become associate administrator for regulation and certification. He left in 1996, in what was widely seen as a forced resignation, in the wake of the crash of ValuJet Airlines Flight 592. Now an aviation safety consultant, he spoke last week at a conference in Washington.
The Sukhoi Design Bureau is flight testing the S-37 experimental forward-swept-wing aircraft at the Zhukovsky flight research center in hopes of generating Russian air force interest in the design for its ``fifth-generation'' fighter requirement. Four flights have been made so far, with the first landing gear retraction on the most recent one.
