Boeing is assembling the fuselage of the first 747-8 Freighter, which at 250 ft. 2 in. will be the longest version of the 747 ever built. The upper crown and cockpit of the Spirit AeroSystems-built Section 41 were loaded into the jigs at Boeing’s Everett, Wash., assembly site on Jan 17. First flight is expected around the end of the third quarter, with deliveries to launch customer Cargolux Airlines beginning around September 2010. When assembly begins next year, the identically sized -8I Intercontinental will be the longest passenger aircraft ever made—3 ft.
The steep decline in global freight traffic is driving Emirates to improve efficiency within its cargo operations and is contributing to Air France-KLM’s warning about losses.
While I do not necessarily agree with many of the plaudits offered Robert M. Gates as your Person of the Year (AW&ST Jan. 5, p. 44), I do not disagree with the facts presented but some of the opinions had no place in AW&ST. “Conservative activist” Grover Norquist says “. . . however you want to cut it, the so-called surge succeeded on his watch.” Oh, really? Norquist and Gates should look back to the testimony of then U.S. Army Gen.
15 Kalinina St., KGUPS PO Box 99 Koroliov, Moscow region Russia 141070 Tel. (7-495) 504-2906; Fax (7-495) 504-2911 www.gascom.ru Yamal 100 Broadcast, telecommunications. Orbital location is 90° E. Carries 10 C-band transponders. 2009 EOL. Yamal 200 KA-1 Broadcast, telecommunications. Orbital location is 90° E. Carries nine C-band and six Ku-band transponders. 2015 EOL. Yamal 200 KA-2 Broadcast, telecommunications. Orbital location is 49° E. Carries 18 C-band transponders. 2015 EOL.
China Southern has selected Thales’s TopSeries inflight entertainment system for 10 Airbus A330-300 aircraft owned by China Southern, to be delivered starting in March 2010. Each aircraft will be equipped with audio and video on-demand at every seat. China Southern and Thales are also exploring a service arrangement for repair and content management, taking advantage of a Thales service center in Beijing. The deal follows the acquisition of Panasonic’s MPES for 12 A320-family aircraft operated by Singapore Airlines’ regional carrier, SilkAir.
Air Force Aerospatiale SA330J (4) Airbus A310-300 (2) Beech A100 (1) Boeing 707 (4) Boeing EF-18A (55) Boeing EF-18B (12) Boeing F/A-18A (22) Bombardier 415 (1) Canadair CL-215 (5) Canadair CL-215T (14) CASA C-101EB (73) CASA C-212 (44) CASA C-212-200 (12) CASA C-295 (9) CASA CN-235 (4) CASA CN-235M (18) CASA Do 27A (1) CASA SF-5B (16) CASA SF-5M (4)
Losing bidder PlanetSpace has protested NASA’s award of a $3.5-billion contract to SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp. to deliver cargo to the International Space Station. PlanetSpace—which includes Lockheed Martin, Alliant Techsystems and Boeing—proposed using the space shuttle-derived Athena III. The protest effectively stops the program until the U.S. Government Accountability Office either dismisses or upholds it, which it must do within 90 days of the filing.
The New Skies NSS-9 and Eutelsat Hot Bird 10 satellites are being prepared at the European Spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana, for a scheduled Feb. 12 launch atop an Ariane 5 ECA booster. The mission, which also will carry France’s Spirale early warning demonstrator, will be the first of the year for Arianespace.
With no word from India’s defense ministry as to when field trials of the 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft will be held, competitors are increasingly worried they will be delayed until 2010.
Air Force Antonov An-26 (1) Boeing C-47 (2) British Aerospace HS.748 (1) De Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 (1) Dornier Do 28D-2 (2) Eurocopter AS350 (1) Rockwell 500B (1)
Michael A. Taverna (Paris), Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington)
European Space Agency and NASA planners will decide in the coming days which path, if any, they will jointly pursue in the next phase of exploration of the outer planets.
Regarding Raytheon Chairman William H. Swanson’s “Plea To Upgrade Education” (AW&ST Jan. 5, p. 58), varsity sports are more important in most U.S. schools than academic education.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport’s proposed plan to double enplanement charges to cover capital improvements has prompted Delta Air Lines to threaten routing its connecting traffic to other Eastern U.S. hubs. In a letter to the airport’s aviation general manager, Ben DeCosta, Delta Vice President of Corporate Real Estate John W.
Russia is trying to shore up its defense industry. Hit by credit facilities drying up, the sector is also struggling with debt and bottlenecks in the financing and delivery of domestic procurement programs. The government’s proposed “bailout” package—unveiled by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin—is based on increased domestic expenditure for research and development, as well as for production, of weapons along with upgrades for already fielded systems. Increased expenditure would see a total of 1 trillion rubles ($30.5 billion) allocated for procurement in 2009.
