Amparo Calatayud (see photos) has been apponted manager of FlightSafety International's Learning Center in West Palm Beach, Fla. She succeeds Gil Schnabel, who has been named regional director of regulatory affairs. Calatayud was manager of the Learning Center in Lafayette, La., and has been succeeded by David Welch, who has been promoted from director of training.
I have been a reader of Aviation Week & Space Technology since the mid 1950s. As a high school student in Turkey, the only way I could accomplish this was to go to the American Library in Ankara. Your magazine accompanied me throughout my formal education and my ongoing, decades-long aviation career. So I feel qualified to respond to your article “Calling All Readers” (AW&ST April 22, p. 58).
India's MiG-21, the combat aircraft that has crashed so often it is called the “flying coffin,” will remain in service two years longer than planned. The aircraft has been in service more than half a century and had been scheduled to retire by 2017. But after delays to the Indian air force's modernization program and a reduction in fighter squadrons, the air force will keep the MiG-21 in its active fleet until 2019.
Eight months after becoming the first U.S. airline to obtain FAA approval to use iPads on the flight deck during all phases of flight, American Airlines completed its rollout of the off-the-shelf electronic flight bags across its entire mainline fleet on April 22. Pilots of the carrier's Boeing 757 and 767s, the last fleet types to be equipped, completed a 30-day transition with the iPads as primary sources and paper charts as backups. American first tested the iPad on a 777 in January 2011.
Boeing has recorded 50 more 737 MAX orders without making a customer ID. The orders bring its MAX total to 1,235. The transaction is the second largest of the year—American's order for 100 is tops—and raises total orders to 259, including 203 737NGs and MAXs.
USAF Col. (ret.) Michael R. Gallagher (Hillsboro, Ore. )
Bill Sweetman, in a Commander's Intent column (AW&ST April 15, p. 18), talked about lawyers being cheaper than fixing hardware (in reference to Beechcraft's legal challenges to the light support aircraft decision).
Eurocopter has begun self-funded proving trials of its EC145 twin-engine helicopter with an optionally piloted (OP) flight control system. First flights were at the beginning of April, and subsequent trials have seen the aircraft carry underslung loads and conduct observation missions. Early flights in the OPV configuration were flown with a safety pilot. The company says the OPV technology could find its way onto all of its helicopter types.
USAF Gen. (ret.) Norton A. Schwartz, former Air Force chief of staff, has been appointed to the board of directors of Aurora Flight Sciences, Manassas, Va.
Jeff Babione has been appointed vice president/deputy program manager for the F-35 for the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. of Fort Worth. He has been head of the F-16/F-22 Integrated Fighter Group programs. Babione will be succeeded on a temporary basis by Bridget Lauderdale, who has been vice president/general manager of aeronautics operations.
The first Orbital Sciences Corp. Cygnus commercial cargo carrier is fueled and ready for launch to the International Space Station (ISS), a mission NASA says it can accommodate in late June or early July.
Markus Binkert (see photo) has been promoted to chief commercial officer from head of sales and marketing for Switzerland, Germany and Austria for Swiss International Air Lines. He succeeds Holger Hatty, who has left the company. Roland Busch (see photo) has been named chief financial officer. He has been head of finance and information management at affiliate Lufthansa German Airlines. Busch succeeds Marcel Klaus, who has resigned.
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Justin Christian (see photo) has become director of technology and innovation for Mercury Intelligence Systems, Chelmsford, Mass. Christian came from the U.S. National Security Agency, where he led initiatives to develop technologies to address emerging information requirements.
If the crash of a Lion Air 737 on April 13 had occurred five years ago, it would have only gained a small mention in the foreign news media. All 101 passengers and seven crew on the Boeing 737-800 survived and, according to Lion CEO Rusdi Kirana, none were critically injured. The aircraft is a total loss.
The controversial 2011 Budget Control Act may be eating into the Pentagon's ability to do many things, but backing up Israel is not one of them, according to officials in both countries who have unveiled an unprecedented arm sales package designed to maintain the country's “qualitative military edge,” above all.
Frank Ruggiero (see photo) has been named senior vice president-government relations for BAE Systems Inc., Arlington, Va. He succeeds Erin Moseley, who is now president of BAE Systems' Support Solutions sector. Ruggiero has been vice president-international government relations and was deputy assistant secretary of state for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In answering your “Call to All Readers,” count me as one of that declining group that believe that Aviation Week's best years were when it was more technically oriented. As a reader since 1964, I vividly remember the coverage of the then-emerging Lockheed A-11; those were exciting days, both for the country and the industry.
Members of Congress might have finally found something they can agree on across the aisle: making sure their flights to and from Washington are not disrupted by automatic reductions in air traffic controllers that they themselves mandated as part of the 2011 Budget Control Act (see page 32). The good news for the public is that lawmakers' enlightened self-interest may benefit them too, especially as the U.S. approaches the traditional start of the summer travel season at the end of May. “There is definitely a problem,” says Sen. Mike Enzi.
The controversial debt-and-deficit-fighting law in the U.S. is expected to lead to slow merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the aerospace and defense sector, according to PwC. “It has now been 20 months since the last defense deal announcement greater than $1 billion,” says Scott Thompson, PwC's U.S. aerospace & defense leader. “While the commercial aerospace M&A market has been active, the defense M&A market has essentially been frozen since sequestration first became a possibility with passage of the Budget Control Act of 2011.
Dassault Aviation's Mystere 20 serial No. 1 took to the skies for the first time 50 years ago, come May 4, and the French airplane maker is holding celebrations and displays throughout the year to commemorate that signal event.
