W. Paul Thayer, a former CEO of LTV Aerospace Corp., a World War II Navy fighter pilot and one-time deputy Defense secretary, died May 6. He was 90. Thayer followed flamboyant businessman James Ling as head of Fort Worth conglomerate LTV and guided it from near bankruptcy to profitability before being appointed deputy Defense secretary in 1983 by President Ronald Reagan. Thayer was subsequently charged with insider trading and convicted of obstruction of justice.
Commercial aircraft have the potential to become dramatically cleaner and quieter in the next 25 years, but manufacturers will have to decide how far they want to push technology, and airlines must decide how much they are willing to pay for efficiency.
Solaris Mobile says it has been granted 18-year licenses to operate hybrid S-band mobile satellite services (MSS) in France, Sweden and Germany. The licenses—which add to approvals previously granted by Finland, Italy, Luxembourg and Slovenia—will allow the SES Astra-Eutelsat joint venture to deploy voice, data, TV, radio and other broadband services to mobile devices in seven countries of the European Union. Solaris is trying out hybrid MSS in the Paris area.
The first new commercial airport in the U.S. in 15 years—Northwest Florida Beaches International (ECP)—is ready to begin operations. The facility, which is scheduled to open on May 23, will replace the Panama City-Bay County International Airport (PFN). The latter will serve general aviation for several more weeks, then will be decommissioned so the land can be redeveloped.
Hakan Buskhe has been appointed president/CEO of Saab , effective Nov. 1. He has been CEO of E.On Sweden and president of E.On Nordic. Buskhe will succeed Ake Svensson, who will become president of the Association of Swedish Engineering Companies on Sept. 1.
David Justin, who is CEO of GlobeCast America, is one of three new members of the board of directors of the New York-based World Teleport Association . The others are: Serge Van Herck, CEO of Newtec; and Mahendra Nath Vyas, director of Essel Shyam Communications.
Regarding David A. Fulghum’s “Enhancing Stealth” (AW&ST April 26, p. 45): The U.S. Air Force has spent billions of taxpayer dollars developing and procuring the F-22 so-called air dominance fighter on the pretext that non-stealthy legacy fighters cannot survive the opening stages of future conflicts against advanced air defense networks.
A Eurocontrol member-state meeting on May 6 failed to resolve whether to use and help fund a proposed tool that would ease the monitoring, reporting and verification burden for small operators subject to Europe’s Emissions Trading System (ETS), particularly within the business aviation community. Bizav executives say that without the tool, low-level emitters could end up incurring disproportionate reporting and verification costs (AW&ST May 3, p. 60).
Robert S. Gelbard has been named to the board of managers of AAR Global Solutions , Wood Dale, Ill. He is chairman of Washington Global Partners and a consultant to the Institute for Defense Analyses.
Assembly of the first wing panels and spar (above) for the 747-8 Intercontinental passenger aircraft has begun at Boeing’s Everett, Wash., factory, with an eye toward first flight and delivery to Lufthansa next year. The initial work involved loading wing panels and a 111-ft.-long wing spar to provide the wing’s internal support into assembly tools in the Everett factory’s 40-21 bay. When final assembly begins later this year, the wings will be lifted next door into the 40-22 bay.
Mitchell I. Quain has been appointed to the board of directors of the Miami-based Heico Corp. He is a managing director of ACI Capital and chairman of MagneTek Inc.
Completion of engine start tests has put Boeing on track to introduce the first 787 powered by General Electric GEnx-1B engines into its flight test program, probably late this month. Additional ground tests, including taxi tests, remain to be completed on ZA005 before it takes to the air. ZA006, the last airplane in the flight test series, also will be GEnx-powered. Boeing says both will be in service by the end of June.
Iran is likely outgrowing the level of ballistic missile technology it can secure from North Korea, though previous worst-case scenarios of the speed of development of an intercontinental system have proved unfounded. The London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) contends in its report “Iran’s Ballistic Missile Capabilities” that Tehran is unlikely to be able to field liquid-propellant-based ballistic missile “capable of targeting Western Europe before 2014 or 2015.” The report also places a notional Iranian ICBM at least a decade away.
Thomas M. Hanley has been appointed president/CEO of Houston-based ExpressJet Holdings Inc. He has been director of United Express, vice president of US Airways Express and president of Republic Airlines.
The FAA says it is studying options to remedy the loss of a GPS Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) transponder on board Galaxy 15. The FAA currently leases capacity at Galaxy 15’s former position, and at 107.3 deg. W. also provided by Intelsat. The agency says 16 airports, chiefly in northwestern Alaska, are affected by the failure, but will be able to perform localizer performance with vertical guidance approaches with GPS only, although there may be service interruptions.
Phoenix’s downtown airport looks toward a bright future under the searing desert sun except for one huge obstacle. Vehicles jam the main roadway serving a linear stretch of terminals sandwiched between north and south runways. “It’s our Achilles’ heel,” says Jane Morris, assistant aviation director.
TAM Airlines, Brazil’s largest carrier, joined the Star Alliance last week, substantially improving the group’s market reach in South America. TAM is filling a void created when Star expelled bankrupt Varig in 2007. TAM’s admission to the largest airline alliance is the first sign that Star’s efforts to sign up new Latin American members have been successful. With TAM, Star gains access to 36 additional destinations in South America.
A Frost & Sullivan survey of consumers’ ordering habits notes that air travelers start their selection process on travel websites but switch to airlines’ sites to purchase tickets. Frost & Sullivan customer research team leader Tonya Fowler says it may be emotional aspects, such as trust and loyalty, that prompt this pattern, but this cannot be confirmed without more study. However, perhaps trust and loyalty should have its limits.
The potentially devastating oil well leak in the Gulf of Mexico is demonstrating the value of satellites in mitigating natural disasters, giving emergency-response managers a clear idea of where the oil is at any given time. That includes the hours of darkness, as in this image collected during the night of May 1-2 by the advanced synthetic aperture radar on the European Space Agency’s Envisat Earth-observation spacecraft.
The U.S. military and intelligence community’s space launch manifest is ramping up to an unusually high pace to deploy several first-of-fleet spacecraft that will modernize the nation’s communications, missile warning, surveillance and navigation infrastructures. But uncertainties are clouding the outlook of the liquid- and solid-fueled booster industrial base following a White House decision to terminate NASA’s Constellation program.
Meanwhile, Lufthansa Private Jet, which Swiss Private Jet manages, is looking to expand its market footprint, which has been limited to Europe and the Russian Federation. Sabine Doerflinger, Lufthansa’s global premium customer management director, says the company is actively canvassing operators who would be interested in backing services in North America and Asia, in particular China. A decision is expected next year, with North American operations likely to be the first step, Doerflinger says.
Two years ago, Rockwell Collins Inc. Chairman and CEO Clay Jones could barely contain his fury at Wall Street. The company was generating record sales and profits, yet its share price kept declining, ending 2008 down 47%. The selloff was a harbinger of a global economic downturn that would choke off demand for passenger and business jets—and their Rockwell Collins-supplied communication, navigation and flight control systems. “The market had it right,” Jones admits. “I didn’t see what the market saw.”
Regarding Gayle Berry’s letter “The Wrong Aircraft, Maybe” (AW&ST April 19, p. 9), in 1962 the U.S. Defense Department redesignated many military aircraft, to end the confusion caused by separate services designating the same aircraft type differently. Most USAF aircraft retained their designations while most Navy aircraft received new ones. Operational AD Skyraiders became A-1s: AD-5s became the A-1Es; AD-7s became the A-1Js.
