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.
Dale Willis has been appointed director of communications for Honeywell Commercial Aviation Systems of Phoenix. He was director of communications and advertising for Rockwell Collins, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Willis succeeds Bill Hiniker, who has become director of internal communication and corporate promotion for Honeywell in Minneapolis.
Use its MSTI-3 (Miniature Sensor Technology Integration) satellite as a target for the test firing of a powerful laser has angered the spacecraft's builder. Spectrum Astro Inc. Senior Vice President Stan Dubyn says MSTI-3 could generate remote sensing data for three more years and that several organizations, including NASA, have offered to pay to operate it. ``The Air Force has not been cooperative,'' he charged. Defense Secretary William Cohen has indicated he'll approve the laser antisatellite (ASAT) test (AW&ST Sept. 8, p. 19).
Ronald W. Lawler has become president of the New Berlin, Wis.-based Systemation Engineered Products unit of Robotic Vision Systems. He will succeed Phil Koerper, who will be vice president-strategic programs of Robotic Vision's Electronics Div. Lawler was president/chief operating officer of the Vitronics Corp.
A stable economy, record corporate profits and growing demand for flexible, secure air travel are fueling sustained growth in sales and utilization of business aircraft that could continue unabated through the end of this decade, according to industry officials.
A strengthening European economy is spurring not only an increase in utilization of business aircraft, but also is driving demand for new jet and turboprop airplanes and creating new interest in fractional ownership programs.
Nigel Argent has been named director of sales and marketing in Vancouver for Innotech Aviation, Dorval, Quebec. He held a similar position with Odessey Aviation, Mississauga, Ontario.
Leo S. Mackay, Jr., (see photo) has been appointed vice president-business development and strategic planning of Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. of Fort Worth. He was director of market development of the Lockheed Martin Corp.
The lift module and spool duct portion of a 17% scale model of Boeing's Joint Strike Fighter propulsion and direct lift system is shown during tests at the company's nozzle test facility in Seattle. Earlier this year, the system successfully passed a three-month evaluation that verified the full range of the planned aircraft's short takeoff and vertical landing capabilities as well as transitions to and from forward flight.
F-22 program officials have decided to halt the Raptor's initial flight test program at two flights, one short of the planned three. Officials made the early termination decision last week, in the wake of an aircraft built-in-test which indicated a faulty hydraulic valve in the F-22's right main landing gear area.
Establishment (FOA), teamed with Ericsson Microwaves, is testing a second generation of its Carabas coherent ground and foliage penetrating radar. Compared with its predecessor, the Carabas 2 has increased transmit power and is using a 20% duty cycle to get an average of 100 watts, which will give a greater operating range. FOA expects a 20,000-meter standoff from 10,000 meters altitude. The Carabas 1 only had an average of 1 watt (AW&ST Dec. 5, 1994, p. 58). The broad band transmitter has been improved to block bands that would interfere with other radios.
