Gerassimos D. Corakianitis (La Tour de Peilz, Switzerland )
In “Restructure or Shrink” (AW&ST Aug. 13, p. 20) Jens Flottau correctly states that Swiss is one of the most profitable European carriers. He does not mention, however, that this was achieved with German funds. Swiss is now affectionately called Swisshansa. There may be no such thing as Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Europe, but Swissair was bailed out twice in a Chapter 11 manner, the first time by UBS and the Swiss government, the second by Lufthansa.
If the big question here ahead of the last presidential election was who will be the defense secretary, now it is who will be secretary of state. Enter the elder statesmen. Democrats and the Obama campaign say Senate Foreign Relations Committe Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) will deliver a key national security speech on the last night of their convention in Charlotte, N.C. According to the Washington Post's well-connected foreign policy blogger, Josh Rogin, Kerry is a main contender with U.N.
I agree with many of the premises in Frank Morring, Jr.'s “High Hurdles” (AW&ST Aug. 6, p. 19). The last working breeder reactor in North America was in Canada and made medical isotopes. It shut down for routine maintenance several years ago, and I do not know if it was restarted. But we do know that Russia, Indian, Pakistan, Iran, Great Britain, Israel and even North Korea have breeder reactors. Only the reality of pollution and contamination at Hanford, Wash. [a mostly decommissioned nuclear production complex] stops us.
After reading the enthusiastic and emphatic comments on Alaska Airlines customer service made by airline analyst Raymond Neidl in a recent Up Front column (AW&ST Aug. 6, p. 12), I must ask when was the last time he flew on that carrier? My lengthy trip from San Francisco-Seattle-Anchorage-Kodiak last May was a nightmare due to the complete lack of customer service.
Huntsville company specializes in high-performance optical systems, including sensors and seekers, that exploit the phenomenon behind three-dimensional movies.
Graeme Shanks has joined CIT Business Aircraft as vice president-sales. He was senior vice president/head of marketing for AMS Aircraft Ltd. and had been a customer support account manager for Thales Aerospace.
The fall of the Syrian government would not be good news for Israel. It could, among other perils, trigger another massive dump of arms—including ballistic and air defense missiles as well as chemical weapons of mass destruction—onto the black market. “What will happen to Bashar [Assad, Syria's president] is very interesting to us, but it is also a great mystery,” says Col. Erez Viezel, a conceptual planner for Israeli Defense Intelligence (IDI). “We want to know how much control he has over the things that threaten us.”
Republican delegates to the party's convention in Tampa, Fla., last week made it clear they favor rebuilding the military in the likes of an earlier Republican president. “More than a century ago, Republican President Theodore Roosevelt predicted that America's future was in the Pacific,” states the party's platform. “That future is here today, but it can develop peacefully only under the shield of American naval and air power.” Not surprisingly, the platform also goes on the offensive against Democratic President Barack Obama.
Former U.S. Rep. Ellen O'Kane Tauscher (D-Calif.) has joined Washington law firm Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell and Berkowitz as a strategic adviser to its Federal Public Policy Group. She also was undersecretary of state for arms control and international security affairs and a special envoy for strategic stability and missile defense.
The Table of Contents in a recent issue (AW&ST Aug. 13, p. 8) shows a photo of what appears to be an ultra-light float plane, possibly electrically powered. Could you please identify it? Spring Hill, Tenn. (The photo, one of the entries to our annual photo contest, depicts a multi-motor amphibious Lazair ultralight craft. Its two electric motors supply roughly 26 hp of combined power. Go to AviationWeek.com/photo for rules and guidelines to enter the contest—Ed.)
Last month, The Wall Street Journal ran a series of articles that offer a cautionary tale about innovation for the aerospace and defense industries of North America and Europe. Entitled “How Japan Lost Its Electronics Crown,” the stories relate how one-time giants of consumer electronics—Sony, Panasonic and Sharp—stumbled crossing the threshold from analog to digital, and now trail badly in the markets for e-readers, smartphones and next-generation televisions. What happened? Did the upstarts at Apple, Amazon and Samsung simply out-innovate the Japanese at their own game?
Propelled by the introduction of the 787 into service, Boeing's overall Airplane Health Monitoring (AHM) capabilities are expanding rapidly. AHM is poised to deliver distinctly predictive inflight data to engineers and maintainers that will allow them to interdict incipient problems before they fully manifest themselves—and the airframer is introducing the approach across its product line.
Alex de Gunten, executive director of the Miami-based Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association (ALTA), has been named to receive this year's Juan Trippe Award from the Greater Miami Aviation Association, at the 85th Annual Wright Brothers Memorial Gala Awards Banquet on Sept. 29.
