THE U.S. is in the "long twilight era" of its strong influence at the International Civil Aviation Organization as Europe "quietly tries to take control," Carol Carmody, the former U.S. representative to ICAO warned this month at the 11th Annual Women In Aviation Conference in Memphis, Tenn. "We are losing ground. I would not want ICAO standards to be based on Europe's standards." She added that this would not necessarily be bad from a safety standpoint, but it would be harmful economically and politically to U.S. industry.
Boeing reached a tentative deal with the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace and, based on the outcome of a vote on the new contract offer, the strike could be over today. SPEEA spokesman Bill Dugovich declined to predict the outcome of the vote, saying members Friday were "cautiously optimistic" about the company's latest proposal. The proposal includes bonuses and payments tied to meeting airplane delivery targets. It also increases compensation with guaranteed raises over three years.
CESSNA AIRCRAFT said the fleet of Citations operating in the Asia-Pacific Rim region has grown to about 65 aircraft. The company recently sold a Citation Excel to Kawasho Corp. of Tokyo, Japan. Kawasho also bought two Skyhawk single-engine aircraft. In addition, the company expects the Caravan single-turboprop market to remain strong in the region with the sale of the second Caravan to operate in China.
EMBRAER Model EMB-135 and EMB-145 series airplanes (Docket No. 99-NM-370-AD; Amdt. 39-11591; AD 2000-04-09) - requires various inspections to detect discrepancies of the elevator servo tab and spring tab hinge fittings of the horizontal stabilizer, and follow-on corrective actions, if necessary. This amendment is prompted by issuance of mandatory continuing airworthiness information by a foreign civil airworthiness authority.
THE NETHERLANDS GAS TURBINE ASSOCIATION, VGT, signed a memorandum of understanding to participate in the Rolls-Royce Turbomeca RTM322 turboshaft engine program. The Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs will manage the Dutch workshare arrangements under the MOU. The MOU is part of the 20 NFH-90 frigate-based multi-role helicopter procurement by the Royal Netherlands Navy.
John Ferrie, a veteran Rolls-Royce executive, was named to succeed Norman Barber as chairman of Smiths Industries Aerospace, headquartered in London, England. Ferrie, 53, will join the company as an executive director on April 10 and will assume his new role July 31, following Barber's retirement.
THE HELICOPTER INDUSTRY remains robust with worldwide deliveries of 402 new units - including 238 turbine helicopters - in 1999, according to Aviation Data Service in Wichita, Kan. In the retail market, 1,757 helicopters were sold last year, AvData reports. This compares with 403 new units and 1,634 used helicopters shipped a year earlier. Forecasters predicted that the market will remain steady over the next 10 years with replacement orders, rather than fleet expansion, leading market trends (BA, Jan. 31/51).
The U.S. Tuesday filed an Article 84 complaint at the International Civil Aviation Organization after efforts failed to resolve the dispute with the European Union over the European Commission's rule banning hushkitted aircraft not registered in Europe by May 4. The U.S. wanted the EC to suspend the regulation and is "still prepared to suspend" its ICAO filing "in good faith" if the EC initiates legislation to suspend the non-addition rule, a senior U.S. State Department official stated.
Honeywell, under orders from the Department of Justice, signed a deal to sell its traffic alert and collision avoidance system (TCAS) business to L-3 Communications for about $255 million in cash, but will retain the TCAS product line developed by the former AlliedSignal. Honeywell agreed to sell the TCAS business to obtain regulatory clearance from both the DOJ and the European Commission to merge with AlliedSignal (BA, Dec. 6/256). L-3 teamed with Sextant, a unit of France's Thomson-CSF, to purchase the Honeywell line.
Confusion within both the Federal Aviation Administration and the repair station community prompted the agency to cancel recently issued guidelines for inspectors, but the repair station industry remains concerned about what it says is FAA's disregard for following the law when issuing such material. The problematic guidelines were in Flight Standards Handbook Bulletin for Airworthiness (HBAW) No. 00-02. The bulletin was to become part of a handbook that provides guidance to repair station inspectors.
WHILE FAA REAUTHORIZATION legislation will boost aviation spending considerably and dedicate aviation taxes to aviation, the debate on future funding of the agency continues.The Administration this month renewed its called for new user fees (BA, March 13/117). Congress typically rejects fees, but a Congressional Budget Office March 2000 report on budget options considers "marginal cost-based fees" for air traffic control services. Such fees would encourage operators to use the system more efficiently, CBO said.
Federal Aviation Administration plans to tackle one of the country's most thorny safety problems, runway incursions, with a number of new initiatives, including a series of workshops and a national summit, the agency announced last week. The agency will host the workshops around the nation over the next three months, culminating in the national summit in June. The agency also is developing program to raise pilot awareness. The agency will encourage pilots to describe runway incursions to safety inspectors.
FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION officials concede that the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) does not provide Category 1 precision approach landing capability, but what it will deliver, in 2002, is lateral navigation and vertical navigation down to minimums of 350 feet with one mile of visibility without any landing navigation infrastructure at the airport. This message was delivered from senior agency officials to users last week in a meeting orchestrated by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association and the Air Transport Association.
A COALITION comprising airlines, airports, pilots, controllers, regulatory and tourism organizations formed this month to preserve access to protected radio frequency spectrums. The international coalition is concerned that radio frequencies allotted for aviation could be at risk of reallocation during the World Radio Conference 2000 meeting in Istanbul in May.
NASA Ames Research Center awarded Raytheon a contract valued at up to $150 million for research, development and analysis of advanced air transportation management technologies and concepts. The contract is to continue the development of new tools for collaborative decision-making, airspace modeling and design, flight deck systems, human factors, complex airspace management, airline operations center systems and air/ground air traffic control automation.
BRIAN O'SULLIVAN joined the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association as vice president of membership marketing. O'Sullivan has more than 16 years of marketing, sales, product management, business development and strategic planning experience, serving with Bell Atlantic and Shell Oil. He also served with Phillips Publishing.
BRITISH AEROSPACE BAe Model ATP airplanes (Docket No. 99-NM-344-AD; Amdt. 39-11589; AD 2000-04-07) - requires a one-time detailed visual inspection to detect incorrect installation or discrepancies (damage, bending, overheating, discoloration) of the circuit breaker and the cable terminations of the circuit breaker of the engine de-ice panel. This amendment is prompted by issuance of mandatory continuing airworthiness information by a foreign civil airworthiness authority.
DASSAULT FALCON JET promoted John Lax to director of customer service administration and Donald Pointer to director of service engineering. Lax succeeds Gerald Goguen, who will lead customer service when Senior Vice President Peter Ginnochio retires at the end of March. Lax will report to Goguen and oversee budgets, performance tracking, information systems, customer service publications and other customer service issues. He joined Dassault Falcon Jet in 1994 after serving with a corporate flight department. Pointer succeeds Lax as director of service engineering.
DAVID BOGGESS DAVID BOGGESS was named director-training support for SimuFlite Training International. Boggess will oversee instructor training, scheduling, administrative support and standardization. He joined SimuFlite in December after serving with GE Capital's card services division.
AIRCELL has developed a new PCMCIA modem card designed to enhance fax/data performance of laptop computers in flight. The card fits in standard laptop PCMCIA slots and can maintain a data stream of up to 9,600 bps. AirCell said the card also contains internal logic to compensate for in-flight cellular communications. The card has a retail price of $249.95 and is offered at the more than 250 AirCell dealers in the U.S. AirCell, Louisville, Colo., provides air-to-ground wireless communication services for general aviation aircraft.
USE OF COMMERCIAL OFF-THE-SHELF TECHNOLOGIES in weapons systems has become so commonplace that the Pentagon is now looking at soda machines and automotive manufacturers for the latest innovations, according to BA affiliate Aerospace Daily. The newsletter points to remarks by Jacques Gansler, under secretary of defense for acquisition and technology.
OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY will host the Eleventh International Symposium on Aviation Psychology March 3-6, 2001, at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus, Ohio. The event, held jointly by the OSU Aviation Program, the Association of Aviation Psychologists and the International Journal of Aviation Psychology, provides a forum to disseminate aviation research results and discuss new issues. Abstracts for presentation must be submitted by June 15 to Richard Jensen at [email protected] or fax (614) 292-1014. For more information, call (614) 292-3533.
