Liberalization may not be for everyone. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) seems to be accepting a bigger role for private airlines while looking less favorably on a carrier that is partly foreign owned.
Norbert Ducrot (see photo) has become president/CEO of Eurocopter China. He will remain senior vice president for China, South Korea and Japan. Ducrot has been senior vice president-Asia-Pacific, and chairman of Eurocopter China, Eurocopter Japan and Singapore-based Eurocopter Southeast Asia.
The final report on the September 2010 crash of a UPS Boeing 747-400 freighter in Dubai has reignited the long-standing feud between the NTSB and FAA over the need for video recorders in airliner cockpits.
John Daniel Caine has been named president of Tailwind Technologies Inc. company Mayday Holdings, Denton, Texas, and its subsidiaries Mayday Manufacturing and Hi-Tech Metal Finishing Co. He held several positions in the George W. Bush administration and was chairman of the U.S. Small Business Association Advisory Committee on Veterans Business Affairs.
Sequestration-forced budget cuts are driving a drastic decline in U.S. military training capability, and the impact could lead to an unsettling concept known as tiered readiness. According to Gen.
Charles Bosworth (see photo) has been appointed manager of public relations and communications at Jet Aviation St. Louis. He succeeds Ann Hein, who has resigned. Bosworth has been a writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The New York Times and The Chicago Tribune.
Switzerland's Solar Impulse may have crossed the U.S. on solar power, but its prototype is far from an everyday aircraft. Proving solar power can be a practical way of flying is the goal of Solar Flight and its Sunseeker Duo, now flying in Italy.
While budget worries are clouding the future of the FAA's NextGen program, the agency is making significant progress in deploying an automation system that will be a crucial foundation of the modernization effort.
Greg Mant has been named sales manager for Eastern Canada for Toronto-based Vector Aerospace-Helicopter Services North America. He succeeds Paul Hagen, who has become sales and service manager for Vector Aerospace Engine Services-Atlantic. Hagen follows Kevin Woodworth, who is now sales and service manager for the Northeast U.S. Eric Hicks has been named sales director for Western Canada, Alaska and Hawaii.
Of the many ways general aviation pilots use to measure and improve their performance, few are as instantly gratifying as the sight of a “bowling pin” on a cross-country flight. VOR (very-high frequency omnidirectional radio range) stations generally look like bowling pins, and crossing directly over one means that the pilot's navigation skills, at least for keeping the needle on the VOR instrument display in the vertical direction, are up to snuff.
France secured its two biggest export agreements in recent memory with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in July, including an €800 million ($1.05 billion) sale of two high-resolution spy satellites built by EADS-Astrium and Thales Alenia Space. The satellites are small enough to launch on a European Vega rocket and are said to be similar to France's twin Pleiades spacecraft, putting the UAE in an elite club of nations cable of taking high-resolution images of sub-meter-sized objects from space.
Avic is broadening its general aviation portfolio with the acquisition of Thielert, a bankrupt German maker of diesel engines for aircraft—including a U.S. Army version of the General Atomics Predator.
Earth and the Moon show two sides in these parallel images, both collected July 19 by the Cassini and Messenger spacecraft. In the image at left, Cassini was 898 million mi. away when its wide-angle camera caught the Earth system floating below Saturn's main rings. Also visible are the F, G and E rings, the latter two overexposed to show up better. The rings' shadows can be seen as “breaks” in the planet's bright limb. At the highest resolution, the Moon shows up in the image as a bump on Earth's right side.
Tony Lefebvre has been named president/COO of the Aircraft Service International Group (ASIG), Orlando, Fla. He was COO of Spirit Airlines and had been an executive with US Airways.
This year, AMR Corp., parent of American Airlines, recorded the highest passenger revenue for the second quarter in its history and logged a $357 million net profit, which is $262 million more than the same period last year. This appears to show forward momentum for the airline that hopes this quarter to merge with US Airways and emerge from Chapter 11 reorganization in what it touts as “one of the most effective major corporate restructurings ever.” To accomplish this, American must pass several crucial, impending milestones:
USAF Lt. Gen. Brooks L. Bash has been named vice commander of Air Mobility Command, Scott AFB, Ill. He has been director for logistics for the Joint Staff at the Pentagon. Lt. Gen. Stephen L. Hoog has been appointed assistant vice chief of staff and director of the Air Staff at the Pentagon. He has been commander of the Alaskan Command, U.S. Pacific Command/commander of the Eleventh Air Force, Pacific Air Forces/commander of the Alaskan North American Defense Region, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. Maj. Gen. Kurt F.
Boeing subsidiary Insitu is planning to launch the first U.S. commercial unmanned aerial system (UAS) operation following receipt of FAA type certification for its ScanEagle on July 19. No details are available yet, but the operation is expected to be in the Arctic. Restricted-category type certifications for the 44-lb., gasoline-powered ScanEagle and the 13.4-lb., battery-powered AeroVironment Puma AE are the first to be issued by the FAA under Part 21.25 of the Federal Aviation Regulations.
