Operations in icing conditions and pilot training are two factors under scrutiny by the NTSB as its investigation of Colgan Air Flight 3407 gets underway.
French legislators say that despite deep misgivings about President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plan to rejoin NATO’s integrated command structure, they are unlikely to block it. Members of the ruling UMP party complain that NATO commitments to give France leadership of the Allied Command Transformation office in Norfolk, Va., and a regional command in Portugal do not constitute sufficient payback for giving up France’s military independence. Sarkozy is expected to announce the return to the command at the annual NATO summit Apr. 3-4.
French legislators say, despite their deep misgivings, they are unlikely to block President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plan to rejoin NATO’s integrated command structure. Members of the ruling UMP party complain that NATO pledges to give France leadership of the Allied Command Transformation office in Norfolk, Va., and a regional command in Portugal do not constitute sufficient payback for relinquishing France’s military independence (AW&ST Feb. 9, p. 21).
The FAA is hiring thousands of air traffic controllers to stay ahead of a spike in retirements, but this is raising new concerns about an increasingly inexperienced workforce. Trainees now comprise a quarter of the U.S. controller staff—up to half at some facilities—and this ratio is set to rise further.
Martin St. George has been promoted to senior vice president-marketing and commercial strategy from vice president-network planning for JetBlue Airways . He will be succeeded by Scott Laurence, who was promoted from director of network planning. Alex Battaglia has been appointed vice president-airports. He was vice president of JetBlue’s operations at New York JFK International Airport.
Yair Gilboa has been named general manager of the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) Ramta Div.’s Commercial Aircraft Group. He has been director of aircraft modernization programs for the IAI Lahav Div.’s Military Aircraft Group. Joseph Betsalel (see photo) has become general manager of the Components Div. of the IAI Bedek Aviation Group. He was deputy director of IAI’s New Delhi mission. And, David Tobias (see photo) has been appointed information technology and processes director in the IAI Procurement, Operations and Logistics Directorate.
Air China’s parent company, China National Aviation Holding, is likely to buy a 90% stake in East Star Airlines to improve its network in central China. The initial stake would cost Air China 600 million yuan ($88 million) and the company would have the right to take full ownership after two years. East Star is a small carrier operating Airbus A320s and is based in Wuhan. Meanwhile, a number of China’s smaller airlines managed to turn a profit in 2008.
The new U.S. Customs and Border Protection Unmanned Aircraft Operations Center in Grand Forks, N.D., will rely on and help promote local aviation infrastructure and the academic community there, federal officials said last week in formally opening the center.
I recently watched a podcast of a panel discussion from the University of California dealing with ways to overcome fossil fuel dependence. One speaker focused on energy lost as waste heat in industrial processes. In passing, he stated that a car under heavy braking can generate one megawatt of transient waste heat energy. Is there is any estimate of the energy lost through waste heat on a given day by all the world’s airliners upon landing? Why are there no research studies on mitigating or, better yet, capturing this lost energy?
A Jordanian Internet service provider —SmartLink—and an unnamed Kuwaiti investment firm plan to create a company in the United Arab Emirates offering broadband satellite services. Backers say the company—SmartSat—will be funded to the tune of $500 million, sufficient to begin operation using leased-in satellite capacity, and to order a dedicated satellite and ground infrastructure. They point to strong growth in demand for video and telecom services throughout the Middle East, noting that satellite lease revenues there have been expanding at a 17%-a-year pace since 2003.
Jonathan Scharfen (see photo) has been appointed vice president-international operations for the Northrop Grumman Corp. ’s Technical Services Sector, Herndon, Va. He was an executive with the U.S. Homeland Security Dept.
Boeing has changed its strategy to continue with tenuous C-17 airlifter production from building fewer airframes annually to reducing costs, thanks in part to an opportunity to gain business from unhappy customers facing delayed deliveries of the A400M built by EADS. International customers now pay about $220 million for the four-engine airlifter, while the U.S. price is about $200 million.
Rob Pasterick has been appointed vice president-finance/corporate controller of Chicago-based Boeing . He was chief financial officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) and succeeds Harry McGee, who has been named vice president-strategy integration for internal services. Pasterick will be followed by Ray Ferrari, who was vice president-finance for network and space systems at Boeing Integrated Defense Systems. He will be succeded by Craig Saddler, who has been president of Boeing Australia and the South Pacific.
Concerns are mounting at European defense companies that the global economic downturn will drive down military spending. Although such cuts by major European nations have not yet emerged, there are signs among smaller states that budgets will be affected. Croatia has deferred its fighter competition, Romania may do the same, and Estonia already has slashed its allocations for defense.
Kuwait low-fare carrier Jazeera Airways has overhauled its management team beyond the recent decision to name Andrew Cowen as its chief executive. Steven Greenway, formerly chief commerce officer at SkyEurope, was named to the same position at Jazeera. John Turnipseed is the new vice president for human resources, a position he held at Eos Airlines and Southwest Airlines, according to Jazeera. Marwan Boodai remains as chairman. Boodai said recently that the sale and leaseback agreement with Sahaan Leasing means the airline is debt free and has ample cash on hand.
The three members of Expedition 18 to the International Space Station are unpacking a fresh load of supplies, after Russia’s Progress M-66/32P docked with the nadir port of the International Space Station’s Pirs compartment Feb. 13 following a two-day flight from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The unpiloted vehicle carried 2.4 tons of dry cargo and almost another ton of propellant for the space station’s Russian thruster.
Greg Thomas has become general manager and Steve Pearson managing director of sales, marketing and support services for Nordam Singapore Pte. Ltd. Thomas was director of supply chain services for the repair division of Nordam in Tulsa, Okla., while Pearson was engineering manager in Singapore.
Spacehab Inc., which made its name renting pressurized cargo modules to NASA for space shuttle missions, is changing its name to Astrotech Corp. The Houston-based company’s payload-processing subsidiary near Kennedy Space Center was called Astrotech Space Operations, but with the upcoming retirement of the shuttle fleet, the name change “more accurately reflects the company’s current mission and vision,” says Chairman and CEO Thomas B. Pickens, 3rd.
Orbital Sciences Corp. and Ball Aerospace both predict growth in 2009 will be impacted by an expected downturn in U.S. government spending. In 2008 quarterly earnings posted on Feb. 19, OSC announced record revenues ($1.17 billion), operating earnings ($89.9 million), free cash flow and backlog. But pointing to the likelihood of a federal budget squeeze, OSC forecast flat growth for the year ahead. Ball Aerospace, in its 2008 results issued on Jan. 29, also reported higher operating earnings ($76.2 million), but declining sales ($746 million).
With video and telecom demand seemingly unaffected by the global financial crisis and satellite failures worsening an already tight capacity situation, fixed satellite service (FSS) operators are maintaining or even accelerating capital expenditure plans.
France’s Cilas has supplied 28 laser target designators to a NATO nation for use by forward advance controller units operating in Afghanistan and other foreign regions. The designators are interoperable with NATO, Russian and Chinese standard ammunitions and will be distributed through the organization’s maintenance and supply agency.
The U.S. Marine Corps has scheduled three public comment meetings on a proposed action to base up to 10 MV-22 squadrons (120 aircraft) on the West Coast to replace nine squadrons with 114 aircraft in California.
An extensive search-and-rescue effort succeeded in recovering all 18 people on a Super Puma helicopter that ditched in the North Sea 120 mi. east of Aberdeen, Scotland, on Feb. 18. The U.K. Maritime and Coastguard Agency at the Aberdeen (Scotland) Coastguard Maritime Rescue Coordination Center arranged the effort, which also invovled Royal Air Force Nimrods and Sea King helicopters.
Ryanair has launched inflight mobile phone service on 20 of its 170 aircraft, to measure interest in the offering, which includes voice and text services for mobile phones and PDAs.
Obituaries: Konrad Dannenberg, who witnessed the first space launch in 1942 as a rocket engineer in Nazi Germany and went on to help develop the Saturn V Moon rocket for NASA, died Feb. 16 in Huntsville, Ala. He was 96. One of the last surviving members of Wernher von Braun’s celebrated “Rocket Team” that came to the U.S. after World War II, Dannenberg was introduced to rocketry by Max Valier, a German pioneer in the field. Dannenberg studied diesel engineering at Hanover because he considered the fuel-injection systems applicable to rocket engines.
