British Prime Minster Gordon Brown has announced that the U.K. is to ban use of cluster weapons still in inventory. A multinational conference in Dublin last week was expected to agree to a proposal banning the use of cluster weaponry. The U.S. did not attend the conference, nor did China, Russia or Israel.
Aircraft noise and politically sensitive basing options may become decisive factors in Norway’s selection process for a new fighter aircraft to replace the country’s Lockheed Martin F-16s. New information received from the two remaining contenders (Lockheed Martin’s F-35A and Saab’s enhanced Gripen-N) indicates that one (understood to be the F-35) is “significantly more noisy” than the other, senior government and military sources here say.
Barry Rempel, who is president/CEO of the Winnipeg (Manitoba) Airports Authority, has been elected chairman of the Canadian Airports Council for two years. William A. Restall, president/CEO of Saskatoon (Saskatchewan) Airport Authority, has been elected vice chairman. Rempel succeeds Jim Cherry, president/CEO of Aeroports de Montreal, who remains on the council board of directors. The other directors are: treasurer, Calgary (Alberta) Airport Authority President/CEO Garth F.
European Union emission allowance (EUA) prices in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme powered up to a fresh two-year high of €26.65 ($41.84) per metric ton of CO2 equivalent on May 27, dragged up by new all-time highs on world crude oil prices achieved the previous week. EUAs for December 2008 delivery on the European Climate Exchange eased from a 12-month high of €25.80 per metric ton on May 12 to close at €24.46 per metric ton on May 14.
Richard F. Dusek has been named head of the Aerospace and Military Div. of EDAG Inc. , Auburn Hills, Mich. He was the company’s director of engineering.
India’s Jet Airways took delivery of its seventh Airbus A330-200 last week as part of a total order for 15. The aircraft—in 220-seat, two-class configuration—will be flown on new routes to serve Hong Kong, and on expanded services to Europe and the Middle East. The carrier will not be looking at additional orders, given cost-cutting at the airline and spiraling fuel prices, according to Naresh Goyal, Jet Airways chairman.
EADS has named 28 companies as preferred suppliers for engineering services as part of a broader company move to streamline its supply chain. Four of the first-tier partners are from India, the rest are European Union-based. EADS says it spends around €2 billion on engineering services annually.
Amy Butler (Washington), Graham Warwick (Washington), Robert Wall (Berlin)
The U.S. Air Force is inching toward starting a competition for a Next-Generation Unmanned Aerial System (NG-UAS) to handle a mix of intelligence gathering and attack missions by 2015. Some Air Force officials refer to this effort as a replacement for the MQ-1 Predators and MQ-9 Reapers currently in production. But the service is also looking for improved performance.
The head of the U.S. Air Force’s Air Mobility Command is adding an upgrade for the KC-10 refueling fleet to his list of tanker priorities. Gen. Arthur Lichte’s top focus is to begin fielding the KC-45A tankers and start retiring aging KC-135s as soon as possible. That’s being held up, however, by Boeing’s protest of the Air Force decision to award Northrop Grumman/EADS North America the contract to develop a next-generation A330-based tanker over Boeing’s 767 proposal.
Jim Young has been appointed vice president-distribution, sales and marketing and Tom Bacon vice president-planning and revenue management for Frontier Airlines Holdings Inc. Young was an executive with Continental Airlines and Intercontinental Hotels Group, while Bacon was vice president-planning for Mesa Air Group.
The fuel price surge is forcing even highly profitable Qantas Airways to ground some aircraft while minimizing the use of others and canceling the delivery of one. The company is initiating some staff reductions. Capacity will fall by 5% and cuts to international operations are expected to be announced this week.
Russia and Ukraine appear to be closing in on a long-awaited project to restart production and approve an upgrade package for the giant An-124 Ruslan freighter. Antonov General Designer Dimitri Kiva says a new business plan is being discussed with the Russian and Ukrainian governments and Russia’s United Aircraft Co. (UAC), which would be entrusted with the job of restarting the final assembly line in Ulyanovsk and developing the upgrade would extend the aircraft’s service life 80%.
USAF Cols. Jeffry F. Smith and John R. Ranck, Jr., have been selected for promotion to brigadier general. Smith has been named director of strategic capabilities policy for the National Security Council in Washington. He was deputy director for operational planning, policy and strategy/deputy chief of staff for operations, plans and requirements at USAF Headquarters at the Pentagon. He has been succeeded by Ranck, who was chief of the Program Integration Div./deputy chief of staff for strategic plans and programs at the Pentagon.
Travelers at key U.S. airports will notice advancements in security technology this summer. The TSA is installing more than 200 advanced X-ray detection systems, as well as whole-body-imagers that will take the place of physical pat-downs. The 28 Smiths Detection’s Advanced Threat Identification X-ray (Atix) units at Denver International Airport are replacing all conventional X-ray explosive detection systems at the facility. It is the largest deployment of advanced units to date.
Eugene Gray (see photo) has been appointed director of business development and marketing for Shadin Avionics , St. Louis Park, Minn. He was director of business development for the Aerospace and Government sector of Silicon Graphics Inc.
Charles D. Mayer (see photo) has been appointed vice president-marketing for the Hawker Beechcraft Corp. , Wichita, Kan. He was director of marketing, media and advertising for Maserati North America.
The European Commission is attempting to revitalize crucial but slow-moving efforts to redraw Europe’s airspace borders. A new Single European Sky legislative package—slated to be introduced this month—will reveal how aggressive the Commission is prepared to be in goading states into action.
So Airbus CEO Thomas Enders “concedes that Airbus underestimated the development and production complexity” of its A380 commercial airliner (“Airbus Efforts To Repair Itself Falter,” AW&ST May 12, p. 37). That should raise additional alarms for the growing chorus of Congressional and other critics of the Air Force’s decision to award Airbus the $35-billion contract for America’s next generation of aerial refueling tankers.
The Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason 2 spacecraft is gearing up for a June 15 launch from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., on a flight to help scientists better monitor rises in global sea level and more accurately predict climate change. The $432-million mission is a collaboration involving NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the French space agency CNES and Eumetsat. It will provide continuity with the record of sea-surface height measurements begun in 1992 by the NASA-CNES Topex/Poseidon mission, and extended by the NASA-CNES Jason 1 flight in 2001.
Six Air China pilots must pay 9.7 million yuan ($1.4 million) to the airline for leaving before the expiration of their contacts, a court has ruled. Hefty penalties on quitting have been a major source of discontent in the Chinese industry in recent months.
Air Force Space Command is trying again to get funding for a UH-1N replacement, this time in the Fiscal 2010 budget request coming out next year. The Hueys are used to escort nuclear weapons convoys on the Minuteman III missile fields. But they lack the range and speed to respond to security threats, says Maj. Gen. Thomas Deppe, the command’s vice chief. He says “an 80-85% solution may be good enough. We could buy something off the shelf.”
Iberia has dropped out of the bidding for Spanair, the country’s second-largest airline, which has been put up for sale by the SAS Group. Iberia had teamed with Gestair to pursue a takeover, but last week said it was no longer interested, explaining the decision merely by citing an inability to agree on takeover terms and other circumstances.
