S. Michael Scheeringa, president of Signature Flight Support; Marian Epps, chief financial officer of Epps Aviation; and Ed Kilkeary, founder and CEO of L.J. Aviation, have been elected to the board of the National Air Transportation Association.
Do Allegiant Air and its parent company, Allegiant Travel, represent the future of the commercial airline industry? Allegiant certainly would seem to warrant some imitation. The Las Vegas-based low-cost carrier's parent company just reported its 33rd consecutive profitable quarter and another double-digit margin for operations and pre-tax profit. Its pre-tax profit margin for all of 2010 was 15.6%; in 2009, in the midst of the recession, it was 21.6%.
With the 11th European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (Ebace) set for May 17-19 in Geneva, Aviation Week offers a special report over the next 10 pages. For breaking news from the show, daily editions of Show News, blogs and the latest photos, go to AviationWeek.com/ebace2011.
Middle Eastern carriers are seeing significant effects from political unrest on air travel demand and fuel costs, but most have no plans to change their ambitious growth plans. Further large-scale aircraft orders are expected later this year.
Boeing is stepping up the hunt for international C-17 orders to plug looming gaps in its production line as it fights to rebuild the dwindling backlog. With only 18 aircraft currently on the books it needs fresh orders to sustain the line through 2013, even if a long-expected order for 10 emerges soon from India. Details of Boeing's latest sales push came May 10 as the United Arab Emirates took delivery of the first of six C-17s at the company's Long Beach, Calif., site. The UAE will take delivery of three more C-17s this year, and two in 2012.
In the recent letter, “Noise Nonsense” (AW&ST April 25/May 2, p. 8) the calculation of decibel values was incorrect. A 42% reduction in a noise level of 80 db is a reduction of 2.44 db. The decibel scale is logarithmic not mathematical. Decibel values must be converted to real numbers before you can apply mathematical operations, then reconverted to a log value after the resultant real number is obtained. A reduction of the amount specified is below the threshold that the human ear can normally detect.
USAF Major Gen. David S. Fadok has been nominated for appointment to lieutenant general and for assignment as commander and president, Air University, Air Education and Training Command, Maxwell AFB, Ala., where he is currently vice commander. Fadok also is commander at the Curtis E. LeMay Center for Doctrine Development and Education.
Steve Morrow has become president and chief executive officer of Insitu Inc., a Bingen, Wash.-based Boeing Co. subsidiary, succeeding CEO Steve Sliwa, who retired April 1. Morrow was director of Boeing's Stand-off Strike unit, where he led the long-range weapons program.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) terminated efforts May 12 to recover the five-year-old Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS). The spacecraft experienced an anomaly on April 22 that placed it into a low-power mode, shutting down all imaging instruments. The power loss remains under investigation, JAXA says. The spacecraft was launched January 24, 2006, on a three-year mission that was later extended.
Cal Lewis has joined Jet Source, Carlsbad, Calif., as manager of the company's FAA-approved airframe and engine maintenance business. He was maintenance supervisor for an aircraft management and charter company in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The turboprop-powered T-6 Texan II began life as a trainer and then morphed into the AT-6 light attack aircraft for the Greek air force. Now, as the AT-6B/C, it is promising to become an inexpensive path to network-centric operations, precision strike and advanced surveillance for other air forces. Nor is there a foreseeable end to the development potential envisioned for the two-seater. It offers 1,600 shp, 5-6-hr. endurance and an A-10C cockpit—a combination that's being created by the team of Hawker Beechcraft and Lockheed Martin.
It is no secret that 50-seat regional jets have been falling out of favor as higher fuel costs make them uneconomical on a growing number of routes, which is why many U.S. regional carriers have been trying to shift their fleets to larger aircraft. But a closer look at some numbers shows why regional airlines remain vulnerable on their 50-seat fleets, especially if fuel costs continue to rise.
Next summer's Olympic Games are expected to result in a spike in air traffic in the U.K., as aircraft from throughout the world converge on Britain to bring tens of thousands of spectators, media, sponsors, celebrities, dignitaries and athletes to the quadrennial competition. The games are set to open July 27 and end Aug. 12.
The U.S. regional airline industry is facing myriad challenges and, for most of the carriers, growing out of them is not a viable option. That is a sea change, because over the past three decades there always has been something that helped make the industry much bigger.
Almost a decade into the war in Afghanistan, helicopter modernization programs in the U.S. and among allies are still being adapted to properly reflect operational priorities.
I applaud your editorial “Don't Take Aviation For Granted” (AW&ST April 18, p. 50). I believe Washington has not provided the leadership or vision for the U.S. aviation industry. A reformed FAA (already funded) should be removed from the Transportation Department and put under the aegis of a new five-member National Aviation Commission that would report to the president with the appropriate congressional oversight. Woodland, Calif.
The U.S. Air Force has formally accepted its first production Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. F-35A aircraft AF-7 was flown to Edwards AFB, Calif., to join the flight-test program on May 6, the same day aircraft AF-8—the first F-35A destined for delivery to Eglin AFB, Fla., to begin training—made its first flight from Fort Worth. With 14 F-35s now flying, the development program has passed 880 test flights and seven more aircraft from low-rate initial production lots 1 and 2 have rolled out and are being prepared for delivery.
As a long-distance interested party to the air-refueling contract duel between Boeing and EADS, I was amazed to read about the fixed-/not-really-fixed-contract price in Amy Butler's article “Refueled” (AW&ST April 11, p. 29).
Marina Gall has been appointed by St. Helier, N.J.-based Vistra Group as director of its Marine and Aviation Div. She left a 10-year career at U.K. accountants Dodd and Co. in 2001 to join Vistra as a trust officer.
Business aircraft charter operators in Europe and elsewhere complain that private aircraft owners are skimming off potential customers by chartering out their aircraft illegally. And they maintain that the illicit practice is facilitated in part by a dearth of government scrutiny and regulatory enforcement, particularly in Europe, where there is a confusing tangle of cabotage regulations among nations, even the 27 countries comprising the European Union. As a result, it is difficult to positively identify violators or quantify the scope of the activity.
Dennis Orzel (see photo) is the new vice president and general manager of Orangeburg, N.Y.-based Chromalloy, with responsibilities for technology development and repair sites in the U.S. and the U.K. He was chief operating officer at PAS Technologies and president of the Triumph Integrated Programs Div.
With the House Armed Services Committee keeping General Electric's F136 engine on life support, its opponents are considering their next move. Supporters of the Pratt & Whitney engine for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter are weighing how to block funding for the F136 in the U.S. Congress and how to ensure that the next defense secretary picks up where the last one left off.
Don Basso has joined Mercury Aviation Services, Los Angeles, as vice president of operations and sales. He was a principal cargo security analyst with the U.S. Transportation Security Administration Air Cargo Group.
Boeing's Phantom Eye hydrogen-fueled high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aircraft demonstrator has been re-assembled at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB, Calif., after shipment from the company's Phantom Works in St. Louis, Mo., and is undergoing ground tests. First flight is expected in August. Seen on its launch trolley, the company-funded, 150-ft.-wingspan Phantom Eye is designed to fly for four days at 65,000-ft. powered by two triple-tubocharged Ford truck engines modified to burn hydrogen.
Avi Mannis (see photo) has been named to an expanded role as vice president-marketing at Hawaiian Airlines, Honolulu. Mannis was vice president of revenue management and schedule planning, and before joining Hawaiian, he was a principal at The Boston Consulting Group in New York and Paris.
