Boeing has appointed Randy Tinseth, a 26-year veteran of its sales and product support programs, as vice president for marketing. Tinseth succeeds longtime forecaster Randy Baseler, who has been instrumental in promoting Boeing's reading of passenger preferences as favoring point-to-point services that bypass hub airports. That strategy has been especially prominent in the company's successful promotion of its twin-aisle 777s and 787s for long-haul services for routes serving 200-365 passengers. Baseler retired on Apr. 30.
Israel's self-examination of flawed operations during the "Second Lebanon War" last summer has specifically faulted the three top leaders in the military chain of command. But senior Israeli officers, speaking unofficially to Aviation Week & Space Technology, say there's a deeper story of professional jealousy and bureaucratic betrayal.
Speed gets the job done at UPS's Worldport at Louisville (Ky.) International Airport. The latest expansion, when completed in 2010, will allow the sorting of letters, packages and shipments at the rate of 487,000 per hour. UPS is a key player in the $100-billion-a-year global express and airfreight business, the focus of a special report starting on p. 44. Articles deal with evolving fleet of new and converted aircraft, growth patterns across the world, and issues surrounding fuel prices and security. UPS Creative Media photo.
Raytheon CEO William H. Swanson lures young people into engineering with visions of leaving engineering for management positions! Apparently engineering in itself is a less-than-desirable profession (AW&ST Feb. 5, p. 47). If Swanson could promise potential engineers that the best of them will be paid as well as the best of management, Raytheon might get some permanent new engineers that will become as good as those being lost.
It was encouraging to read that Japan wants the F-22 to compete for their F-X fighter program (AW&ST Apr. 23, p. 20) and if the U.S. is serious about defending its Pacific allies and keeping China and North Korea at bay it should allow the F-22 entry.
Floyd W. Washburn has been appointed vice president-programs and new business for the Mooney Airplane Co., Kerrville, Tex. He was program director for multi-mission aircraft for the Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., Savannah, Ga.
Two international trade groups are looking for partners to join their air cargo security task force to improve supply-chain security--and head off costly screening measures being considered by the U.S. Congress. When the International Air Transport Assn. (IATA) and the International Federation of Freight Forwarders Assn. (Fiata) announced in April that they were forming a Global Air Cargo Security Industry Task Force, IATA Director General and CEO Giovanni Bisignani called the current hodge-podge of air cargo security around the world "a costly mess."
After threatening euthanasia for the aging Hubble Space Telescope just a few years back, NASA now plans to keep its options open past the servicing mission scheduled in 2008 (AW&ST Apr. 30, p. 22). What a breath of fresh air! It suggests that the agency is thinking a lot straighter now than it did a generation ago, when it made a crucial flexibility-versus-policy decision as it developed the space shuttle.
Thales is redesigning its new Reco-NG airborne electro-optical reconnaissance system so that it can be integrated on smaller types of fighter aircraft such as Lockheed Martin's F-16. This would provide F-16 users with the option to acquire a multirole imagery intelligence capability, according to Thales. The system would include full day/night, long- and short-range reconnaissance plus real-time imagery downlink performance, combined with ground stations fully equipped for rapid imagery interpretation and intelligence exploitation.
Lee Atkinson, a specialist in radio-frequency communications systems in the Dulles, Va.-based Advanced Programs Group, is one of five Orbital Sciences Corp. employees to be named in its first group of Technical Fellows.
The Shanghai Public Security Bureau has ordered two Eurocopter EC135s and one EC155. Additionally, Eurocopter says production of NH90s in Australia is now underway, with the opening of the final assembly facility in Brisbane, where MRH90s will be built.
The National Transportation Safety Board is urging the FAA to specify that aircraft collision avoidance systems provide enhanced aural/visual warnings requiring pilot acknowledgment in the event of inflight system malfunction. The recommendation would apply to all aircraft required to have a TCAS, and for existing and future system designs. The safety board's May 2 proposal comes during the ongoing investigation of the Sept. 29, 2006, midair collision over the Brazilian jungle of a Gol Airlines Boeing 737-800 and an Embraer Legacy 600 business jet operated by ExcelAire.
Lockheed Martin has received a $324.5-million contract to provide the Air Force Research Laboratory with modular designs for automatic ground collision avoidance systems, automatic air collision avoidance systems and an integrated package of the two.
Russia's second largest airline, S7, has ordered 10 Boeing 737-800s and optioned another 10. Deliveries for the aircraft, which are to be used in the charter business, are to take place in 2010-11. The airline, which carried 4.9 million passengers last year, operates a fleet of Tupolev Tu-154s and Ilyushin Il-86s, Airbus A310s and A320s, and Boeing 737-400/500s. This is the first order for 737NGs from Russia.
The British Royal Air Force is reexamining its airlift capacity in a move that could yet see it attempt to acquire additional Boeing C-17 strategic transport aircraft. However, the option of more secondhand L-1011 Tristars has been discounted. A further three C-17s remain on the air force's wish list, suggests one British industry source. Funding will be a key issue in any acquisition. The RAF now operates four C-17s, with a fifth on order.
MEANWHILE, THE FAA IS CONSIDERING whether some Class 2 EFBs might be certified to display "own-ship" position of an aircraft on a runway or taxiway. This is only allowed now with the more expensive Class 3 hardware. Ken Crowhurst, managing director of Chicago-based navAero Inc., says most Class 2 EFBs on the market can show airport moving map and own-ship position; and if they are certified to do so, this would boost demand for the systems.
Airlines are seeking technology solutions from third-party providers to tackle rising credit card fees and to create new fare categories in an effort to generate revenues and cut costs. These two problems are now being tackled together. First, some card fees are not being paid by travel agencies, as in the past, because airlines are selling directly to the customer. And second, airlines are looking to non-traditional forms of marketing--via new technology--to differentiate fares and services.
Virgin Atlantic's selection of 15 Boeing 787-9s includes an unusual buyer's preference-a partnership with General Electric and Boeing to advance airline founder Richard Branson's environmental interests by testing biofuels for commercial jet applications. Details of the demonstration are still being worked out, but it will be a small one involving a single CF6-80C2B engine on one of Virgin Atlantic's 747-400s fueled by biofuel for about an hour on a non-revenue flight.
Hellenic Aerospace Industry will perform structural and electronic upgrades of USAF F-16s based in Europe. Performing the Common Configuration Implementation Program (CCIP) upgrade will cost $43 million, although operations could drive the value over $50 million.
With hindsight, it appears Rockwell International erred in donating the North American Aviation Trisonic Wind Tunnel (TWT) to UCLA with no concern for its future. Perhaps another university would have better appreciated the technical value of this outstanding aerodynamic facility and been less concerned with site value.
Singapore Technologies Aerospace Engineering has opened a single-bay hangar and broken ground on a second at its Seletar facility. The $10-million hangar will be used for heavy maintenance and modifications for general aviation, helicopters and narrowbodies as large as Boeing 757s. The second, featuring two bays, will cost $17.3 million and is set to open in 2008.
Robert E. Martens has been named senior vice president of US Airways/president of US Airways Express. He was president/CEO of American Eagle Airlines, chairman/CEO of Business Express Airlines and president/chief operating officer of Polar Air Cargo.
Thales says it has completed flight tests of an active electronically scanned array radar antenna on a Mirage 2000 testbed, preparing the way for integration trials on the new-generation Rafale fighter in the second quarter of this year. Following final development and production engineering, the AESA radar is scheduled to enter series production in late 2010 as part of a package of enhancements, dubbed Post-F3, agreed to late last year.
