The Justice Dept. has swept up another four major international carriers in its long-running probe into price-fixing. Air France-KLM, Martinair, SAS Cargo Group and Cathay Pacific are pleading guilty and will be fined a combined $504 million. Air France-KLM accounts for $350 million of the total, representing the second-largest criminal fine ever imposed by the department’s anti-trust division. Cathay will pay $60 million, Martinair $42 million, and SAS $52 million.
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is making progress on screening all cargo on passenger flights, but still needs to do a better job of screening cargo that originates overseas, a congressional report says. Legislation enacted last year requires the TSA to screen all cargo in the belly of commercial airliners by August 2010. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) says TSA and its parent Homeland Security Dept. have been slow in deploying cargo-screening technology.
Careful analysis of surface imagery collected at Jupiter’s moon Europa by the Voyager, Galileo and New Horizons probes suggests that its rotational axis has wandered by as much as 80 deg., offering researchers new evidence that a liquid-water ocean lies beneath the frozen surface. After tracing several long depressions that curve across as much as 500 km.
The U.S. Air Force is extending until December pre-development work for Boeing and Lockheed Martin teams on their designs for the Transformational Satellite (TSAT) program, according to sources familiar with the program. The Air Force had already extended the companies’ work until the summer, with the expectation of a contract announcement then. However, senior Pentagon leaders are reviewing the future architecture for secure satellite communications, opening the door to changes in TSAT or, possibly, a program termination. The Defense Dept.
Airbus wants to standardize the A380 configuration to reduce aircraft complexity, ease assembly and implement the solution to a design problem that has caused a fourth round of delivery delays. But first, the aircraft maker is trying to determine the exact delivery slots it can promise airlines. Airbus expects the average delay will be around three months, says CEO Tom Enders.
Air France’s Regional airline subsidiary is upping its commitment for Embraer regional jets. The airline is taking two more 170s, with a list price of $63 million each, with deliveries set for next year. The airline already has seven 170s on order, and also is a buyer of Embraer 190s.
A major price difference in the winning proposal by Northrop Grumman and the competing bid by Lockheed Martin/General Atomics Aeronautical Systems for the Navy’s Broad-Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) UAV program is key to the protest of the contract award. Lockheed Martin’s Predator-based design was estimated to cost more than $5 billion less than Northrop Grumman’s, based on the Global Hawk. Lockheed cited cost difference in a public statement last week, but the company has not publicly released the figure.
U.S. aerospace employment recorded an uptick in March over the previous year, reaching 651,700 workers, compared with 645,600 last year, according to the Aerospace Industries Assn. “While overall manufacturing employment has declined, our civil, defense and space sectors are strong with a record backlog of orders fueled by major export growth,” says AIA President and CEO Marion Blakey. Employment has climbed steadily since hitting a low of 587,000 in 2003 as rolling pink slips hit the industry, especially in commercial aviation, following the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Samuel Johnson said, “Nothing focuses the mind like a hanging,” and the U.S. Army is taking the hint from Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s recent dismissal of the top two Air Force leaders. The Army is rewriting its Future Combat Systems (FCS) program to field unmanned aircraft and ground robots years ahead of schedule, and for infantrymen instead of just mechanized brigades. Starting around 2011, soldiers will get the Class I UAV, unattended urban and tactical ground sensors, and small unmanned ground vehicles.
Lockheed Martin is conducting aerodynamic tests of a 1/18th-scale model tailless, supersonic aircraft in the 4-ft. wind tunnel at the U.S. Air Force’s Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) in Tennessee. The model features a jet-effects opening—or slot—on top of one wing and a spoiler on the other, to help determine which device best provides yaw and roll control, says Brant Maines, Lockheed Martin’s program manager for the tests.
The U.S. Army, Boeing and federal prosecutors are investigating apparently deliberate damage to two CH-47 Chinook helicopters at Boeing’s assembly plant outside Philadelphia.
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.
