A14-year-old Air Force/Lockheed F-117A stealth aircraft disintegrated during an air show pass near Baltimore, crashing into a house after a falling leaf descent. The pilot ejected and sustained minor injuries. About a dozen bystanders also suffered minor injuries.
Nesa Hassanein has been named senior vice president/general counsel of Atlas Air Inc., Golden, Colo. She was a partner in the Denver law firm of Morrison and Foerster.
Configuration management software system to computerize what was originally a manual system. For the past six years the company has been transitioning all of its missile programs, including the ASRAAM, to the automated system. Starting with manual processes and procedures already in place for systems in production is more difficult than using the software from the start, as Lockheed Martin did on the F-22 (AW&ST Oct. 30, 1995, p. 58).
Bill C. Tankersley (see photo) has been appointed senior vice president-technology and operations of Mobile Communications Holdings Inc. of Washington. He was vice president-business development of CTA Space and Telecommunications Systems, McLean, Va.
David M. Boaz (see photos) has been named vice president-flight operations and Lyn F. Anzai vice president/general counsel/corporate secretary of Hawaiian Airlines. Boaz was managing director for China for Delta Air Lines, and Anzai was senior counsel for the Kamehameha Schools Bishop Estate.
Of the Loran-C navigation system in 2000, as called for in the 1996 Federal Radionavigation Plan, is under review. Under a congressional mandate, the Transportation Dept. is assessing the technical merits of extending service beyond that time and cost/benefits of such an action. Booz Allen&Hamilton, hired as a consultant, hosted one user conference early this month and is soliciting factual comments, preferably with verifiable references, on any technical, operational or economic issues. Use and type of aircraft or platform should be identified.
NASA and the Russian Space Agency are going on the offensive to show the Mir space station is safe, in a move to garner support for continued U.S. astronaut flights to the damaged orbiting base. The initiative is designed to counter congressional criticism that has peaked, just as NASA this week prepares to launch the space shuttle Atlantis to Mir.
A new startup airline in the U.K. is set to launch scheduled services this week between the southern coast of England and Scotland. Euroscot Express will initially operate a daily service with a BAC 1-11 aircraft between Bournemouth and Glasgow. Another weekend service, between Bournemouth and Edinburgh, is planned by Euroscot Express chief executive Jack Romero, the entrepreneur who established British Mediterranean Airlines in 1994.
Recent lease placements by International Lease Finance Corp. include a new Boeing 737-500 transport to Rio Sul, of Brazil, and a 757-200ER to British charter startup carrier Flying Colours. China's Xinjiang Airlines also leased a 757-200 from Los Angeles-based ILFC. It will be based in Urumqi, China. Swissair leased two new ILFC Airbus A321-200s and one A320-200.
Dean Crawford has become group vice president-human resources of the Menasco Aerospace Div. of Coltec Industries, Charlotte, N.C. He was director of human resources and administration of the North- rop Grumman Commercial Aircraft Div.
Airlines expect 6.6% average annual passenger growth on international routes from 1997-2001, when 563 million scheduled passengers are expected to fly, according to the latest passenger traffic forecast from the International Air Transport Assn. As expected, the most significant growth will be in Northeast and Southeast Asia, but lower South America will also be in the spotlight in the next five years. For years, IATA's members have forecast that Asia will account for more than half of all international traffic by 2014, and the latest survey does not alter that view.
Has ordered 12 Boeing 737-300s in a sale valued at almost $500 million. The purchase, the low-cost carrier's first direct buy from Boeing, specifies first deliveries starting in mid-1998 and continuing through 1999. When complete, the order will increase easyJet's 737 fleet to 18. The aircraft will be used to expand and enhance easyJet service from its Luton hub throughout Europe, airline Chairman Stelios Haji-Ioannou said.
Business aviation in the Asia region is primed for expansion, but an inadequate airport and airways infrastructure coupled with government indifference toward business flying remain major stumbling blocks to sustained growth.
Joy sticks or track balls may be part of the Pro Line 21 avionics that Rockwell Collins is developing for pilots to communicate with the computers on corporate and regional aircraft.
AAR Corp.'s Aircraft and Engine Group will acquire British Airways' fleet of 14 747-136s, which the carrier is replacing with newer 747-400s currently on order. AAR is to take delivery of the aircraft between 1998-2000. Under the agreement, the Illinois-based company will also purchase BA's spare engines for the aircraft, as well as sell associated surplus airframe parts on a consignment basis.
For the first time ever, U.S. Air Force officials will send their $2.2-billion stealth bombers to operate from an overseas base. An unspecified number of B-2s are to deploy to an as yet unpicked site before Christmas and operate there for at least two weeks.
The European Investment Bank is providing $68 million to Bulgaria for upgrading Sofia airport, including a new passenger terminal and extension of the main runway. It follows an earlier loan to help modernize Bulgaria's air traffic control system.
Has launched a formal lobbying campaign to win parliament's ratification of the second U.S./Russian Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START 2), belatedly heeding urgent calls from U.S. arms control authorities to go on the offensive with reluctant legislators. At the direction of President Boris N.
CIA analysts assisting the FBI have spent more than seven months culling eyewitness accounts and other evidence from the crash of TWA Flight 800, and outside consultants have scoured the wreckage of that aircraft, but those efforts have found no evidence that the 747 was downed by a missile, a senior FBI official has told Congress.
During this 50th anniversary year of the National Business Aviation Assn., I have made several flights that reminded me of the virtues of corporate aviation. The first one was on board a Learjet 60 from Pittsburgh to Le Bourget Airport for the Paris air show. The 8 hr. 1 min. flight, with a fueling stop in Gander, Newfoundland, was comfortable and far better than my alternative economy seat in a United Airlines Boeing 777.
Sweden wants to evaluate long-endurance, U.S.-built UAVs. A Swedish official here said Stockholm is eyeing UAVs ``for tactical and strategic uses.'' U.S. officials said Sweden's interest encompasses both DarkStar and Global Hawk. Pentagon planners hope rules on stealth technology export will soften to permit DarkStar's export. ``What happens to DarkStar the first time you lose one [in enemy territory]?'' a senior Pentagon official said. ``It's `exported.' It's built to be expendable.
Defense industry consolidation puzzle is set to fall into place at the end of the month when Siemens AG picks between two rival suitors for its defense electronics business. The board of directors of the German engineering company has narrowed the list of preferred contenders to Thomson-CSF and a joint bid from British Aerospace and Daimler-Benz Aerospace. The General Electric Co. of the U.K. and Alcatel of France were also in the running, but a Siemens official said their bids were ``not being focused on anymore.''
John Brown has been appointed vice president-satellite engineering and operations, Richard Currier vice president-service development and engineering and Robert Schroeder director of new service concepts, for Loral Skynet, Bedminster, N.J. Brown was manager of the Geostationary Operational Enviromental Satellite Program for Space Systems/Loral. Currier was a technical manager supporting AT&T's VoiceSpan Ka-band satellite program, and Schroeder led technology planning and system design for that program.
