The French Assembly defense committee says it will move to amend a white paper that is planned to reorient France’s defense priorities in light of new threats and budget realities. In particular, the committee will urge changes to reflect a greater focus on air mobility, and less on complex hardware such as digital battlefield systems.
Switzerland’s Skyguide air navigation service provider and France’s DSNA are both acquiring Comsoft of Germany’s Mesange system for transmitting and receiving aeronautical information. They plan to use it starting in about a year to handle growing traffic. DSNA manages 2.9 million instrument flights annually and Skyguide, 1.23 million. Mesange will carry messages on the Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunication Network using the new ICAO/Eurocontrol protocol for international air traffic service message handling.
Product upgrades, such as the range-extension of the Falcon 900EX, are taking center stage at Dassault Aviation right now, as the aircraft maker continues to confine its work on its next aircraft, the SMS, to quiet engineering efforts and talks with potential suppliers.
The National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) will continue development of the software interface and validate the ergonomic design of an Advanced Cockpit Ground Control Station (ACGCS) for UAVs, under contract to the U.S. Air Force and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems. NIAR’s Human Factors Lab is helping to improve the operation of the control station, which features multiple keyboards, input devices and displays that have increased operator workload, says Alex Chaparro, director of the lab.
Commercial aerospace in the U.K. in recent months has been taking hits from all sides: various hues of green activism, tax increases and the first-day debacle at Heathrow’s Terminal 5. On the environmental front, the industry is now grouped under the banner of “Sustainable Aviation,” mapping out a plan for the coming decades. This long-term three-pillared approach addresses economic and social benefits while trying to minimize environmental impacts.
Both Boeing and EADS/Northrop-Grumman tanker offerings will perform the Air Force tanker mission. I take exception to the comment that the Boeing offering is a “Frankentanker” and is a higher development risk.
A trio of potential multibillion-dollar deals could reshape the fragmented air charter sector as fractional ownership pioneer NetJets has influenced bizjet ownership. The biggest—a $2.5-billion financing scheme announced here last week—promises to propel XOJet, a little-known California-based operator, almost overnight onto the global stage. The bulk of the financing, through a mix of debt and equity, is being supplied by Tasameem, an Abu Dhabi real estate investment concern, which will acquire a small stake.
George C. Nield has been promoted to associate administrator from deputy associate administrator of the FAA ’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation.
As oil prices marched inexorably upward during the past four years, conventional wisdom held that costly crude helped boost demand for aircraft by encouraging airlines to replace their gas-guzzlers with new jets that are less expensive to operate. But with oil topping $135 a barrel and airlines hunkered down in survival mode, one group of analysts thinks prices have reached the tipping point from being a stimulant of aircraft demand to being a drag.
The first congressional cut at setting priorities for NASA spending under the incoming administration has plenty of specifics for Earth science, but only a general endorsement of Mars exploration. “NASA has an important role to play in helping to address the research challenges associated with climate change,” says Rep. Mark Udall (D-Colo.), in outlining his NASA reauthorization bill for Fiscal 2009. The bill, which has cleared the House Science space subcommittee that Udall chairs (see p.
BAE Systems has picked up a £43.9-million ($86.9-million) five–year contract to provide additional engineering support for the Royal Air Force’s fleet of VC10 tanker/transport aircraft.
June 4-5—Aviation Industry Group’s Airline Sales & Marketing Conference. Hilton Euston, London. See www.aviationindustrygroup.com or call +44 (207) 931-7072. June 4-7—Society of Experimental Test Pilots’ European Symposium. Hotel Radisson SAS, Lucerne, Switzerland. Call +1 (661) 942-9574 or see www.setp.org
Richard L. Penshorn has become president/general manager of the King Aerospace Commercial Corp. , Ardmore, Okla. He was president of Aircraft Executive Services.
The $193.9-billion emergency war supplemental spending bill passed by the Senate last week also includes $1.2 billion for science programs including money for NASA. Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) added $200 million to the supplemental to reimburse NASA for some of the $2.7 billion in post-Columbia return-to-flight funds it took from other programs. The supplemental includes $166 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through early 2009.
Bombardier has selected Rockwell Collins to provide its Pro Line Fusion avionics suite for the new Learjet 85. Embraer also will use the suite for its new Legacy 450/500 business jets. The suite comes with three, 15-in.-diagonal high-resolution LCD displays and provides features such as enhanced synthetic vision, Integrated Flight Information Systems with electronic charts, and dual advanced flight management systems.
Space shuttle missions to service the Hubble Space Telescope and deliver supplies to the International Space Station will slip about six weeks under new launch dates set by senior NASA managers May 22. Production problems with the missions’ external tanks—the first built from scratch with post-Columbia modifications—have forced the delay. The STS-125 Hubble mission on Atlantis has been rescheduled to Oct. 8 from Aug. 28.
Southwest keeps adding service in Denver in an ever-growing challenge to Frontier and United’s prior dominance there. From Apr. 22 to May 20, Southwest announced new services beginning this summer to Portland, Ore.; Indianapolis; Sacramento, Calif.; New Orleans; Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood, Fla.; San Francisco, and Omaha, Neb. On May 10 it began service to Los Angeles; Philadelphia; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; San Antonio; San Jose, Calif.; and St. Louis. Frontier, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Apr.
The Safran Group has expanded its presence in the Americas with the May 16 opening of a maintenance, repair and overhaul facility in Queretaro, Mexico. The new Snecma Services subsidiary, Snecma America Engine Services (Sames), will be dedicated to CFM56-5A, -5B and -7B aircraft engines.
The Assn. of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) believes it’s time for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to heed its call for a standard aviation employee ID card that would speed the security screening of all employees. The AFA-CWA is dumbfounded that the TSA intends to embark on a trial run this summer at three airports of a system that will allow pilots to bypass regular aviation employee screening. The AFA-CWA says pilots and flight attendants go through the same employment screening and background checks.
A pact that will strengthen the possibility of an open skies arrangement between European Union member states and India is expected to be signed in September at the EU-India summit.
Boeing is trying to make the most of the real estate on the 747-8I to entice VIP customers into buying the aircraft and not the A380. Although the 747-8 doesn’t offer a full upper deck, Boeing is designing an 800-sq.-ft. area between the main deck and upper fuselage shell, where passengers could sleep or install a lounge. Although the space can’t be used during takeoffs and landings and the final configuration isn’t set, headroom should be around 5.9 ft.
In the wake of last year’s turmoil in NASA astronaut corps stemming from the arrest of astronaut Lisa Nowak, lawmakers may require NASA to conduct biennial anonymous health care surveys of its astronauts and flight surgeons “to evaluate communication, relationships, and the effectiveness of policies,” and to report the results to Congress.
Potentially game-changing treaties with key U.S. partners may have one more window of opportunity for ratification before the pending presidential election casts them into limbo. London and Washington have been trying to negotiate a structure for improved defense-industrial relations for eight years. The latest bilateral effort—the U.K./U.S. Defense Trade Cooperation Treaty—has yet to be approved by the Senate. A similar agreement is also being pursued by Australia.
