Kevin Hiatt, IATA Senior Vice President, Safety and Flight Operations
To columnist Pierre Sparaco, the disappearance and loss of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 confirms “flight safety’s huge paradox: achieving remarkable results but at the same time displaying disturbing weaknesses.” The solution, according to an unidentified aviation executive cited in Sparaco’s recent commentary ( AW&ST April 21, p. 20) is “more action” and “fewer conferences and working groups.”
As a retired aviation industry employee with limited knowledge of the higher technical aspects of aircraft and airline operations, I am somewhat worried about flying. A slew of recent articles in Aviation Week have highlighted shortcomings in an industry that I have always perceived to be governed by impeccable standards and fail-safe redundancy provisions. Recent revelations include:
In response to reader Guy Wroble’s comments about Denmark’s selection process for a new combat aircraft ( AW&ST May 5, p. 9), perhaps the Danes are just being polite when they say they
In the late 1980s I was an analyst in Defense Department’s Office of Program Analysis & Evaluation. One of my programs was the Navy’s stealth attack aircraft, the A-12 Avenger II, which was canceled in 1991. I had a chance to view the full-scale mockup and to fly the simulator. The profile of the unidentified aircraft in “It’s That Airplane Again” ( AW&ST April 28, p. 12) bears an uncanny resemblance to the A-12—from the overall shape to the wing-sweep angle, even down to the location of the twin engines.
Norbert Kamp (see photo) has been named global sales and marketing director for Air BP, Sunbury on Thames, England, effective July 1. He will succeed Peter O’Callaghan, who has retired. Kamp has been vice president-strategic cooperation.
Philip de Klerk has been named chief financial officer of Flybe. He will succeed Andrew Knuckey, who is leaving the company Aug. 2. DeKlerk has been global head of financial planning and analysis and finance director of the Business Capabilities Program at SABMiller.
Patrick McGuiness (see photos) has been appointed executive vice president/chief financial officer, Ted Hamilton chief operating officer, Charlotte Cheatham senior vice president-marketing and customer service, Robert Hiegel senior vice president/chief accounting officer and Matt DeLellis senior vice president-strategy and corporate development, all at Houston-based Landmark Aviation.
Robin Hayes , president of JetBlue Airways , also will be chief operating officer after the resignation of Rob Maruster . In other personnel changes, Joanna Geraghty has been named executive vice president-customer experience. She was executive vice president/chief people officer.
Sometimes it is the potential energy, not kinetic, that makes the difference. In the end, the gun sport and outdoor division within Alliant Techsystems (ATK) was seen as having too much growth potential not to stand alone, so a corporate split-off was necessary. ATK’s aerospace and defense (A&D) businesses, meanwhile, had far more to gain when combined with Orbital Sciences.
May 19-22—National Space Symposium. The Broadmoor Hotel, Colorado Springs. www.nationalspacesymposium.org/ May 20-22—70th Annual American Helicopter Society (AHS) International Forum. Palais des Congres de Montreal. www.vtol.org/forum May 20-22—European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition. Geneva. www.ebace.aero/2014/
Almost every conceivable way of taking off and landing vertically has been tried at least once, and most were judged impractical at the time. But technology marches on, and growth in the unmanned-aircraft market has brought with it resurgence in interest—and invention—in vertical flight.
Draper Laboratory’s Cygnus guidance, navigation and targeting team led by Ian Mitchell and including David Benson, Christopher Bessette, Louis Breger, Sungyung Lim, Piero Miotto, Richard Phillips, Russell Sargent, David Woffinden, Kurt A. Winikka and Renato Zanetti has won a 2014 Stellar Award from the Houston-based Rotary National Award for Space Achievement. The award was granted for development of software that enables the Cygnus spacecraft to rendezvous and dock with the International Space Station.
Airbus Group CEO T om Enders has received the 2014 Distinguished Business Leadership Award from the Washington-based Atlantic Council think tank. The council praised Enders as a “visionary global business leader and passionate Atlanticist,” who is providing “important thought leadership on the future of Europe, on Germany and its place in the world, and on the centrality of transatlantic cooperation on security and defense to a more peaceful world.”
