USAF Lt. Gen. (ret.) George K. Muellner (see photo) has become chairman of the Arlington, Va.-based Air Force Association. He was senior VP-general manager of Air Force Systems at Boeing and had been president of Boeing's Phantom Works.
EADS shareholders and the governments of France, Germany and Spain have agreed on a new ownership structure. The agreement sees France and Germany each holding stakes of 12% in EADS, while Spain will control 4%. France currently owns 15% and Spain 5.6%. Germany is not a shareholder. It is represented by automotive group Daimler (with 15%), which has long expressed its wish to sell its stake, much like Lagardere (with 7.5%) on the French side.
Readers Robert H. Schmucker and Marcus Schiller take far too much comfort from the described difficulty of building a “credible nuclear force” by Iran or North Korea. They are thinking in Cold War strategic terms and that is a grave mistake. As a terrorist nation specializing in exporting weapons for guerilla warfare that would hardly be the prime short-term objective of Iran (perhaps less so for North Korea). We have had small tactical man-portable nuclear weapons for 50 years.
The Versailles court of appeals late last month rendered its long-awaited verdict after reviewing the July 25, 2000, crash of an Air France Concorde near Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG). The court overturned the convictions of two Continental Airlines maintenance technicians and a former top executive of DGAC, the French civil aviation authority. But it upheld settlements with several victims' families and Continental's obligation to pay €1 million ($1.3 million) in compensation to Air France.
In regard to Tony Osborne's article, “Mind the Gap” (AW&ST Dec. 3, p. 31), concerning the need to fill the gap between the loss of the Royal Navy's Sea Kings and its replacement aircraft, I suggest using tethered balloons to handle the radar umbrella job until a replacement is available. Tethered balloons have been used in drug-interdiction roles for decades.
Hakan Nilsson, chief information officer of Geodis Wilson, has accepted the New Process Innovation Award, presented by London-based CargoWise. The award was given for a company project to replace separate software applications for customer data with a single database.
Boeing Capital Corp., the aircraft maker's financing and leasing unit, says airlines should see “reasonable liquidity and pricing” for financing deliveries in 2013. “The industry's global growth and airlines' fleet replacements, accelerated by higher fuel prices, should keep demand stable and attract sufficient financing,” says the managing director of capital markets and leasing, Kostya Zolotusky. Financing conditions should be on a par with 2012. He expects banks to strengthen their investments in commercial aircraft.
Denmark will use the U.S. foreign military sales program to acquire nine MH-60R Seahawks for its Maritime Helicopter Replacement Program. Valued at $686 million, the sale follows Australia's purchase of 24 last year.
Sunshine McCarthy (see photo) has joined Hilton Head, S.C.-based Baldwin Aviation as director of training. She was VP, facilitator and strategist for ServiceElements of Scottsdale, Ariz.
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The Airbus A350-800 has lost half of its firm orders since 2009 and appears to be commercially the weakest member of the new long-haul aircraft family. But Airbus nonetheless still plans to build it.
Hussein Massoud, former civil aviation minister of Egypt, has been honored by the Johannesburg-based African Airline Association for guiding the association through a period of crisis in 2011 and developing a business plan that has helped the group to succeed. Hussein also has been chairman and CEO of the Egyptair holding company.
Daniel Thomas has been appointed SRC Fellow and Military Sensing Symposia Fellow at the Syracuse, N.Y.-based Syracuse Research Corp. He was a technology director within the company's Defense and Environment Solutions Div.
Ron Calvin has been promoted to managing director of inflight operations from director of customer service for the Eastern U.S., based in Washington, for Alaska Airlines. He has managed customer service and ground operations at 17 airports.
Prof. T. Nejat Veziroglu (Coral Gables, Fla. ), University of Miami (Coral Gables, Fla. )
Thank you for covering the latest research and development on supersonic and hypersonic transports (AW&ST Nov. 26, pp. 40-53). I submit that technology exists to develop an over-the-ocean (long-distance) 300-passenger commercial supersonic aircraft with Mach 2-3 maximum speed running on hydrogen fuel. It could be developed over 15 years and should not be too expensive to own and maintain for airline companies, and to fly for passengers. I foresee the following benefits:
The U.S. Marine Corps' new CH-53K heavy-lift helicopter is one step closer to beginning flight trials, following the delivery last week of the first prototype ground-test vehicle. The development program, led by Sikorsky, will include four flight-test vehicles for trials starting in 2014. The Pentagon estimates the cost of buying 200 CH-53Ks to be $25.7 billion.
Klaus Froese (see photo) has been appointed managing director of Tyrolean Airways, succeeding Gaudenz Ambuehl, who held the position during the transition of the Austrian Airlines Group into Tyrolean. Froese has been managing director of Lufthansa CityLine.
No accident was ever more visible than the horrific, fiery crash of an Air France Concorde on takeoff from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport in 2000. So it probably should have come as no surprise that French prosecutors felt compelled to find a culprit.
A Washington Outlook item in the Dec. 3 issue (page 23) incorrectly stated the outcome of pre-flight pressure testing on the International Space Station's Unity node. According to NASA, the 1996 tests were halted before the node structural test and flight articles reached the maximum design pressure of 23 psia “based on predefined sensor cutoff data being met.” Those strain gauges were positioned to test anticipated “high stresses on the radial port gussets,” and no cracks were discovered in the hardware by subsequent inspections, NASA says.
Boeing delivered the 377th 737 of 2012 to United Airlines on Dec. 3, marking the greatest number of a commercial family delivered by the manufacturer in one year. The aircraft was a 737-900ER. The previous record, also held by the 737, was 376 aircraft delivered in 2010. With much of December remaining, the final new figure for 2012 is likely to near 390. The delivery tally comes just over a month after Boeing broke a record for net orders taken for a model in one year with the 737. In October, net orders for the 737 exceeded the 846 set in 2007.
Lufthansa is launching its new concept for European direct services on July 1, 2013, six months after the group's direct services unit is to be merged with low-fare affiliate Germanwings. The new airline, to be called Germanwings, is a blend of premium and no-frills products and is the group's last effort to turn around its short-haul network into profitability.
The Airbus A330 has proven to be an extremely popular aircraft, even after the launch of the Boeing 787. It delivers a lot of what most airlines need. Now Airbus is adding further to its capabilities. The European manufacturer has revealed plans to increase the maximum takeoff weight of its two A330 versions. It plans to offer the A330-300 and A330-200 in 242-ton variants giving the aircraft, respectively, 500 nm and 350 nm more range.
Brad Harris of Dallas Jet International has been elected 2013 chairman of the Dallas-based National Aircraft Resale Association. Other board members are: Nick Schneider, Global Wings, treasurer; Jay Gantt, Gantt Aviation, secretary; and board members Ben Murray of General Aviation Services, Paul Kirby of Cerretani Aviation, Louis Sen of Jet Support Services and Tracey L. Cheek of Aircraft Title Insurance Agency.
