On The Fly…

A current airline pilot with a Ph. D, Russel G. Chew, is the FAA’s new chief operating officer. Chew will leave American Airlines, where he runs the day-to-day operations and grabs the odd flight himself, to start his new job on Aug. 1. He’ll be in charge of ATC, research and acquisition programs…

The oldest Concorde in Air France’s fleet landed at Dulles Airport Thursday to become a star attraction at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, the Smithsonian’s new museum at Dulles. F-BVFA spent 27 years carrying the rich, the famous and the curious at 1,350 mph and 60,000 feet. The supersonic fleet was retired due to high costs and low ridership…

Bombardier‘s new boss defended his $1.5 million U.S. paycheck to unhappy investors June 10, not long after the company lost a $3 billion contract to arch-rival Embraer. Tellier told reporters he expected the shareholders to be unhappy but he said his salary is a bit more than he got at Canadian National Railway and he wasn’t going to take a cut to join Bombardier…

EADS Socata has named Stephane Mayer as CEO. Mayer is 40 and holds engineering, administration and political studies degrees. He takes over from Philippe Debrun and will also take over the responsibilities of Jean-Francois Trassard, the senior executive vice president…

The Liberty XL-2 has completed spin testing successfully. Spokesman Russ Greenberg said the two-place touring plane passed every spin test with flying colors and actually resisted spinning in some configurations. Spin testing is considered the last big hurdle before certification and that’s expected by the end of July…

If you’re a woman and you like to fly with friends, Women With Wings might be for you. The informal group is planning its fourth group caravan to EAA AirVenture at Oshkosh. Any women pilots (men are welcome as passengers or co-pilots) who want to join can meet at Wisconsin’s Rock County Airport the morning of July 26 for a mandatory two-hour briefing before taking off in the afternoon.