David Sisson has been appointed vice president-aviation products of Heads Up Technologies, Carrolton, Tex. He was president/chief executive officer of Superior Air Parts Inc.
Denice D. Denton has been named dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle. She has been a professor of electrical and computer engineering and chemistry at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
Donald J. Osmundson has been appointed vice president/chief operating officer of Ft. Worth-based SkyTeam Airlines. He was vice president-flight operations for Continental Airlines.
AN ANTITRUST SUIT BROUGHT BY the Chromalloy Gas Turbine Corp. against Pratt&Whitney is expected to go to trial this week in Texas State Court in Bexar County. In the suit, Chromalloy charges Pratt&Whitney with engaging in an anticompetitive scheme to damage and destroy its gas turbine repair business. In its latest petition to the court, Chromalloy alleges that:
THE FAA HAS COMMISSIONED an automated weather observing station that has two features different from other AWOS 3500 systems. The station at the city of Sierra Vista's Commuter Airport, Ariz., which shares the facility with the Army's Ft. Huachuca, has an extra wind sensor and touchdown group at the approach end of the second runway. The tower selects which set provides data to pilots, including wind, barometric pressure and visibility.
A battle for a new aviation market--lower-cost airborne early warning and control aircraft--is shaping up for the end of the decade, according to U.S. aerospace industry and military officials. Boeing is set to enter the fray with a series of proposals based on various models of its 737 transport. Company studies are said to have concentrated on longer-range versions of the 737, and the analyses have included two models--the -700 and -800--due to roll out in December.
Dragon Fly, an Italian startup company, has begun producing a microlight utility helicopter that also is scheduled to be the basis for derivatives for use in military reconnaissance. The two-seat Model 333 Dragon Fly helicopter recently obtained Registro Aeronautico Italiano certification and is entering production. ``We are a new voice in the rotary wing industry as well as Europe's sole producer of piston-engine helicopters,'' company officials said.
Commercial transport aircraft in Japan suffered about 1,100 bird strikes in fiscal 1995, a number that the Ministry of Transport thinks is far too high. It has launched a two-year study to see if the strike count can be lowered. The ministry has tried this approach before; it has held four sets of talks with bird specialists during the past 20 years. But with air services increasing, officials say they are concerned that the bird strike situation could get out of hand. Presently, the ministry can afford only periodic bird patrols at 13 of the country's 83 airports.
TRANS WORLD AIRLINES INC. last week named Edward Soule, 43, as executive vice president and chief financial officer. He succeeds Robert Peiser, who, along with Mark Coleman, senior vice president of marketing, resigned in June following serious differences of opinion with President/CEO Jeffrey H. Erickson on business strategy. Soule had been chief financial officer of St. Louis-based Edward D. Jones&Co., an employee-owned brokerage firm. ``The airline and brokerage industries are both cyclical businesses, requiring special managerial skills,'' Erickson noted.
NASA is considering ways to scale back early scientific work on the international space station to pay for cost increases that threaten to exhaust reserves for the project. The agency's station program director said a significant part of the cost problem has been caused by prime contractor Boeing Co., and termed the performance of the company and its subcontractors ``less than optimum.''
The Air Combat Command ordered a 24-hr. halt to routine training flights and exercises following a C-130 crash in Wyoming on Aug. 17--the fourth USAF aircraft lost in a month. About 25% of the Air Force fleet was affected by the one-day standdown on Aug. 23, which applied to combat wings in the U.S. and Panama.
United Airlines is the latest to set its sights on Indonesia. The carrier is seeking rights to Jakarta via Osaka's Kansai Airport. Not surprisingly, United says everyone but the Japanese is ready to approve the deal, which includes the right to pick up passengers at Kansai. Beyond rights are at the heart of the battle between the U.S. and Japan concerning an extension of a 1952 air services agreement. United insists it has unlimited beyond rights out of Japan; the Japanese want it to limit pickups to no more than 50% of its loads. With a U.S.
THE FAA LAST WEEK GRANTED approval to Kiwi International Airlines to return to service the last of its Boeing 727 jets that had been grounded since June 22. The government grounded a total of four aircraft because of questionable record-keeping and pilot training by Kiwi. ``The slate is clean with the FAA,'' President/CEO Jerry Murphy said. While Kiwi's entire 15-aircraft fleet is now on the carrier's operating certificate, only 12 aircraft will be in revenue service through early October.
First examinations for a centralized certification and qualification program for nondestructive test personnel are scheduled in November. The aim of the program, which is being implemented in phases, is to establish independent assessment of personnel capabilities as well as uniform levels of competency, according to the American Society for Nondestructive Testing, Columbus, Ohio.
Catherine F. Gambino has been named project coordinator for the Dallas-basedMillion Air FBO chain. She succeeds Tracy A. Sealy, who has become a business analyst for the Richmont Corp.
Characterizing the stock of AMR Corp. and Delta Air Lines Inc. as undervalued, NatWest Securities analyst Susan Donofrio last week initiated coverage of both major carriers, with a ``buy'' rating.
Two senior MiG pilots from the Czech Republic air force earlier this month flew eight evaluation flights in F-16D aircraft at Lockheed Martin's Ft. Worth facility. Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic are considered likely candidates for admission to NATO. The primary goal in reorganizing their military forces is to develop military training and doctrine compatible with those in the West.
ValuJet Airlines late last week was in the final stages of preparing to resume service, without knowing exactly when that might happen. The carrier's flight crews have completed two days of proving runs for the FAA, one of the last steps prior to getting the agency's approval to restart operations.
As a designer and producer of FAA-approved aftermarket jet engine components, the Heico Corp. is dwarfed by original equipment manufacturers Pratt&Whitney, a unit of the United Technologies Corp., and the General Electric Corp.'s aircraft engine division.
NASA has formed a five-man incident investigation board to study the loss of the NASA/McDonnell Douglas DC-XA experimental rocket on July 31, when one retracted landing gear leg caused it to fall over and burn after a successful touchdown (AW&ST Aug. 5, p. 22).
The specter of a bomb or major mechanical failure causing the loss of TWA Flight 800 threatens to ignite charges of willful misconduct against the airline and could expand to include Boeing and the FAA. U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators have not determined a probable cause for the July 17 accident, but evidence still indicates the possibility that an explosive device induced the initial breakup of the airframe (AW&ST Aug. 12, p. 33).
