Apr. 15-16—AVIATION WEEK Interiors, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Apr. 15-17—MRO Conference and Exhibition, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Sept. 23-25—MRO Europe, Madrid. Oct. 14-16—MRO Asia, Singapore. PARTNERSHIPS Mar. 31-Apr. 6—FIDAE, Santiago, Chile. Apr. 1-3—JEC Composites, Paris. Apr. 7-10—U.S. Space Foundation, Colorado Springs. May 27-June 1—ILA Berlin air show. June 16-18—Aircraft Interiors-Middle East, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
USN Rear Adm. Harry B. Harris, Jr., has been nominated for promotion to vice admiral and assignment as deputy chief of naval operations for communication networks at the Pentagon. He has been director for operations of the U.S. Southern Command in Miami. Rear Adm. (lower half) William E. Shannon has been named program executive officer for strike weapons and unmanned aviation at NAS Patuxent River, Md. He has been vice commander of the Naval Air Systems Command, also at Patuxent River. Rear Adm. (lower half) Kendall L.
Rafale International, a joint venture of Dassault Aviation, Thales and Snecma, has opened an office in Athens to sell fourth-generation Rafale fighters to the Greek air force. The office also will serve to expand technology exchange and cooperation with Hellenic Aerospace Industry and other Greek defense companies. In November, Dassault completed delivery of Mirage 2000-5 combat aircraft to Greece. Reinforcing arms exports is a major objective under French President Nicolas Sarkozy (AW&ST Mar. 3, p. 33).
In mid-May, Singapore Airlines plans to launch all business-class service on transpacific flights to New York and Los Angeles with its five A340-500LRs. “The peak demand for the nonstop flights is from our business-class customers, and this change will expand business-class capacity to 100 from 64 seats on each flight,” says Huang Cheng Eng, SIA executive vice president of marketing and regions. Initial service will be offered on the Singapore-New York route, expanding to daily flights by the end of June, with service to Los Angeles starting by late September.
Paul Tate, who has been chief financial officer of Frontier Airlines , has been appointed chief operating officer of Air Methods of Denver, effective Mar. 31.
Boeing has reached the halfway point in design releases for its 747-8 Freighter, which is due to begin production in early autumn. Design releases have been equally distributed among the aircraft’s major components—wing, fuselage, interiors, propulsion and systems—and have gone to all key suppliers. Launch customers All Nippon Cargo and Cargolux are to start taking deliveries in late 2009. Boeing has 78 orders from 10 customers for the freighter.
In audited 2007 full-year results issued last week, London-based Inmarsat reported revenues of $576.5 million, 15.3% higher than 2006, and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $388.1 million, up 17%. Pre-tax profit rose 39%, to $124.8 million. Results included Inmarsat’s share in CIP Holdings Ltd., notably its subsidiary Stratos, a major Inmarsat distributor. Inmarsat has a call option to acquire CIP through Apr. 14, 2009, and both companies have indicated it will be exercised.
Tons of ice and dust cascade down a 2,300-ft.-tall cliff at the edge of the ice cap surrounding the north pole of Mars in this image collected by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRise) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The false-color image, part of a larger scene centered at 83.7 deg. N. Lat., shows the carbon dioxide frost that covers the polar cap at left. The frost is disappearing as the planet’s northern spring advances, and at the moment MRO passed overhead on Feb. 19, an avalanche of material had just plunged down the 60-deg.
It has long been believed that data fades quickly from a computer’s memory and that its encryption is sound once the computer is shut down. Not so, found Princeton University researchers who pried even encrypted data from memory chips after computer power was turned off.
Airbus A380s will usher in a “new era” for the fast-growing Emirates, says airline President Tim Clark. The Dubai-based carrier has 58 A380s on order, five of which will be delivered this year. Emirates will offer nonstop A380 service between Dubai and New York beginning Oct. 1, London Heathrow on Dec. 1 and Sydney-Auckland on Feb. 2, 2009. The aircraft on these routes will be in a 489-seat, three-class configuration. Its A380 fleet will also comprise a medium-range, three-class 517-seat configuration and a medium-range, two-class 604-seater.
The unused Long March 3C version of the current generation of Chinese launchers will finally go into service this year, having apparently been shelved after its development was first described about a decade ago. It is composed of a Long March 3A core rocket with two strap-on boosters. Launch capacity has been stated as 3.7 metric tons to geostationary orbit.
Kentron, now Denel Dynamics, was established with the aim of providing an isolated South Africa with an independent guided-weapons capability, irrespective of cost. Its problems typify those faced by the South African defense sector. Outgoing CEO Shaun Liebenberg is trying to determine how to secure Denel Dynamics’ future during his final months at Denel’s helm. His recommendations were due to go before the Denel board at the end of February.
Northrop Grumman’s San Diego facility scooped up an $18.6-million USAF contract to construct a Virtual Combat Environment for Electronic Conflict. The facility is to allow design and development of advanced electronic warfare, cyberspace and information operation technologies; evaluation of sensors; demonstration of layered sensing and battle management; and identification of advanced disruptive technologies.
With the delay of Boeing 787s and the opening of more slots in Tokyo, Japan Airlines is considering how to juggle seats for the best yields, as is its rival All Nippon Airways.
ATA Airlines, citing high fuel costs, will discontinue scheduled services at its Chicago Midway Airport hub effective Apr. 14, followed by a cessation of international flights June 7. Aircraft will be placed in charter service.
Amy Butler (Washington), David A. Fulghum (Washington)
Boeing is facing an uphill battle as it tries to overturn the U.S. Air Force’s decision to award a $35-billion contract to a competing Airbus design for the KC-X refueling tanker.
Orbiter: Endeavour (OV-105) will be making its 21st flight. It most recently returned from orbit on Aug. 21, 2007. Launch Date: Targeted for Mar. 11 from Kennedy Space Center Pad 39A for a 16-day mission, returning to KSC on Mar. 26.
MBDA has delivered the first series production batch of its advanced Milan ADT firing post to South Africa, along with upgraded Milan 3 multirole antitank missiles and a training simulator. The post, which features improved optics, an integrated thermal imager and a digitized localizer, is currently in troop trials in South Africa. The new firing system and missiles were developed under a Franco-German cooperative program.
London Heathrow Airport needs a third runway to increase capacity and maintain its competitive position as a European hub, says airports operator BAA in a report to the U.K. Transport Dept. A third runway could be built to maintain stringent environmental limits, adds BAA. Heathrow will reach its planning and operational cap of 480,000 flights in 2008, with runways already operating at 99% capacity, according to the report. “In contrast, Frankfurt has three runways (with a fourth due to open in 2011); Paris, four; Madrid, four; and Amsterdam, five.
The problem with fuel taxes (AW&ST Feb. 25, p. 10) is they do nothing themselves to cut emissions. Taxes increase the costs of fuel and travel but do not reduce travel unless they are so exorbitant as to be politically unacceptable.
Israel’s defense ministry has selected Controp’s family of stabilized miniature electro-optical sensor payloads for its upcoming buy of several hundred small UAVs, company officials say. Because of the size of the purchase, they contend the payload’s price will drop well below $20,000 per unit. Variants selected for the military are the D-Stamp with CCD camera and 10X continuous optical zoom and the UDF-Stamp with day/night units using uncooled infrared thermal imagers. The UZ-Stamp is a 1.3-kg. (2.9-lb.) design with 15-60-mm. lens and 9.5-37-deg. field of view.
The Pentagon needs to make a decision on how to proceed with buying an EA-6B replacement in time to request funding its Fiscal 2010 budget submission or face more costly maintenance and upgrade bills for the Prowler electronic jammer fleet. One option not likely to gain traction is to build an EA-35, a Joint Strike Fighter-based electronic warfare variant. A Marine Corps official says it would “cost billions of dollars,” requiring a significant redesign including the addition of a backseat for an electronic warfare officer.
Japan’s contribution of a pair of big pressurized modules for the International Space Station in the next three months will also bring the first voices emanating from an Asian mission control center to join those already coming from the U.S., France, Germany and Russia.
Aircraft maker Avic 1 and China Eastern have gained unusual approval to start a regional carrier—Xingfu Airlines—from the Chinese cabinet, which granted an exception to a ban on new airline applications before 2010. The civil aviation administration, determined to maintain China’s safety record in the face of rapid airline growth, announced the ban last year. Xingfu will operate Avic 1 aircraft, initially MA60 turboprops, and later introduce ARJ21 regional jets. Plans are to include 50 of each aircraft type in the fleet.
The FAA and the European Aviation Safety Agency are pressing ahead with plans to change the rules under which airlines can fly instrument approaches with enhanced vision systems (EVS). In the U.S., this initiative has the backing of Nick Sabatini, FAA associate administrator for aviation safety, and he expects the rule change to happen this year. Currently, some business jets—such as those built by Gulfstream Aerospace that are equipped with EVS—are able to descend to 100 ft.
