While Finmeccanica was sealing its deal to acquire DRS, its European rival in the U.S.—EADS North America—is seemingly consumed by Boeing’s campaign to win back its lost efforts to build refueling tankers for the U.S. Air Force. EADS North America CEO Ralph Crosby says he remains interested in purchasing the electronics house. And, he says he will continue to look for opportunities here in the U.S. He’s also considering expanding into the UAV and training and simulation arenas.
China’s January 2007 antisatellite weapon test is being used as a recruiting message by the U.S. Air Force to lure space-savvy young people to join up. The campaign, airing on major U.S. television networks, shows a satellite orbiting northward along what looks like the east coast of China. “What if your cell phone calls, your television, your GPS and even your bank transactions could be taken out with a single missile,” the announcer says, just as a rocket fired from the ground ascends rapidly and blows up the satellite.
Pratt & Whitney has completed FAA certification for the final three out of four FAA Supplemental Type Certificates (STC) that it will use to manufacture life-limited parts for CFM56-3 engines for Boeing 737-300/400/500 aircraft. Pratt won the first STC in April, covering the engine’s fan and booster. The new certificates are for its high-pressure compressor and turbine and low-pressure turbine. The combined four STCs cover 19 life-limited parts. The company already has begun producing the components under Parts Manufacturing Authority.
Once home to Boeing airframes—and only Boeing airframes—Spirit AeroSystems has secured its first major Airbus contract and, with it, expansion into America’s South. Airbus named Spirit last week to design and build the Section 15 center fuselage frame section for the A350XWB. At 65 ft. long, 20 ft. wide and 9,000 lb., the composite assembly is much larger than the 24-ft.-long, 19-ft.-dia. Section 41 composite nose that Spirit makes for the Boeing 787.
West Star Aviation is expanding its service facility at Dallas Love Field to meet demand for maintenance and avionics work in the Southwest U.S. The existing, 42,000-sq.-ft. complex of hangars, shops and offices adjacent to Runway 31R is being complemented by a 33,000-sq.-ft. facility next to Runway 31L. The new shop will handle sheet metal and cabin refurbishment work as well as maintenance and avionics service for Cessna Citation, Hawker Beechcraft King Air, Dassault Falcon and Bombardier Learjet aircraft.
The German aerospace center DLR is fine-tuning agreements with academic, industry and government groups for experiments that will hitch a ride on its Mach 11 hypersonic Sharp Edge Flight Experiment (Shefex II) vehicle.
USAF Maj. Gen. (ret.) Timothy C. Jones (see photo) has been named Arlington, Va.-based vice president-Air Force Programs for the Northrop Grumman Corp. He was director of programs in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategic Plans and Programs at USAF Headquarters.
Susan Kopinski (see photo) has become deputy director of finance and administration at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport . She was chief financial officer for the Cleveland Airport System and director of finance for Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport.
May 27-29—Shared Vision of Aviation Safety Conference. Omni Hotel, San Diego. Call +1 (856) 667-6770 ext. 163, or see www.aqp-foqa.com/Conferences/2008/index.html May 27-29—Shephard Group’s Unmanned Vehicles Pacific Conference and Exhibition, and Heli-Pacific Conference and Exhibition 2008. Royal Pines Resort, Gold Coast, Australia. Call +44 (162) 860-6971 or see www.shephard.co.uk/events May 27-June 1—ILA Berlin air show. Berlin Schoenefeld Airport. Call +49 (30) 3038-6006 or see www.ila-berlin.de
BOC Aviation will raise another $1 billion in capital over the coming year, and believes this is the time to invest in aircraft. It plans to spend the money not with Boeing and Airbus but, rather, in buying aircraft from airlines and leasing them back to sellers.
The Philippine air force’s $13.8-million order for an additional batch of 18 Alenia Aermacchi basic trainer SF-260Fs includes training for both pilots and support personnel, along with spares and support equipment. Deliveries are slated to start in May 2009 and be completed 18 months from then. The service has operated MP piston-engine models beginning in 1973, as well as SF-260 turboprops. It also uses the S-211 jet trainer. The SF-260 will do double duty as a basic trainer and a light attack aircraft.
Amy Butler (Washington), John M. Doyle (Washington)
The Government Accountability Office last week denied legal motions from the U.S. Air Force and Northrop Grumman to dismiss some of Boeing’s claims in its protest of the KC-X award. This will allow for a full review of the USAF decision to give a $35-billion contract to an Airbus platform for its future refueling tanker over a Boeing 767 design. The award was announced Feb. 29, and Boeing’s protest was filed Mar. 11, followed by four supplemental filings.
Arianespace has pushed back the launch of the U.K. military communications satellite Skynet 5C on an Ariane 5ECA to the night of May 30‑31, to run unspecified launch vehicle checks. The launch, which will also orbit the Turksat 3A telecommunications satellite, had been scheduled for May 23.
Boeing’s plans to establish a maintenance, repair and overhaul facility in partnership with Air India and a third-party provider at India’s Nagpur Airport could see Boeing Business Jets and the P-8I Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft as clients. The Nagpur facility is pegged as a $100-million investment as part of an offset for Air India’s purchase of 63 airplanes. The Indian Air Force Communications Sqdn., which transports high-level officials, has purchased three 737-700 BBJs. Negotiations for eight P-8I patrol aircraft are underway as replacements for Ilyushin IL-38s.
Timothy J. Keating has been appointed Washington-based senior vice president-public policy for Boeing . He succeeds Tod R. Hullin, who plans to retire this year. Keating has been senior vice president-government relations for Honeywell and has been succeeded there by Sean O’Hollaren, who has been head of U.S. government relations and was deputy assistant to the President in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs.
Mark Bullock, BAA’s Heathrow managing director, last week appeared to be the latest “victim” of the Terminal 5 mess, when he left the company following management restructuring. Meanwhile, U.K. airport operator BAA’s parent Ferrovial aims to substantially grow profits at Heathrow between now and 2012.
Steve Barton has been elected to the board of directors of the Irvine, Calif.-based Supplier Excellence Alliance . Current board member Frank Thompson was elected treasurer and a member of the executive committee, and William Alderman was named to the board of advisers. Barton is president/CEO of Esterline Kirkhill-TA Co., Esterline’s Engineered Materials Group. Thompson is group vice president-supply chain management for Parker Aerospace, and Alderman is founder/president of Alderman and Co. Capital.
Taiwanese airlines are poised for strong growth driven by mainland China in the next few years, even as they struggle now with a stagnant market and heavy losses that forced one carrier, Far Eastern Air Transport, to cease flying last week. Air links with China will probably be opened fully by about 2011, say analysts. That would be a great step forward from the current situation, in which direct flights between the mainland and Taiwan are almost prohibited.
New Zealand is buying five AgustaWestland A109s and a simulator to boost its helicopter training capacity. The rotorcraft will also be used for light utility roles, says New Zealand’s air force chief, Air Vice Marshal Graham Lintott. The helos, to be stationed at the Royal New Zealand Air Force base, Ohakea, are due to enter service in 2011.
Until now, Embraer’s executive aviation business has been a one-trick pony, but this year the Brazilian airframer is establishing itself as a broad-based presence in the business jet market.
The three senators who have flown on the space shuttle are urging colleagues to back legislation easing the deadline for retiring the vehicle. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and former Sens. Jake Garn (R-Utah) and John Glenn (D-Ohio) argue in a bylined Orlando Sentinel piece that they “suspect the President doesn’t know” his administration’s space policies could leave the International Space Station uncompleted and underutilized by the U.S. after 2010.
Boeing is abandoning its long-running effort to devise a successor to the 737, driven back to the drawing board by the lack of existing technology that can deliver the huge leap in performance airlines want for a next-generation single-aisle aircraft.
An American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics task force on the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) expects by early summer to have identified a list of satellite components that should be made exempt from the rigorous law. ITAR is found to have an especially heavy impact on second- and third-tier suppliers of such parts as lithium ion batteries, focal plane arrays, solar cells, visible imaging sensors, optical coatings and traveling wave tubes.
Northrop Grumman is finally under contract to re-engine at least one of USAF’s E-8C Joint Stars aircraft, almost seven years after Pratt & Whitney and Seven Q Seven first flew a Boeing 707 powered by JT8D-219s. Under contracts worth $300 million, Northrop will re-engine the E-8 testbed and begin certification flight testing by year-end. Replacement of the JT3Ds powering the 17 operational Joint Stars aircraft is scheduled to begin in late 2010 but is not yet funded.
In the first three months of 2008, Cessna Aircraft Co. has received orders for 235 Citation business jets and plans to deliver 121 to European customers this year, says Roger Whyte, senior vice president for sales and marketing. He says demand in Eastern Europe, Germany and Russia is “especially strong” and that orders outside of the U.S. accounted for more than 50% of the 773 logged in 2007. As a result, the company is expanding its presence at the European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (Ebace) being held this week in Geneva.
