Chile-based LAN’s attempt to create a global powerhouse by merging with Brazilian operator TAM seems likely to have a dramatic impact on Latin America’s most important market—Brazil—and its largest competitor—GOL. Still, a lack of details has left many wondering exactly how large the competitive impact of a giant called Latam Airlines Group will have on the region.
Rivals Lockheed Martin and Boeing are locked in a duel to nab what is likely the single largest pot of money up for grabs at the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) in the coming years.
Graham Warwick (Washington), Amy Butler (NAS Patuxent River, Md.)
Within months, unpiloted helicopters could be resupplying remote bases in the mountains of Afghanistan, if the U.S. Navy proceeds with plans to acquire unmanned cargo aircraft to meet immediate Marine Corps requirements.
The Aerospace Industries Association has narrowed its set of recommendations for federal officials and lawmakers to consider in trying to build “affordability” into weapon systems budgeting. The AIA says multiyear procurements, stabilizing the requirements process, and combining multi-agency compliance reviews would go a long way toward fixing the defense spending process. The trade group has supported Obama administration efforts to reform spending and procurement, especially efforts like bolstering the acquisition workforce, but the association in its Aug.
The latest classes of unmanned aircraft operators being trained here are winning accolades as the quickest studies the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) Heron 1 instructors have ever taught. The German air force is sending through several dozen pilots and sensor operators in a series of classes as they spin up their unmanned intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance unit in Afghanistan.
Lockheed Martin has completed the first of three test flights planned under the competitive technology-demonstration phase of the U.S. Army-led Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) program. The Raytheon/Boeing team made its first flight in April. JAGM is planned to replace the Hellfire, Maverick and TOW missiles, with a downselect by year-end. The first launch resulted in a direct hit on a static target at 16-km. (10-mi.) range, using semi-active laser guidance. .
Michael O’Sullivan (see photo) has become chief financial officer of Cincinnati-based Nexcelle . He was the CFO of GE Aviation’s Maryland-based Middle River Aircraft Systems, which is one of Nexcelle’s two parent companies.
The FAA, Raytheon and Airports Authority of India are in agreement on algorithms from the Indian Space Research Organization that will address ionospheric interference that has plagued India’s global positioning satellite signals.
The Virgin Galactic WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) mothership was damaged on Aug. 19 when its left main landing gear collapsed on the runway at Mojave, Calif. The Scaled Composites-designed SpaceShipTwo (SS2) spaceship was not suspended beneath the WK2 at the time. Scaled Composites says WK2 was on its 37th test flight when the gear collapsed.
The U.S. Air Force has selected Rockwell Collins over Boeing to develop, integrate and deliver the Common Range Integrated Instrumentation System (Criis) for military test ranges in a potential $300-million award. Criis is supposed to provide time, space and position information and system test data to support weapon testing for platforms, including fighters, helicopters and unmanned aerial systems.
Australia’s Virgin Blue group will direct its Pacific Blue offshoot toward international service, abandoning its domestic New Zealand business, in the first phase of a network review. Another airline in the group, V Australia, will focus on long-haul routes, dropping its service to Fiji, which Pacific Blue will pick up. Jetstar, a budget airline operated by Virgin Blue rival Qantas, will increase its New Zealand business, adding two A320s to the eight it already operates there.
Private Vietnamese airline Air Mekong plans to begin flying its domestic routes on Oct. 10 with four Bombardier CRJ900s supplied by U.S. carrier SkyWest. Air Mekong will connect domestic destinations from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
The huge Eitan/Heron 2 unmanned reconnaissance aircraft and the F-15I Ra’am long-range strike fighter both fly from this base. It is not an obvious pairing until you hear the reports—all unofficial—about what the duo has done to generate some operational creativity. “Not always knowing what the results will be is one of the most magical things in this world,” says Capt. O, second deputy commander for training in the first Eitan unit, thought to be 210 Sqd. “If you limit yourself or say we can go no further, you will miss something, perhaps a lot.”
Sanjay Nanda has been named senior vice president-consulting and solutions delivery and Mark Silagy senior vice president-customer care and support for Sabre Airline Solutions , Southlake, Texas. Nanda previously worked for McKinsey & Co. Silagy was senior vice president-service and operations solutions for the Sabre Travel Network. Chris Serafin has been appointed senior vice president/program executive for leading and executing key business initiatives. He was senior vice president-product and solutions development for Sabre Travel Network and Airline Solutions.
Two European airlines’ maintenance and engineering operations are looking toward the future through apprenticeship programs. Lufthansa Technik just started 257 apprenticeships in Germany and British Airways Engineering will have 105 in London on Sept. 6. The robust, Germany-based training program that started in 1956 includes 1,025 young people.
The Indian government expects to spend about $235 million to upgrade its Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighters. The defense ministry expects a phased program that will begin in 2012.
Although the result of Mexicana’s bankruptcy restructuring is uncertain, the airline’s fleet will shrink by almost 40%. Under an agreement last week, the troubled carrier will return a total of 27 Airbus narrowbodies to AerCap, GE Capital Aviation Services and International Lease Finance Corp., ending all three lessors’ associations with the carrier.
Pattonair plans to open a 20,000-sq.-ft. logistics center in Indianapolis on Dec. 1 to support the former Allison engine line now owned by Rolls-Royce. In a seven-year contract, Pattonair extends the parts delivery services contract it already holds to support Rolls’ commercial engines in Derby, England, and business and regional jet powerplants from Dahlewitz, Germany.
Like most legislation, the new NASA compromise emerging on Capitol Hill is leaving plenty of folks unsatisfied. But the Planetary Society goes one step further and declares the “committee-by-committee” results confounding. “We are concerned about omissions and a lack of coherence in the four committees’ versions of this bill,” the group announced Aug. 19. The society says there is still too much vagueness about replacing the space shuttle and setting goals for human spaceflight.
Government Accountability Office (GAO) auditors are on a fast track to rule on a contracting protest from disqualified KC-X bidder U.S. Aerospace, which claims the U.S. Air Force intentionally delayed receipt of its proposal by 5 min., eliminating it from consideration. The congressional agency granted a USAF request to expedite making a decision within 65 days of the protest, or by Oct. 6, rather than the standard 100-day window for GAO responses.
Ken Tollstam has become a vice president within the Aviation Programs Group of SRA International Inc. , Fairfax, Va. He was an executive of the Sensis Corp. and Boeing Commercial Airplane Group.
The British government is augmenting its strategic defense review with an effort aimed at radically overhauling how the armed forces are managed. One goal is to avoid missteps that contributed to ballooning program costs.
U.S. homeland security officials are growing their fleet of General Atomics Predator B unmanned aerial systems (UAS) for domestic border protection, in part due to congressional insistence, yet their most visionary goal remains unmanned maritime patrol aircraft.
After reading “Short List” (AW&ST Aug. 16, p. 30), I can only conclude that human spaceflight has been reduced to a one-off mission—15 years from now—that will last six months, send some astronauts to explore an asteroid of little or no scientific value just to return a few kilograms of material back to Earth. It is a distinctly aweless move. I envision the lucky astronauts sporting shirts emblazoned with: “President Obama sent me to 1999 AO10 and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.”
Boeing Defense, Space & Security plans to open a manufacturing facility for assemblies and subassemblies at MidAmerica Airport in Mascoutah, Ill., by early in 2011, says President and CEO Dennis Muilenburg. The plant is about 30 mi. from Boeing’s main defense facility in St. Louis, where the F/A-18E/F and F-15 are manufactured and the C-17 and other programs are supported. A Boeing official said no decision has been made on what programs the MidAmerica factory will support. Boeing expects to hire and train about 75 workers at MidAmerica initially.
