Last year, the Arab Air Carrier Organization (AACO) chose a trip into the region's past by picking Algerian capital Algiers as the site for its annual general meeting. It was a surreal event in many ways: A lot of attendees did not even get to Algeria because they could not obtain visas, and those who were able to travel there were stuck in a highly protected luxury hotel above the city. Anyone who wanted to take a stroll was supposed to do so only with a bodyguard.
Vicky Hartley (see photo) has been appointed London Heathrow Airport-based senior financing director for the Boeing Capital Corp. She was an aviation financing executive in London for WestLB and Berliner Bank.
An Oct. 28 article (page 39) misstated the history and operational status of the Airbus A350 program, which was launched in 2006. The A350-1000 market has grown by 29% since then and now totals 2,100 units that are expected to be built during the next 20 years.
South Korea may move quickly to order the Lockheed Martin F-35 for its derailed F-X Phase 3 competition for 60 fighters—and yet again, it may not. In a program that has become chaotic and unpredictable even by the standards of fighter acquisitions, a range of outcomes is in the offing.
Glenn Splieth has become vice president of global human resources of Erickson Air-Crane Inc., Portland, Ore. He held a similar position at the RadiSys Corp.
U.S. Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell received the Guild Award of Honor from the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators in a ceremony in London on Oct. 23. Lovell was recognized for his contribution to spaceflight on Apollo 8 and 13 but also his achievements in the Gemini program including the first in-orbit rendezvous in 1965 with Gemini 7.
In an Up Front column “The Art of Disruption” (AW&ST Oct. 28, p. 16), Byron Callan takes a rather optimistic stance about emerging technologies and defense. Considering the Oct. 23 testimony that U.S. Army acquisition czar Heidi Shyu gave to the House Armed Services tactical air and ground forces subcommittee about how continuing resolutions (CR) and the mandatory budget cuts known as sequestration are affecting new and start-up programs, not much can happen with new technologies.
Dave Kaufman (see photo) has been named vice president/general manager of the national defense strategic business unit at the Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. He was director of the unit's national security space mission area and had been program manager for the Space Test Program Standard Interface Vehicle.
The U.S. Navy raised speculation about its fighter procurement planning by asking Boeing for a price on 36 F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and EA-18G Growlers, and then canceling the solicitation days after it was reported in public. Under current budget plans, the Navy's last 26 Super Hornets were funded in 2013 and the final 21 Growlers in 2014. The Navy confirmed that the request issued on Oct. 17 was in support of “a potential option for any prospective requirements,” including Navy orders as well as foreign military sales.
The B-52H crew were trying to thread a needle through an invisible point in the sky to hit the correct launch conditions for the test flight of the X-51A Waverider hypersonic demonstrator.
Two captions were transposed in an article about engines for the next generation of business jets, in the Oct. 14/21 issue. The bottom image on page 65 shows a Honeywell engine, and a Pratt & Whitney powerplant is shown on page 66.
Andrew Watterson has been appointed vice president-network planning and performance and Sherry Staber vice president-business transformation solutions, operations and enterprise management for Southwest Airlines. Watterson was vice president of planning and revenue management at Hawaiian Airlines, while Staber was vice president of corporate solutions for the J.C. Penney Co.
Ron Ladnier (see photo) has been promoted to vice president of the New York-based FlightSafety Services Corp. from director of military business development. He succeeds Mike Sangster, who will be retiring at year-end but will continue as a consultant.
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Lufthansa CEO Christoph Franz says the company's third-quarter financial performance indicates a “trend reversal” for the group's passenger airlines. Lufthansa Passage, which comprises Lufthansa and Germanwings, posted a €300 million ($408 million) operating profit, an improvement of 170% over the year-ago quarter. According to Franz, the unit's short-haul segment also will post a full-year operating profit for the first time in five years. Subsidiary Swiss International Air Lines posted a 5% increase in operating profit for the quarter, reaching €182 million.
Hundreds of applications for aircraft operations and repair stations are held up, stymied by the FAA's inefficient certification processes, a government watchdog finds. FAA is juggling 1,029 such applications, Jeffrey Guzzetti of the Transportation Department's Inspector General's office, recently told Congress. The situation is so bad, one applicant has been in limbo since August 2006. And it is about to get worse, as requests from NextGen technologies and unmanned aircraft flow into the system.
In another potential blow to the Airbus A380 program, Air France has indicated it may not take all of the aircraft on firm order. According to Air France-KLM CEO Alexandre de Juniac, the airline may swap part of its remaining order for other aircraft types. Air France has ordered 12 A380s and received nine. The airline expects to receive another A380 in 2014, but has already postponed delivery of two more until 2016 and now may not take them.
Brazilian airline GOL plans a campaign of 200 biofuel flights when the country hosts the soccer World Cup in 2014. News of the plans emerged as the airline made the first commercial biofuel flight in Brazil, from Sao Paulo to Brasilia, with a 25% blend of hydrotreated renewable jet fuel supplied by UOP company Honeywell.
Airbus and Boeing have argued that air transport growth is linked to the development of global GDP. But that is not always the case: U.S. air travel has been more or less stagnant in spite of economic growth, but Russian air transport is growing fast in the midst of a recession.
Your editorial “To End Washington Gridlock, Fix Process” (AW&ST Oct. 14/21, p. 90) struck a chord. Perhaps you are right about a basic fault in the U.S. electoral system that affects the way people are elected to Congress and that has ultimately seriously impacted the budgeting process, especially as it applies to the defense industry.
