As the industry’s executives gather this week at the Regional Airline Assn.’s annual conference in Indianapolis, they—and some of the small communities they serve—have plenty to worry about.
Michael A. Taverna (Paris), Alexey Komarov (Moscow)
Efforts by Russian/Ukrainian launch vehicle producers and operators to resolve process and quality problems are encountering mixed success. Early last week, Boeing-led Sea Launch and its partner Space International Services of Moscow inaugurated their Land Launch rocket, which is designed to meet growing demand for small telecom satellites in the 3-metric-ton, 4-kw. range. The flight culminated a 15-month effort to get Sea Launch’s operation and development program back on track, following a January 2007 mishap.
“Global strike” capabilities are like pornography—nobody can define it, but everybody knows it when they see it. That’s one of the conclusions of a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to the House Armed Services Committee’s strategic forces panel. The Pentagon has not provided a universally accepted definition. The lack of uniformity makes it more difficult to budget for major new systems, the GAO says.
Hamilton Sundstrand lacks the identity of its sister companies, Pratt & Whitney and Sikorsky. But the United Technologies unit is a leading supplier on aircraft programs such as the Boeing 787, Airbus A380, Embraer 170/190 and Mitsubishi Regional Jet. In an interview with AW&ST Editor-in-Chief Anthony L. Velocci, Jr., and Senior Business Editor Joseph C. Anselmo, President David P. Hess outlines the changes and challenges sweeping the aerospace industry.
The U.S. airline industry remains in a state of flux as United Airlines continues its quest for a merger partner, and Continental Airlines—having spurned United—appears ready to bail out of the SkyTeam alliance.
SES Astra has started operating a new orbital position at 31.5 deg. E. Long. that will enhance operational flexibility at neighboring slots, notably expanding direct-to-home positions at 5 and 23.5 deg. E. Long., and provide a solid springboard for development of markets in Central Europe and the Middle East. The position, owned by SES, will initially be filled by Sirius 2, a satellite launched in 1997 with as many as 26 active transponders, that is owned by SES’s Scandinavian affiliate, Sirius.
A quarter of a century and more than $100 billion after President Ronald Reagan pushed for a U.S. missile shield, Missile Defense Agency officials and other advocates assert that the U.S. has a rudimentary capability while major technology advancements are imminent. Congress, meanwhile, seems increasingly likely to go along even as critics have stepped up complaints.
Putting aside the question whether it is in the long-term interests of any company to be managed with primary regard to the short-term interests of hedge-fund managers and senior executives, other points arise from your coverage of Delta Air Lines’ proposed takeover of Northwest Airlines (AW&ST Apr. 21, p. 24).
Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines (MEA) is entering a critical period, with a fleet expansion and modernization effort set to begin next month. The airline will start adding 10 new Airbus aircraft—a mix of A320s and A330s—through 2010, expanding its fleet to 16 aircraft. The goal is first to increase service on some of the most profitable routes and then look at network expansion to places such as Moscow, Sudan or other African locations. However, MEA faces a difficult underlying situation, owing to Lebanon’s domestic turmoil.
Bombardier has delivered its 1,500th regional jet, 19 years after launch of the type on Mar. 31, 1989. Northwest Airlines received a CRJ900 for partner Mesaba Airlines.
Airbus late last month finally completed “power-on” for MSN26, the first A380 featuring an entirely new wiring design that is intended to fix installation problems that delayed the flagship program about two years. Powering up the aircraft in Toulouse was supposed to take place late last year, but it took longer to devise and implement the new wiring concept. The company hopes to deliver MSN26 to Qantas by year-end, but that may slip into 2009 and force Airbus to miss its promise to hand over 13 A380s to customers this year.
May 11-13—Shephard Group’s Heli-Middle East Conference 2008. Grand Hyatt Hotel, Muscat, Oman. Also, May 14-16—Electronic Warfare Conference & Exhibition 2008. Casino Kursaal, Interlaken, Switzerland. Call +44 (162) 860-6971 or see www.shephard.co.uk/events May 11-15—Aerospace Medical Assn. 79th Annual Scientific Meeting. Sheraton Boston. Call +1 (703) 739-2240 ext. 106 or see www.asma.org May 12-22—Aviation Safety and Security Certificate Program. George Washington University, Ashburn, Va. Call +1 (703) 726-8334 or see www.gwu.edu/~aviation/
Rockwell Collins has been selected for three avionics work packages on the Airbus A350XWB in addition to one other package previously awarded. The company will provide its multimode receiver, an Ethernet backbone for the avionics system and an integrated communications system with five functions. Rockwell Collins now will be working as a supplier of integrated systems to Airbus, rather than just individual products.
An industry-academy team from California is claiming what it believes to be the first successful flight of a rocket engine powered by liquid oxygen (LOX) and methane, a combination likely to find wide usage in future human exploration on the Moon and beyond. Developed by Garvey Spacecraft Corp. (GSC) and California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), the Prospector 14LM (P-14LM) testbed reached an altitude of 5,500 ft. after launching from a test site near Mojave, Calif., on Apr. 12.
George C. Nield has been named associate FAA administrator for commercial space transportation. Nield was deputy to Associate Administrator Patricia Grace Smith, until she retired in February. A graduate of the Air Force Academy, Nield holds a doctorate in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University, and graduated from the USAF Test Pilot School.
Scott A. Crislip has been appointed vice president-customer program development for the Cincinnati-based Belcan Corp. He was president of Rolls-Royce Helicopter Engines.
NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans appears to have worked out production kinks in the redesigned space shuttle external fuel tank produced there. At most, that should mean a 4-5-week slip in the schedule for building the final 10 tanks before the shuttle is retired in 2010. The slip is due to the learning curve on building tanks redesigned after the Columbia accident to shed less insulating foam (AW&ST Mar. 31, p. 23).
A compilation of performance figures by AAPA members shows combined revenues of $103 billion, $11 billion higher than 2006. International passenger traffic grew 4.2% and set a record as did cargo, which was up 2.7%. Passenger load factors reached a record 77.1%.
NASA argues that congressional permission for its astronauts to continue flying on Russian Soyuz vehicles after 2011 is “mandatory” if the International Space Station is to continue operating. The agency’s human spaceflight chief, William Gerstenmaier, tells the House aeronautics and space subcommittee that Russia understands it can’t operate the ISS without U.S. crewmates to run the U.S. power and cooling systems that keep the massive spacecraft functioning. But a congressional exemption to the Iran nonproliferation law permitting the U.S.
Germany is paying $66.7 million to airports operator Fraport AG for investments it made in the failed Manila Terminal 3 project. The government has a fund to guarantee capital investments made by businesses outside Germany. Fraport was a partner in a group chosen to build a new Terminal 3 at Manila Ninoy Aquino International Airport in 1999. However, in 2002, then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo voided the contract.
Working teams entrusted with elaborating a plan to modernize the French armed forces have come up with an outline for streamlining support services and, in particular, resolving on-condition maintenance matters as parts show signs of deterioration. Government figures indicate that 60% of the defense personnel budget goes for support activities and only 40% for operations—the opposite of the situation in other allied nations, notably the U.K. The objective of the reform plan, to be announced on June 19, will be to reverse these percentages.
Eurocontrol has accepted the final two work products of the Single European Sky Air Traffic Management research consortium: the Sesar master plan and the 2008-13 work program. The master plan lays out how the new concept of operation can be instituted and outlines a phased implementation schedule from research and development to deployment. The next phase of the ATC modernization program is being run by the Sesar Joint Undertaking, which has an administrative board and an executive director.
Airservices Australia and Qantas Airways are demonstrating dramatic reductions in fuel burn, emissions and noise using Required Navigation Performance (RNP) procedures at Brisbane Airport, and now Qantas aims to save even more there with 4D trajectory arrivals.
May 5-7—Speednews’ Sixth Annual Aerospace and Defense Industry Suppliers Conference. Jonathan Club, Los Angeles. Call +1 (310) 203-9603, fax +1 (310) 203-9352 or see www.speednews.com May 5-8—Society of Experimental Test Pilots’ Flight Test Safety Workshop. Radisson Suite Hotel Oceanfront, Melbourne, Fla. Also, June 4-7—European Symposium. Hotel Radisson SAS, Lucerne, Switzerland. Call +1 (661) 942-9574 or see www.setp.org
