DASSAULT FALCON JET promoted Ed Barker to vice president-purchasing at the company's Little Rock, Ark. plant. Barker, formerly director of materiel, oversaw implementation of the Little Rock facility's warehouse inventory cycle count system, which raised accuracy of inventory levels to at least 95 percent and also improved efficiency of order processing and management. A former Cessna Aircraft employee, he has 26 years of general aviation industry experience and also spent two years with the Space Systems Division of General Dynamics in San Diego.
ZAIDMAN WAS MORE BULLISH about the outlook for STARS, the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System, which also has encountered development problems. "On the development side of STARS we're rounding third base," Zaidman told the ATCA meeting. "Everybody knows what they have to do." However, building and installing all 178 of those systems by the goal of 2008 will be more difficult. "It's going to be a challenge to do that," he said.
SENATE COMMERCE COMMITTEE, which has oversight over most Transportation Department and FAA matters, added seven new members - Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), John Edwards (D-N.C.), Jean Carnahan (D-Mo.), Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.), John Ensign (R-Nev.) and George Allen (R-Va.). The committee has 11 Democrats and 11 Republicans. Sens. Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) will remain in the leadership positions of the committee.
There appears to be widespread agreement in the aviation community that construction of new airports and runways is the only way to achieve substantial reductions in airport and airspace congestion and a growing consensus that to achieve meaningful expansion of the nation's air transportation system the aviation and business communities will have to join forces to overcome the efforts of anti-airport groups.
PIEDMONT HAWTHORNE opened a new regional service center in Harrisburg, Pa. The facility includes 62,000 square feet of hangar space, shop area and offices and will be staffed with more than 150 maintenance technicians. Chip Rathbun, director of aircraft services for Piedmont Hawthorne, will oversee the Harrisburg operation, which will specialize in aircraft manufactured by Embraer, de Havilland, Saab and Dornier. Employees began performing C-checks this month on Embraer ERJ-145 regional jets operated by Chautauqua Airlines.
ROBERT GOULD joined Garrett Aviation Services as regional sales manager for the New England, Ohio and Eastern Canada regions. Gould previously was manager of facility planning and coordination and coordinator of U.S. service facilities for Jet Aviation of America in Bedford, Mass. He also has served with UNC Airwork Corp., BizJet International and Garrett Aviation in Ronkonkoma, N.Y.
IO-360, TSIO-360, LTSIO-360, O-470, IO-470, TSIO-470, IO-520, TSIO-520, LTSIO-520, IO-550, TSIO-550, and TSIOL-550 series reciprocating engines (Docket No. 2000-NE-16-AD; Amendment 39-11994; AD 2000-23-21) - supersedes emergency AD 2000-08-51 sent to all known U.S. owners and operators of IO-360, TSIO-360, LTSIO-360, O-470, IO-470, TSIO-470, IO-520, TSIO-520, LTSIO-520, IO-550, TSIO-550, and TSIOL-550 series reciprocating engines by individual letters.
Model TBM 700 airplanes (Docket No. 2000-CE-61-AD) - proposes to require an application of Loctite on attaching bolt threads of inboard, central, and outboard carriages; an increase of tightening torques; and replacement of central carriage attaching bolts. The proposed AD is the result of mandatory continuing airworthiness information issued by the airworthiness authority for France. The actions specified by the proposed AD are intended to prevent loose, or lost, of flap attachment screws, which could cause rough or irregular control.
The Van Nuys, Calif. Flight Center ordered 10 new Cessna Grand Caravan turboprops, a purchase the company said was based on "past sales success and increasing customer demand." Van Nuys Flight Center is Cessna's authorized sales representative for the Caravan in California, Nevada and Arizona and has been affiliated with Cessna since 1994.
SENATE COMMERCE COMMITTEE Wednesday will hold a confirmation hearing on the nomination of Norman Mineta as Secretary of Transportation. The hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. in the Russell Senate Office Building.
FAA selected Gray Army Airfield in Killeen, Texas, March Inland Port, Riverside, Calif. and Mather Airport in Sacramento, Calif., to participate in the Military Airport Program. MAP is a set-aside of the Airport Improvement Program that provides financial assistance to the civil sponsor of military airfields converted to civil or joint use.
THE TROUBLED MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft program got more bad news last week - charges that the head of the Osprey training division in New River, N.C. told the Marines under his command to lie about the status of nonoperational aircraft to enhance reliability figures. Those charges, reportedly backed by clandestine tape recordings, caused the Navy to launch an investigation and remove the accused officer from his post, but that situation is not believed to involve safety-of-flight issues. Separately, the Marine Corps said Friday that the Dec.
EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION scheduled a meeting with FAA next week on an airworthiness directive that the association said has effectively grounded most Bell 47 helicopters in the U.S. The meeting, Jan. 29-30 at FAA's Rotorcraft Directorate in Fort Worth, Texas, will include representatives from EAA, HAI and Bell. The AD, released late in August, called for inspections and replacement of rotor blade grips.
The U.S. Air Force Monday ruled that 700 acres of surplus land at the former Homestead Air Force Base in Florida should be transferred to Miami-Dade County for mixed-use development, but prohibited development of the site as a commercial airport. The Second Supplemental Record of Decision comes after the Department of the Interior "strongly urged" the Air Force to transfer the land to DOI to prevent the airfield from being used as a commercial airport (BA, Jan. 15/29).
JUDY WINNER was appointed sales manager for BEI Duncan Electronics. Winner spent 22 years with Spectrol Electronics Corp., most recently as sales manager for North American distribution and OEM accounts. In her new position she will manage BEI Duncan Electronics' existing customer base as well as oversee representatives, distributors and original equipment manufacturer accounts throughout North America.
NATIONAL BUSINESS AVIATION ASSOCIATION named Jon Ellis, director of Sprint flight operations in Kansas City, to fill the position on the board of directors vacated by former board member Al Lane. Ellis will serve through this year and stand for election to the board by the NBAA membership at the association's annual meeting and convention in September in New Orleans.
Airbus Industrie will become a traditional company by the end of February, retroactively effective as of Jan. 1, 2001, shareholders of the consortium announced in London and Amsterdam this month. Until now the shareholders - the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS), with 80 percent and BAE Systems, with 20 percent - have organized their Airbus activities through a "European Interest Grouping" established under French law in 1967. The body had no centralized decision-making structure, hindering its competition with Boeing.
FAA OFFICIALS had hoped for quick publication of the Part 145 rule - the DOT took little more than two weeks to review it - but the rule's fate was unclear Friday. It could get held up during the presidential transition. President Bush is expected to immediately issue a moratorium on rulemaking efforts while key positions - including those in the Office of the Chief Counsel, where major rules are reviewed - are filled.
THE FUTURE of the Wide Area Augmentation System for GPS signals may become clearer at the end of this month when FAA Administrator Jane Garvey is scheduled to receive the report of an independent review board (IRB). Steve Zaidman, FAA's associate administrator for research and acquisitions, told an Air Traffic Control Association seminar last week that be believes "this is going to be a telltale year for WAAS."Zaidman said, "Technically, I think we can do it," but he said we'll see what the IRB report says.
Models A36, B36TC, and 58 airplanes (Docket No. 99-CE-79-AD; Amendment 39-12066; AD 2000-26-16) - requires an inspection for missing rivets on the right hand side of the fuselage and, if necessary, installation of rivets. Raytheon has identified several instances of missing rivets on these airplanes. The actions specified by this AD are intended to install missing rivets in the right hand fuselage panel assembly in the area above the right wing and below the cabin door threshold.
ELLIOTT AVIATION won supplemental type certificate approval to install Honeywell's Mark VII enhanced ground proximity warning system in Falcon 10 aircraft. The installation, initially completed on a Falcon 10 based in Omaha, Neb., included a Collins TCAS-94 TCAS II system, a Collins MFD-85D multi-function display, dual RTU-4210 radio tuning units, a Collins WXR-8450 Doppler radar system and new Collins Pro Line II nav/coms.
GKN completed its acquisition of Boeing's structural fabrication operation in St. Louis, Mo., and renamed the business GKN Aerospace Services-St. Louis. GKN also made the facility the corporate headquarters of its GKN Aerospace Services operations in the U.S. Some 1,200 former Boeing employees will remain at the St. Louis facility under GKN ownership, and the facility will continue to produce parts and subassemblies for Boeing military jets.
