The U.S. Transportation Dept. has created a position of chief operating officer for the Transportation Security Administration and filled it with former Coast Guard Commandant Adm. James M. Loy, who retired May 30 after 38 years of service. Loy took the lead role at the Coast Guard in May 1998 and headed two high-profile aviation efforts during his tenure: the search-and-rescue operations for the EgyptAir Flight 990 and Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crashes. Loy will report directly to TSA Director John Magaw.
Pilots for Ireland's national airline AerLingus staged a 24-hr. strike May 30, forcing cancellation of nearly all flights that day and leading to a shutdown of the carrier during the weekend. The pilots were protesting new work schedules devised to help the airline stem heavy financial losses in the wake of the economic downturn and the terrorist attacks against the U.S. last September, which further crippled transatlantic traffic.
Northrop Grumman has completed first flight of its final prototype RQ-8A Fire Scout unmanned aircraft. Production of the initial batch of UAVs is proceeding, although the Navy has abandoned plans to field the system.
Chicago-based Boeing Co. eliminated about 1,350 more jobs in the Puget Sound, Wash., area. Nationwide, about 1,700 Boeing workers were laid off last week as the company's push to trim 25,000-30,000 jobs--mostly by midyear--continued, a company spokesman said. About 21,300 workers have lost jobs company-wide since Sept. 11. Approximately 13,350 positions were in the Seattle area.
John M. Klineberg, former NASA official, president of Space Systems/Loral and vice president of parent company Loral Space & Communications, has been named to the board of directors of Swales Aerospace, Beltsville, Md.
CFM International expects its CFM56-3 core upgrade package to be certified later this month, and to ship the first kits that will allow customers to add the improvements to their fleets in early July. CFM56-3 improvements are targeted at turbomachinery upgrades that decrease fuel burn by about 1.1% and lower engine operating temperatures by about 15C, boosting time-on-wing (AW&ST Mar. 25, p. 61). In total, the upgrades, which will cost about $1.1 million per engine, should decrease powerplant cost of ownership by about 30%, GE officials said.
Scientists already are modifying Mars exploration plans to accommodate the discovery of vast quantities of water ice just beneath the planet's surface, with new kinds of data on the long-suspected finding possible as early as next year. NASA, which has built its Mars-exploration program on a ``follow-the-water'' strategy aimed at finding life or evidence of it, will shape its missions in the remainder of this decade and beyond against the knowledge that polar soils are as much as half water ice down to a depth of at least a meter.
Dennis Markert has been appointed manager of sales and service for North America airline accounts for Teledyne Controls of Los Angeles. He was a sales and marketing executive for General Dynamics in Redmond, Wash.
An attempt by U.S. airlines to create a ``risk retention group''--an airline-owned provider of war-risk insurance--is intended to reduce carriers' costs and give the FAA an eventual exit from the reinsurance business it has been in since September 2001. Sources say the agency is unhappy with its role and will insist that airlines reduce their dependence on the government as soon as this month.
Cessna Aircraft Co. executives said at the European Business Aviation Assn. Convention and Exhibit in Geneva last week that the company plans to introduce at least one new Citation model and perhaps another business aircraft in a new market niche, at the National Business Aviation Assn. convention in Orlando, Fla., in September.
There is probably not a more difficult job within the Washington Beltway than designing and implementing a balanced and effective response in aviation security to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. And as we have seen, while the field of homeland security and defense encompasses broader issues, aviation is a large and visible sector of the effort. On one side, you must provide airline crews and travelers an assured means of safe passage within the worldwide aviation network.
Sino-Swearingen has again pushed back FAA certification of its SJ30-2 light jet, which had been scheduled for the end of this year. The one-year delay was attributed to the decision last year to shift production of the wings and fuselages to Swearingen's facility in West Virginia. The company said it has firm orders for 154 of the Williams Rolls FJ44-powered aircraft.
Investigators of last week's top-of-climb disintegration of a China Airlines Boeing 747-209B are engaged in a month-long effort to retrieve 80% of the wreckage. Major pieces of the airplane and the black boxes were located last week in the Taiwan Strait but not immediately recovered because of strong currents and high seas. At least 92 bodies had been found in the water by late last week, and the 209 passengers and 16 crew are all presumed dead.
Piaggio said it has sold five P.180 Avanti advanced turboprops to an undisclosed British operator. The company expects to deliver 18 aircraft this year. Fifty P.180s are in service, and production is expected to nearly double by 2004. Officials said a stretched version could be announced at the National Business Aviation Assn. Convention in September.
The space shuttle Endeavour crew is scheduled to start cargo transfer and robotic arm upgrade work at the International Space Station this week, pending a safe liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center. The launch was scheduled for May 30 but was scrubbed due to thunderstorms. A second launch attempt was set for May 31, but weather remained an issue.
Senate floor action on a $32.1-billion supplemental spending bill is scheduled this week, and final congressional passage is assured despite a partisan divide over raising the national debt ceiling in the middle of an election year. The Senate's version of the Fiscal 2002 supplemental exceeds the President's $28.4-billion request, largely because he sought about $5.3 billion for homeland security, while the Senate Appropriations Committee recommended $8.4 billion.
Among the first images released from France's new Spot 5 Earth remote-sensing satellite was this 2.5-meter (8.2-ft.) resolution extract view of central Paris collected on May 16. The satellite was launched May 4 by Spot Image Corp. (AW&ST May 13, p. 20; May 20, p. 62). They recently signed a partnership agreement giving Alberta-based Iunctus Geomatics Corp. exclusive distribution rights for Spot products in Canada, similar to deals with the U.S. and Japan.
Boeing has ordered a series of full mission trainers, weapons tactics trainers and canopy trainers designed to support training of F-22 pilots and mechanics. The simulators will be built by the Link Simulation and Training division of L-3 Communications under a contract worth $29.9 million.
Northrop Grumman's biggest hiring challenge for 2002 isn't the Joint Strike Fighter. It's actually in the Northrop Grumman Information Technology business, which is expected to hire 4,000 people this year. That follows 2001 when 4,000 new hires also joined. Jason Gropper is one of the new breed of IT professionals that Northrop Grumman is seeking. He wasn't lured by the IT industry or fast-wealth offers of stock options.
Elisra has received a $14-million contract from the Israel Air Force to put self-protection equipment on AH-64 Apache attack helicopters. The project includes radar and laser warning systems, a passive infrared missile warning and active countermeasures, along with chaff and flare. There is an option for a second phase, also valued at about $14 million.
The high cost of terrorism insurance is putting aviation jobs and economic growth at risk, and a repetition of Sept. 11 would expose tremendous gaps in coverage, a congressional analysis warns. Total insured damages from the synchronized airborne assaults on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon are projected at $40-70 billion, the single largest economic loss in U.S. history, according to the congressional Joint Economic Committee (JEC). The unprecedented cost has resulted in soaring premiums as well as dramatic falloffs in coverage.
Boeing's recent agreement to sell F-15s to South Korea has raised concerns across the board. The company stresses that the arrangement saves 1,000 jobs on the St. Louis assembly line for four more years beyond 2004--when USAF's current order will be completed--to 2008. The $4.2-billion sale of 40 Eagle fighters involved Boeing's military division promising $3.6 billion in ``industrial offset,'' creating at least 30,000 jobs in South Korea. Final assembly would be done in St. Louis.
Arnold Friedman has been named senior vice president-worldwide marketing and sales of Space Systems/Loral, Palo Alto, Calif. He succeeds Daniel E. Collins, who has retired. Friedman was president of ProntoCast Services.
