Luis Ottolini Coimbra (see photo) has been appointed president of Lisbon-based NAV Portugal's board. He was adviser to the management board. New members are: Luis Figueiredo, who was Portuguese air force deputy chief of staff; and Carlos Manuel de Abreu, who headed the air navigation department at NAV.
The National Aeronautic Association has confirmed two records for the Boeing 787-8 in its weight class for flights conducted last December. The flights by ZA006, the General Electric GEnx-1B-powered sixth flight-test aircraft, included a distance mark of 10,336 nm on a flight from Seattle to Dhaka, Bangladesh. The Airbus A330 previously held that mark at 9,127 nm. After refueling, the 787 continued east, back to Seattle, establishing a total trip time of 42 hr. 27 min. There was no previous around-the-world speed record in the mid-size twin-engine category.
Bob Reding (see photo) has joined New York-based FlightSafety International as senior adviser to CEO and President Bruce Whitman. Reding was executive VP-operations at AMR Corp.
Johanna O'Toole has been promoted to comptroller from director of administration and financial services at the National Air Transportation Association, Alexandria, Va.
March 8—Royal Aeronautical Society's Washington Branch Annual General Meeting and Award Presentation. Offices of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP. See www.raeswashington.org/events.htm March 13-16—Aeromed Africa 2012 Conference Exhibition. Cape Town International. South Africa. See www.aeromed-africa.com March 19-21—International Academy of Astronautics/American Astronautical Society's Conference on Dynamics and Control of Space Systems. Hotel Ipanema. Porto, Portugal. See www.astrodynamics.org.pt/
Rolf Unterberger has been named an executive board member of Vienna-based Frequentis, succeeding Christian Pegritz. Unterberger was an executive partner and managing director of Accenture in Munich.
Standardizing air traffic management systems may be a crucial goal for Europe, but it will not be cheap—particularly for smaller nations. To help address this problem, a coalition of ATM providers is embracing a new way of upgrading their systems that will not only save money but also help advance harmonization.
The Azerbaijani government is behind the largest-ever Israel Aerospace Industries arms deal. When IAI made its regulatory filing in January disclosing the $1.6 billion contract, it withheld details of the customer and content of the program. The deal, which industry officials say remains to be finalized, includes delivery of Heron 1 unmanned aircraft, Elta EL/M-284 multimission radars and Barak-1 point defense systems.
Consider this the next time you grab a cup of coffee at the airport: The market capitalization of Starbucks exceeds that of the 12 largest U.S. airlines—combined. Soaring fuel costs pushed the average profit margin of those carriers down to 0.3% in 2011, or a still-meager 2% if you factor out American Airlines, which has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since late November.
Jim Gaughan has been promoted to chief operating officer from executive VP and general manager of the Advanced Research and Engineering Unit at Metron Aviation, Dulles, Va.
Andrew Storey (see photo) has been named Canada manager for Canada at Landmark Aviation of Houston, in addition to his responsibilities as general manager of the company's Toronto Pearson International Airport location.
On Things With Wings, our commercial aviation blog, Los Angeles Bureau Chief Guy Norris discusses some Boeing milestones—readying of the 1,000th 777 and preparing Lufthansa's first 747-8. Regarding the latter: Airpower writes:
The International Civil Aviation Organization obligates nations to undertake their lawmaking role in aviation and ensure that air navigation services are provided. A state can achieve this with a number of different management models, ranging from a service organization within its transport ministry, to outsourcing air traffic management functions to a commercial provider.
Finmeccanica, in the midst of a difficult turnaround effort, is facing a new headwind. India is investigating alleged irregularities in a deal to acquire 12 AgustaWestland AW101 helicopters. Parent company Finmeccanica denies any wrongdoing. Meanwhile, it has replaced the CEO at Superjet International, Carlo Logli, with Nazario Cauceglia, the chief technical officer at Alenia Aermacchi.Finmeccanica controls 51% of the Superjet joint venture with Sukhoi.
Mike Harkins (see photo) has been named engine manager for the Mid-Atlantic states for Dallas Airmotive. He was director of maintenance for a major charter operator.
Jonathan Pope (see photo) has joined Parsons Brinckerhoff in New York, as a senior engineering manager. He managed aviation programs at a New York consulting firm.
Common wisdom has it that the larger an airline is, the easier it is to be profitable in an increasingly difficult environment. But as the cases of Iberia, part of the International Airlines Group (IAG), and the much smaller Aer Lingus show, that is not always true.
Quick, what's the most ambitious aircraft program today? The Lockheed Martin F-35? Wrong. The Boeing 787? Not even close. The AgustaWestland AW609 tiltrotor? Non e corretto. The right answer: Honda Aircraft's HondaJet.
Mark Van Tine (see photo), president and CEO of Jeppeson, was named Aviation Industry Leader of the Year by the Living Legends of Aviation Group, Omaha, Neb. Under his leadership, Jeppeson accelerated the pace of the transformation from paper to digital flight information.
What will it take to get commercial human spaceflight off the ground? When will it be available and attractive to “the 99%” the Wall Street Occupiers say they represent as well as for the superrich “1%”? A group of academics and “New Space” entrepreneurs say the answers are complicated, but that it won't hurt to have a space traveler with the common touch and a way with words.
Jacques S. Gansler, former senior VP and corporate director of TASC, has been named to the board of the Chantilly, Va.-based company. He holds the Roger C. Lipitz Chair in public policy and private enterprise at the University of Maryland School for Public Policy. Gansler is a former U.S. undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics.
Richard Hedges, Communications Director (Derby, England), Rolls-Royce, Civil Aerospace (Derby, England)
In “Rolling On” (AW&ST Feb. 6. p. 62), you have inaccurately reflected how the Rolls-Royce Seletar campus in Singapore relates to our operations in England. The Seletar Assembly and Test Unit (SATU) gives Rolls-Royce additional capacity to deliver our record orderbook from a site located in a high-growth region. Clearly there are advantages to designing and building entirely new facilities, but the two sites are complementary rather than competitive.
