Ed Laprade has been appointed President of Sullair Corporation a subsidiary of Sunstrand. He most recently held the position of President, Sundstrand Fluid Handling Corporation.
Joyce W. Remington, who most recently served as manager of government relations for Whittaker Corp., Arlington, Va., has been named director of government relations and international programs for the Washington office of Tracor, Inc.. Kathleen Thompson has been promoted to vice president, human resources, for Tracor, Inc. Thompson was previously vice president, human resources for two Tracor subsidiaries, Tracor Applied Sciences, Inc. and Vitro Corp.
J. Paul McGrath has been elected senior vice president and general counsel, succeeding Patrick J. Head, who will consult for FMC during the transition preceeding his retirement next year. McGrath joins the company from AlliedSignal Engineered Materials, where he was general counsel and associate general counsel-litigation.
American Airlines' huge fleet replacement plan unveiled yesterday not only marks a win worth at least some $800 million to GE Aircraft Engines and GE's CFM International medium turbofan joint venture with France's SNECMA for the firm aircraft alone (DAILY, Nov. 21), but sets the stage for yet another fierce contest to power Boeing's 777 twin.
Don Schwanz has been appointed president of its Space and Aviation Control business, effective January 1, 1997. Schwanz, succeeds John Dewane, who is retiring at the end of the year. Walt McConnell will become vice president and general manager of Air Transport Systems, replacing Schwanz. Bob Marrah will replace McConnell as vice president and general manager of Honeywell's Defense Avionics Systems, based in Albuquerque, N.M.
Frederick K. Butler has been promoted to vice president and secretary and John W. Mayers, Jr. to vice president, Risk Management and Insurance, both effective January 1, 1997. Dana G. Mead, Tenneco chairman and CEO, has been elected to the board of directors..
Robert J. Hood, Jr. President emeritus of Douglas Aircraft Company of Long Bach, has been inducted in to the Greater Los Angeles World Trade Center Association Hall of Fame. Charles A. Vehlow has been named general manager of Apache programs. He has been director of AH-64D Longbow Apache and AH-64 derivative programs since 1991.
Space science planners at NASA are considering a closer look at two of Jupiter's moons - Europa and Io - once the probe completes its initial two- year tour of the planet's system, the head of the U.S. agency's space science said.
The U.S. Air Force has begun captive flight testing of components of the Sensor Fuzed Weapon slated for upgrading in a pre-planned product improvement (P3I) effort initiated this year. In the first flights, conducted early this month at Eglin AFB, Fla., data were obtained on an upgraded seeker, an enhanced warhead, and an increased search footprint.
Rep. John M. Spratt (S.C.), a centrist on missile defense, appeared to be staking out a similar role in deficit reduction yesterday upon his selection as ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee. "It's a plus to have rapport with the right and left and to be able to deal with all sides," he said after his victory, by a 106-83 vote in the Democratic Caucus. "My goal is a budget that Democrats of all stripes can embrace."
Allison Advanced Development Co. hopes to have a Pentagon contract in hand by the end of this week giving it and partner General Electric the go- ahead to refine GE's YF120 fighter engine core as the basis of an alternate engine for the Joint Strike Fighter, Allison Advanced President Larry Burns tells AP. Moreover, the companies stand ready to spend their own money to develop the fan and low-pressure turbine for such an engine - evidence that the program to come up with an alternative to the all-but-baselined Pratt&Whitney F119 is real.
Canada's Orenda Aerospace is slipping certification of its Orenda Series 600 V-8 aircraft engine - again - but top executives remain bullish on the program. The last delay would have had the engine certified in the U.S. and Canada by the end of this year, but a delayed design review of the drive components has pushed certification to the second quarter of next year. "This is a development program, and as such, we are putting test engines through the ringer," says program chief Larry Shiembob, who is also Orenda's business development VP.
Testing on the new RD-180 rocket engine Pratt&Whitney is developing in Russia for advanced versions of Lockheed Martin's venerable Atlas launch vehicle has started at the NPO Energomash facility at Khimki, near Moscow, with the twin-bell engine said to perform well in its first two hot-fire runs.
CFE Co.'s fleet of more than 100 CFE738 turbofans powering Dassault Falcon 2000 bizjets has now topped more than 25,000 smooth hours of service experience, CFE partner AlliedSignal Engines reports, which puts the program well on the way to its goal of becoming the first engine in its power class to win FAA approval for on-condition maintenance. Executives hope to win clearance to drop regular service intervals next year. AlliedSignal's partner in CFE is GE Aircraft Engines.
Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems recently wrapped up ground tests of Pratt&Whitney's low-observable axisymmetric nozzle, or LOAN, for the U.S.'s planned Joint Strike Fighter. Geometrical shaping, advanced cooling and special coatings both internally and externally help cut down on infrared signature - and the cooler nozzle also pays off in lower maintenance costs. From installation to test the entire LOAN test effort took only two days. P&W and Lockheed Martin are now planning a flight demonstration.
The wings and fuselage of the first Lockheed Martin F-22 fighter were mated at the company's Marietta, Ga., plant on Nov. 10, the company reported. The plane is scheduled to make its first flight next May. The wings, fabricated by Boeing Co. in Seattle, were flown to Marietta in a C-17 airlifter on Nov. 8. The mating process took about two days.
RUSSIA LAUNCHED a Progress resupply capsule to the Mir space station late Tuesday, after a delay forced because funding problems snarled production of the Soyuz-U booster used for the mission. The two-ton capsule carried equipment to fix a troublesome problem with the space station's solid waste system, along with oxygen, food and holiday presents for the two Russians and one American aboard.
AlliedSignal Aerospace is freezing or cutting hourly rates on its 1997 engine Maintenance Service Plan (MSP), thanks to fleet reliability and durability improvements in the company's TFE731 bizjet engine line. Upgrades such as the TFE731-3C and -3D models take much of the credit, and the company says flight experience and major periodic inspections (MPIs) continue to turn up no problems. That should mean announcement early next year of a 2,100-hour MPI interval for the -3C and -3D engine models, AlliedSignal says.
Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) said the McDonnell Douglas team that lost to Boeing and Lockheed Martin in the Joint Strike Fighter competition could join one of the winners as a junior partner. "I'm hoping that the team that placed third will be able to realign as part of the two surviving teams," Harman told The DAILY in an interview on Capitol Hill. "I think there's a possibility of that, and I certainly will be supportive of that."
RMI Titanium, which supplies much of the engine industry with materials, should see the price it pays for Russian-produced titanium sponge fall thanks to a final ruling last week from the U.S. Commerce Dept. that Interlink didn't dump sponge in the U.S. Interlink is the major trader in Russian sponge, and until now the U.S. imposed an 84% dumping duty on the metal.
