Fred Bearden, Senior Appraiser (Laguna Niguel, Calif. ), Aircraft Information Services Inc. (Laguna Niguel, Calif. )
Using retirement age as an indicator affecting future aircraft value seems to be looking through the wrong end of the telescope (AW&ST April 1/8, p. 15). Commercial aircraft do not operate in some standard economic environment. Route structure and operating costs vary significantly from operator to operator worldwide, and have a huge effect on economic viability—and thus useful life and retirement age—of a specific aircraft.
Ian Rollo (see photo) has formed Launch, Technical Workforce Solutions, Oak Brook, Ill., with Jean Rollo and Mike Guagenti. The three are former owners of Volant Aerospace.
Reader Rich Horvath's additions to the list of “sacred cows” that could be eliminated to tighten the U.S. budget have me bemused. His advice to further tighten the U.S. budget was to eliminate U.S. forces in South Korea, Japan and Germany. Of course, those countries will be pressed to go nuclear to replace the “American Umbrella,” but so what.
Australian regional airlines are using an upcoming general election to draw attention to policies they say are strangling the industry. And it appears that a power change is their best hope for seeing at least some of these concerns resolved.
Dave Newton has become Tampa-based engine manager in Central and North Florida and Wolfgang Heuberger Fort Lauderdale-based engine manager for South Florida, both for Dallas Airmotive. Newton was a senior field service manager, while Heuberger was Southern U.S. and Caribbean sales manager for Pratt & Whitney Canada.
Scott Hanratty has become director of sales and marketing and Florin Iancu engineering director of New York-based Advanced Design Technology. Hanratty was vice president-international sales and operations for NEiSoftware, while Iancu was a compressor design engineer for Johnson Controls.
First there were the U.S. defense industry's complaints over a perceived “war on profit.” Then came Ayn Rand-like accusations of a “war on capitalism” by the government. But now, finally, comes the realization among industry executives and analysts alike that as the decade-long fire-hose-strength stream of defense spending is reduced to a trickle, it brings substantially different expectations of the defense industrial base.
Stephen F. Page has joined the board of directors of AeroVironment Inc., Monrovia, Calif. He is retired president/CEO of Otis Elevator and was executive vice president/CFO of Black and Decker. Honors And Elections
Max H. Mitchell has been appointed CEO of the Crane Co., Stamford, Conn., effective Jan. 1. He will succeed Eric C. Fast, who plans to retire. Mitchell has been president/chief operating officer.
Michael Kriedberg has been named chief commercial officer for Aircastle Advisor, Stamford, Conn. He was executive vice president-aviation financing operations at GE Capital Aviation Services.
A recent Viewpoint “NASA's Rocket To Nowhere” (AW&ST April 1/8, p. 66), epitomizes a policy that has delayed, canceled and contributed to wasted funding. The article states that NASA should again change priorities based on negative assumptions that can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Instead of figuring out how to cancel the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and Space Launch System, let's put our efforts into making them work.
Today's message is that the Joint Strike Fighter is doing better. It is true, but better than what? The people selling the message were telling us in 2008, 2009 and 2010 that JSF was doing fine, and it most certainly was not.
If South Korea builds its proposed KF-X stealth fighter, it will need to export it. So one key question hanging over the much-delayed project is whether the country can build the aircraft cheaply enough and attract adequate demand. Another is whether South Korea can build it at all.
I disagree with reader Capt. Jim Walton that “Joe Q. Traveler just wants to fly . . . for free” (AW&ST April 1/8, p. 8). What this “Joe Q.” wants is a “service” industry that provides actual service. I'm willing to pay a reasonable fare, but I am not willing to have my wallet emptied for every add-on the airlines can dream up. Treat me like a person, not a dollar sign. Offer a seat which is not shrunk beyond belief. And train airline personnel to remember that customers pay their salaries and should be accorded a modicum of dignity and respect.
Denis Sauvage has been appointed vice president/general manager of the Aero Technologies subsidiary of the Miami-based Aero Maintenance Group (AMG) of Air France Industries-KLM Engineering and Maintenance. He will also head the MRO department of Air-Pro. Sauvage was director of operations at Aero Technologies. Chris Adams has been named head of sales and marketing for AMG. He was head of sales and marketing development at Tronair Inc.
