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Aviation History
1999
1999 - 2597.PDF
BU3MS23 PEOPLE ++ Canada's Bombardier Aero space has appointed Robert Gillespie president of its busi ness aircraft division, and Steven Ridolfi president of its regional air craft division. Both will report to president and chief operating officer Michael Graff. ++ Barrie Mair has been named executive chairman of Cranfield Aero space, the commercial arm of the UK's Cranfield College of Aero nautics. ++ Michael Wisbrun starts work as executive vice-pres ident of KLM Cargo on 1 September, succeeding Jacques Ancher, who is to retire. ++ Bell Helicopter has appointed Micke McWherter president and gener al manager of its recently acquired Tennessee-based subsidiary, Edwards & Associates, which specialises in aviation customisa tion and helicopter completion. ++ Lamar Durrett retired as chief executive of Air Canada on 31 August after three years in the job. He is succeeded by Robert Milton. ++ TRW has appointed ex- US Air Force Lt Gen Patrick Caruana vice-president and man ager of its Space-Based Infrared System Low programme after its joint bid with Raytheon won a $275 million programme definition con tract. ++ Frontier Airlines of Denver has named Steve War- necke its new chief financial officer and vice-president. ++ AirNet Systems, which runs US express-cargo carrier AirNet Express, has named Stephen Lister acting vice-president of operations. ++ BFGoodrich has appointed Kenneth Luczaj presi dent and general manager of its Chandler Evans Control Sys tems, a supplier of aerospace fuel pumps and fuel control systems. ++ Edward McNerney has re signed as president and chief exec utive of US jet engine components specialist EDAC Technologies. Chairman John OiFrancesco will stand in until a successor is appointed. ++ Executive jet interi ors specialist ERDA of Wisconsin has appointed David Ladd gener al manager of its aircraft products division. Kamov is key to merger moves RUSSIAN rotorcraft specialist Kamov is to form the basis of an inte grated helicopter company, with its design bureau com bined with production plants at Kumertau and Arsenyev, in accordance with a government direc tive. The move is likely to mean the demise of Kam- ov's alliance with VPKMAPO. The Kumertau factory pro duces the Kamov Ka-32 multi purpose helicopter, while the Arsenyev plant manufactures the Ka-50 attack helicopter. Suppliers of major airframe components may also join the Kamov is to sit side-by-side with suppliers new company. Kamov general designer and general director Sergey Mikheyevindicates that these could include the Voronezh Mechanical plant, which makes main rotor gear boxes, and the Stupino plant, a producer of rotor bushes. About 49% of Kamov shares are held by the state, with 51% distributed be tween employees and com pany managers. A new umbrella company will initially be state-owned, but investor attention may be attracted by Kamov's bid, in tandem with Israel Aircraft Industries, to win a $4 billion contract from Turkey for 145 attack heli copters. Mikheyev says that the merged company will general ly focus on export programmes because "the internal [Russian] market has ceased to exist". • Comsat shareholders give thumbs up to merger SHAREHOLDERS in US satellite communications ser vice provider Comsat have ap proved its proposed merger with Lockheed Martin, removing one barrier to the complex deal. Regulatory approval and legisla tion are still needed before the merger can go ahead, but the move has been helped by a recent US Senate vote to deregulate the inter national satellite telecommunica tions industry. Legislation would pave the way for the rapid privatisation of Intelsat, in which Comsat is the US stakeholder and largest sharehold er, and would update die country's 1962 Communications Satellite Act to enable the merger with Lockheed Martin to proceed. Intelsat is due to be privatised in the first quarter of 2001. Comsat is also the largest share holder in New Skies Satellites, a global system of five satellites spun off from Intelsat as a commercial venture lastyear. The US company is the largest shareholder in Inmarsat, which was privatised fully in April. Lockheed Martin plans to ac- quire49% for cash in the first phase of the merger, subject to US Federal Communications Com mission approval of the company as an "authorised carrier" under the Satellite Act. The acquisition also requires anti-trust approval. In the second phase of the trans action, Comsat would merge with Lockheed Martin's new Global Telecommunications subsidiary in a stock-swap deal. This would require legislation to remove exist ing ownership restrictions on Comsat voting stock, and although the Senate's satellite reform legis lation would accomplish this, itstill has to be approved by the full Congress. • Fokker cash will finally flow to ordinary creditors THE TRUSTEES of bankrupt aircraft manufacturer Fokker expect to make initial payments to ordinary creditors in September - more than nine months later than originally planned - following set tlement of a legal dispute with the Dutch tax authorities. Trustees have also reached agreement with American Airlines and US Airways over large disput ed claims, so that payments to acknowledged ordinary creditors will be higher than expected, with most receiving 60% of what they are owed. A total of DF1860 million (S415 million) will be paid out. Large single beneficiaries will include former Fokker parent DaimlerChrysler (DF1117 mil lion), US Airways (DFU7 million) and Lufthansa CityLine (DFU3 million). Banks and other financial institutions that have bought claims from creditors since the bankruptcy will receive DF1337 million between them. The tax authority, which had demanded DF1560 million, has agreed to limit its claim to a maxi mum of DFU40 million, allowing payments to ordinary creditors to proceed. Preferred creditors, enti tled to have their claims settled in full, were paid last year. The trustees warn that Teleflex Control Systems, which recently submitted a $500 million claim relating to the crash of a TAM Fokker 100 at Sao Paulo in 1996, could lodge an objection to the lat est distribution. But they say the product liability insurance of .Fokker Aircraft "offers adequate cover" should it be required. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 1 - 7 September 1999
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