Boeing has shifted its wet lease for operations of the four highly modified 747-400 freighters it uses to transport 787 wing and fuselage assemblies to Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, its largest customer for the 747-8F and—through subsidiaries—the world’s largest 747 freighter operator. The loser—Evergreen International Airlines—is an affiliate of the overhaul center that tripled the fuselage volume of standard 747-400 transports to create the so-called “Dreamlifters” to carry the 787 assemblies.
Foreign suppliers are turning to joint ventures with Indian manufacturers as one way to satisfy the country’s technology offset requirements, but they want caps on ownership levels loosened. Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, for instance, is asking India to increase the cap for direct investment by foreign original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in joint ventures with Indian companies to 49% as it pursues an agreement with government-owned Bharat Electronics (BEL) to produce imaging infrared seekers for Python-5 air-to-air missiles.
The Chinese space industry is studying a Moon rocket in the class of the Saturn V while separately moving ahead with a medium-heavy launcher that will complete a modern, modular family of launch vehicles. Chinese space engineers appear to be planning to assemble manned lunar spacecraft in orbit with two or more launches per mission.
Canada this month signed its first air services agreements with Tunisia and Ethiopia. The individual pacts allow carriers from each country to operate scheduled flights in the other’s territories, offer code-sharing services and adjust fares to meet market conditions. New air services are to be introduced immediately. Canada has signed air transport agreements with 50 countries since January 2006.
An article on the condition of the aircraft leasing business (Mar. 8, p. 22) misstated AerCap’s financial performance for 2008. The company completed that year with a net profit, but saw a net loss in the fourth quarter.
The biographical summary that accompanied the article on an interview with General Atomics Chairman/CEO Neal Blue (Mar. 1, p. 52) included an incorrect year for his college graduation. The correct year is 1957.
John Boeschenstein (see photo) has been promoted to president from vice president of Jedco Inc. , Grand Rapids, Mich. He succeeds Richard Lund, who has retired. Honors and Elections
The Aviation Week Intelligence Network has won the 2010 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for the best web site in its revenue category. In presenting the award Mar. 11 at an American Business Media luncheon in New York, the judges found AWIN’s coverage broad and “very well organized” across airlines, defense, space, business aviation, and maintenance, repair and overhaul.
USN Vice Adm. Bernard J. McCullough, 3rd, has been appointed commander of the Fleet Cyber Command/commander of the 10th Fleet, Ft. Meade, Md. He was deputy chief of naval operations for the integration of capabilities and resources at the Pentagon.
Georgia Institute of Technology will develop a new radar system as part of an airborne program to study the Earth’s ice and snow formations and could contribute information about climate change. A key element of the research, funded by NASA under a $2.4-million grant, centers on creation of a small, light-weight, low-cost phased array radar using silicon-germanium chips in tandem with radio-frequency micro-electromechanical systems. The radar would be installed on aircraft or satellites to provide high-quality 3D imagery and mapping of snow/ice.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates will outline changes to export control regulations in the “next couple of weeks,” says President Barack Obama, who wants to double U.S. exports in the next five years. Obama tells an Export-Import Bank conference the changes will include replacing the 30-60-day review period for exporting some network encryption technologies with a one-time online process, and easing regulations on exporting goods to companies with dual-nationality and foreign employees.
A third of the British Army’s WAH-64 Apache pilots are breaking the ministry’s so-called harmony guidelines as a result of the demands of operational deployment. The Apache is being relied on heavily in combat operations in Afghanistan. The Joint Helicopter Command’s guidelines are “for crews to serve four periods at home for every one in theater,” says Bill Rammell, the minister for the armed forces. Rammell adds: “Apache pilot harmony is improving constantly as more pilots are trained and become available for deployment.”
Nick Stanage has been named president of the Hexcel Corp. , Stamford, Conn. He was president of the heavy vehicle products unit of the Dana Holding Corp.
Directed Energy Systems, a subsidiary of Boeing’s Spectrolab business unit, has launched a 3D camera that is one-third the size and uses one-tenth the power of comparable systems for military and commercial applications. A company-funded research effort, the camera has been tested on a Boeing AH-6 Little Bird helicopter and trailers. Cube-shaped, it includes advanced sensors from the federally funded Lincoln Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Boeing says the camera is suitable for mapping, tracking targets and seeing through foliage.
The second satellite for Germany’s Satcom BW Stage 2 military communications satellite network—Comsat Bw-2—has entered integration for a Mar. 24 Ariane 5 ECA launch. The mission—the second of the year for the Ariane 5—will also send aloft a commercial telecom spacecraft, Astra 3B. Comsat Bw-1, Germany’s first dedicated military telecom satellite, was orbited on Oct. 1 (AW&ST Oct. 12, 2009, p. 36). Arianespace was earlier selected to launch OverHorizon-1, a 3.2-metric-ton Ku-band spacecraft intended to provide two-way broadband communications for vehicles on the move.
Cessna Aircraft’s Independence, Kan., facility delivered its 9,000th single-engine piston airplane, a 182T, on Mar. 4. The plant, built after passage of the General Aviation Revitalization Act in 1994 resolved long-term product liability concerns, produces the Skyhawk, Skylane, Stationair, Corvalis and Corvalis TT singles and Citation Mustang light twinjet.
Mathew J. Joyce (see photo) has been named vice president/program manager for Ground-based Midcourse Defense for Lockheed Martin Space Systems , Huntsville, Ala. He was the company’s vice president/program manager for the missile element of the Missile Defense Agency’s Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system.
A vast divide separates tactical electronic attack from aircraft and cyber attack at the strategic level, says a senior U.S. Air Force electronic warfare specialist, complaining that “contractor hype” is blurring the line. “Most of what is described as combining jamming and cyber is nothing more than the subtleties of smart jamming,” he says.
Jeff Miller has been appointed vice president-communications of the Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. , Savannah, Ga. He succeeds Robert Baugniet, who has retired. Miller was head of Blake-Miller Communications and had been vice president-corporate communications at Galaxy Aerospace before it as acquired by Gulfstream parent General Dynamics. Dan O’Malley has been named director of operations for new product development. He was manager of the facility in Mexicali, Mexico. Jeff Toline has become director of service at the Appleton, Wis., facility.
Detailed images collected over time from Mars orbit are giving scientists more clues to work with as they decipher what’s happening on the active surface. Data from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, combined with in-situ imagery from one of the surface rovers, have produced at least a theory of why some dunes on the planet are moving and some aren’t.
New forecasts by the FAA add weight to airline claims that they are emerging from the worst downturn the industry has ever seen. The agency predicts that although U.S. passenger demand will begin a slow recovery this year, the severity of the recession has set long-term growth targets back by several years.
A bid for an aviation record has flown into controversy even before engine start. Riccardo Mortara, head of Swiss aircraft charter firm Sonnig, plans to depart Geneva on Mar. 19 in the company’s 30-year-old Sabre 65 aiming to establish a new eastbound circumnavigation speed mark for that aircraft class. The Sonnig team says the mark to beat is 67 hr., 1 min. set by the late Steve Fossett in the Virgin GlobalFlyer in 2005.
Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett told shareholders in his annual letter Feb. 27 that NetJets lost a “staggering” $711 million in 2009. He also admitted the fractional aircraft provider’s debt soared to $1.9 billion from $102 million when Berkshire Hathaway acquired it 11 years earlier.
