The flat passenger traffic trends of U.S. airlines are prompting a degree of caution over the carriers' 1996 prospects. Traffic for the industry majors last year went from boom to nearly bust. Business travel is down slightly. Passenger enplanements actually declined in each month of the last six, compared to the period last year. Most carriers responded by constraining capacity and significantly increasing ticket prices.
JAMES ROBINSON HAS BEEN named president of Learjet, succeeding Brian E. Barents, who resigned. Barents will stay at the Wichita-based business jet manufacturer through February to assist in the transition. Robinson was Learjet's executive vice president of operations and previously served as president of AlliedSignal Engines in Phoenix.
The U.S. General Accounting Office has moved the deadline to Feb. 5 from Jan. 30 for ruling on Textron/Cessna Corp.'s protest over the award of the $7-billion contract for 711 Air Force/Navy primary training aircraft to Raytheon Aircraft Co.'s Beech Mk. 2. Heavy January snows in Washington and subsequent government furloughs have slowed paperwork, GAO officials said, and even with the extension they will just barely make the statutory deadline.
Nikolai Feodorovich Zobov, deputy chairman of the Russian Commission for Air Traffic Services and Navigation (Rosaeronavigatsiya) When introduced to the Future Air Navigation System (FANS) concept, developed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Nikolai Zobov quickly developed a keen interest in the potential savings that would be possible while implementing new air navigation routes over the Russian Far East.
Mary Fackler Schiavo, inspector general of the U.S. Transportation Dept. Unlike her predecessors, Mary Fackler Schiavo has made aviation safety issues the chief focus of her tenure as inspector general (IG). She has served in that capacity for five years and has held the title longer than any previous IG.
U.S. AND THAI OFFICIALS have signed a new air services agreement that grants Thai Airways International access to eight U.S. cities and code-sharing rights to 10 cities. It ends passenger volume restrictions and increases fifth-freedom rights for U.S. carriers. The new accord will allow Thai Airways to exercise a code-sharing pact it holds with United Airlines.
Ground tests at Dryden Flight Research Center have been completed in preparation for first flight of the F-15 advanced controls technology for integrated vehicles (Active) aircraft with two new Pratt&Whitney axisymmetric thrust-vectoring nozzles. Donald H. Gatlin, program manager for Active at Dryden, said ``hot loads'' tests using a horizontal thrust stand at Edwards AFB, Calif., were successfully completed late last year. First flight is scheduled to be conducted early next month.
Robert Castle and Viktor Dmitriyevich Blagov, the U.S. and Russian flight controllers, respectively, on behalf of the teams in Houston and Moscow that orchestrated the first docking of the shuttle Atlantis and the Mir space station in July. Also to shuttle Mission 71 commander Robert L. (Hoot) Gibson and Mir 18 commander Vladimir Nikolayevich Dezhurov and their crews for making it happen. The flight control teams overcame cultural and language barriers and the bureaucractic inertia of the U.S.
DEATHS FROM ACCIDENTS involving U.S. scheduled airlines declined last year to 175 persons from 264 in 1994, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. Most of the fatalities--160--involved the crash of an American Airlines Boeing 757 in Colombia in December. The remaining 15 died when a U.S. cargo aircraft went off a runway in Guatemala (six) and in two accidents of commuters or regional carriers (nine).
A mid-year production go-ahead for the Eurofighter 2000 is back on track now that the U.K. and Germany have settled a lingering dispute concerning industry workshares on the four-nation program.
THE UNFUNDED COST OF THE BOSNIA DEPLOYMENT will be $1.9 billion. Perry says about $1 billion will simply be reprogrammed, a budget bonanza of lower than expected inflation. Another $600 million would involve a supplemental request to shift money from the coffers of the National Reconnaissance Office, which has squirreled away masses of unused funds. Perry will delay identifying the final $300 million ``for a few months,'' but at least some is expected to come from long-lead funding for building more B-2s.
AS PART OF A FLEET RESTRUCTURING PLAN, Thai Airways International says it will sell six General Electric-powered Boeing 747-200s to Langdon Asset Management for conversion by Atlas Air Inc. into freighters. The aircraft are valued at $123 million and will be released by Thai through 1997. The airline has a fleet of 69 aircraft of decidedly mixed airframe and engine types. It has begun acquiring Airbus Industrie A330-300s and is due to receive two more along with four 747-400s and six 777s during the next two years.
Adying organ donor lies in the hospital. A surgical team hovers nearby, waiting impatiently to extract the liver. At a nearby airport, the crew of a ``Lifewatch'' Learjet anxiously waits to speed the organ to a dying child. When the ambulance finally arrives, the driver can't believe his ears: ``Sorry, we can't take off. The FAA says we have to rest for awhile.''
George A. Strutz, Jr., has been named to the board of directors of the Edo Corp., College Point, N.Y. He is president/chief executive officer of the Clopay Corp.
Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems inspected this 9.5-ft., composite horizontal stabilizer pivot shaft for the F-22 fighter by linking a Catia design data file with the LK UT90 Ultrasonic Scanning System.
LOCKHEED MARTIN IS PLANNING a celebration at the Air&Space Museum in Washington on Feb. 5 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Titan booster. The Air Force awarded the first Titan contract to the old Glenn L. Martin Co. in December, 1955. Other milestones that will be commemorated at the event will be the first manned Gemini launch of a Titan 2 in 1965, the launch of two Mars Viking landers on Titan 3s in 1975 and the initiation of the Titan 4 program in 1985.
U.S. Navy Adm. Leighton Smith, NATO Southern Command chief, and Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael Ryan, commander of Allied Air Forces in Southern Europe, for coordinating and leading highly efficient NATO air strikes in Bosnia in August and September. They helped to bring the warring parties in the Balkans to the peace table at Dayton, Ohio. Also, to the Italian air force/army team at multiple bases in Italy who provided critical support and unwavering hospitality to the large NATO air force.
The U.S. Army is planning to build sophisticated attack and reconnaissance helicopters at the expense of its utility and cargo fleets, the Congressional Budget Office contends. A new CBO report offers four alternative investment plans that would cost $500-800 million more than the currently predicted $4 billion for helicopter modernization through 2000, but produce savings of $8-18 billion by 2030. One plan would cut in half purchases of the low-observable RAH-66 scout/attack helicopter, while the other three call for its cancellation.
DASSAULT AVIATION HAS DECIDED to withdraw from the bidding for the British Royal Air Force's Replacement Maritime Patrol Aircraft (RMPA) program. The company, which offered the Atlantic 3, said that after discussions with British defense officials it recognized the aircraft would not fully meet ``specific requirements and constraints.'' The move leaves three competitors for the RMPA contract--British Aerospace with refurbished Nimrods, Lockheed Martin with new-production P-3 Orion 2000s and Loral with an offer to refurbish excess U.S. P-3A/Bs.
Negotiators for Delta Air Lines and its pilots' union are to meet under the guidance of federal mediators this week to try to revive their stalled effort to forge a flexible, lower cost contract for flight crews. The U.S. National Mediation Board directed officials of the company and the Air Line Pilots Assn. to meet in Washington through the early part of this week. That followed discussions Jan. 22-23 among board representatives and carrier and union officials on means of breaking the stalemate in contract negotiations.
A COCKROACH-LIKE ROBOT IS BEING BUILT by a multidisciplinary team at the University of Illinois' Urbana-Champaign campus. Successful adaptation of the variable, decentralized neurological control and locomotion system used by the cockroach would allow civil and military robots to switch from regular to irregular terrain without slowing or unbalancing, according to Narendra Ahuja, professor of electrical and computer engineering. Such robots also should be able to scale terrain well above their own height, he said.
Robert E. Manigold, Jr., has been named vice president-human resources and administration of Arinc, Annapolis, Md. He was senior director of human resources.
