Michael A. Taverna (Madrid), Frank Jackman (Madrid)
Maintenance, repair and overhaul experts say the current financial meltdown in the U.S. could slow the sector’s growth over the next few years, although it is likely to rebound to previously forecast levels, provided the price of oil levels off.
The potential impact of renewed political upheaval in South Africa dominated the recent African Aerospace and Defense show, with attendees deliberating the possible effects on military programs. The struggle between President Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma, the head of the ruling African National Congress party, resulted in Mbeki’s resignation as the air show ended. Zuma’s deputy, Kgalema Motlanthe, was expected to succeed Mbeki as president. The timing and schedule of military acquisition programs may fall foul of the strife.
Intelsat engineers are preparing to plug Galaxy 19 into the company’s North American constellation of 16 other telecommunications satellites, following its Sept. 24 launch on a Sea Launch Zenit-3SL. The ocean-going launch service provider lofted the 10,340-lb. spacecraft from its Sea Launch Odyssey platform at 5:28 a.m. EDT Sept. 24, from a position on the equator at 154 deg. W. Long. The rocket’s Block DM-SL upper stage delivered it to its geosynchronous transfer orbit a little more than 1 hr. later.
A new award for Soyuz vehicles points up continuing strong demand for commercial launch capacity, particularly for small telecom spacecraft. Arianespace concluded a contract with Russian space agency Roscosmos on Sept. 20 for 10 additional Soyuz launchers. The agreement had been in negotiation for months. Among other things, the deal was awaiting the selection of Arianespace as sole launch provider for Europe’s 30-spacecraft Galileo navigation system.
Russia has orbited three more Glonass-M spacecraft as it moves to replenish the aging satellite navigation system. With the latest batch, launched last week from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on board a Proton-K rocket, the constellation now consists of 17 working spacecraft, plus one down for maintenance and another waiting to be deorbited. A further batch of three is to be orbited before the end of the year.
Spacewalking astronauts will lubricate two big rotating joints on the International Space Station with grease this year to ease their way until a permanent fix can be mounted in 2010.
David Seymour has been promoted to senior vice president-technical operations from vice president-technical services for US Airways . He succeeds Hal Heule, who has retired. Andrew Nocella has become senior vice president-marketing and planning, He was senior vice president-schedule planning and alliances.
On Sept. 25, Delta and Northwest airlines’ shareholders, in separate meetings, approved the planned merger of the carriers. The FAA last week OK’d the carriers’ plan to transition to single operating certificate (see p. 16). The next major hurdle will be obtaining a decision, expected this year, from the U.S. Justice Dept.’s antitrust branch.
Sea Launch Co. will launch as many as two sets of eight satellites each for O3b, the Google-backed Ka-band satellite network intended to bridge the digital divide in emerging and isolated countries (AW&ST Sept. 15, p. 37). Sea Launch will develop a new multi-satellite dispenser for the Thales Alenia Space birds, which weigh about 700 kg. (1,540 lb.) each. The first launch is set for late 2010. Meanwhile, Gilat Satellite Networks will develop a new line of VSAT terminals to serve O3b.
NATO has taken a big step forward in boosting its airlift capacity with the signing of a memorandum of understanding to acquire three Boeing C-17 airlifters. The move comes as EADS has acknowledged that the A400M’s first flight will not take place this year. It was initially supposed to take place last year and has been delayed repeatedly. EADS, the majority partner in the Airbus Military consortium developing the airlifter, blames “unavailability of the propulsion system,” and has not given a new first flight date.
Competition between the F-22 and F-35 for procurement money may be easing, with service leaders and program officials indicating the U.S. Air Force can fund an orderly transition of production between the two stealth fighters.
Staffan Zackrisson has been appointed president of Sweden-based Volvo Aero , effective Nov. 1. He has been head of its marketing, programs and sales and will succeed Olof Persson, who will become president of Volvo Construction Equipment.
On a sultry afternoon in July 1969, a few leading citizens of Huntsville, Ala., hoisted a former enemy rocket engineer onto their shoulders and paraded him around the courthouse square before a happy crowd. Their celebration of the Apollo 11 splashdown marked a triumph both for the engineer—Wernher von Braun—and for the bureaucracy cobbled together just 11 years earlier to create the U.S. civil space program.
Patrick Crowley has become president of the Singapore-based Nelco Products Pte. Ltd. subsidiary of the Park Electrochemical Corp. , Melville, N.Y., and president of Nelco Technology (Zhuhai FTZ) Ltd., Zhuhai, China. He was president of Neltec Inc., Tempe, Ariz. Crowley will be succeeded by Margaret M.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates didn’t want to scrap the revised Air Force replacement tanker competition but says issuing new ground rules in the waning days of the Bush administration would have raised eyebrows. “Part of my concern was, frankly, I didn’t like the smell of approving a potentially $100-billion contract or opportunity in the last day or two of being on the job,” Gates tells the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The ongoing consolidation of network carriers in the U.S. and Europe could provide growth opportunities for low-fare airlines even though some players are likely to disappear, contend executives from several low-cost carriers. “We think there will be a gravitation toward Southwest Airlines in these conditions,” says Executive Chairman Herb Kelleher. Rivals are reducing capacity by 15-17% on routes where they compete with Southwest, he says, adding that “it may be a smaller market, but we’ll get a bigger piece of it.”
While the recent grounding of DayJet disappointed those who hoped the per-seat, on-demand carrier harkened a new era in commercial aviation, neither Eclipse Aviation, its aircraft supplier, nor the air taxi industry as a whole seemed to regard the failure as a significant setback, but rather as a promising venture that was undercapitalized. And with 2,500 DayJet customers in the Southeast U.S. now without a ride, at least three companies were lined up to fill the vacuum.
Several peace-aligned organizations are trying to build public support for Senate legislation that would effectively ban the U.S. from using and exporting cluster bombs. The activists want the U.S. government to agree to a treaty worked out last spring among 110 other nations that effectively bans cluster munitions. The Defense Dept. under Secretary Robert Gates has crafted a new cluster munitions policy that eliminates extra ordnance and tries to sharpen guidelines over their use.
Embraer has named Flybe Aviation Services, an Exeter, England-based member of its parts pool program, as an authorized maintenance and support center of its E-Jet and ERJ 145 regional jet families. Flybe’s low-cost airline operates the Embraer 195. The move is part of a plan to expand the Brazilian airframer’s European aftermarket support network.
Iberia has concluded agreements to expand its engine and component repair and overhaul business and enter the corporate jet market. One will see SR Technics repair CFM56-5C engines on Iberia A340-300s, while Iberia will handle repairs for various SR Technics components. A second, preliminary deal saw Iberia become the preferred repair-and-overhaul provider for CFM56-5As in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
A Northrop Grumman-led team completed a static firing of the second-stage rocket motor for the Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI). Missile Defense Agency Director USAF Lt. Gen. Henry (Trey) Obering says the test was a success. The first KEI flight is set for next year. With KEI, both stages are to burn for about 30 sec. each to achieve a high-speed flight. The interceptor is designed to quickly deliver a kill vehicle to destroy missiles as they boost or travel through space toward their targets. This was the third of five second-stage booster motor tests.
In the flurry of activity during the final days before recessing, Congress delayed the vexed FAA reauthorization issue for another six months. FAA funding was extended through Mar. 6, 2009, as part of a wider Continuing Resolution that keeps spending at current levels. A separate bill temporarily renews the agency’s operating authority. Acting FAA Administrator Robert Sturgell urged a 12-month extension, but lawmakers want to get a full reauthorization bill finished well before that.
The Defense Dept. has started buying about $5 million worth of commercial synthetic aperature radar imagery from the Canadian Space Agency-MacDonald Dettwiler partnership, the first of many potential agreements to come, says Gary Payton, Air Force deputy undersecretary for space. Similar purchases from systems operated by Germany, Israel and Italy are being considered as the Pentagon weighs options for fielding a Space Radar system in 2012. The Air Force is assembling requirements from combatant commanders in Europe, the Pacific and Middle East.
