Finmeccanica improved its financial performances in the first half over the same period last year, with revenue up by 6% to €6.4 billion ($9.9 billion) and net profit increasing 68% to €297 million. The bottom line was bolstered by the sale of some assets. The company also boosted its order book 8% to €39 billion. The company continues to bring down its debt, which now stands at €2.6 billion. As with other European aerospace companies, the civil aeronautics business suffered due to the weak dollar.
Is strategic planning for Paris’s airports unrealistic and ill-fated? The politically incorrect question must be asked in the wake of a report released by Cour des Comptes (CDC), the French oversight agency, similar to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
The action by the FAA to reduce the risk of fuel-tank explosions is welcome but inexcusably late (AW&ST July 21, p. 47). The history of airliner fuel tank explosions is extensive—16 since 1959—seven resulting in fatalities. After the crash of Pan Am 214 in 1963, the deputy director of the Civil Aeronautics Board’s Bureau of Safety, which investigated the accident, urged the FAA to require fuel-tank inerting systems on airliners. It was not done.
David Rokos (see photo) has been appointed vice president/treasurer for Rockwell Collins , Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He was controller of the Surface Solutions unit of the Government Systems Div.
In a rare collaboration with a commercial satellite services provider, the Pentagon plans to fly a prototype sensor that could transform how the U.S. Air Force handles its ballistic missile warning mission.
Eclipse Aviation’s removal of founder and CEO Vern Raburn may be the first in a series of major changes that the manufacturer of very light jets will undergo in the coming months as it seeks to stem a hemorrhaging of cash.
British Airways wants to merge with Iberia, Austrian is looking for a strategic partner, and Ryanair is ready to pounce and take advantage of any anticipated airline bankruptcies. It’s the reshuffling of deck chairs that the serious airline revenue and cost crisis has triggered in Europe. The financial incentive is clear. Ryanair has seen a 85% decline in profit, Austrian estimates a full-year loss of €70-90 million ($109-140 million), and British Airways was expected to announce a sharp drop in profitability on Aug. 1 as well.
NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) is set to enter a final round of testing, fueling and spin-balancing at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., the midpoint on its terrestrial journey to Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands for an Oct. 5 launch into high elliptical orbit to map the edge of the Solar System. The 38 X 23-in. octagonal spacecraft shipped to Vandenberg July 25 from Orbital Sciences Corp.
Lawrence R. Moreau has been appointed to the board of directors of the Hi-Shear Technology Corp. , Torrance, Calif. He was founder of Moreau and Co. and the Moreau Capital Corp.
I am puzzled that you have printed, and indeed highlighted, a comment by reader Philippe Cauchi (AW&ST June 9, p. 10). Obviously, he is still governed by the cliches of the ’70s’ and ’80s when it comes to bashing Airbus over subsidies, other financial initiatives and political pressures. These issues have been dealt with throughout the years in detail in these pages and elsewhere. Most people know that both Airbus and Boeing have shown technical leadership on their products, despite some troubles with the most recent efforts.
Multirole weapons—a single platform designed to target the most sophisticated air and ground threats—are the “obvious next step” for the U.S. Air Force’s air-launched munitions portfolio, according to the service’s top procurement official.
British Airways is making Amsterdam-New York the second city pair for its OpenSkies subsidiary. The airline was considering several options in addition to the existing Paris-New York service, and Milan, Brussels and Frankfurt are still being considered for further expansion. OpenSkies is scheduled to begin operations Oct. 15 between Schiphol and JFK airports using Boeing 757-200s. The aircraft will feature a new cabin configuration that eliminates 30 seats in economy class in favor of 40 premium economy- and 24 business-class seats.
Astronauts and an army of engineers and technicians on the ground are working hard to ready themselves and the space shuttle Atlantis for the final servicing mission to NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (HST). If it goes as planned, the risky shuttle flight will leave the 17-year-old telescope at “the apex” of its capability, able to probe the Universe with a full suite of instruments for the first time.
If an upgraded Hubble Space Telescope marks the apogee of observational technology in 2008, by 2058 its capabilities may seem almost quaint. Nobel laureate John C. Mather, the senior project scientist on the follow-on James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), predicts a continuation of today’s golden age of astronomy as space-based observation techniques pushed to the limit on the Hubble are refined even more.
Scientists working with Europe’s Corot orbital observatory have discovered a gaseous exoplanet orbiting a star with nearly the mass of the Sun. The discovery, presented in July at the Cool Stars 15 meeting at St. Andrews University, is another milestone in the mission’s quest for a solar system with rocky Earthlike planets. The planet, Corot-exo-4b, is roughly the size of Jupiter and takes 9.2 days to orbit its star.
Luis J. Soto has been named president of the Arrow Air Holdings Corp. of Miami. He succeeds Guillermo J. Cabeza, who is now CEO of Reliance Aviation Management Inc. Soto was an executive director of Arrow. Donald G. Scott has been named chief operating officer. He has been a consultant to Arrow and was managing director of Tradewinds Airlines.
Voyant International is developing technology for air-to-ground connections that are 10-1,000 times faster than current satellite systems for broadband services. Steffen D. Koehler, chief marketing officer, says connectivity rates of 10-35 Mpbs. are “much less expensive than satellite-based services.” Although Voyant began flight trials in June, regulatory hurdles remain and a date for entry into service is uncertain. Airline connections will be strictly air-to-ground using an antenna mounted on the bottom of the fuselage. Voyant is partnering with Harris Corp.
European missile builder MBDA is facing an early litmus test of its ability to adapt programs quickly to meet changing requirements. Renewed trials of a dual-mode Brimstone missile are now due, following a failure that set back the program.
Boeing will double the size of its Chinese composites operation, increasing its politically useful presence in its largest export market while also taking advantage of local labor conditions. The planned expansion of BHA Aero Composite Parts in Tianjin follows the agreement of U.S. composites maker Hexcel to sell its share in the business to Boeing, which now has an 80% stake alongside partner Avic 1.
NASA is planning a major announcement this month on discoveries by the Phoenix Mars lander, depending on results still being analyzed from the spacecraft’s organic oven and soil chemistry laboratories. Data from a second soil test by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer (MECA) wet chemistry instrument are highly “provocative” and the White House has been informed about what the data show, Mars scientists tell Aviation Week & Space Technology.
United is accusing the Air Line Pilots Assn. and four of its pilots of organizing, and engaging in, illegal work actions in a lawsuit filed July 30 with a federal court in Chicago. United says unnecessary pilot sick leave caused it to cancel 329 flights July 19-27. It is seeking an injunction against further actions. United’s pilots have been waging an anti-management campaign for more than a year, and said the company is now making inaccurate and misleading statements.
Astronauts will fly the space shuttle Atlantis to the Hubble Space Telescope in October for a final servicing mission, the first since the shuttle Columbia carried this STS-109 mission in 2002. Leading the squad of four spacewalking repairmen is astronaut/astronomer John Grunsfeld (on Columbia’s robotic arm in this image, with astronaut Richard Linnehan). During five back-to-back extravehicular activities (EVAs), two-man EVA teams will replace and repair instruments in an effort to leave the telescope more capable than ever.
