MAERSK AIR HAS ORDERED six Boeing 737-500 transports in a deal worth $186 million. The Danish carrier placed options for an additional seven of the type. The aircraft, which will be delivered starting in early 1996, will replace Maersk's 50-seat, turboprop-powered Fokker 50s. Maersk also has 12 ``Next Generation'' 737-700s on order and option.
DOMESTIC DEREGULATION HAS NOT HURT Pakistan International Airlines' boardings, which are up 7%. Rather, low-fare, startup airline Aero Asia and other new competitors are siphoning passenger traffic from the nation's railways. A second-class cabin train ticket from Karachi to Islamabad, for example, is about 1,000 rupees ($32.40), not including en route meals, and the trip takes about 24 hr. The same journey by air takes 1.5 hr. and costs 1,200 rupees.
Stan Mackiewicz has been named executive director of the Professional Aviation Maintenance Assn. in Washington. He was senior program director for UNC Airwork, Millville, N.J.
``IT'S THE CULTURE, STUPID!'' That is how one General Accounting Office (GAO) official describes the FAA's pervasive ``Jurassic Park'' mentality, and its detrimental impact on the agency's struggle to transform itself from a lethargic bureaucracy to a lean, mean and responsive organization. In testimony before the House Science technology subcommittee, the GAO official identified the agency's deeply entrenched culture as a ``formidable'' obstacle to new air traffic control technologies.
Ronald G. Peterson has been appointed president of the Government Services Operating Co. of Fluor Daniel, Irvine, Calif. He was vice president/general manager of space and strategic propulsion for Alliant Techsystems.
A Chinese startup carrier, Shandong Airlines, has chosen Boeing 737-300s to expand into national services and break away from Russsian/Chinese turboprops. The airline signed a $120-million contract with China Aviation Supplies Corp. (CASC) last week to take delivery of the three aircraft beginning this December and continuing through August, 1996. The aircraft will be powered by General Electric CFM56 engines.
BOEING HAS INITIATED STUDIES on a shortened version of its new 777 transport, tentatively designated the 777-100, with about 50 fewer seats. Current 777-200s carry about 305-328 passengers, and up to 400 in all-economy charter configuration. A stretched 777-300 version most likely will be launched next.
Lufthansa, which returned to profit in 1994 after three years of losses, dipped into the red in the first quarter of 1995 as a marked upturn in traffic and capacity utilization could not overcome a sharp fall in foreign receipts caused by exchange-rate fluctuations.
The Naval Aviation Depot at Jacksonville, Fla., is not one of 31 bases added to the list of U.S. military facilities being considered for possible closure by the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission (AW&ST May 15, p. 32). The depot was mistakenly included in the original list released by the commission instead of the Naval Air Station at Atlanta.
THE ``ZERO-BASED REVIEW'' THAT NASA has just completed would achieve spending curbs approaching the level of reductions the White House wants--$5 billion over five years below previous plans. The new blueprint maximizes commercialization, out-sourcing and standardization, but would not close a major field center. Having embraced earlier reductions as wonderful opportunities to reinvent the agency, however, Administrator Goldin is ready to fight Republican plans to cut more. The House Budget Committee wants to chop $10 billion over seven years from NASA.
The Swedish air force is preparing to reduce expenditures by nearly 15% for 18 months, beginning July 1. The cut will require a temporary reduction of flight hours by about 10%. The spending cuts--which affect all Swedish armed services--have been imposed because of the depreciation of the Swedish krona, the general state of Sweden's economy, and a change in the nation's fiscal year from July 1-June 30 to a calendar year beginning in 1997.
THE PENTAGON WILL NOW EMPLOY integrated product teams for all of its major acquisition programs in an effort to shorten development times and reduce oversight. Defense Secretary William Perry signed an order institutionalizing the process, which has already been widely adopted in the defense industry and employed on a limited number of Pentagon programs. The process brings together the relevant acquisition officials, military operators and private contractors at the beginning of a program to identify and resolve issues quickly.
The National Transportation Safety Board this week will conduct a wide-ranging, on-site survey of air safety in Alaska. The team, which will be composed of at least 12 NTSB safety experts, plans to ``take the pulse'' of Alaskan civil aviation operations, according to NTSB Chairman Jim Hall, who will lead the visit. The assessment will cover general aviation, charter, commuter, helicopter and air transport operations. The final report will update that of a similar study performed in 1980.
The American Mobile Satellite Corp.'s recently launched MSAT will soon introduce convenient telephone service for business and regional airline aircraft outfitted with compact, modest-cost satcom avionics (AW&ST Apr. 17, p. 60).
LOCKHEED MARTIN Tactical Aircraft Systems has received two contracts worth a total of $12 million for advanced manufacturing technology development on the Joint Advanced Strike Technology program. One, valued at $5.9 million, is for a 40-month effort to integrate design systems, such as CATIA, with advanced modeling tools to more accurately gauge costs. The other, worth $6.4 million, is for a 54-month effort to integrate simulation and modeling tools to create a virtual manufacturing environment.
The restored Northrop N-9MB flying wing prototype posed with its four-decades-younger descendant, the Northrop B-2 bomber, during tests at Edwards AFB, Calif. (AW&ST Nov. 21, 1994, p. 23). The N-9MB is owned by the Air Museum Planes of Fame in Chino, Calif. Officials arranged with the U.S. Air Force to show the aircraft together at the B-2's South Base facility at Edwards earlier this year. Retired Northrop B-2 chief test pilot Bruce Hinds was a key liaison between the two programs.
Aeronautical use of satellites for in-flight telephone service is poised for explosive growth and will be accompanied by more efficient air traffic management over the world's oceans.
FRUSTRATION AND WORRY over career progress and impending retirement could be an additional source of stress for Vietnam-era helicopter pilots still flying professionally. A report by the Flight Safety Foundation, Arlington, Va., notes that most helicopter flight departments are small and the room for advancement is narrow.
An unsolicited proposal by the National Test Pilot School to take over training of U.S. military pilots and engineers could force Pentagon and service leaders to make painful choices between cost-cutting and preservation of two elite schools that each have a successful 50-year track record.
Bell Boeing has made major strides in reducing the weight, parts count and cost of the four V-22 tiltrotors that will be built during the current engineering and manufacturing development phase of the program.
In a reversal, the Air Force is looking for a near-term replacement for its retiring RF-4Cs until a long-term manned reconnaissance capability can be developed.
