Serge Dassault, president of Dassault Aviation, has been reelected president of the French aerospace association GIFAS. Jean-Paul Bechat, the chairman of Snecma, has become vice president.
British Aerospace is set to receive a contract worth 100 million pounds ($154 million) for logistical support for GR4 Tornados which it is upgrading for the Royal Air Force. The contract is yet another step in the U.K. Ministry of Defense's shift to private contractors for support and is unusual in that the work will be performed at the company's facilities rather than at RAF logistics centers. The decision follows an evaluation period in which BAe and subcontractors GEC-Marconi Avionics and Smith Industries performed the support work on an interim basis.
Air China said last week it will buy three 747-400s valued at $510 million. The airline has long been a Boeing customer; the order brings to 47 its total Boeing fleet, including 16 747s. But Boeing is still awaiting word on the airline's plans to buy 10 777s, a deal that would be worth about $2 billion. It has been in limbo for more than a year. In the meantime, Airbus broke the Boeing monopoly at Air China in February when it agreed to take three A340s.
Don Roney has been named manager of the FlightSafety International Learning Center in San Antonio, Tex., and Tim Fallon regional marketing manager for maintenance training, based in Tucson, Ariz. Roney was the center's director of standards, and Fallon was a customer service account manager at FSI's headquarters in New York.
THE MID-AIR EXPLOSION of TWA Flight 800 apparently is casting a shadow over the trial of three alleged Middle Eastern terrorists accused of plotting to blow up at least a dozen U.S. passenger transports last year. The trio is on trial in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and the presiding judge, Kevin Thomas Duffy, last week questioned jurors whether the saturation coverage of the TWA crash may have influenced their views. They have not been sequestered.
Jack Gordon, president of the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, Palmdale, Calif., has received the 1996 Gold Knight of Management Award from the Southern California Valleys Council of the National Management Assn.
The Air Experiment Wing of Japan's air force is to receive the third prototype of the Mitsubishi F-2 (formerly, FS-X) close-air-support fighter this month, and the final one in September. Air force officials have not reported how many hours their 12 test pilots and 100 ground staff have recorded on the first and second prototypes, which were received in March and April. But the total test program is to include 960 sorties over three years. Aircraft assignments are flight-test characteristics for the first prototype, electronic systems for No. 2, stall tests for No.
LAST WEEK, AEROSPATIALE Chairman/CEO Louis Gallois was appointed head of troubled SNCF French railways. He succeeds Loik Le Floch-Prigent, who is in detention in a corruption probe. Gallois' replacement--who will be scheduled to implement the complex Aerospatiale-Dassault Aviation merger agreement--is expected to be announced in the next few days by the French government.
The White House wants to shift funds among various FAA accounts to put more resources into safer air transport of hazardous materials. Under amendments proposed for the Fiscal 1997 budget, the Administration is seeking another $10.5 million and 130 positions for the FAA to increase hazmat inspections of carriers, freight forwarders and consolidators and repair stations. The Research and Special Programs Administration (RSPA) would be given an additional $3.4 million and 18 positions to bolster its hazmat safety program.
Production of Raytheon Aircraft's 3,000th Model A36 represents a major milestone as well as a historic benchmark in the ongoing development of the company's Bonanza series.
The regional carrier Comair will be operating a fleet of 50 Canadair RJs and 40 Embraer Brasilias by next summer. The Delta Connection carrier is adding 20 50-seat Canadair jets, which are replacing 19 Saab 340 and Metro turboprop aircraft whose leases are expiring. Comair is based at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport and also operates a hub at Orlando, Fla. A jet carrier since 1993, Comair has recorded a steadily improving load factor.
Changi Airport in Singapore has added another 22 gates with the opening of two finger piers at Terminal 2. The S330 million ($232 million) project gives the airport a total of 53 air bridges. Additional capacity also is being added at Terminal 1 in a S30 million ($302 million) expansion that includes 14 new terminal gates. They are to be ready in 1999 and will boost Changi's capacity to 40 million passengers annually. That should provide plenty of space: it handled just 23 million passengers last year.
Northwest, United and FedEx have led in pilot hiring among the 13 large U.S. carriers over the last 12 months, ending June 30, according to Atlanta-based FAPA. FedEx added 30 pilots to the ranks in June, bringing the 12-month total to 599. United hired 40 pilots in June and 586 crewmembers over the last year. Northwest had added 504 pilots but none in June. Other airlines hiring pilots the last 12 months are: Southwest, 300; Trans World, 212; UPS, 176, Alaska, 107, America West, 118.
Paul Kaminski, the Pentagon's acquisition chief, says he will use the new, but much criticized F/A-18E/F as a tool for ``dissimilar competition'' with the futuristic Joint Strike Fighter. Having the E/F in production as the Pentagon ramps up for the next-generation JSF ``gives us the option to terminate earlier the F/A-18E/F if the JSF is on track and doing well,'' he said. But if the JSF program stumbles, the services could ``continue to buy off the E/F line,'' Kaminski said.
Photograph: Continental will acquire 61 new Boeing aircraft during the next six years. The airline's revised order, valued at about $4 billion, includes firm orders for 48 Boeing 737-700/800s, eight 757s and five 777s and options for 23 more aircraft. Orders for 737-300/500s and 767s were eliminated. The carrier will be the first U.S. airline to take delivery of the 737-800, which will be used to retire its domestic fleet of 31 Boeing 727s. Strong traffic, stable fares and continued pressure on costs allowed U.S.
A NEW HIGH PERFORMANCE ASHTECH GPS SYSTEM can provide centimeter accuracy for data from highly dynamic flight tests of aircraft performance and guidance systems, according to the company. The differential-GPS system achieves precise position, velocity, course and time using two Ashtech Z-12 receivers, one in the aircraft and one at a surveyed location on the ground. Ashtech's Precise Navigation (PNAV) post-processing software merges data from the two receivers to determine the aircraft antenna's positions.
LAX SECURITY WAS BLAMED last week for allowing terrorists to detonate a bomb that killed at least four persons at the airport in Lahore, Pakistan. Interior Minister Nasirullah Babaar said the security lapses showed a ``lack of coordination and insufficient security training.''
Details of a lidar (laser radar) scanning mirror pod installed near the tail of NASA's DC-8 atmospheric research aircraft shows the rotating mirror in a stowed position (photo, right) as well as pod internal and aerodynamic fairing structure (photo below). Yarn filaments are for testing the pod's effect on airflow.
Webb F. Joiner, chairman of Bell Helicopter Textron, of Ft. Worth, will receive the 1996 Executive of the Year Award from the National Management Assn. for ``exemplifying and promoting ethical business practices,'' advocacy of diversity initiatives and his ability to forge relationships with unions.
The following is a commentary on United States investor opportunities emerging from Europe's defense/aerospace consolidation by Jon B. Kutler and Anita M. Antenucci of Quarterdeck Investment Partners Inc. Quarterdeck is an investment banking firm in Los Angeles and Washington. Quarterdeck serves international clients in the aerospace and defense industry. Kutler, Quarterdeck's president, is chairman of the White House Small Business Task Force on Defense Conversion.
Radar hunting should get a Pentagon funding boost soon. Kaminski expects resuscitation of a program this year that tested a digital link between the RC-135, a signals intelligence aircraft that can pinpoint the location of enemy radars, and F-16s that can destroy these sites. New F-16s are equipped with the Improved Data Modem. An IDM was tested on an RC-135 Rivet Joint, but money ran out and it was removed and stored.
There was no evidence from the military that suggests TWA Flight 800 was shot down by a surface-to-air missile. Neither Air National Guard eyewitnesses nor space-based sensors have produced even a hint that a weapon was fired from land or sea at the airliner as it climbed after takeoff from New York.
