A Scandinavian-based start-up airline with plans to begin long-haul, low-cost service has delayed its scheduled launch this summer to develop a longer-term plan with more rapid expansion and additional aircraft, according to Kai Holmberg, CEO of Feel Air. He says plans are on track to begin service this winter to New York and Bangkok from Oslo and Stockholm, adding Miami the next summer. Holmberg says Feel Air has government approval and the $40 million in financing required to launch the airline, but needs another $30 million to fund its five-year plan.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) conducted a flight test of a two-stage Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI), from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., on June 6. The two-stage GBI is undergoing developmental testing as part of the Defense Department’s investment in a new missile defense option for homeland defense. A target missile was not launched for this test. Following flyout maneuvers, the two-stage booster delivered an exoatmospheric kill vehicle to a designated point in space.
India looks like it is failing in one of the key objectives of its defense industrial policy—its desire to bring advanced Western technology into domestic-foreign joint ventures on its own territory.
By one count, there are 13 different lobbying firms plus each contractor’s in-house lobbyists engaging lawmakers on the Joint Strike Fighter engine battle between Pratt & Whitney and a General Electric-Rolls Royce team. The independent Center for Public Integrity says there are 75 lobbyists working on defense issues at the firms engaged in the engine debate, of whom at least 56 are former congressional staffers or executive branch officials. Of those, at least 33 are registered to work on the engine issue specifically, according to CPI.
Basil Barimo has become vice president-global engineering and quality of the Nordam Repair Group , Tulsa, Okla. He was vice president-operations and safety for the Air Transport Association of America.
Mexican low-cost carrier VivaAerobus is scheduled to begin charging customers for carry-on bags, according to CEO Juan Carlos Zuazua, speaking recently at the Low-Cost Carriers Conference Americas in Miami. The charge—based on weight with the first 7 kg. (15 lb.) allowed onboard for free—will be implemented initially in Monterrey and Guadalajara, where bags will be weighed and money collected before passengers go through security.
Frank Morring, Jr. (Ahmadabad, India), Neelam Mathews (Ahmadabad, India)
After almost five decades of working to “bring the benefits of space to the common man,” India’s government space program is able to deliver on its early promise. While the U.S. and the Soviet Union were gearing up for their Cold War space race, physicist Vikram Sarabhai, the father of India’s space program, argued that his developing nation had a role in space, too.
Lee K. Barba has been named to the board of directors of the EDAC Technologies Corp. , Farmington, Conn. He was chairman/CEO of the Thinkorswim Group Inc.
The protracted process to put NATO’s Alliance Ground Surveillance system out to contract is now in its final phase, with industry responding to the request for proposals in the hope of gaining a go-ahead around the time alliance leaders meet in Lisbon in November. The centerpiece of the AGS program is the U.S. Air Force’s Global Hawk Block 40, with components also coming from others. Selex, for instance, plans to deliver a wideband line-of-sight datalink and identification-friend-or-foe system, while EADS would work on the ground station.
Orbital Sciences Corp. is expected to launch NASA’s Interface Regional Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) spacecraft under a new contract worth $40 million. Launch of the IRIS mission, which will measure the flow of energy and plasma through the heliosphere and the Sun’s atmosphere, is set for December 2012 on a Pegasus XL air-launched rocket staging from Vandenberg AFB, Calif.
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has received $77.3 million in economic stimulus funding to increase security at U.S. airports. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says $66.4 million of that amount will be used to install inline baggage systems at San Diego International Airport ($28.3 million), Phoenix Sky Harbor ($26.6 million) and Little Rock (Ark.) National Airport ($11.5 million).
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency said it successfully conducted a flight test of a two-stage Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI) once eyed for European deployment, launching from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., at 3:25 p.m. PDT on June 6. Still, a target missile was not launched for an intercept test in this exercise. “After performing flyout maneuvers, the two-stage booster delivered an exoatmospheric kill vehicle to a designated point in space,” MDA said in a statement.
While supportive of FAA’s move to a satellite-based air traffic management system, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association thinks the “out” element of ADS-B delivers little or no benefit to general aviation aircraft operators. Heidi Williams, AOPA’s senior director of airspace and modernization, says ADS-B Out “really doesn’t get the general aviation aircraft operator anything more than what he gets today” from the ground-based ATC system.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) says its Hayabusa asteroid sample return spacecraft will now definitely land in the Woomera Prohibited Area in South Australia around midnight June 13, following successful completion of the third and fourth trajectory correction maneuvers on June 5 and 9. The return will complete the seven-year mission, which launched on an M-V rocket in May 2003. When it reaches Earth, Hayabusa will release its 17-kg. (37-lb.) asteroid recovery sample capsule. The main spacecraft will burn up in the atmosphere, leaving the 40-cm.-dia.
An article in the issue of June 7 (p. 34) incorrectly listed the Boeing unit that will have a role in the Iridium Next contract awarded to Thales Alenia. Boeing’s Intelligence and Security Systems Mission Operations group will do the work.
CIT Leasing has canceled orders for four Airbus A319s and four A320s, marking the first cancellations Airbus has incurred this year. As part of the transaction, CIT Leasing placed an order for four A330-200s. In addition the airframe manufacturer has had orders for two A330-220F aircraft canceled by Guggenheim Aviation Partners, which instead is increasing its order for A330-300s to three passenger transports from one.
Cosmonaut Oleg Kotov shot this view of Tibet from orbit while he was commander of Expedition 23 to the International Space Station, before returning to Earth on June 1 after 163 days in space. A medical doctor and avid photographer who also logged more than 196 days on the ISS in 2007 as a flight engineer on Expedition 15, Kotov is now back at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center near Moscow recovering from his most recent long-duration exposure to microgravity.
Indian airlines are cautiously looking at growth plans again as they recover from a recession that produced combined losses of $2 billion in the last financial year. The downturn has strengthened the low-cost model, with one of the three largest carriers moving more capacity into a new no-frills division. Budget airlines have emerged from the recession with a bigger share of traffic. The biggest of them, IndiGo, says it wants to buy 150 aircraft.
The German military’s appetite for new military rotorcraft is creating a stir throughout the U.S. and European helicopter industry, with an unusual number of critical decisions looming.
The Defense Department’s planning, programming, budget and execution system is out of sync with warfighting operations and the Pentagon knows it, according to a survey of inside officials and top executives. The American Society of Military Comptrollers had consultancy Grant Thornton survey 1,014 civilian and uniformed and civilian defense bean counters. Among their concerns is the rise of off-book, ad hoc supplemental funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Development strategies are crystallizing for a new heavy-lift helicopter with the European Defense Agency release of a request for information and NATO working on turning an alliance staff target for such a rotorcraft into an actual requirement.
Malaysian long-haul budget airline AirAsia X is planning an initial public offering in the second half of next year to support expansion. Parent AirAsia plans to restructure its business and create independent entities for the different carriers operating under its umbrella.
