George Cooper has been appointed vice president-aircraft communications for Geneva-based SITA. He succeeds Elizabeth Young, who has retired. Cooper was CEO of TomorrowFirst and had been director of U.K., African and European business for British Airways.
Marc Schonckert has been appointed director of public relations for Luxembourg-based Cargolux Airlines International. He was manager of corporate communications at Arbed.
Keith H. Smith has become senior manager for international trade and tax policy in the Washington office of the United Technologies Corp. He was director of the Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs of the U.S. International Trade Administration.
The controller on duty at the time of the July 1 midair collision over southern Germany has acknowledged partial blame for the crash, as German investigators continue to examine flight and cockpit voice recorder data to establish the sequence of events. The controller told Swiss media that at the time of the crash he was ``part of a network of people, computers, monitoring and transmission equipment as well as regulations.
Gulfstream Aerospace recently rolled out the first production Gulfstream V-SP from its Savannah, Ga., facilities. The airplane, serial No. 5001, was painted in a special scheme reflecting Gulfstream's participation as a sponsor for the First Flight Centennial celebration planned for December. The GV-SP is a derivation of the Gulfstream V long-range business jet, with a range of 6,750 naut. mi., a cruising speed of Mach 0.80 and a maximum operating altitude of 51,000 ft. It is fitted with the Gulfstream Enhanced Vision System as standard equipment.
SFK Aerospace was created by the combining of five businesses: Sarma, Saint-Vallier, France; Ampep, Avon, England; MRC Bearings, Jamestown, N.Y.; SKF Avio, Villa Perosa, Italy; and Chicago Rawhide Americas, Elgin, Ill. As a whole, the group does business with General Electric, Pratt & Whitney, Snecma, Boeing, Airbus and others. The new company has more than 2,000 employees, and eight industrial sites and seven repair stations worldwide.
The erratic flight path in bad weather conditions of a Swiss International Air Lines' Saab 2000 twin turboprop, which ended in a crash landing at a former military air base, is raising questions about the newly formed carrier's operating procedures. None of the 20 crewmembers and passengers were injured, but the aircraft suffered severe damage. The BFU German accident investigation office has formed a team to determine the causes of the July 10 mishap. The Saab 2000, operating the Basel-Hamburg route as Flight 850, departed at 5:55 p.m.
Howard Kress has been named vice president-consumer e-commerce for Atlanta-based Worldspan's Worldwide Travel Distribution Group. He was vice president-sales of Atinera Americas.
The spat between BAE Systems and the British Defense Ministry over procurement strategy continued last week with each side adding to the debate. Defense ministers criticized the BAE position as ``shortsighted,'' while BAE maintained the procurement system is flawed, and places too much of development risk costs on industry. BAE CEO Mike Turner raised concern over the ministry's adherence to competition-driven procurement, with Prime Ministry Tony Blair at a meeting in June.
The company's Nichols Airborne Div. is offering a factory overhaul program for fuel pumps. As an original equipment manufacturer, the company says it overhauls the fuel pumps using the same tooling, test equipment and procedures as on new-production fuel pumps. The ``wet'' motor, installed new in all factory overhauled pumps, maintains explosion-proof design integrity and features an advanced magnetic system for long service life. A six-month warranty for overhauls and one-year warranty for factory rebuilts are offered.
John Rattray has been appointed director of sales and marketing for the Wicat Systems Div. of Faros, Lindon, Utah. He held the same position at CAE Inc.
Harris Corp. has won the FAA Telecommunications Infrastructure (FTI) contract to modernize, operate and manage the system used for communications between air traffic controllers and pilots, as well as for weather data. The Harris-led team will replace the FAA-owned multiplexing and switching networks and telecommunications services currently leased from multiple providers. FTI is to provide a highly secure, reliable network linking more than 5,000 sites.
Peter Himmelberger and Claude M. DeBruhl have been appointed senior vice presidents for technology and human resources, respectively, for DynCorp Systems and Solutions, Reston, Va.
As corporate misdeeds have mounted in the U.S. in recent months, all of the major aerospace/defense players have been able to remain above the fray. Until recently, that is. The watchdog Center for Financial Research and Analysis has accused L-3 Communications Corp. of questionable accounting practices in a wide range of areas, many of them relating to the treatment of mergers and acquisitions. Some leading stock analysts who have followed the company since its inception in 1997 and examined CFRA's charges dispute them.
The Taiwan Aviation Safety Council said it is willing to consider establishing a mechanism to represent families of victims of the 206 passengers and 19 crewmembers killed in the May 25 crash of China Airlines Flight 611, but the carrier denies media reports that it is being pressured to do so. Spokeswoman Tracy Jen acknowledged that victims' families have sought such a representative, but she insisted that the TASC has turned them down.
To increase the survivability of strike packages against increasingly capable surface-to-air missile batteries, Raytheon engineers want to take lessons learned from air-to-air combat and apply them to the lightning-paced contest of destroying air defenses. ``The air-to-air model is perfect,'' said Raytheon's Russell Haas, because it's an area where the U.S. military has successfully tied together standoff sensors, fighters, and weapons to attack before an enemy can.
New Zealand's Airline Pilots Assn. has called off a two-day strike that threatened to ground Air New Zealand last week and agreed to collective bargaining with the carrier's management. The two sides are at odds over how pilots will be used to staff flights of Air New Zealand's subsidiary carriers such as Freedom Air, and reduced status that senior pilots would suffer as a result. Meanwhile, Australia's securities commission has dropped an investigation of the carrier launched earlier this year over its handling of the collapse of its former subsidiary, Ansett.
Sean O'Keefe's study-and-learn approach to NASA policy is starting to chafe on Capitol Hill. Democrats on the House Science Committee pressed him hard last week on issues ranging from potential cuts at agency field centers to the alleged mistreatment of African-American women in the astronaut corps. But there were no definitive answers from the genial NASA Administrator.
U.S. military depot organizations and their civilian contractors continue to seek software solutions for repair and overhaul activities. One example is GE Aircraft Engines' in support of its contract with Navy's Government Industry Logistics Support (GILS) program for the F414-powered F/A-18. After signing a contract last year to use IFS software at more than 60 of its facilities worldwide, GE and IFS developed modules for purchasing, inventory, customer and work orders and a configuration management application--Spectra.
The United Arab Emirates has requested the upgrade of 30 AH-64A Apache helicopters to D models in a deal that could be worth about $1.5 billion, including some additional equipment and services. Primary contractors would include Boeing, Lockheed Martin and General Electric, according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. The helicopter upgrade would improve the UAE's antiarmor day/night missile capability and close air support for its military ground forces.
Helen Wood has been appointed chair of the National Science and Technology Council's Subcommittee on Natural Disaster Reduction. She is director of satellite data processing and distribution for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminstration.
Dale Klamer has been named vice president/general manager of the San Diego division of Alphatech Inc., Burlington, Mass. He was vice president/corporate technical director for Orincon.
EADS Co-CEO Philippe Camus has been reelected president of the Gifas French aerospace industries association for a second two-year term. Charles Edelstenne was elected vice president. He is chairman/CEO of Dassault Aviation. Francois Lureau, executive vice president of Thales, has been elected president of Gifas' components arm.
The European Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) has approved a number of pilot training programs offered by FlightSafety International. These include license skill tests and proficiency checks for the Dassault Aviation Falcon 50/50EX, 900/900EX and the Falcon 2000 administered at the company's learning centers in Teterboro, N.J., and at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. The JAA also approved programs for the Bombardier Challenger 600/601 series and the Challenger 604 at facilities in Montreal; Tucson, Ariz.; Houston, and Wilmington, Del.
