The Transportation secretary should invite putative FAA Administrator Jane Garvey and her predecessors to a get-together on agency management and leadership problems. That's the word from Rep. Frank Wolf (R.-Va.), who says agency employees complain to him regularly about their frustrations with management. In an open letter to the secretary, Wolf expressed concern about the progress of two major programs, the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) and Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS).
The ``Big Seven'' airlines walloped the low-fare carriers in the political wars over new aviation taxes. The vaunted tax cut/balanced budget scheme does lower the 10% airline ticket tax rate over the next two years to 7.5%--but imposes a new per-flight-segment fee that starts at $1 and rises to $2.25 over the same period, then to $3 by 2003. This shifts some of the tax burden to travelers on short-haul domestic flights, like those operated by the low-fare carriers. It is exactly what the seven had in mind.
The boom in aircraft deliveries is in full swing, with 715 new transports scheduled to be received this year, says Edmund S. Greenslet, president of ESG Aviation Services of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. Greenslet says the current capacity shortage will disappear as 900 aircraft are delivered in 1998, followed by possibly 970 in 1999. The airplane surplus, down to 345 units at the end of 1996, should rise to 600 by the end of the century. Greenslet's new forecast moves the projection of an economic recession to 2002 from 1999.
Photograph: Four 55th Wing aircraft on the ramp at Offutt AFB, Neb., include a Rivet Joint (right), Cobra Ball mission trainer (rear) and Cobra Ball (center) with covers on its large sensor windows. JIM HASLETINE The 55th Wing, with 7,000 people, is the largest wing in the U.S. Air Force, and the intelligence collecting done by its eclectic collection of RC-135s is among the service's most classified endeavors. Its sometimes clandestine achievements have garnered Air Force-wide recognition.
Thierry Antinori has been named Paris-based general manager for Western and Southern Europe for Lufthansa German Airlines. He was general manager for Germany for Air France.
Gen. Michael E. Ryan, head of U.S. Air Forces in Europe, is to succeed Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ronald Fogleman, who resigned last week over who should be blamed for the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia. Defense Secretary William Cohen had begun interviewing replacements before Fogleman left. Brig. Gen. Terryl J. Schwalier, who was responsible for the Saudi facility, was denied promotion, and tendered his resignation as well. The short list of those who might gain a fourth star in the wake of the shuffle includes Lt. Gen. George K.
British Aerospace is teaming with Lockheed Martin to study unmanned tactical aircraft designs, with a specific eye to addressing the requirements set for the U.K.'s Future Offensive Aircraft System (FOAS). A formal memorandum of agreement between the two companies is expected to be signed shortly. The FOAS program is examining several alternative concepts to replace Royal Air Force Tornado GR4 strike aircraft by 2015.
SPACE SHUTTLE MISSION 85 Orbiter: Discovery. Launch date: Aug. 7. Launch time: 10:49 a.m. EDT with a 1-hr. 39-min. window. Landing time: Aug. 18 at 7:05 a.m. EDT at Kennedy Space Center. Orbit: 160 naut. mi. at 57-deg. inclination.
Motorola has filed an application with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to use five more geosynchronous slots for its planned Celestri network, adding even more satellites to one of the most expensive commercial spacecraft projects ever proposed. If approved, the application would give Celestri a total of nine geosyncrhonous (GEO) slots to compliment 63 low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, bringing the total price tag of the system to $14.7 billion.
Safety investigators are assessing what provoked a hard landing that preceded the crash and fiery destruction of a Federal Express MD-11 freighter last week at Newark International Airport. The aircraft that crashed at about 1:35 a.m. EDT July 31, N611FE, was the first of more than 160 MD-11s in service to be destroyed in an accident. McDonnell Douglas began delivering MD-11s in 1990.
Photograph: Learjet has five Model 45 aircraft in the flight test program. FAA certification is scheduled for this month and JAA certification for October. Learjet's Model 45 business jet is nearing completion of a 2,000-hr. flight test program leading to FAA certification this month, followed by initial deliveries in October. Certification, which originally was targeted for July, 1996, has been delayed more than a year, chiefly because the final design was not frozen until the second quarter of 1997, according to Learjet officials.
Advanced technology demonstrator for the planned crew return vehicle (CRV) has made its first captive carry flight on the space agency's B-52 carrier aircraft. The test vehicle, shown on the B-52 at the Dryden Flight Research Center prior to the flight, is designed to validate technologies required for a future emergency crew return capability from the International Space Station. Captive carry research flights from Edwards AFB, Calif., are scheduled to be followed by unpiloted free-flights of the X-38 from the B-52 beginning this fall.
For Federal Communications Commission approval of a new ``Expressway'' broadband satellite system for business communications, with an overall capacity of 588,000 T1 lines, each with a 1.544- megabits/sec. data rate. A peak rate of 155.52 megabits/sec. will be possible.
U.S. and French aviation authorities are investigating whether Air France illegally--but possibly unknowingly--transported more than 900 oxygen generators into the U.S. on two separate flights earlier this year.
Air traffic growth studies project increased route fragmentation in transpacific markets, which would limit demand for proposed 600-800-passenger transports. According to the Geneva-based Air Transport Action Group (ATAG), between 1984-96, non-hub airports in Asia increased their share of transpacific departures to almost 11% from 6%. The share of transpacific departures from the Americas out of non-hubs rose to almost 12% of departures from less than 1% in the same time period.
Photograph: Sikorsky reports encouraging sales of its S-70A helicopters outside the U.S. Cost-cutting efforts and continuous process improvements are reflected in the bottom-line performance of U.S. aerospace/defense companies, whose second-quarter earnings sustained their long-running uptrend. For companies that have a sizable stake in the commercial aircraft market, healthy sales in that part of the industry also are contributing to a strong quarter.
The longest 737 ever built, made its first flight July 31. The 129.5-ft.-long aircraft departed Renton, Wash., for a 3-hr. 5-min. test flight over the Straits of San Juan de Fuca and northwestern Washington state before returning to Boeing Field in Seattle. The aircraft reached an altitude of 17,000 ft. and performed flawlessly, according to Boeing pilots Mike Hewett and Jim McRoberts. The 737-800 is capable of carrying up to 189 passengers in a single class. Certification is scheduled for February with first delivery to German carrier Hapag-Lloyd a month later.
Photograph: International Launch Services Atlas 2AS carrying Japanese Superbird-C lifts off from Launch Complex 36B at Cape Canaveral on 690,000-lb. thrust. The $200-million mission will broaden Japanese commercial competition. The successful launch of the $200-million Japanese Superbird-C mission on board an Atlas 2AS booster has propelled Japan's communications satellite operators into a new competitive commercial era.
Photograph: Charges that Iran test fired a Chinese antiship cruise missile hardened the proliferation concerns of lawmakers like Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a leading China critic. U.S. intelligence claims that China is the world's worst proliferator of equipment and technology associated with weapons of mass destruction, but nuclear experts see openings for joint counterproliferation efforts with Beijing nonetheless. The latest U.S.
Photograph: Dutch flag-carrier KLM operates a fleet of 92 aircraft, including 10 Boeing 767-300ERs. Alliance partner Northwest has a fleet of 401 aircraft. Northwest Airlines and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines patched up their differences last week, agreeing to be alliance partners but not equity partners. Settling a festering boardroom squabble that landed in the U.S.
Hainan Airlines, China's first carrier to list on the Shanghai stock exchange, is expanding its regional fleet with delivery of two of 10 Fairchild Metro 23s that it ordered in March. Five more are to be delivered by the end of 1997, with the remaining three coming next year. The airline made news in 1994 by becoming the first in China to attract foreign investment, when financier George Soros bought nearly a 25% stake in it for $25 million.
Algernon Yau has been appointed general manager for planning and international affairs and Albert Yau head of cargo sales for Dragonair in Hong Kong. Algernon Yau succeeds Augustus Tang, who is returning to Cathay Pacific Airways.
Armand D. Mancini has been appointed vice president-finance of the Orbital Imaging Corp., Dulles, Va. He held the same position with the Orbital Communication and Information Services Group. Other vice presidents named were: Edward D. Nicastri, engineering and operations; Marshall B. Faintich, strategic development; Mark G. Pastrone, marketing; and Steven M. Cox, international sales. Nicastri was vice president-advanced projects of Orbital's Space Systems Group. Faintich was cofounder/chief technical officer of the Trifid Corp.
