John Ellington, who has been chief operating officer of World Airways, also will be president. Hollis Harris, who had been acting as president, will revert back to being chairman/CEO. Randy Martinez has been promoted to executive vice president-marketing and administration from chief information officer and Charles Addison to executive vice president-operations from senior director of strategic planning and contracts.
The Pentagon has informed Congress of a potential contract valued at up to $155 million--with all options exercised--to upgrade six more CH-47C Chinook cargo helicopters to a newer CH-47D configuration for the government of Egypt. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which oversees foreign military sales, approved the upgrade to the cargo helicopters, which are made by Boeing. Defense officials said the Egyptian armed forces would use the upgraded helicopters for troop transport and logistics support.
Travel agents, increasingly frozen out of ticket-sales commissions from the major airlines, will be checked for economic health by a nine-member commission headed by David Winstead, a former Maryland secretary of transportation. The commission, created by the April 2000 AIR-21 legislation, will have until Nov. 16 to report on whether the financial condition of travel agents is getting worse and, if so, how the decline is affecting consumers.
Israel has shed new light on a long-stalled program to upgrade its Shavit three-stage solid-fuel launcher and says it is close to agreement with Brazil on using its Alcantara space center to loft the new boosters. Aby Har-Even, director general of the Israel Space Agency (ISA), said here at the annual Euroconsult space transportation conference that Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) and its MLM Div. had committed to a revised company-financed upgrade program. The program would make it possible to launch payloads up to 800 kg. (1,760 lb.) into a 700-km.
Trading airline shares may be hazardous to your wealth. So says UBS Warburg analyst Samuel Buttrick in surveying the investment outlook for the commercial air transport sector.
President Bush is slated to meet in Rome this week with NATO allies and Russian President Vladimir Putin to create a NATO-Russia Council to pursue cooperative efforts to counter terrorism and prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Boasting in a speech before the German Bundestag that the U.S. and Russia were about to sign the most dramatic nuclear arms reduction pact in history (see p.
Amid the embarrassment of yet another software-induced air traffic failure Britain's Civil Aviation Authority and National Air Traffic Services have clashed over the latter's desire to raise cash by increasing its service charges. As it struggles to raise cash, NATS is also coming under pressure to compensate passsengers affected by air traffic failures. Low-cost carrier Ryanair has written to Stephen Byers, secretary of state for transport, asking that he make NATS provide compensation to consumers for flight cancellations.
South America's first communications satellite, a Boeing 376 called Brasilsat A1, has been retired 17 years after its launch on an Ariane 3 in 1985. Built under a subcontract to Canada's Spar Aerospace, the satellite was operated by Brazil's Embratel for the eight years covered by its guarantee, and then leased to PanAmSat. It was retired only after it ran out of station-keeping fuel.
Harry Saddock has become general manager of AAR Engine Component Services and Power Services, Wood Dale, Ill. He was vice president-operations of the Barnes Group.
Tangled in procedural squabbles, the House strove late last week to finish its work on the emergency supplemental appropriation. The House's $29.4-billion total would plug almost $16 billion extra into Pentagon coffers and provide a homeland security hike of $5.8 billion. The supplemental also includes $3.85 billion for the Transportation Security Administration--$550 million less than the White House request, because the TSA failed to justify it in a full and timely manner, majority Republicans charge.
Thai Airways International is continuing a route downsizing and reorganization that it started in March and April when it began providing new services to Australia, New Zealand and South Korea. It has suspended eight secondary and feeder domestic routes, shifting them to privately owned domestic carriers. One of those, PBAir, which briefly had to shut down operations after Sept. 11, is using a Fokker F-28-4000 for operations out of Bangkok to six destinations.
EADS' first-quarter revenues increased 2% to 6.4 billion euros ($5.7 billion), including $4.2 billion generated by Airbus. Net income before goodwill amortization and exceptionals increased 22% to $125 million. According to company officials, despite the airline industry's difficulties, this year's revenues are expected to be close to 2001's level and earnings before interest and taxes will be about $1 billion.
The U.S. Army plans to add a fifth flight test to Patriot PAC-3's initial operational test and evaluation. The additional mission is supposed to help make up for miscues in the first three tests.
Virgil R. Carter has been appointed executive director of the New York-based American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He succeeds David L. Belden, who has retired. Carter was executive director of the Project Management Institute, Newtown Square, Pa.
The percentage increase in revenue passenger miles for U.S. regional airlines during 2001 was reported incorrectly (AW&ST May 13, p. 44). The correct figure is 1.9%. The helicopter that crashed on Apr. 22 in northern Italy was identified incorrectly (AW&ST Apr. 29, p. 23). It was the first preproduction AB139.
The big drop came halfway through the 4-hr., four-leg cross-country flight. This Aviation Week & Space Technology pilot was riding in the jump seat of Falcon 2000 N204QS on Feb. 22 to observe the flight training program at NetJets, the world's largest provider of business jet timeshares and services, part of New Jersey-based Executive Jet Aviation Inc.
Evans & Sutherland and Lockheed Martin have resolved their differences over reciprocal breach of contract suits filed two years ago. The dispute started when Lockheed Martin terminated a $33.9-million subcontract with E&S, which was to provide simulator image generators to the U.K. Ministry of Defense. The settlement was reached when Lockheed Martin agreed to change the reason for the termination from ``for cause'' to ``for convenience.'' In dropping the lawsuits, the companies agreed to dismiss all claims and bear the cost of their own legal fees.
EDITED BY EDWARD H. PHILLIPSMICHAEL A. TAVERNADOUGLAS BARRIE ( PARIS LONDON)
The second annual European Business Aviation Assn. Convention and Exhibit opens this week in Geneva in the midst of great change in the business aviation industry. Some of the changes--the growth of fractional ownership, new aircraft and engine models entering the market--are discussed on this page and on pp. 51-58. Others will be raised at seminars during the event, which has been organized with the Washington-based National Business Aviation Assn. EBACE 2002 will also feature some 200 exhibits and more than 30 business aircraft.
Bombardier Inc. officials suspected a recent three-week strike at the company's Montreal-area plants would be costly, and now there's no question about it. For the first fiscal quarter ended Apr. 30, net income company-wide dropped 9%, to US$142.2 million, or about 10 U.S. cents per share, from a year ago. That was slightly less than the financial community had forecast. Slammed hardest was Bombardier's aerospace business unit, which suffered a 39% drop in net income, to about $124 million, compared with about $201.3 million for the year earlier.
Ken Short has been named vice president-marketing for Hibbit, Karlsson and Sorensen Inc., Pawtucket, R.I. He was vice president-technical marketing for PTC.
Emirates last week opened a check-in terminal at Dubai International airport dedicated to handling first- and business-class passengers. The facility, which the airline claims is the first of its kind in the world, is expected to handle 400,000 such passengers annually. The terminal offers six first- and 10 business-class check-in counters plus eight express check-in counters for passengers with carry-on baggage only. Travelers also will have separate access to immigration and security.
Titan Corp. has established an advanced military aircraft development organization modeled after Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works, and is testing a low-cost cruise missile using off-the-shelf technology. The goal is to field a weapon that can be manufactured in much less time than it takes to build the cruise missiles in the Defense Dept.'s current inventory, with each new missile costing less than $50,000 apiece, versus about $1 million for cruise missiles being produced by other companies.
USN Rear Adm. (ret.) Jeff Cook has been appointed director of independent research and development for the integrations sector of BAE Systems Information and Electronic Warfare Systems, Nashua, N.H. He was vice commander of the Naval Air Systems Command.
