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Published on: 9/5/2002
Last Visited: 9/5/2002
INTERVIEW: Walter Kross, Flight Explorer's commander
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Walter Kross
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Ten years ago, Walter Kross directed the largest military transportation operation since World War II.Now he's leading a new enterprise in the private sector.
The retired four-star Air Force general recently became president and chief executive officer of Flight Explorer, a Fairfax, Va., provider of flight-tracking information systems.
During the Gulf War, Kross was chief operating officer and then commander-in-chief of the Transportation Command.His military career also included posts as commander of the Air Force's Air Mobility Command, director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and director of operations for the Air Force.
Kross worked with the Federal Aviation Administration to establish the Global Air Traffic Management program, which keeps U.S. military avionics systems compatible with those of foreign countries.
After leaving the government in 1998, Kross became chairman of the board of OilGuard Environmental Inc. of Vista, Calif.He then spent two years as a partner and managing director at KPMG International of New York, where he was active in the national transportation consulting practice.
Kross received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Niagara University, a master's in government from Auburn University and a master's in public administration from Southern Illinois University.
GCN associate editor Patricia Daukantas interviewed Kross by telephone.
GCN: How is working in the private sector different from working in the Air Force?
KROSS: I left a good position with KPMG International of New York to lead a company with an exciting product.It's a wonderful challenge.
It's different from serving in the military; there's no doubt about it.This is an entrepreneurial, profit-and-loss operation with a commercial product for sale.The military is a profession, a calling that focuses on everything from humanitarian missions to hot conflicts.When you get up in the morning in that job, you could be in a life-and-death situation.Here, it's only a financial life-and-death situation.
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KROSS: Yes, they do.Our proprietary software takes data from FAA and turns it into usable information, much the same way that Microsoft Windows turns data into usable information.That makes it a product that you can market back to FAA, and the agency sees the value of it.FAA officials have been quite cooperative about the commercial development of companies like ours because they know it's faster, better, cheaper than doing it themselves.
GCN: What does Flight Explorer do?
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KROSS: It takes basic plane location data and displays it visually with identifying tags.It shows altitude, air speed and continually updated arrival time.Customers-ranging from airports and major airlines all the way down through rental car firms and the company that meets the airplane to put the meals aboard-use this in their operations centers, just as FAA does.They need to know when planes are going to arrive.
Folks don't use Flight Explorer to control planes, as in air traffic control, because those systems have to be certified.This is a flight-monitoring system, and companies that need to match their resources to arriving planes can use the information to make big financial decisions.
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KROSS: I think so.Before I left the Transportation Command, we were applying wireless technology to fill a lot of our needs to make transportation more efficient.
Our product is applicable to personal digital assistants, cellular phones and other wireless devices.We are in discussions with such companies to go to market together.Wireless is definitely where we're headed.
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KROSS: We conducted the Desert Storm deployment using 286 processor technology with very slow transfer rates, without the Internet, without the Web and without encrypted satellite information.We basically used telexes.
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Age: 58
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KROSS: It would be presumptuous on my part to be prescriptive to them.I think agencies are getting the message now, and that's to use best commercial practices wherever possible.Don't reinvent the wheel.The sense from Congress and everybody else is to foster that, and you do see it.
Our company is a manifestation of FAA's vision in this area.It saw that products like ours could be developed in the commercial marketplace faster, better, cheaper.
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KROSS: It was founded in 1998 by then-secretary William Cohen.He visited the Transportation Command, and he could see it was a military organization that was infusing best commercial practices and saving hundreds of millions of dollars.
He invited me, when I retired, to pick a group of chief executive officers and advise him and the senior people in the department on the kinds of practices that would work.
The companies represented on the CEO Panel included Cisco Systems Inc. of San Jose, Calif., Federal Express and various manufacturers.It was not the standard set of defense companies.We were really looking for best commercial practices.Everybody could contribute something, and they did.
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KROSS: More and more every day.If you took a person-by-person poll now of generals and admirals in the Defense Department, you wouldn't find any dinosaurs.They're all gone.
Two or three years ago, there were still a few who wouldn't use e-mail and wouldn't know how to do a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation or how to use Microsoft Excel or how to get on the Internet.Now, they all do.
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