China’s second-largest airline, Air China, aims to carry 40.06 million passengers this year, 15% more than in 2007. Shenzhen Airlines, a second-tier carrier, aims to have 100 aircraft in its fleet by the end of the year, three times as many as at the end of 2005 and representing an annual fleet growth rate of 44%.
Eilif Serck-Hanssen has been appointed chief financial officer of XOjet Inc. , San Carlos, Calif. He was CFO of Eos Airlines Inc. and had been treasurer of US Airways.
When Stephen Finger returned to Pratt & Whitney as president two years ago, the company was capping decades of research by bringing out its geared turbofan (GTF) design for regional and single-aisle jet engines. Japan has now launched the engine with the 70-90-seat Mitsubishi Regional Jet, and Bombardier has named it to power the 110-130-seat CSeries. Those efforts put the GTF on track for first service in 2013. Pratt is a partner in International Aero Engines, whose V2500 powers the Airbus A320 family.
Ronald Smith has become Northern California and Nevada director of Pilatus PC-12 sales for Western Aircraft , Boise, Idaho. He was an Eclipse 500 sales representative for Eclipse Aviation.
The Qantas group is likely to extend its Jetstar budget airline business with further franchisees following the incorporation of a Vietnamese airline as the second Southeast Asian user of the Australian no-frills brand. As four Asia-Pacific aviation groups maneuver for the region’s potentially vast budget airline market, setting up foreign affiliates like players placing pieces on a checkerboard, the Australian airline has become the first to move in heavily populated Vietnam, a country that seems ripe for low-cost aviation.
Steven F. Udvar-Hazy, chairman/CEO of the International Lease Finance Corp., has been named to receive the 2008 Distinguished Achievement Award from the Wings Club of New York, for his accomplishments in the field of aviation and aircraft leasing.
As president of the leading systems supplier for Boeing’s 787 jet, Hamilton Sundstrand’s David P. Hess has had a ringside seat to troubles in the supply chain that have delayed the aircraft’s certification by about 15 months. So it might come as a surprise that he remains a firm believer in the program’s unproven business model.
Douglas Register has been named vice president-service delivery and engineering for United Airlines . He was vice president-information technology service delivery for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida.
Sept. 23-25—MRO Europe, Madrid. Oct. 14-16—MRO Asia, Singapore. PARTNERSHIPS May 27-June 1—ILA Berlin air show. June 16-18—Aircraft Interiors-Middle East, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. July 14-20—Farnborough (England) air show. Nov. 4-9—Zhuhai (China) air show. You can now register ONLINE for Aviation Week Events. Go to www.aviationweek.com/conferences or call Lydia Janow at +1 (212) 904-3225/+1 (800) 240-7645 ext. 5 (U.S. and Canada Only)
BAE Systems is to cut more than 550 engineering and support-related jobs at its Brough and Woodford sites. Brough will bear the brunt of the cuts, losing 450 positions. An additional 134 posts will be cut at Woodford. The company is trying to reduce Brough’s dependency on the Hawk program. Woodford is the focus of the company’s Nimrod MRA4 maritime patrol aircraft program.
Diamond Aircraft will upgrade the engine in its D-JET very light jet to the Williams FJ33-4A-19 from the -15 version originally planned. The new engine is rated at 1,900 lb. static thrust, compared with its predecessor’s 1,564 lb. In addition, the improved powerplant features reduced specific fuel consumption and a more efficient bleed air system. The engine change, however, will delay customer deliveries of the single-engine D-JET until the second quarter of 2009, says Peter Maurer, Diamond president.
Jim Berberet has become vice president-business development for the Triumph Aftermarket Services Group of Phoenix. He was senior program manager at Nordam.
EADS Astrium will acquire Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. in a move that should strengthen SSTL’s bid to become a player in the commercial satellite market while reinforcing Astrium’s expertise in the small-satellite sector. Astrium announced last week that it had concluded an agreement to acquire virtually all of SSTL from the University of Surrey, subject to regulatory approval. Included in the sale were the 10% holding of SpaceX and the 5%-plus share owned by management and employees.
The revised schedule Boeing has set for the 787 is the third major change since program slips began last fall, and it puts the company about 15 months behind its original plan for certification and first deliveries.
The U.K. Defense Ministry has finally begun to declassify work carried out on a design for a supersonic multirole fighter intended to replace the Harrier and Tornado strike aircraft. The project dates back to the end of the 1980s and was led by the then-British Aerospace. A full-scale size and shape mockup of the design (left), known as P.125, was built by the company before the project was shelved.
Aerojet engineers will mature U.S. methane-fueled rocket engine technology that could one day be used to lift the Altair lunar lander crew off the Moon’s surface, under a $6.9-million study contract from NASA. During the 21-month contract period, Aerojet will complete evaluation of a 5,500-lb.-thrust pressure-fed engine assembly. Methane is easier to store than liquid hydrogen and much denser, says Aerojet President J. Scott Neish.
U.S. billionaire Leonard Blavatnik is about to take a 18.5% stake in Germany’s second largest airline Air Berlin. Blavatnik’s Access Industries will buy the stake previously held by financially struggling private equity investor Vatas Holdings. Blavatnik will be Air Berlin’s single largest shareholder.
One of the newest analytical tools in use by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is a powerful projection system that displays detailed imagery on a large screen with a higher level of resolution than in movie theaters. Called the High-Definition Projection Array (HDPA), the analysis facility, at Bolling AFB, in Washington, can display multiple images and video feeds at the same time for evaluation.
NASA has extended Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne’s Common Extensible Cryogenic Engine (CECE) development contract, originally awarded in 2005, to cover a descent engine for the future lunar lander. Pratt is testing a throttleable version of the venerable 13,800-lb.-thrust RL10 for the role. Under CECE, Pratt has demonstrated repeated throttling operability from 100% down to as low as 9.5% of full power. Under the new phase of the contract, Pratt will design, manufacture and test an enhanced injector to support stable combustion at very low thrust.
Italian carrier Air One may add shareholders to strengthen its long-shot efforts to take over rival Alitalia. Two Italian private investors, Giovanni Malagò and Lupo Rattazzi, have announced they may be ready to take a minority stake if primary owner Carlo Toto opens the airline up for capital investments. An injection of €50 million ($78.5 million) is being considered. Meanwhile, Alitalia is still trying to keep Air France-KLM interested in a takeover.
American Airlines is taking a financial beating from stepped-up FAA safety oversight that last week required grounding and re-inspection of wire bundles in its fleet of 300 MD-80 aircraft. Lost revenue from the 1,000 flight cancellations on Apr. 9 alone could run as high as $14.5 million. This figure does not count revenue from passengers rebooked on American or the expenses incurred for accommodating dislocated travelers Apr. 8-11.
Aerojet and Orbital Sciences have conducted the first static test firing of the jettison motor for the Orion Launch Abort System (LAS) being developed by Orbital. The ground test firing at Aerojet’s Sacramento, Calif., facility lasted less than 2 sec. to meet program criteria for the motor, which weighs less than 500 lb. and uses four nozzles. The test sets up the LAS for the first full-scale pad abort test at the Army’s White Sands Missile Range, N.M., before year-end.
Mexicana has been accepted as Oneworld’s next member airline. The carrier will join the alliance within 12-18 months. Mexicana is the first airline to have joined one of the global alliances (Star), then left it (in 2004) and then joined another group.
