Rapidly growing Southeast Asian airline group AirAsia will add three new services in the coming two months, connecting its Kuala Lumpur base with Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, and Haikou and Hong Kong in southern China.
Raytheon researchers say they have tested a new, conventional warhead to punch into hardened and deeply buried bunkers. During a Jan. 31 test, the 1,000-lb.-class warhead set a record by penetrating all but 7 in. of a 20-ft.-thick, 330-ton, steel-reinforced concrete block rated at 12,600 psi. compressed strength in less than 10 millisec.
Alenia Aermacchi and Chile’s Enaer are in talks about collaborating on production of Alenia’s trainer family, including the M-346 advanced jet trainer. The move is part of a strategy to broaden the appeal of the Italian manufacturer’s products as it seeks to secure more customers for the M-346.
China, reacting to a foiled terrorist attempt to destroy an aircraft in flight with a gasoline fire, will ban domestic passengers from carrying liquids. The civil aviation administration will step up security checks at airports—opening more bags for inspection—and forbid airlines from operating express security lanes. There will also be tight checks on vehicles entering secure zones of airports.
BAE Systems is weighing future unmanned aerial vehicle concepts that could spawn a family of modular strike and reconnaissance platforms. Unmanned intra-theater airlifters and a scalable loitering UAV are being considered as well.
The cost of airline insurance per passenger is expected to continue to drop in 2008. It has been on a steady descent ever since the record highs reached in 2001 immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Globally, the average cost of insurance per passenger fell to $0.60 in 2007, down from $0.74 the year before. These figures combine hull loss and liability, but not war insurance.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is Japan’s biggest aerospace supplier, but it hasn’t built its own commercial airplanes for three decades. Now it’s ready for a comeback. Company officials say launch of the 70-90-seat Mitsubishi Regional Jet could come by early April and enter the market in 2013 (see p. 68). Powered by Pratt & Whitney’s geared turbofan, the new jet’s selling points are lower fuel burn, better operating costs and newer technology. But it enters a crowded field. Mitsubishi artist’s rendering.
Europe won, Boeing lost. Of course, politicians, labor unions, defense analysts, media stars and aerospace supply-chain leaders will argue for years about the impact of the KC-45A award. Not only in the U.S. but also in Europe. Everyone seems to be disappointed except for the Northrop Grumman/EADS team’s top executives. Moreover, they all are seriously overreacting, in an indication that they still don’t understand the true meaning of one magic word, globalization.
AerCap leasing has signed an agreement to provide 10 A330-200s to Aeroflot. The aircraft are part of an order for 20 A330s that the lessor placed in 2006 and to which it added 10 aircraft last year. Aeroflot should receive the Trent 700-powered aircraft between November 2008 and April 2010.
MTU Aero Engines this year plans to increase strategic spending on more engine programs, expansion of its maintenance operation and construction of a plant in Poland, management said last week in reporting strong results for 2007. Net income for 2008 is expected to increase 20% to €180 million, up from €148.2 million in 2007 and €121.8 million in 2006. However, to reach its target, further cost reductions are needed to offset the weakness of the dollar against the euro, says CEO Egon Behle.
Frank Morring, Jr. (Johnson Space Center), Michael A. Taverna (Paris)
Crew members on the International Space Station and the space shuttle Endeavour will spend this week and next working through a complex series of steps to tie Canadian and Japanese hardware into the orbiting outpost as the long-planned partnership takes final shape in space.
On Mar. 7, the FAA issued its final rule mandating upgrades of flight data recorders by 2010-12. Requirements include an increase in cockpit voice recorder time to 2 hr. from 15-30 min. and an increased sampling rate of flight data recorder parameters. The ruling affects existing and new-production airplanes and helicopters with 10 or more seats.
After years of rumors and whispers, Gulfstream Aerospace unveiled its next-generation G650 program in front of 5,000 people here on Mar. 13. Company officials say it will define a new class of “ultra-large cabin, ultra-long-range business jets.”
It is unbelievable that USAF has selected the A330 airframe over the 767 as the U.S.’s newest tanker platform. With an engineering and manufacturing company as great as Boeing—remember its 50-year-old KC-135—we have turned to a European product to support our military needs. Japan and Italy have selected the 767 to support their forces, but the U.S. looks to Airbus. I hope the KC-45 doesn’t turn out like the A380F.
General aviation aircraft flying into Mexico from the Caribbean, Central America and South America are now required to land at Cozumel or Tapachula to have their aircraft inspected for illegal substances. Countries that are considered to be within the Caribbean zone include Bermuda, the Bahamas, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Mexican officials are recommending that pilots use Cozumel because of its improved customs facilities compared with Tapachula.
French naval and industry officials fear horse-trading on program priorities could risk key capabilities, as the three services struggle to protect their projects in the country’s defense white paper review.
Singapore Airlines last week received its third A380, to enable the airline to expand its service with the mega-transport to London Heathrow Airport this week. The airline also announced Tokyo would become the A380s’ next port of call, in May.
It takes persistent people working inside their companies and outside in industry to make innovative civil aviation projects happen. This is the case with the efforts of Capt. Karen Lee and Bob Hilb at UPS through more than a decade of pursuing the use of Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) for air navigation with the help of the FAA’s Paul Fontaine, manager of the Safe Flight 21 Program from 1999 to 2005.
Nearly 400 aerospace luminaries from around the globe gathered in the historic Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington for Aviation Week’s Laureate Awards. The black-tie event on Mar. 4 continued an annual tradition conceived in 1957 to recognize the extraordinary accomplishments of individuals and teams in aviation, aerospace and defense.
United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V was successful in its first West Coast launch at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., early on Mar. 13 on an estimated $600-million mission for the National Reconnaissance Office. The 3:02 a.m. PDT launch initiated the refurbished and enlarged Space Launch Complex 3 for polar orbiting missions of the second member of ULA’s heavy-lift booster team.
Todd Hauge has become chief financial officer and Kyle Farley vice president-manufacturing for Aspen Avionics Inc. , Albuquerque, N.M. Hauge was CFO of WorkRite Ergonomics Inc., while Farley was vice president-manufacturing operations for S-TEC.
Ravi Uppal has been named a non-executive director of BAE Systems plc . He is Zurich-based president for global markets for ABB Ltd. Uppal succeeds Peter Weinberg, whose three-year term expires May 7.
US Airways pilots will begin voting this week on whether to decertify the Air Line Pilots Assn. as their collective bargaining agent and name the US Airline Pilots Assn. (USAPA), a company union, in its place. The National Mediation Board will tally ballots on Apr. 17. Union members are split over a May 2007 arbitrator’s ruling that established an integrated seniority list following the 2005 merger of America West and US Airways (AW&ST June 11, 2007, p. 42).
