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NEWS ARCHIVES

ONLINE AEROSPACE-INDUSTRY INNOVATOR AVOLO NAMES WARREN MEYER PRESIDENT

Diverse Background Includes E-Commerce, Aviation, and Manufacturing; Known for Marketing Expertise and Leadership Skills

Seattle, WA, May 11, 2001-Avolo, the aerospace technology innovator that offers a suite of ASP hosted and exchange-based solutions, has named Warren Meyer as its new President and Chief Operating Officer. He brings a wealth of experience to the position, having held senior management positions in leading online, aviation, and manufacturing companies.

"We are fortunate to find as talented and experienced an individual as Warren for this important position," remarked Andrew Fedak, Avolo Chief Executive Officer in making the announcement. "His experiences, specifically at Mercata, where he set up and headed its We-Commerce Network, gives him a wealth of knowledge and insight that translates directly into what Avolo is all about. In particular, his experience providing solutions in a private-label ASP format is a nice fit with where Avolo is taking its business."

Meyer comes to Avolo after serving as Executive Vice President and General Manager of We-Commerce Network, a division of Mercata, the Internet-based group buying company. The company provided a hosted, private-labeled version of Mercata's patented group-buying transaction model to a variety of B2C and B2B sites. In its first six months of operation, Meyer was directly responsible for bringing a number of Fortune 500 accounts into the fold.

"I'm excited about the challenges that lie ahead," said Meyer. "Avolo is entering a critical stage of its existence as it stretches beyond its startup phase and offers customers an ever-widening array of solutions. My task is to ensure we focus our activities and energies on providing the aviation industry with the most comprehensive offering of online services available, and that we be able to offer these services in a variety of formats to suit individual customer needs. I fully expect to develop systems in areas where we, as a company, have yet to explore."

Prior to joining Mercata, Meyer was Vice President for Marketing and E-Business in the $4-billion air transport and regional business sector of the former AlliedSignal Company, now Honeywell. While in the position, he led the company's efforts to craft aftermarket and e-commerce strategy. He also served as Vice President of Marketing for the firm's engine business, where he managed product specifications and introductions, OEM sales, channel management, and advertising and public relations activities.

"Warren Meyer's background as an innovative marketer is outstanding," said Peter Berghammer, Avolo Vice President of Marketing. "I believe what he brings to this position is exactly what the company needs at this point of its existence. I am looking forward to working with him in positioning Avolo as the leading online aviation service provider in the world."

Meyer also was involved with three divisions of Emerson Electric Corporation. He served as Senior Vice President of Marketing in it Fisher-Rosemont flow measurement group, where he led the marketing efforts of five divisions, constituting $500-million in sales. Likewise, he was Senior Vice President of Marketing for the company's Micro Motion division, which manufacturers precision instrumentation products. He began his Emerson career as Vice President of Strategic Planning in its corporate office.

Other positions Meyer has had include Senior Engagement Manager for management consultant McKinsey and Company; assistant to the President at Rhode Gear, USA; and project engineer for Exxon Company, USA.

Meyer earned a Master in Business Administration with High Distinction (Baker Scholar) from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. He was a Henry Ford Scholarship winner and a recipient of a Loeb Fellowship.

His undergraduate work was done at Princeton University. He was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree, magna cum laude, in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. He was named a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Tau Beta Pi, and Sigma Xi honor societies.

About Avolo: Avolo (www.avolo.com) was founded in 1999 by aviation and e-commerce industry leaders to facilitate Internet based sales, asset management and procurement services. Avolo takes advantage of state-of-the-art Internet and software tools to rapidly deploy solutions for its aerospace clients. Avolo currently offers its solutions to customers in two different formats: Exchange-based solutions and private-branded hosted solutions.

Avolo's exchange solutions currently include the following online tools: Request for Quote (RFQ)-a cost-effective means for aviation and aerospace professionals to place-online-requests for parts, and in a matter of minutes, receive quotes from suppliers around the world; Counter Quote-a negotiation tool initiated by buyers to more efficiently communicate changes in RFQs to suppliers; Auto-Quote-an automatic response system by which suppliers can respond to RFQs; Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) services-provides aerospace and aviation companies a quick and easy-to-use interactive method for finding and comparing MRO facilities; and the Avolo Catalog-a fast and convenient way to access or distribute product information and transact online catalog purchases.

Avolo's private-branded hosted Internet solutions are uniquely positioned to enable corporations to rapidly enable web-based operations. Avolo integrates business strategy, industry experience, technology, and program management to assist customers in increasing efficiencies and prioritizing a portfolio of suppliers that offer better methods to maximize profitability. These solutions are hosted by Avolo, thereby minimizing startup time and management headaches, but presented in a way that they appear to users to be fully integrated into the client's site and branding. Current available solutions include an aerospace-enabled online catalog; a range of asset management solutions including customized applications for management of loans and borrows; and applications to automatically generate and send RFQs and purchase orders from the client's inventory management systems.

The company is privately held and funded by East River Ventures N.Y.; Cedar Grove Investments, Kirkland, WA; Citicorp, N.Y.; Riverside Management Group N.Y.; Cascadia Capital LLC, Kirkland, WA; Allen & Co. N.Y.; KIRNAF Ltd. of Riyadh; and private investors.

Avolo Contact:
Peter Berghammer
Vice President, Marketing
(206) 767-0180
pberghammer@avolo.com

PR Contact:
Susan van Barneveld
Antarra Communications
(714) 899-7997
svanbarn@antarra.com
 

USAirways Flight Nearly Hijacked by Pig! (Nov. 12, 2000)

According to a story in the Philadelphia Daily News, a pig tried to crash its way into the cockpit of a USAirways jet during landing on a Philadelphia to Seattle flight.

What was a pig doing on a scheduled commercial flight, you may ask? Better yet: What was it doing in First Class?

Yes, unbelievable as it may sound, two women booked the swine into the First Class cabin by having a doctor certify that the pig was a “service animal,” like a Seeing-Eye dog.

But when the women called ahead to arrange the trip with USAirways, they told the booking agent the oinker weighed only 13 pounds. Well, the porker must have made quit a “pig” of itself between the booking and the actual flight, because it wound up checking in at 300 pounds!

Apparently, though, the pet pig was well behaved, as it slept nearly the whole flight. It wasn’t until the plane began its descent for landing that the porcine terrorist went berserk, “hog wild,“ you might say. Members of the flight crew had quite a time trying to restrain it.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident as a possible policy or safety violation. Meanwhile, a USAirways spokesman confirmed the pig flew on the plane, but "There are no further developments, nothing further to say."

 

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif.

Once a legend, always a legend. Once a pilot, always a pilot.  Aviation icon Chuck Yeager is still strapping on the big jets, even at age 77. 

Yeager, climbing out of a F-15 fighter at Edwards Air Force Base where he’ll fly in an upcoming airshow, said: ``Airplanes are just like cars. If you can fly one, you can fly most of them. ''

The retired Air Force general often flies a restored P-51D Mustang named Glamorous Glennis, named after his wife, Glennis, just like the one he flew in Europe during World War II.

Yeager joined the Air Force in 1941 as a mechanic, but requested pilot training and soon found himself in the cockpit of a P-39 in the skies over Tonopah, Nev. He soon graduated to the famous Mustang, which he flew over occupied Europe and Germany. His first taste of combat came in 1944 over the coast of France. He flew the Mustang until being shot down, but not before becoming a double ace, with 11.5 victories.

``I don't live in the past,'' he said, referring to the venerable fighter. ``But I sure like that plane.''

Yeager is best remembered as the first man to break the sound barrier in, flying the experimental X-1 rocket plane.

Lockheed-Martinīs Joint Strike Fighterīs First Flight (Oct. 2000)

Lockheed Martin's demonstrator X-35A completed what the test pilot Tom Morgenfeld called a ``sparkling'' first flight.

 The next-generation fighter, dubbed the Joint Strike Fighter because one basic airframe will serve the Air force, Navy and Marines, will be worth as much as $200 billion to its builder.

Morgenfeld took the jet flew to a meager10, 000 feet during a 22-minute flight between Palmdale and Edwards Air Force Base. He kept the speeds subsonic and maneuvers gentle. One minor glitch marred the otherwise perfect flight: a signal malfunction that showed a landing gear door open when it wasn't.

``There were no surprises. It flew exactly as we expected it to,'' he said. ``The performance was absolutely sparkling. The landing was one of the easiest I've ever done.''

Maryland-based Lockheed and Seattle-based Boeing Co. are competing for a Pentagon contract to build the fighter, which will eventually replace the F-16, F-15 and Harrier. Britain's Royal Navy and Royal Air Force are also likely to use the new fighter.

Pentagon estimates put the production plane’s cost at $28 million to $38 million per plane, depending on the version. Production will star in 2007, eventually producing 3000 aircraft.

Boeing's X-32A demonstrator made its first flight last month at Edwards. The winner of the competition will be announced next fall.

Saturn Has Four New Moons (Oct. 2000)

WASHINGTON, Oct 26 - Astronomers have found four new moons orbiting Saturn, giving the ringed planet a total of 22 known moons, more than any other in the solar system. Uranus has the next most moons with 21.

The newly discovered moons orbit the planet at about 9 million miles (15 million km). and, except for their relative brightness, little else is known about them at this time.

The team at Cornell University in New York that made the discovery says the moons are tiny -- between 6 and 30 miles (10 and 50 km) across. These faint dots of light moving around the planet may be small, but they may have siblings, according to the researchers, led by professors of astronomy Joseph Burns and Philip Nicholson, who plan to tell a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Pasadena, California that they may have found other possible moons orbiting Saturn as well.

A Political Party Advocates UFO Disclosure (October 2000)

Please visit http://www.constitution.net the Only Party Demanding full disclosure of UFO and alien information and Promising to open Area 51 to public scrutiny. Check it out.

NASAīs New Mars Program (Oct. 2000)

NASA unveiled its latest plans for the exploration of the Red Planet on Thursday, October 26. Most remarkable was the announcement that the long-awaited mission to recover and return to Earth samples of Martian soil will be delayed until at least 2011. The date for that mission had been 2005.

Scott Hubbard, the new Mars program manager who made the announcement, was put in place last summer after two disastrous mission failures. First the Climate Observer either burned up in the atmosphere or crashed into the planet’s surface because of an embarrassing navigational error. Then the Polar Lander simply disappeared as it entered the atmosphere. Scientists aren’t sure what went wrong.

Hubbard said NASA plans to spend between $400 million and $450 million a year over the next five years on various missions to explore the climate and geology. All in the hopes of identifying the most promising spot for the later Martian Rover, which will bring back soil samples to be examined for evidence of life.

“We now have an excellent team in place,” he said. “We have clear processes for management, we have clear lines of accountability and responsibility and we have effective means of risk oversight and management..”

Associate Administrator for Space Science Edward Weiler said: “Ultimately, we want to go to Mars and get a sample and bring it back to Earth. But we have to be very, very sure that that billion- or two- billion-dollar mission to go get a sample is going to the right place on Mars.

FIRST CIVILIAN F-16, F-18 GO UP FOR SALE (July 21, 2000)

Air Capitol Warbirds LLC of Wichita, Kansas, and Fulcrum Inc. of Ontario, Canada, have just added two exciting additions to their existing stable of 26 ex-military jets.

Air Capitol, a warbird restoration company, purchased an F-16 and an F-18.  The federal government demilitarized both jets as a condition of the sale, and both will require lots of work before either one takes to the sky. The F-18, a former Blue Angel performer, will take longer to restore to flying condition, since it arrived without wings or instruments. Company officials, however, said that it has located all necessary parts for the restoration and expects to have the F-18 flying by the end of the year.

The F-16 is another story.  It may take two years’ work to restore. Nonetheless, a civilian has already plunked down a token $100,000 deposit to hold the F-16, which will be fully functional, except for the “Top Guns” weapons systems. And, if you can afford the no-doubt astronomical insurance, the F-18 Hornet can be had under a similar arrangement.

Aviation Conference Schedule Announced (July 15, 2000)

U.S. Aviation: 2001/ Issues and Answers Conference wil be held in Scottsdale, AZ, on October 29-31, 2000.

If you have any questions, please contact Christine Brink at The Boyd Group, 303-674-2000, or by email:christine@aviationsys.com

First Amateur in Space? (July, 13, 2000)

A forty-four-year-old toy inventor from Bend, Ore., says heīll be the first private citizen to make it to Outer Space.

"I'm planning on being the first private human being to go to space in a home-built rocket," says Brian Walker, who says heīs wanted to build his own rocket since he was 8.

Walker is spending a quarter-million dollars of his own money to launch himself to a planned apogee of about 30 miles, about halfway to what scientists consider "space."  Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer Robert Frisbee says Walker's plan should work "in theory," though "it'll be a wild ride." Blastoff is tentatively scheduled for next year.

 “I'm not going orbital. I'm not going to the moon," Walker said. "I'm only carrying so much fuel. I can only go so high, and when I run out of fuel, I'll come back down." (Seattle Times) At least he has the "what goes up must come down" thing figured out pretty well.

In related news, Brian Walker has competition. Steve Bennett, 36, of Manchester, England, also hopes to be the first amateur to fly in space, but he has plans to make money. The former "toothpaste technician",  intends to launch a three-seat rocket into space in 2003. While he pilots the spacecraft, the other two seats will be--hopefully-- occupied by paying passengers. He is selling the second seat for 65,000 pounds (US$100,000) and the third is being raffled off.

But donīt laugh, the latest test of his two-stage, 22-foot-long Starchaser Discovery rocket made it to 19,000 feet--and back!

NASA to Announce Evidence of Water on Mars (June 21, 2000)

Sources tell Aerosphere that  NASA will soon announce that the Mars Global Surveyor has found evidence of surface water on the Red Planet.

The probe has relayed evidence suggesting surface spring water, which grows and shrinks with the Martian seasons. If confirmed, the chances for life existing on Mars today are very much greater than previously thought. A source who preferred not to be identified called the discovery “profound.”

F-14 Tomcat Crashes at Willow Grove Airshow (June 19, 2000)

WILLOW GROVE, Pa. As horrified airshow spectators  looked on, an F14 Tomcat fighter jet crashed and burned, killing the pilot and radar intercept officer.

The jet was  performing at the Willow Grove 2000 Sounds of Freedom air show about 4:43 p.m. Sunday when it banked steeply and plunged into a wooded area about 100 yards from the runway.

The names of the victims have not been released, pending notification of family. According to Mike Maus, a spokesman for the Naval Air Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, in Norfolk, Va., the aircraft was part of Squadron 101 based at Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach, Va.

 Levent Aydin of Montgomery County emergency dispatch services said that no civilian injuries were reported and no structures were hit, but three emergency personnel were treated for injuries at the crash scene, including a military firefighter who was transported back to the base 15 miles north of Philadelphia.

The Tomcat was the second military fighter to go down this airshow season. In March, in an airshow near Kingsville Naval Air Station in Texas, an Air Force F16 fighter jet crashed while performing a split-S, a maneuver that calls for a half roll followed by the second half of a loop. The F-16 pilot was killed.

According to witnesses, the Tomcat  was displaying a landing ``waveoff,'' which involves approaching at low speed and high angle of attack, before going to full afterburners to simulate having to circle for another landing attempt because something with the ship or the aircraft's approach was not quite right.

One spectator, Bruce Baldus, 34, said he was in the crowd watching as the plane turned, faltered, and sank toward the trees, according to an AP report.

``When he got below the trees, you could tell he was in trouble. It looked like it fell out of the air,'' Baldus said. ``It was only a second, and then there was smoke and a huge fireball.''

Maus said a panel of senior naval aviators will investigate the cause of the accident. The Federal Aviation Administration will conduct its own investigation since the crash happened on civilian property.

 

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