America West Airlines, in a far-reaching effort to renew its fleet and gain growth capacity, plans to take delivery of 46 Airbus Industrie narrow-body twinjets in the next three years.
Cedric D. Beckett (see photos) has been appointed president of Barnes Aerospace OEM and Advanced Fabrications and Marian Acker-Quinn group controller of Barnes Aerospace, Bristol, Conn. Beckett was president of the Windsor (Conn.) Manufacturing Div., while Acker-Quinn was corporate manager of accounting.
Honeywell's new Epic system likely will have a major impact on the way the company's avionics units do business. The processor-based, cursor-controlled Epic system is designed for easy upgrade, with multitasking processors and provisions for numerous ``snap-in'' modules for increased capability, and to incorporate rapidly changing technology. Such flexibility, coupled with module reliability estimated at 100,000-hr.
US Airways has until the end of this month to respond to a lawsuit by the Boeing Co. alleging the airline broke contracts to purchase about $2 billion worth of 737 and 757 transports in favor of a large agreement with rival Airbus Industrie. The suit also is seen by some as a warning to airlines--and archrival Airbus--that Boeing will not easily give up legally binding contracts when a more attractive deal is offered.
Wood Lockhart, a Boeing 747 captain for United Airlines, has received the Air Line Pilots Assn.'s Annual Air Safety Award. Lockhart, who holds a doctorate in art and architectural history, was cited for establishing his expertise in the area of airport design, especially the protection of navigable airspace. Comair Capt. David M. Mitchell and First Officer Hank Clay won the Superior Airmanship Award for successfully landing their Embraer EMB-120 at Orlando, Fla., despite the failure of its landing gear. And, Capt.
Of a National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) spacecraft in mid-December on board an International Launch Services Atlas 2A/Centaur booster from Cape Canaveral. It will be the first NRO satellite ever launched on board an Atlas 2A. The booster is capable of placing 3-3.5 tons in a highly elliptical geosynchronous transfer orbit, from which the NRO spacecraft can conduct specialized operations or maneuver into geosynchronous orbit.
Donald G. Smith, vice president/general manager of Airborne Express subsidiary Sky Courier, has been appointed president of the Air Courier Conference of America. He was vice president and succeeds Phil Belyew of the General Parcel Service.
Fred A. Poole has become vice president-heavy maintenance and Frederick W. Sine vice president-line maintenance of US Airways. Poole was general manager of United Airlines' maintenance facility in Indianapolis, while Sine headed aircraft maintenance at the United Parcel Service's hub in Louisville, Ky.
The U.S. air transportation system faces airport and airspace ``gridlock'' within 10 years unless sweeping changes in management and funding of the FAA occur soon, according to a report by the National Civil Aviation Review Commission's funding task force. The commission submitted its preliminary report to Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater on Sept. 10. Although the report covers a broad spectrum of aviation issues, its call to action centers on five key recommendations. These include:
The Pentagon is asking Congress to reinstate $9 million to help pay for a common ground station that can control the long endurance, 1-ton-payload Global Hawk and the stealthy DarkStar UAVs. The reconnaissance aircraft are to be ready for deployment to worldwide hot spots by around 2000. But without a second ground station, European Command officials are saying, they may not be able to call Global Hawk or DarkStar to the continent should the need arise.
Hughes Aircraft Company has been selected by the U.K. Ministry of Defense to provide a tactical airborne reconnaissance system for Royal Air Force Tornados.
Bill McKenna has been promoted to vice president/site manager of the Northrop Grumman Commercial Aircraft Div.'s Milledgeville, Ga., facility from site manager. Other promotions in the division were: Tom Risley to vice president/integrated product team (IPT) leader for empennage programs from head of production for Boeing 747/757/767 tail sections; and Mark Tucker to vice president/deputy IPT leader/ site manager for the Aircraft Doors Center, Perry, Ga., from B-2 and 747 program management.
Honeywell is advancing development of its new Epic processor-based, cursor-controlled avionics suite and test-flying prototype hardware. About 100 employees now are working on the Epic program and detailed design of major components is underway, according to Larry Clark, manager of Next Generation Systems for Honeywell's Business and Commuter Aviation Div. First delivery of hardware to launch customer Raytheon Aircraft, for its new Hawker Horizon mid-sized business jet, is scheduled for mid-1998.
The FAA must continue its program to scrutinize safety oversight of nations whose airlines operate to the U.S. to make sure they comply with international standards--even as the agency works for a strengthened safety oversight framework at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). So says Anthony J. Broderick, the former FAA regulation and certification honcho. ``It is far too early to slow down,'' he told the International Aviation Club here, especially since the FAA was ``the major force'' in getting the momentum going.
Southwest Airlines has introduced a Freedom USA Pass program for British travelers to the U.S. and plans to expand the program into the rest of Europe and the Far East later this year. The airline has appointed Gatwick-based Aviareps Ltd. to handle marketing and sales. The offer includes three flat-fare options for travel between any two city-pairs. There are separate passes for travel: one for Eastern/Central regions, one for the Western region and one that spans Southwest's entire U.S. network.
Scott Rayder has become a professional staff member for oversight issues and Adrienne Woodward deputy communications director of the U.S. House Science Committee. Rayder was congressional and constituent affairs specialist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Woodward was committee staff assistant and press aide. Ken Gordon has been named a professional staff member on the panel's Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee. He was an Aerospace Corp. military space policy adviser to the U.S. Air Force.
No. 2 qualification launch (V502), tentatively planned for Sept. 30, will be further delayed by additional checks of the Vulcain cryogenic engine's actuators. Tests completed in the last few days indicated an excessive oil consumption in the actuators' oil system, a European Space Agency official said late last week. If the required fixes involve no more than ``fine tuning,'' the V502 launch will be delayed ``by no more than a few days'' and rescheduled for early October.
PATS Inc. has purchased the former Georgetown (Del.) Aircraft facility to house installations of long range fuel tanks in the new Boeing Business Jet. Columbia, Md.-based PATS has received a Boeing contract potentially worth more than $200 million to fabricate, test, certificate and install its auxiliary tank system in the modified 737-300s. It is the largest contract in the company's history, according to PATS President Jack Frost. The extra fuel capacity will extends the BBJ's range to 6,200 naut. mi. with reserves. Once operations are underway, the 89,000-sq.- ft.
The U.S. Defense Dept., banking on a proposed doubling of the National Missile Defense (NMD) budget, plans to substantially expand the number of costly flight tests, but the Clinton Administration is holding firm against calls to speed up deployment.
From Ft. Bragg, N.C., to Kazakhstan on Sept. 14-15 to airdrop 500 U.S. troops from the 82nd Airborne Div. and 40 Asian troops, for an exercise named Centrazbat '97. Two of the aircraft airdropped vehicles and cargo. The C-17s refueled three times en route during the 19-hr. flight. A total of 1,400 troops from the U.S., Russia, Turkey, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Latvia are participating in the peacekeeping training exercise which lasts six days. Kazakhstani MiG-29 fighters are also involved in the training.
Was appointed chairman/CEO of Air France on Sept. 18. The French government selected Spinetta to succeed Christian Blanc who resigned earlier this month in the wake of an intense controversy centered on Air France's ill-fated privatization plan. Spinetta headed Air Inter, then-Air France's domestic-regional subsidiary, in 1990-93. He later was appointed industrial policy advisor of the late President Francois Mitterrand and recently worked for Edith Cresson, the European Commissioner for Research and Science.
The arrival of several new commercial remote sensing systems is about to end the U.S. Defense Dept.'s monopoly on highly detailed satellite imagery and could ultimately set new paradigms for the way the government procures and tasks its own imagery spacecraft.
With 1,800 active matrix liquid crystal displays over a three-year period. The 8 X 8-in. color AMLCDs are destined for Boeing 777 and 737Xs, for which Honeywell is supplying the cockpit avionics. The displays benefit from a proprietary C7 compensator Collins developed during 10 years of research, which gives very stable gray scales and color over wide viewing angles--greater than the required 60 deg. from the perpendicular.
