Posted by John McHaleMEMPHIS, Tenn., 18 April 2011. Greg Hall, senior vice president of technical operations at FedEx in Memphis, Tenn., told the audience at the Avionics Maintenance Conference that reducing fuel consumption and the dependence on foreign oil is the key to future growth. Hall made his comments during the keynote address.He said FedEx is reducing energy consumption the ground through the use of hybrid and electric vehicles and in the air through more fuel-efficient planes such as the Boeing 757. FedEx has a long-term goal of investing in technology to "reduce fuel consumption and costs and be more environmentally friendly," he addedAt the avionics level Hall said FedEx is investing in enhanced flight vision systems, state-of-the art head-up displays for the cockpit, and Counter MANPADS -- Man-portable air-defense systems -- technology.For future innovation the industry needs "to get off legacy based-systems embrace new technology," Hall said. They can't be teaching kids just out of college Fortran and Cobalt or programming systems from 1972."Veteran avionics engineers need to be encouraged "to spend some time with kids at the high school level, as the only thing they see about the aerospace industry is bad news" such as delays, mergers, layoffs, etc.
