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As a  program manager at Northwest Captain Haapala oversaw the introduction of the B-757.  Later as a director of flight operations he was responsible for the introduction of Northwest’s A320 and B-747-400 airplanes.   He played a major role in introducing ACARS to Northwest Airlines and was an early proponent of SATCOM and served as Northwest’s representative to AvSat’s Board of Directors.

In the early 90's Captain Haapala served for several years as Northwest’s representative to ARINC's Board of Directors and was the first chairman of AEEC’s Datalink User’s Forum. He served as a co-chairman of technical working groups on both RTCA Task Force 1 (on GNSS) and Task Force 2 (datalink communications). He also was a member of RTCA Task Force 3 on Free Flight.

Captain Haapala was largely responsible for Northwest’s decision to form a partnership with the industry to develop the operational concepts and certification philosophy for airline head-up displays, enhanced vision and electronic information management with organizations such as Sextant Avionique, Computing Devices International, Loral Fairchild, Lear Astronics and the Maryland Advanced Development Laboratory (Northwest’s work on enhanced vision, caused it to be awarded Flight Magazine’s Achievement Award for 1993 in the "Airline Operations Category").

Captain Haapala created the new position of director of flight development at Northwest which managed all of the new technology and operational improvement programs at that airline including new aircraft studies, satellite navigation and communication, datalink, head-up displays, enhanced vision and new routes over eastern Russia.

A frequent presenter at airline industry conferences worldwide Captain Haapala makes regular appearances at forums sponsored by the Air Traffic Control Association (RTCA), the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the Airline Pilot’s Association (ALPA), FAA, Inmarsat, Arinc, the Airline Electronics Engineering Committee (AEEC), the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA), the Air Transport Association (ATA), the Royal Aeronautical Society, Flight International Magazine, Boeing, Pratt and Whitney, Gables Engineering, and the University of North Dakota Aerospace Center.

Captain was the recipient of the Aviation Week 1994 Laurel for leadership in enhanced vision systems. "As an advocate of EVS, he has sparked interest in the use of head-up displays to allow commercial transport aircraft to take off and land under lower weather conditions." Captain Haapala was also a contributing author to The Handbook of Airline Economics published in 1995 by McGraw-Hill.

Last updated April 05, 2004