Intelsat reported a $413-million net loss for the first quarter on revenues of $573 million, which were up 11%. The loss was imputed mainly to restructuring and transaction costs related to the acquisition of Intelsat by Serafina Holdings, a holding company controlled by BC Partners and other private equity investors. However, contract backlog improved to a record $8.3 billion, and the satellite fill rate reached 78%, up two points from December.
Researchers backed by the European Space Agency will begin evaluating results of four microgravity experiments in fluid physics and metallurgy following a successful sounding rocket mission from the Esrange Space Center in the Swedish Arctic. The Maser 11 mission on a two-stage solid-fuel rocket, based on the Brazilian VSB 30 first stage, reached 252 km. in altitude on May 15, providing 6 min. 26 sec. of microgravity for the experiment package in its suborbital trajectory.
EADS North America CEO Ralph Crosby says one of his primary vows to the U.S. government as he positions the company for more defense business is not to make promises on programs he cannot keep. “We’re not going to offer anything we cannot deliver,” Crosby said last week. And so, the company informed the U.S. Air Force that the A400M medium transport aircraft would not be ready in time to compete for its special operations command’s HC/MC-130 replacement. Still stung by the collapse of its attempt to sole-source U.S.
Henry Davis has become vice president-aircraft manufacturing and assembly, Dean Jones vice president-quality compliance and performance excellence, and Ken Rohling director of Wichita flight completions and paint operations, all for the Hawker Beechcraft Corp. , Wichita, Kan. Davis was vice president/general manager of the Torque Control Products Div. of the Eaton Corp., while Jones was vice president-global quality and continuous improvement for Sauer-Danfoss. Rohling was director of program management and new program development for Bombardier Learjet.
USAF has designated the first Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) satellite operational over the Pacific Ocean, after tests demonstrated transmission rates of 440 megabits/sec. The first of six built by Boeing, the satellite was launched Oct. 10 and transmits in a multi-beam X-band.
Japan Airlines has posted its first annual profit in three years, saying its bottom line for the year to Mar. 31 was in the black by a scant ¥16.9 billion ($161 million) after tax, compared with a loss of ¥16.3 billion a year earlier. JAL, which is Asia’s largest airline, expects barely half as much operating profit for the year.
The average age of aircraft in the world commercial jet fleet was 12 years old at the end of 2007—an average that has not changed much in the last decade. At year-end, the world airline fleet comprised 19,084 aircraft of all types, according to The Airline Monitor, the publication of industry analyst Edmund S. Greenslet. The average age was its lowest—about 10 years—in the early 1980s, a result of the first large wave of jet equipment delivered in 1965-69, and the oldest commercial airplanes were 20 years of age. Since then, average age has increased by a year or more.
Alexey Komarov (Moscow), Robert Wall (Belfast, Northern Ireland)
Bombardier is betting that its business aircraft sales success in Russia is just the start of a good thing. At the same time, the company is trying to determine how to handle long-term support for this growing customer base.
Canada’s plan to boost defense spending would have mixed results for aviation programs. The number of new fighters envisioned has been cut to 65, while other aircraft will be upgraded and their replacement delayed. Prime Minister Stephen Harper unveiled the government’s “Canada First” defense strategy in Halifax on May 12, stating: “If you want to be taken seriously in the world, you need the capacity to act—it’s that simple.”
The international market for new maritime patrol aircraft may finally be reaching a break-out point. For several years, aircraft and system manufacturers involved in the maritime surveillance business projected a big boom in orders as states became increasingly worried about patrolling their economic-exclusion zones. But that surge failed to transpire, as countries opted instead to upgrade older systems or decided to acquire secondhand platforms such as the P-3.
Rep. Mark Udall (D-Colo.), chairman of the House space and aeronautics subcommittee, introduces a bill that would ease the deadline for retiring the space shuttle. Currently, NASA considers that deadline to be Sept. 20, 2010—almost five years before the replacement vehicles are scheduled to reach initial operational capability. Language in the bipartisan reauthorization bill—which mirrors language under discussion in the Senate version (AW&ST May 12, p.
The U.S. Air Force is looking to ramp up the Falcon hypersonic technology program to include an extra “boost-glide” test vehicle, amid signs of a growing belief within the service that routine air-breathing operations in the Mach 5-plus speed regime could soon be attainable.
It was only a matter of time before an aerospace giant from continental Europe moved to copy the blueprint that BAE Systems used so successfully to penetrate the U.S. defense market. The British contractor parlayed a series of high-profile acquisitions of American defense electronics and armored vehicle operations to become one of the Pentagon’s leading suppliers. The question was which company would be the first to follow suit.
With respect to Ray Goforth’s Viewpoint “Outsourcing Hidden Costs,” any perceived business benefits that may exist are inherently short-term. There is a critical mass that aerospace companies—like those in any other technology industry—must maintain to continue to attract new talent.
Democrats on the House Transportation Committee are mostly skeptical about the planned merger of Delta and Northwest. Previous airline mergers “have rarely produced the projected benefits and efficiencies promised,” says Rep. Jerry Costello (D-Ill.), chairman of the aviation subcommittee. And Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), the full committee chair, is even more jaded.
I take exception to the assertions made in Mario Gonzalez’s letter “Boeing Reaction Not So Bad” (AW&ST Apr. 21, p. 9). The web site www.airframers.com lists virtually all the vendors for the A400M program, and there are a considerable number of U.S. companies listed. The propellers for the new turboprop engines have been designed and built by Ratier Figeac, a French company recently bought by Hamilton Sundstrand. Rockwell Collins is listed as a major vendor plus many others.
USN Rear Adm. (lower half) Steven R. Eastburg has been named vice commander of Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md. He has been its assistant commander for research and engineering and commander of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Div. Rear Adm. (lower half) Janice M. Hamby has been appointed director for command and control systems at Headquarters North American Aerospace Defense Command/director of architectures and integration of U.S. Northern Command, Peterson AFB, Colo.
U.K.-based Cobham plc. has been steadily building a business in the U.S. defense electronics market since the mid-1990s. So it had to be frustrating for Cobham executives that their latest move was overshadowed when Italy’s Finmeccanica SpA. purchased DRS Technologies Inc., a fast-growing U.S. defense electronics company, for $5.2 billion (see p. 38).
An EADS Socata TBM 850 prepares for takeoff at Tampa, Fla., on a company photo mission. The single-engine turboprop business aircraft is gaining favor with corporations and individuals as an alternative to very light jets against which it competes in speed and price but with a larger cabin (see p. 58). Socata recently completed a major upgrade to the airplane, and production is sold out into 2009. Erik Hildebrandt photo.
As of Early May, 12 Dassault Aviation Falcon X business jets have entered service worldwide since the airplane was certified by the FAA and the European Aviation Safety Agency in April 2007. Of these, fleet leader serial No. 04 has accumulated more than 1,000 hr. in service since it was delivered in July 2007 to a customer in Switzerland. The twin-engine, large-cabin jet has carried more than 1,000 passengers and made 415 stops in 110 countries on five continents, including nonstop Europe-U.S. West Coast routes.
China will promote regional aviation with subsidies for small and medium airports and for airlines running short flights, helping to balance its airline sector away from big trunk routes and eastern hubs while giving some lift to sales of domestically built aircraft.
Flight testing has begun at Pratt & Whitney’s Plattsburgh, N.Y., facility on its PW4000 Advantage70 developmental engine for the Airbus A330-200/300. Ground testing has shown the engine will provide 2% more thrust, fuel burn reductions of 1% and increased durability to lower maintenance costs. Flyington Freighters, which launched the A330-200 Freighter, will be first to receive the engine, in late 2009.
Now that the Missile Defense Agency can claim functional, if crude, interception capability against long-range missiles, it might want to pursue shorter range defenses—like against Capitol Hill. Congress is buzzing with talk of changing MDA’s priorities to address more immediate concerns, such as protecting forces in theater now, versus potential intercontinental strikes in the next decade. Legislation is wending its way through Congress. To counter that argument, the MDA chief, Air Force Lt. Gen.
