Airline and travel association representatives are mounting a furious offensive to fight potential passenger tax increases from being part of any budget deal on Capitol Hill. The second so-called super committee of lawmakers established to end the October government shutdown and debt-ceiling fight reportedly has been considering doubling the Transportation Security Administration passenger security tax, paid every time flyers step aboard, from $2.50 to $5.
Jim Kirschbaum (see photo) has become a principal airfield engineer in the Dallas office of Parsons Brinckerhoff. He was a vice president and aviation market segment leader at the Aecom Technology Corp.
American Airlines parent AMR Corp. and US Airways are seeking to close on their merger on Dec. 9, following last week's approval of the Dallas/Fort Worth-based American's reorganization plan by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court overseeing its Chapter 11 restructuring. The close will be months ahead of a schedule contained in a recent settlement with the U.S. Justice Department, which in August delayed a previously planned merger.
Cathy Rice (see photo) has been named vice president-contracts, pricing and program business operations for Redondo Beach, Calif.-based Northrop Grumman Corp. Aerospace Systems. She was director of contracts for the company's Military Aircraft Systems.
Jan. 21-22—MRO Latin America. Rio de Janeiro. Feb. 4-6—MRO Middle East. Dubai. Feb. 10—Air Transport World's 40th Annual Airline Industry Achievement Awards. Pan Pacific Singapore Hotel. March 4-5—Defense Technology and Affordability Requirements. Washington. March 6—Aviation Week's Laureate Awards. Washington. April 8-10—MRO Americas. Phoenix. You can now register ONLINEfor Aviation Week Events. Go to www.aviationweek.com/events or call +1 (212) 904-4682.
Daniel MacLellan (see photo) has been promoted to vice president-operations for New York-based FlightSafety International's Learning Centers from regional operations manager. He will succeed Greg McGowan, who plans to retire Dec. 31.
Jim Mathews in his Up Front column predicts the disappearance of four-engine widebody aircraft except as curiosities (AW&ST Nov. 4, p. 12). That is an accountant's viewpoint because maintaining two large engines is cheaper than for three or four smaller ones.
Launch of a Minotaur-1 rocket cobbled together from surplus ICBM stages and carrying a record 29 satellites underscores—again—the growing importance of nanosatellites in the overall spaceflight endeavor.
The article “Take Your Partners” (AW&ST Nov. 4, p. 22) caused me serious concern because it said the weapons bay of Boeing's Next Generation Bomber (NGB) is limited to weapons no larger than the 5,000-lb.-class GBU-28 hard-target bomb. Experience reveals a small weapons bay can greatly handicap a bomber's effectiveness. In World War II, airmen belatedly discovered that the small size of B-17 and B-24 bays was a serious problem because they could not carry bombs like the Royal Air Force's Grand Slam that were essential for destroying hard targets.
Drag-reduction technology that has been under research for decades is moving toward reality as commercial aircraft developers search for ever-higher fuel efficiency. Aircraft vertical tails are the first target because of the payoff if their size and drag can be reduced, but the techniques being developed could find their way onto other aircraft surfaces.
As Boeing begins work on preliminary design drawings for the 737 MAX ahead of starting detailed design in early 2014, project leaders hint that the recently announced fuel performance improvement over the current 737 variants could be extended further.
USN Vice Adm. (ret.) Mike Malone has been appointed a consultant and special assistant to the president of the Unmanned Combat Aerial Systems Div. of San Diego-based Kratos Defense & Security Solutions. He was president of Skarven Enterprises.
A4A and ALPA can point to small progress elsewhere recently, with the introduction of a bill in the House of Representatives that would block Customs and Border Protection's planned preclearance facility at Abu Dhabi International Airport in the United Arab Emirates. The bill, pushed by Reps. Pat Meehan (R-Penn.) and Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), would direct homeland security officials to assess the impact future preclearance facilities have on U.S. passengers, the economy and security and customs staffing at U.S.
The Accident Investigation Board of Norway (AIBN) says Boeing had been unaware that “significant amounts” of deicing fluid can enter the tail cones of Boeing 737 models and that the airframer plans “to modify all B737s to achieve better protection against the risk of the elevator system freezing solid.”
Rocie Park (see photo) has been named head of aviation claims for North America for New York-based Allianz Global Corporate and Specialty, effective Jan. 1. She will succeed Tim McSwain, who plans to retire at year-end.
Ryanair plans to set up a base at Brussels Airport in February 2014 as part of its strategy to add more primary airports to its network and attract premium passengers. The low-cost carrier (LCC), which last week said it would establish a base at Rome's Fiumicino Airport, offered to feed into Alitalia's international network there and confirmed it will introduce flexible fares for business passengers in the first quarter of next year.
