The board room dispute that has impaired the alliance between Northwest Airlines and KLM will not deter the Twin Cities-based carrier from pursuing new alliances abroad. At a conference here focusing on Northwest's three-year rebound from near bankruptcy, the carrier's ranking officers placed trust in the powerful Northwest hub network, the KLM alliance and other airline partnerships as the assets on which they are building a future.
Following is a commentary on equity alliances with European carriers, by Geoffrey C. Murray and Patrick Meynial, Chicago-based members of the airline practice of A.T. Kearney Inc., a global management consulting firm. At a time when alliances are flourishing across the [airline] industry, only a handful of intercontinental equity alliances exists, and most involve a European interest in a foreign carrier. Examples include KLM/Northwest and British Airways/USAir.
THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION has ordered a review of the space shuttle program to determine whether personnel cuts and NASA's planned management changes might affect shuttle safety. NASA chief Daniel S. Goldin, at the behest of his White House bosses, asked the independent Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel to undertake the review. The panel will look at NASA's plans to consolidate shuttle operations under a single prime contractor, downsize the workforce and cut program costs. It will also examine scheduled upgrades and the shuttle flight rate.
Bruce Smith, chairman of Smith Systems Engineering Ltd. in the U.K., has been appointed to the European Commission's Industrial R&D Advisory Committee.
Capt. Yi Chol-Su, 29, defected to South Korea with a MiG-19 that on close inspection showed worn-out equipment and aircraft parts and poor maintenance, according to Winston Lord, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific. Yi said he took off from Onchon in southwestern North Korea, where he was a senior pilot with the 57th pursuit air regiment of the air defense command. Supreme Commander Kim Chong Il has personally ordered the military to sleep during the day to increase their night fighting capabilities, Yi said.
NMARSAT, NOW THE SOLE PROVIDER of airline passenger and flight crew telephone service for trans-oceanic operations, faces potential competition from ``Big LEO'' (low-Earth-orbit) satcom systems, such as Motorola's Iridium and Loral's Globalstar (AW&ST May 13, p. 27). At a recent Arinc meeting of airline avionics specialists, an Iridium official indicated that it is exploring possible use of its system for air traffic service as well as passenger use and that it has selected AlliedSignal to develop airborne avionics to work with its system.
Saab Aircraft has succeeded in bringing average cabin noise to 77 dBA. in the Saab 2000 and expects to achieve the 76 dBA. promised launch customer Crossair. Product improvements planned include the optional head-up display system, now in flight test, as well as a Global Positioning System integrated into the flight management system. At the end of April, 33 Saab 2000s had been delivered to five operators, who have accumulated more than 50,000 flight hours. In revenue service for 20 months, aircraft reliability is said to be 98%.
Wilcox Electric, protesting the FAA's sole-source award of the Wide Area Augmentation System to Hughes Aircraft, claims that the agency changed its ground rules. The FAA terminated its agreement with former WAAS contractor Wilcox on Apr. 26, and turned to Hughes, which was given more time to achieve less stringent requirements, according to William P. Marberg, Wilcox president and CEO (AW&ST May 6, p. 34). Part of the FAA's justification for awarding a non-competitive contract was that Hughes could provide an eight-month cost and schedule improvement.
NASA has agreed to a deal it couldn't refuse. To comply with a U.S. pledge to rid R-12 freon from its shores, NASA has temporarily shut down its Transonic Dynamics Tunnel to allow a commercial chemical company to extract the banned gas from the facility. The company wants to retrieve the R-12 freon because it is becoming increasingly scarce, driving up its market value. As a result, the agency will get about $800,000 for the banned gas. NASA uses the R-12 freon chiefly to improve tunnel conditions for flutter testing of expensive models.
Joint Strike Fighter officials and their plans for the cheap, stealthy fighter are going to get a thorough grilling soon in Congress. Rep. Curt Weldon (R.-Pa.), chairman of the House National Security's research and development subcommittee, is planning hearings as early as the week of June 24th. Lawmakers are ``concerned that the sleepy little JAST demonstration program has turned into a high-profile $100-300-billion acquisition program without proper congressional oversight,'' a staffer said.
Investigators have found extensive evidence that ValuJet Airlines Flight 592 was crippled by a blaze that burned through the ceiling of the DC-9-32's forward cargo hold to fill the passenger cabin with intense heat and toxic fumes. The evidence indicates ``that there was a very intense fire in the middle of the baggage bin in the forward hold,'' a senior official of the National Transportation Safety Board team investigating the May 11 crash said, adding that the fire does not appear to have started in the aircraft's electrical system.
Prof. Ronald Phillips (see photo), a researcher at the University of Central Florida, has received the Florida Space Business Roundtable's Explorer Award for his contributions to the state's space education and research capabilities.
Lockheed Martin, Evergreen International Airlines and the Assn. of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) have teamed to bid on building and operating NASA's new airborne infrared observatory. As envisioned, a modified Boeing 747SP transport will be used to carry an infrared telescope with an 8-ft. mirror to altitudes of about 43,000 ft. Called the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (Sophia), the aircraft will fly above 90% of the water vapor in the Earth's atmosphere, which normally absorbs infrared radiation.
ORBITAL SCIENCES CORP.'S Pegasus booster may have made its final flight last month when it successfully launched the Air Force's MSTI-3 satellite into low-Earth orbit. The mission was the last manifested flight for the air-launched Pegasus, which Orbital is replacing with the larger Pegasus XL.
SECURE COMPUTING CORP. will add Defense Message System (DMS) capabilities and other cryptographic features to its Sidewinder Internet ``firewall'' software under a $500,000 contract from the U.S. National Security Agency. Secure Computing's product is designed to block unauthorized users from accessing data from the U.S. national security computer network and permit secure electronic connections from classified networks to wide-area networks like the Internet.
The Swissair group expects to implement a cost-cutting plan to restore profitability within the next two years. The company also intends to impose stringent productivity requirements on Sabena, its Belgian affiliate. In 1995, the longtime profitable Swissair group, known as one of Europe's best-managed companies, posted $122.5-million losses on $5.84-billion sales.
Brian Humphries, managing director of Shell Aircraft, has been elected president of the European Business Aviation Assn. He succeeds Francois Chavatte of IBM Euroflight.
Carol Skornicka has been named vice president/ general counsel/secretary of Midwest Express Holdings Inc. of Milwaukee. She was secretary of the Wisconsin Industry, Labor and Human Relations Dept.
When the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise sails late this month, its air wing will include the first squadron of U.S. Navy F-14 Strike Fighters capable of delivering precision-guided munitions (PGM) at night. Thanks to a streamlined development and acquisition program--which could become a model for other military aircraft upgrades--the unit is deploying with Flir-based targeting pods just 232 days after a production contract was inked.
Satellite photos, geographic information, weather and environmental assessments now are available to the legal community for dispute resolution and litigation. The imagery, including high-resolution three-dimensional models, comes already catalogued for exhibit, according to BCSi ExhibitMaps, Slidell, La. Applications include helping establish a plaintiff's location at specific times, according to Ron Birk, president of Birk, Crowsey&Schmidt Inc. Time-series analysis of historic images also can be assembled from archived data.
AMID REPORTS THAT GERMANY is joining France in dropping plans to fund development of the Future Large Aircraft, Jean Pierson, managing director of Airbus Industrie, said the company is still pondering whether the conditions are right to form a military aircraft subsidiary. He questioned whether the ``new parameters'' facing industry on the military transport program made sense for industry in terms of opening a ``new chapter'' in financing military programs. Pierson said he'd rather keep the money Airbus earns for civil aircraft investment instead.
Jeffrey V. Pirone has been appointed acting chief financial officer of the Orbital Sciences Corp., Dulles, Va., following the resignation of Carlton B. Crenshaw. Pirone has been vice president/controller.
Romania's Industrie Aeronautique Roumaine (IAR) will continue its 25-year relationship with Eurocopter's French branch and license-manufacture a first batch of up to 80 AS-350BA Ecureuil and AS-355F Twin Ecureuil helicopters through 2001. Production of an additional 40 is planned in subsequent years at IAR's Brasov facility. The single- and twin-engine helicopters, known as the AStar and TwinStar in the U.S., are intended for Romania's civil and public service markets. IAR also has produced Eurocopter's Alouette 3 and Puma helicopters.
Keith Loveless has been named corporate secretary of the Alaska Air Group. He will remain associate general and succeed Marjorie Laws, who is retiring. Terry Buzzell has been appointed customer service manager in Vancouver. He held the same position in Ketchikan, Alaska.
