Stan Wraight has been appointed senior vice president-marketing for Atlas Air Inc., Golden, Colo. He was head of worldwide sales for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.
Air travelers throughout the Far East are the latest targets of Madison Avenue sales pitches. Irvine, Calif.-based OnFlight Media is exporting the concept of selling exclusive advertising on air carrier fuselages, contracting with China's Hainan Airlines, Thailand's Orient Thai Airlines, Taiwan's U-Land Airlines and Vietnam's Pacific Airlines. Tom DeNardin, the former Western Pacific Airlines marketer who gave WestPac instant name recognition with its ``logo jet'' program, is part of the OnFlight Media team.
NEW BRITISH DEFENSE SECRETARY George Robinson is to launch a six-month-long strategic defense review within the next few weeks that will reexamine the U.K.'s military requirements. Robinson, who took office after the Labour Party's landslide election victory on May 1, said he did not expect the review would result in cuts in spending from current levels, however. He said it was important to recognize the new challenges facing the armed forces, citing the increase of peacekeeping operations as a prime example.
The Romanian air force has declared an operational capability for the first squadron to be equipped with upgraded MiG-21 Lancers, the product of a joint development program between Aerostar of Romania (airframe and engines) and Elbit of Israel (aircraft systems).
Officials of fast-growing Emirates, the international carrier of United Arab Emirates, expect a slowdown in expansion over the next few years to consolidate its increasingly far-flung network. ``We want to stabilize our growth,'' says Maurice Flanagan, Emirates' group managing director.
James F. Berry has been named president of Lockheed Martin Vought Systems of Dallas, effective Aug. 1. He will succeed Jay A. Musselman, who will retire on Sept. 30. Berry was vice president-technology for Lockheed Martin Electronics.
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are taking a different approach to aircraft icing, developing a macroscopic film that discourages ice adhesion to wing surfaces. The new class of miniature polymers self-assemble into mushroom-shaped nanostructures that in turn organize into a polar-aligned, super-thin film that exhibits two dissimilar surfaces. In an anti-icing application, the film would function similarly to adhesive tape, with one sticky and one slick surface, according to Samuel I. Stupp, professor of materials science.
Ansett Australia's reorganization of its fleet and routes has helped Brisbane-based Flight West Airlines by expanding its operations from northern Queensland to Papua New Guinea and Norfolk Island. The airline acquired three Fokker 28-4000s from Ansett and will take over Ansett's three-times weekly services to Norfolk Island in the Tasman Sea, plus its daily Brisbane-Proserpine flights.
The Space Imaging Eosat commercial remote-sensing venture has raised the funding needed for the production and launch of two new 1-meter resolution imagery satellites, according to the company's chief executive officer.
Pan American World Airways is building up its service between New York's John F. Kennedy International and Los Angeles International airports to three daily round trips, based on what airline officials said have been strong load factors on the single daily flight that it has offered in that market since last September. Airline officials said they expect to complete their acquisition next month of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Carnival Airlines.
Bob Lafayette (see photo) has become business development manager of the Avtech Corp. of Seattle. He was product manager for Physio Control, Redmond, Wash.
Operators of more than 200 Lockheed L-1011s will be transitioning to electronic maintenance manuals under a new deal between Jeppesen and Lockheed Martin. Jeppesen will convert L-1011 manuals, illustrated parts catalogs, wiring diagrams and specialty documents into an electronic format accessible via personal computers. The Jeppesen Maintenance Information Service includes viewing software that allows ``hyperlinking'' or cross-referencing--even by tail number--between documents.
The use of long-range airborne radar, unmanned aerial vehicles and a new system to control them allowed a specially equipped U.S. Army brigade to fight Ft. Irwin's renowned ``Red Force'' to a draw during recent Task Force 21 exercises at the National Training Center. The resident Red Force is notorious for its aggressive tactics, knowledge of the California desert battlefield and well-coordinated attacks that regularly turn into routs of the visiting forces.
An agreement between EchoStar Communications Corp. and News Corp. to establish a powerhouse U.S. satellite television system with more than 500 channels has dissolved into a $5-billion lawsuit, sending both companies scrambling for new partners.
Well before it was officially announced, at least one influential senator has expressed disappointment with the Quadrennial Defense Review, particularly with a decision not to kill a tactical aircraft program. Instead, the QDR is expected to recommend cutting the production of F-22 fighters by 99 aircraft and F/A-18E/Fs by 215, about 22% of each program. However, Defense Secretary William Cohen is not being blamed, in part because he had too little time to gain senior military support for major changes.
PENTAGON OFFICIALS have reluctantly begun making plans to cut the number of DarkStar and Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles they will buy for their advanced concept technology demonstration. A year's delay in the program resulting from the crash of the first DarkStar and a variety of development problems have helped run up the bill. To stay within the 1997-2000 budget, the program must slow near-term UAV purchases. Delivery of two DarkStars and three Global Hawks will be delayed by a year or more.
Klaus Nittinger has been named chairman of BMW Rolls-Royce, Oberusel, Germany, effective July 31. He was chief executive for operations of Lufthansa. Nittinger will succeed Albert Schneider, who will retire.
Voting 100-0, the Senate ratified an amendment to the Conventional Forces Europe (CFE) Treaty, giving the White House two foreign policy victories within 24 hr. The second was the NATO-Russia security pact completed in Moscow (see p. 16). The resounding bipartisan support for the CFE revision clears the way for further conventional disarmament in Europe. The revision gives concessions to Russia on how it can deploy non-nuclear equipment on its western and southern flanks (AW&ST Jan. 20, p. 27).
NASA is completing a major revision of how the early assembly of the new International Space Station will be conducted, including the addition of two space shuttle missions early in the assembly sequence as a backstop to any further Russian program delays. The changes come as the space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to complete its resupply of the Russian Mir space station this week (AW&ST May 12, p. 28).
Dan Kane has been named president of the Cygnus Div. and Larry Ortega head of the Tactical Products Group, of Analytical Graphics Inc., King of Prussia, Pa.
Fabrication of the Russian Service Module for the International Space Station is advancing in a large facility near Moscow following many months of delay caused by a lack of Russian government funding.
Jean-Louis Berrendonner (see photo) has been appointed Paris-based senior vice president-sales and services of Pratt&Whitney for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Soaring demand for its fractional ownership program has prompted Executive Jet Aviation to order 20 new Raytheon Hawker 800XP business jets and place options on 10 more. The sale, valued at more than $210 million for the aircraft on firm order, is the largest single purchase of Hawker business jets ever, according to manufacturer Raytheon Aircraft. The pact also includes the acquisition of a Hawker 1000 initially used for flight testing and certification.
