After the overwhelming rejection of its three-year contract offer of an 11% pay increase and 14% improvement in benefits, Boeing Commercial Airplanes started a 48-hr. push late last week to identify the “critical” issues that would stave off a strike by the 26,000-member International Assn. of Machinists in Aerospace (IAM).
The Boeing Co. has stated that, prior to the original Tanker Award, it had never challenged a Defense Dept. award to others, while it has weathered repeated challenges from competitors. Now Boeing’s request for fairness and its actions to protect their interests are being described as uncalled for. They have been accused of holding up production of this needed aircraft. Some have even described these actions as near-treasonous.
Craig Spitzer has been named chairman and Gregory D. Cohen as CEO of Halcyon Jets Holdings Inc. of New York. They succeed Mitchell Blatt, who has resigned from both positions.
The Canadian government’s insistence on charging airport rents hurts the country’s competitiveness in trade and tourism, says a report from the Canadian Airports Council (CAC). “Canada’s aviation tax regime is among the highest of any nation in the developed world,” states the report. “A recent World Economic Forum study ranked Canada 114 out of 130 countries in terms of cost-competitiveness in the travel and tourism sectors.” Tourism is a $70-billion industry in Canada, according to the report.
Thailand will have to wait a bit longer before it can join the growing ranks of developing nations able to deliver a near-metric-resolution overhead imaging capability. Launch from Kazakhstan of the 750-kg. (1,650-lb.) Theos satellite—designed to supply 2-meter panchromatic and 15-meter multispectral wide-swath imagery for cartography, land use, agriculture and other products—was scrubbed at the last minute on Aug. 6 because of a long-running overflight dispute with neighboring Uzbekistan.
High energy prices, inflation tendencies, declining stock markets and the slowing economy account for the contraction in world domestic traffic in July, according to Airports Council International (ACI). Total global traffic was flat compared to the same month in 2007, with international traffic growing only 1% and domestic traffic contracting 1.4%, the second consecutive month of decline—results that ACI notes are below average for the season. In the U.S., nearly every major airport felt the impact of route and frequency cuts, according to ACI.
Midwest has received commitments of up to $60 million in additional financing from TPG Capital and Republic Airways Holdings, including $20 million if the airline completes “certain milestones” in its restructuring plan, but also is making significant changes to its fleet mix that will result in more layoffs. Republic Airways is providing $25 million under a deal that also includes a 10-year commitment from Midwest for Republic to provide Midwest Connect service using Embraer 170 jets, or for Midwest to lease those aircraft to operate on its own.
An integral rocket ramjet propulsion system for a higher speed, longer range anti-radar missile has been flight-tested under the U.S. Navy’s High Speed Anti-radiation Demonstration (HSAD) project. A test vehicle powered by Aerojet’s variable-flow ducted rocket (VFDR) ramjet was launched from a QF-4 over White Sands Missile Range, N.M., last month. The vehicle accelerated to supersonic speed and transitioned from rocket booster to ramjet propulsion, which sustained supersonic speed until the planned flight termination.
I welcomed your outstanding tribute to the unique organization now known as Darpa, but would like to offer a small correction: As director of Project Agile, the counterinsurgency R&D program ARPA initiated during the Vietnam war from 1966-69, I commissioned Lockheed’s development of the QT-2 quiet airplane (AW&ST Aug. 18/25, p. 58), which was very successful in observing nighttime Viet Cong mine-laying activity on roads in South Vietnam and calling in ground forces to counter them.
The international air cargo sector faces a dilemma and an opportunity in the near future. U.S. companies have less than six months to put into force increased security that will result in screening half the cargo loaded on passenger aircraft. The 50% rule is the first congressional mandate arising from the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007. A large, unanswered question is whether the law applies to inbound cargo and to non-U.S. carriers that operate across the U.S. border.
“Darpa at 50” (AW&ST Aug. 18/25, p. 54) was an excellent set of articles about the old ARPA. My first assignment out of U.S. Air Force Basic Training was as an engineering and scientific aide at the Air Force Special Weapons Center’s Pulsed Power Laboratory.
The shooting may be over for now in and around Georgia, but political fireworks are expected to continue in and around Capitol Hill for the foreseeable future. The Senate Armed Services Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee scheduled hearings this week with Pentagon and State Dept. personnel on the Russia-Georgia conflict’s implications for U.S. defense and foreign policy. President Bush has promised $1 billion in humanitarian—but not military—assistance for the war-racked former Soviet republic, with the blessings of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The U.S. Navy has tapped Lockheed Martin and L-3 Integrated Systems to begin supplying replacement outer wing kits for P-3s grounded by critical structural fatigue. The Navy grounded 39 P-3s in December, and expects to ground another 6-10 a year. L-3 has received $60.6 million to supply four outer wing kits by June 2010, and Lockheed $129.3 million to deliver 13 kits in March-December 2010.
Australia is cutting short its program to replace the center fuselage barrels of its F/A-18A-B Hornet fighters, partly because analysis suggests the fleet can operate until its planned withdrawal in 2018-20 with fewer than 15 of the 71 aircraft refurbished.
Erickson has sold two S-64 Helitankers to the Los Angeles city and county fire departments as they prepare for the upcoming fire season when hillsides are especially dry and winds tend to be strong. The S-64s can drop 2,000 gal. of water, foam mix or retardant.
U.K.’s Qinetiq has secured a 15-year deal with the British Defense Ministry covering government access to the company’s maritime research facilities and in-house expertise. The Maritime Strategic Capabilities Agreement is valued in excess of £150 million ($266 million) over the contract period. The facilities will be used for research and development of next-generation British warship requirements, such as the Future Surface Combatant, as well as access to hydrodynamic facilities for testing of the hull form of the Royal Navy’s new class of aircraft carrier.
In a high bay here, Northrop Grumman Space Technology is trying to figure out how to fold the James Webb Space Telescope’s tennis court-size Sun shield so it can be deployed safely after the mission’s 2013 launch.
Both U.S. presidential candidates, Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), support extension of the space shuttle program by one or more additional flights to limit the gap in U.S. manned launches after 2010. During recent campaign stops in Florida to discuss their aerospace positions, they also called for an acceleration of the Ares/Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) development.
USAF Col. Teresa A.H. Djuric is one of nine colonels who have been promoted to brigadier general. She is commander of the 50th Space Wing of Air Force Space Command (AFSC), Schriever AFB, Colo.; Carlton D. Everhart, 2nd, inspector general at Headquarters Air Education and Training Command, Randolph AFB, Tex.; Terrence A. Feehan, commander of the Nuclear Weapons Center of Air Force Materiel Command, Kirtland AFB, N.M.; Samuel A. R. Greaves, commander of the Launch and Range Systems Wing of Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles AFB; Russell J.
More than 60 civilian fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft participated in an aero-medical evacuation of about 150 patients from the Gulf Coast ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Gustav, according to the Assn. of Air Medical Services. The aircraft participated in state or federal evacuation efforts or as part of an individual hospital’s evacuation plan, according to the group. After the storm passed, the same aircraft were assigned to return the patients to the Gulf Coast.
Mark Sindone has become director of customer service, Michael E. Glover director of development of original equipment manufacturer and strategic alliances, Dave Spector senior director of aftermarket integrated flight deck sales and Jacob Ward as Southeast U.S. sales manager, all for the Avidyne Corp. , Lincoln, Mass. Sindone was director of customer logistics at AGL Resources Inc. in Atlanta, while Glover was director of commercial air transport for Innovative Solutions and Support, Exton, Pa. Spector was associate director of business development for Gen-Probe Inc.
Virgin Atlantic is emerging as a potential bid partner for London Gatwick Airport, should it come onto the market. Airport operator BAA may have to sell two of its London airports as a result of a ruling by the British Competition Commission. The airline says it is open to offers from potential bidders to join a consortium.
The U.S. Army plans to complete testing for a new digital data link for its hand-held Raven UAV by the end of Fiscal 2009, says Tim Owings, deputy project manager for unmanned aviation systems for the Army. Interference with the existing data link was tied to a series of “fly-aways,” which sometimes resulted in loss of the aircraft. Of more than 1,000 Ravens in Afghanistan and Iraq, about 30 have been lost. As more commercial communications move back into Iraq, this new data link will operate in different bands, reducing the likelihood of future interference there.
Michael Del Checcolo (see photo) has been appointed vice president-engineering of the Raytheon Co. ’s Integrated Defense Systems, Tewksbury, Mass. He was vice president of the IDS Engineering Advanced Technology Directorate.
The global airline industry’s prospects for recovery are receding due to the likelihood of more huge losses in 2009, according to the International Air Transport Assn. Even if oil prices continue to swing in the airlines’ favor, any cost cuts are destined to be overshadowed by steadily worsening demand.
