Altan Buyukyilmaz (see photo) has been named executive VP-commercial affairs at Turkish Technic of Ankara and Istanbul. He was CEO of BH Airlines and has been VP-sales and marketing of Turkish Airlines.
There's a commonly held notion that Bill Lear was the last person to launch a successful, start-from-scratch company that builds FAA-certified aircraft. That's erroneous, as evidenced by rotaryman Frank Robinson, founder of his own eponymous outfit. But he's certainly the exception. As is Alan Klapmeier, who co-founded Cirrus Aircraft with his brother, Dale, in 1984.
On AviationWeek.com, Air Transport Editor Andrew Compart writes about Delta Air Lines' and AeroMexico's plan for a new MRO facility in Mexico: Rich Wyeroski is skeptical: We are fools to let this happen. Maintenance in Mexico is safe with no potential for terrorism? If you believe this, there is a bridge in N.Y. I would like to sell you. Osroff responds:
As Airbus's new CEO, Fabrice Bregier, and COO, Gunter Butschek, make major changes to the aircraft manufacturer's organization, the company's position within the EADS group has been strengthened. Two Airbus executives, Butschek and COO for Customers John Leahy, have been added to EADS's executive board, which now has 13 members including CEO Tom Enders.
U.S. airlines will continue to drop 50-seat regional jets from their operations; that is a certainty. Higher fuel costs have made them unprofitable on many routes, and the clauses in pilot union contracts that severely restricted the major carriers from outsourcing the flying of larger RJs have largely evaporated. Delta Air Lines has vowed to shed another 200 of them by 2015; American Eagle seems poised for a purging.
Giorgio Zappa (see photo), former chief operating officer of Finmeccanica, has become CEO of Italian aerospace company Vitrociset. He succeeds Antonio Bontempi, who will remain head of operations. Gen. (ret) Mario Arpino is retiring as chairman.
Ike Song (see photo), vice president-situational awareness systems at Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Navigation Systems Div., Falls Church, Va., has been named to the National Association of Asian American Professionals 100.
The Irish commercial aircraft MRO industry is positioning itself for growth, as Ireland's economy slowly recovers from its own financial crisis and the global economy falters
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Antonio L. Elias is one of three executives of the Orbital Sciences Corp., Dulles, Va., to be promoted, effective Sept. 10. He will become executive vice president/chief technical officer of the Advanced Programs Group (APG) and has been its executive vice president and general manager. Frank L. Culbertson will be promoted to APG executive vice president/general manager from senior vice president-human space systems. And, Christopher C. Long will be promoted to senior vice president from vice president for national systems in APG's National Security Space Div.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 with a Centaur upper stage lifted NASA's twin Radiation Belt Storm Probe mission spacecraft into orbit Aug. 30 from Cape Canaveral on a two-year mission to study high-energy particle fluctuations within Earth's Van Allen radiation belts. The $686 million mission is expected to investigate how the belts respond to solar activity and influence space weather. The two 1,400-lb. probes were developed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory as part of NASA's Living with a Star initiative.
In “Golden Turbine” (AW&ST July 30, p. 14), it is too bad you did not mentioned the venerable Walter M601 and its now revamped type under the GE Aviation label—the H80—with all its Czechoslovakian connotations duly erased. This Czech entry is probably the closest competitor to Pratt & Whitney Canada's PT6, and a successful one at that.
Germany's aerospace industry has been growing, driven by civil air transport demand. But it is facing difficult changes as its defense-related business contracts.
Robert W. O'Brien, Jr., has been appointed executive director of the Wisconsin Airport Managers Association, succeeding Peter L. Drahn, who plans to retire. O'Brien was executive director of Chicago Rockford (Ill.) International Airport and has been a member of the board of directors of the American Association of Airport Executives.
Paul Adams, senior vice president-operations and engineering for Pratt & Whitney, East Hartford, Conn., has been named to receive the American Society of Mechanical Engineering's 2012 Leadership Award, for advancing the use of computers and information in engineering.
Roy Fuhrmann has been appointed vice president-management and operations of the Metropolitan Airports Commission of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn. He was director of its Environment Department and is chairman of Airports Council International-North America's Environmental Affairs Committee.
