Peter Hokanson has been promoted to vice president/chief financial officer from controller of Garrett Aviation Services of Phoenix. He succeeds Dale Ziegler, who will remain a vice president. Gary L. Miller has been appointed regional sales manager of The Jet Center, Garrett's facility in Van Nuys, Calif. He was manager of service center marketing for the Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. in Long Beach, Calif.
Richard H. Frost, experimental test pilot, professional engineer, inventor and company founder Dick Frost is founder and chairman of Frost Engineering Development Corp., Englewood, Colo., a company known for designing and developing aircrew safety equipment, cargo parachute release assemblies and airdrop extraction systems. He personally holds more than 30 patents for crew life-support and emergency escape equipment, rocket propulsion and aircraft radio-control systems, and mechanical remote controls.
Alphonse J. Lemanski (see photo), asssociate director of the National Center for Advanced Drivetrain Technologies at Pennsylvania State University's Applied Research Laboratory, has been named project director for a rotorcraft industry coalition evaluation of advanced rotorcraft gear materials.
Bombardier Aerospace is planning major expansion at its service and completion center here with an eye toward winning bids for 80% of upcoming completion business on its new Global Express business jet. Strong Latin American commerce continues due to the Tucson facility's proximity to Mexico and South America. International business contributes about 30% of revenues despite the weak value of the Mexican peso against the dollar. The addition of major maintenance capability for the Canadair Regional Jet and de Havilland Dash 8 transports is under study.
Frank Arciuolo has been named executive vice president of Airline Automation Inc., The Plains, Va. He was managing director of Essential Technologies Inc. Richard B. Jones has been appointed vice president-finance/chief financial officer and Michael Northwood vice president/director of European operations of the Sherpa Corp., San Jose, Calif. Jones was corporate controller.
WORKING SPACE INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS have a new avenue for obtaining post-graduate education in specialized topics such as payload integration, space transportation, spacecraft dynamics and space systems design. More than 50 courses and seminars will be offered under a new teaming agreement between the U.S. Space Foundation and Launchspace Inc. A catalog of courses will be distributed three times annually. Details are available on the Internet at http://www.launchspace.com or by calling 800-691-4000.
Paul Hansen of AlliedSignal for his work in Moscow to lead a U.S.-Russian joint venture to develop a fully integrated suite of avionics with liquid crystal displays and a flight management system (FMS). The avionics systems were designed by AlliedSignal and National Institute of Aircraft Equipment engineers in a joint venture named ARIA, for use on Russian-made aircraft. The FMS displays text messages in Russian and English.
SHOUTING MATCHES BROKE OUT IN THE PENTAGON last week as Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office (DARO) officials finally realized that a system to broadcast real-time intelligence to allies in Bosnia won't be ready in time. Despite warnings within the reconnaissance community that the Global Broadcasting System (GBS) would not be deployable for at least two months, senior DARO officials seemed to be surprised. The delay triggered an angry exchange between representatives of DARO and the major research, support and intelligence agencies.
Robert Graham has been named president of the global telecommunications division of American Global Holdings Corp., Bethesda, Md. He was vice president-marketing of Racal Communications.
Alvin Seiff, John Casani and William O'Neil of the Galileo probe mission The Galileo probe's mission was the most difficult part of the Galileo project and it went off very well. Ideas about Jupiter's structure, based on little data and a lot of theorizing, will give way to a better grounded understanding now that Galileo has gotten the goods. This did not come easily. Galileo could have been derailed at a number of points, both politically and technically. But people have worked hard to keep it on track.
Neil Saldin (see photo) has been named president of O'Gara Satellite Networks, Deer Park, N.Y. He also is president of OGM Communications, a joint venture between O'Gara and Morsviazsputnik.
The U.S. Air Force is flying four F-16s recently modified with night vision goggle-compatible cockpits and exterior strip lighting to develop and validate tactics associated with the use of NVGs for close air support. The service plans eventually to convert 250 Block 40 F-16s to this ``Night Falcon'' configuration as part of a program aimed at enhancing the fleet's CAS capabilities.
Murray Bullis has been appointed director of standards of Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International. He was vice president-research and development of the Siltec Corp.
PENTAGON ACQUISITION CHIEF PAUL KAMINSKI'S closely held recommendations on theater and national missile defenses are leaking out. Within the theater missile defense category, THAAD would be shaved only slightly while Navy Upper Tier would get additional funding, congressional aides say. Defense Secretary William Perry had already announced there would be fewer systems in Fiscal 1997. So that would appear to leave MEADS/Corps SAM, space-based laser, the Israeli Arrow and theater support programs on the chopping block.
Air force chief Siripong Thongyai has been named chairman of Thai Airways International. He had been acting chairman, succeeding Amaret Sila-on, who resigned.
NEXT-GENERATION RECONNAISSANCE may be glimpsed soon in Bosnia with establishment of a link between battle-tested E-8 Joint-STARS wide-area surveillance aircraft and the Predator unmanned aerial vehicle. UAV maker General Atomics and Motorola, the Joint-STARS long-range radar contractor, are busy mapping out how to take live data from the Predator's ground station and link it to a Joint-STARS ground station for quick rebroadcast to aircraft and intelligence centers. Eventually, officials want to send the Predator's video via satellite directly to Joint-STARS.
THE STATE OF WASHINGTON FORMALLY HAS ESTABLISHED its intrastate ``Washington Aerospace Alliance'' trade network. The Seattle-based nonprofit organization has raised $85,000 in start-up support from state, Defense Dept. and Commerce Dept. sources. The primary goal is to network the more than 1,000 aerospace companies in the state and help them find new domestic and international markets. Pooled purchases of health insurance and raw materials are under study to help lower costs. The alliance mirrors Oregon's successful, aggressive aerospace association.
Nowhere are the hopes higher for reducing the exorbitant costs of space transportation than in the X-33 effort. This single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) demonstrator aims for nothing less than a revolution--not technologically, but economically. Not only will the X-33 try to show that a reusable launch vehicle (RLV) could cut the cost of placing a pound of payload in orbit by 90%, this project is also leading to an operational RLV that would be entirely privately financed.
Josefina M. Essex has been appointed vice president-finance/chief financial officer and Guy A. Nachtomi vice president-operations of Tower Air. Essex was contoller and succeeds C.V. Meserole, 3rd, who has resigned. Nick Lacey has been named vice president-training and publications and director of operations.
MORE THAN 10,500 JOBS HAVE BEEN SAVED or generated nationwide by technology transfer associated with NASA's southeastern U.S. operations. The finding is based on a survey of 3,000 requests by companies asking NASA for technical assistance in resolving problems since 1993. NASA's Southeastern Technology Transfer Alliance includes the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Stennis Space Center at Bay St. Louis, Miss., and NASA's Southern Technology Applications Center in Alachua, Fla.
