The International Council of Aircraft Owner and Pilot Assns. (IAOPA) and the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) are advocating changes to language-proficiency standards for pilots operating under visual flight rules (VFR). Under International Civil Aviation Organization rules, as of March 2008 all pilots will be required to demonstrate a high level of language proficiency in communications when they fly internationally.
Alberto Cervantes has been appointed manager of the King Aerospace Commercial Corp. , Ardmore, Okla. Frederick Lawson has been named interior manager, Monnie Weems avionics manager, David Ruiz cabinet shop supervisor, Jeffrey Wyman sheet metal supervisor, Lawrence Popp project manager and Jeff Frink planning supervisor.
Mark Ard has been promoted to director/chief engineeer for advanced aircraft programs from head of the product development team for Gulfstream Aerospace , Savannah, Ga. Clark Bristol has been named director of advanced procurement. He was director of final-phase materials. Bristol has been succeeded by Jim Diez, who was material cost manager for global procurement for the Ford Motor Co. Becky Elliott has been appointed director of final-phase operations. She was manager of the final-phase integrated product team.
A radar war has broken out that will challenge the 1970-80s engine brawl for intensity of effort, pace of technology advances and potential for capturing defense dollars.
Randall H. Walker, director of aviation for the Clark County (Nev.) Aviation Authority, has been elected chairman for 2008 of Airports Council International-North America . He will succeed Fredrick J. Piccolo of the Sarasota Manatee (Fla.) Airport Authority. Other executive committee members will be: vice chairman, John D. Clark, 3rd, executive director of the Jacksonville (Fla.) Aviation Authority; second vice chairman, G. Hardy Acree, director of airports for the Sacramento County (Calif.) Airport System; and secretary-treasurer, Frank R.
Society of British Aerospace Companies President Allan Cook is the latest voice to warn that the U.K. Defense Ministry faces “tough decisions” on procurement programs in 2008. “Everyone recognizes that with the huge pressure of operations on the Defense Ministry, the settlement that the department has obtained from the Treasury will be a challenge,” says Cook. He would like to see these challenges addressed in the ministry’s second iteration of its defense industrial strategy.
Pat Shanahan was managing commercial aircraft programs for the Boeing Co. before he turned 40. In recent years, he led turnarounds of Boeing’s military helicopter and missile defense businesses. Now, the brusque 45-year-old is facing what could be his biggest test yet: steering the development of Boeing’s high-profile 787 commercial transport back on course.
Sydney Airport has begun a $500-million upgrade to its 30,000-sq.-meter international terminal, a project that will add 7,300 sq. meters to the departure level, including new retail, food and beverage outlets and a waiting area. The arrivals baggage area also will be upgraded to accommodate passenger flows associated with the introduction of the Airbus A380. The airport handled 10 million international passengers last fiscal year and expects to accommodate twice as many by 2024.
Regarding David C. Harding’s question about why the C-17 isn’t being used commercially (AW&ST Sept. 17, p. 11), it’s designed for heavy military cargo so is structurally uneconomical for commercial operations.
Rover drivers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory may be on the job into 2009 under the fifth extension of Mars Exploration Rover operations. Initially set for 90-day service lives, the rovers Spirit and Opportunity have weathered mechanical difficulties and a major dust storm (AW&ST Sept. 3, p. 42) to continue plugging away on opposite sides of the Red Planet since landing January 2004.
Alenia Aeronavali has delivered an ATR 72 freighter to Swiss operator Farnair. The airplane was reconfigured to accept a large cargo door (71 X 116 in.) during modifications at the company’s Naples-Capodichino facility. Farnair, a feeder airline for cargo integrators and postal services, is operating six ATR freighters, three of which are equipped with the large door. The conversion is certified by the European Aviation Safety Agency and the FAA.
Everybody is unhappy when the military services omit programs they know they need from their budgets, relying on Congress to restore funds. Another sore point: financing the Iraq and Afghanistan wars through supplemental appropriations, which needn’t go before the armed services committees, instead of regular spending bills. But you can’t expect the services or the administration to stop doing what works so well.
This mosaic satellite image of the Arctic ice north of Canada, collected Sept. 15-16 by Modis on NASA’s Terra Earth-observation satellite, shows the retreat of the ice at summer’s end from the 1979-2000 median (gray line) to 2005 (light-blue line) to this year (dark-blue line). Relatively clear mid-September skies over the Arctic made the open waterway to the north of the 2007 ice minimum visible here with unusual clarity.
Wanda M. Austin, senior vice president of The Aerospace Corp.’s National Systems Group and the organization’s incoming president/CEO, has been inducted into the Hall of Fame of Women in Technology International. The other inductees are: Lucy Sanders, CEO/cofounder of the National Center for Women and Information Technology; Helen Greiner, cofounder/chairman of iRobot Corp.; and Padmasree Warrior, executive vice president/chief technology officer of Motorola Inc.
The Netherlands will pay around €100 million ($141 million) for its first F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The aircraft will be used in the Operational Test & Evaluation (OT&E) mode. The preliminary order for the first F-35 is due before year-end. The binding contract for the first aircraft is to be signed in 2009. A second OT&E aircraft is to be ordered one year later. The OT&E aircraft are standard production fighters equipped with test instrumentation.
An air traffic management contract from the FAA stands to give Thales a boost in its quest to evolve from a niche player to a key supplier in the U.S. aerospace and defense market. The Thales contract for part of the FAA’s planned Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast system was awarded by ITT on Oct. 1. This followed ITT’s selection in August as ADS-B ground-segment supplier. The ITT team includes AT&T and ACSS, in which Thales has a 30% stake (AW&ST Sept. 10, p. 22).
Les Janka (see photo) has been named vice president-Saudi Arabian operations for the Raytheon Co. ’s Texas-based Network Centric Systems. He was executive vice president of Washington-based Neill and Co. and is a former deputy assistant Defense secretary for Near Eastern, African and South Asian affairs.
Israel’s international visitor traffic is hitting record levels this year, but the country’s major airline, El Al, is seeing its dominance in this booming market erode as its giant European and U.S. rivals increase their foothold. El Al Chairman Israel Borovich admits the airline’s market share at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport has been dropping steadily for the last few years. However, Borovich says he is not overly worried about passenger share as long as El Al’s financial health keeps improving.
The box entitled “On the Cover” at the bottom of last week’s Table of Contents (AW&ST Oct. 15, p. 4) contained a description of the wrong image. The correct text is: Pratt & Whitney’s first geared turbofan ground demonstrator is assembled in the company’s Middletown, Conn., facility in preparation for the start of crucial tests in Florida later this year. Confidence in the future of the concept, in which Pratt has so far invested more than $1 billion, received a big boost early in October when Mitsubishi selected the GTF for its new regional jet.
In 1960, I was Grumman’s flight test project engineer for structural flight testing of the Navy’s new W2F airborne early warning carrier-based aircraft. That aircraft has been in production since 1961. Renamed the E-2C early on, the latest version—the E-2D—is expected to be in production until 2016. That has to be a record for a production military aircraft.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s voice-activated controls are nearing reality. It will be the first U.S. fighter with a speech-recognition system that can respond to spoken commands to control various subsystems such as communications and navigation. It’s designed to simplify a pilot’s workload and increase efficiency by allowing more concentration on flying the aircraft and maintaining combat awareness. Researchers have pinpointed problem phrases and recommended alternatives that are more easily recognized.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) plans to open a new campus in Berlin this month. It will offer master of aeronautical science and other degree programs via the university’s online learning program. ERAU has more than 130 degree programs in the U.S., Canada, Europe and the Middle East.
Wolfram Pinhammer (see photo) has become Berlin-based manager of European sales and marketing for Air Routing International of Houston. He was commercial director of Goldair Handling Greece.
