Selecting a European-made tanker for the U.S. military was a huge mistake. Choosing EADS is bad enough but the real mistake was inviting it in the first place: The outcome was clear because of European government support for the venture; price would secure the bid. This mistake jeopardizes the U.S. airplane business. China and Japan are moving into the passenger aircraft market and Russia is returning, mostly on the back of our technology and with cheap labor. Can Boeing survive operating in the U.S. with all its rules? President Bush should cancel this deal.
Gulfstream Aerospace believes future supersonic transports, and particularly business jets, will win market success only if they are capable of unrestricted supersonic flight over land. This is prohibited by many countries because of the unacceptably loud sonic boom generated by any aircraft traveling at supersonic speeds.
Former NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe will become head of GE Aviation’s Washington operations June 2, succeeding Thomas Cooper, who is retiring. O’Keefe left NASA in 2005 to serve as chancellor of Louisiana State University, a position he lost in a conflict with the LSU board this year. He also has been Navy secretary and deputy White House budget director.
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.
Space Station Solar Array Repair Team The operations laureates combined teamwork and skill with old-fashioned courage to keep assembly of the International Space Station on track in the face of an ugly mishap.
Adm. William Fallon’s resignation as chief of Central Command is portrayed as being prompted by his public—but minor—disagreements with the White House over the war in Iraq. But the differences were actually fundamental. A senior Air Force general says Fallon was “siding with the Joint Staff, in particular the Army and Marines, in urging the President to get out of Iraq faster because it’s undermining the U.S. military. . . . Top Army and Marine Corps leaders know the military is not designed to carry on a long-term war.
Evoking the spirit and pride of legions that have gone before, “Never Forget” was the theme underlying the christening of the USS New York, an amphibious transport dock ship (LPD 21) in New Orleans on Mar. 1. The ship is the fifth landing platform dock in the San Antonio Class, which is the newest addition to the U.S. Navy’s 21st-century amphibious assault force. LPD 21 also is the fifth ship to bear the New York moniker—one notable predecessor, battleship USS New York, served as flagship in World War I and participated in the invasion of Okinawa in World War II.
In “Bad Vibes” (AW&ST Jan. 28, p. 400), human tolerance limits are described as 0.6g rms (root mean square) for 1 min. However, this average number is meaningless without a definition of a specific frequency envelope. Absent a frequency profile, there are an infinite number of vibration profiles that could produce this g-rms value.
The U.S. Air Force held a retirement ceremony for the F-117A Nighthawk at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. There were 59 production stealth aircraft built, and they have been in service for 27 years. Seven were lost, one in Serbia during combat. The survivors will be placed in recallable storage at their original base, the Tonapah airfield on the Nevada Test Ranges, by next month.
Chinese aircraft group Avic 1 is sending 150 engineers to Britain’s Cranfield University to study commercial airframe and engine design. The company wants half of its students to focus on engines, an area where China has negligible capacity to compete with Western industry.
Robert Wall (NAS Patuxent River, Md.), Amy Butler (NAS Patuxent River, Md.)
The U.S. Navy has launched an all-out effort to field improved helicopter countermeasures for combat forces, with the focus on getting some of the most advanced developmental equipment into the hands of troops.
Pilots ratified a four-year amended contract with AStar Air Cargo, which provides lift for DHL in the U.S., giving the carrier “a platform for future business growth,” says Chairman/CEO John Dasburg. The contract closes a wage gap between pilots at AStar and ABX Air, which also carries DHL cargo.
Regional, business and amphibious aircraft-maker Bombardier saw its delivery rates climb 10% to 361 aircraft in the fiscal year that ended Jan. 31. Orders nearly doubled to 698 from 363. Business jets accounted for 232 of the deliveries and 452 of the orders. Deliveries for regional jets reached 128 compared to 112 in 2006, while orders rose to 238, up from 87 the year before.
Don’t blame JetBlue Airways for the delays at New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (AW&ST Jan. 14, p. 7). JFK was slot-controlled when the High Density Rule took effect on Apr. 27, 1969. Unlike Washington National, New York LaGuardia and Chicago O’Hare airports, which also fell under the rule, slots at JFK were only required between 3 and 7:59 p.m., with an initial allocation of 80 air carrier, 15 commuter and two general aviation slots for each hour.
Dnata Airport Operations, the ground and passenger handling agent at Dubai International Airport, says it will begin servicing about 700 flights per week when Dubai’s expanded Terminal 2 opens at month’s end. The 37,000-sq.-ft. extension will increase the airport’s surface area to 93,000 sq. ft. The terminal is expecting to handle 320 cargo and 380 passenger flights per week.
Hong Kong International Airport should consult with its tenant airlines as it mulls a feasibility study for a third runway, says Cathay Pacific Airways CEO Tony Tyler. Installing new air traffic control equipment to increase movements will only delay the airport from becoming fully slot-constrained, he warns. “Hubs like Guangzhou and Shanghai are planning third, fourth and even fifth runways. Hong Kong faces the very real danger of giving our competitive advantage away unless we move quickly and decisively on the third runway,” says Tyler.
Political footballs come in all shapes and sizes. The one being tossed around the aerospace/defense playing field of late by select members of Congress and some industry players happens to have wings and a refueling boom sticking out of its tail. And like most political footballs, this one has the same look and feel of self-indulgence and self-aggrandizement.
A heavy round of spacewalking on the upcoming International Space Station assembly mission will leave future crews with a Canadian-built robotic alternative to going outside the orbiting facility for repairs. Also on the agenda for STS-123/1J/A, set for a launch early on Mar. 11, is delivery of the pressurized attic that will give Japan’s big Kibo laboratory module storage space for eight experiment racks. Japan’s new Kibo control center in Tsukuba, Japan, will join the ISS communications networks during the mission (see p. 51).
USAF has awarded a $17.2-million contract to General Atomics for engineering development of Advanced Cockpit Increment 2 for the Predator/Reaper UAV control station. The company also received an $18.6-million Army contract for continued development and demonstration of the extended range/multi-purpose UAV.
The Personal Air Transportation Alliance (PATA)—formed by DayJet, Pogo, North American Jet and other operators of very light jets (VLJs)—is talking with the FAA about mounting an early demonstration of NextGen ATC technologies and procedures at the airports they serve. These on-demand air taxis serve small airports other than the 35 busiest ones covered in the FAA’s Operational Evolution Partnership.
International demand continues to drive world air transport growth, according to Airports Council International (ACI). The world’s airports, which had a 4% increase in total world traffic in January, showed “solid growth” of international world passenger traffic compared to the same month last year, says Andreas Schimm, ACI director of economics. Meanwhile, domestic traffic worldwide remained flat, at 1%. U.S.
The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee is slated to examine the state of the aviation industry later this week. Air carriers continue to face significant challenges, despite earning an estimated net profit of $3.5 billion last year, according to the committee. Among those challenges: high fuel prices, growing competition, severe congestion and delay problems. The Mar. 13 hearing is expected to focus on the long-term economic outlook as well as the current financial state.
An anticipated £450-million ($904.5-million) jump in its fuel bill to £2.5 billion is likely to contribute to a drop in British Airways’ operating margin to 7% in the 2008-09 financial year from around 10% this year. Moreover, Chief Financial Officer Keith Williams says BA will struggle with “a sharp slowdown” in the U.S. and U.K., and a less severe downturn in Europe and Asia. Revenue for the next financial year is expected to grow by 4-4.5%.
NASA has started reconfiguring the space shuttle Atlantis—just back from delivering Europe’s Columbus laboratory to the International Space Station—to prepare for what may be its final mission. Atlantis is targeted to carry the last planned crew of on-orbit repairmen to the Hubble Space Telescope for a servicing mission before the end of this year. That will require it to be configured differently from orbiters working on ISS assembly.
