Singapore Airlines has set Mar. 18 as the start of A380 operations to London Heathrow Airport. The carrier will receive its third A380 at the end of the month, and then use the three mega-transports to shuttle among London, Singapore and Sydney. Turnaround time at Heathrow will be almost 4 hr.
Air France is gradually modernizing its Airbus narrow-body short-haul fleet. The first of the upgraded aircraft was put into operations last month and a second is to follow this month. In total, seven A321s will receive the upgrades. While much of the effort is cosmetic, such as adding a new color scheme, the revised interior creates more room in the cabin and baggage overhead compartments.
It’s an understood fact of life that the U.S. Defense budget generates about 50% of the world’s annual military spending. This creates a deceptively simple market outlook for Joseph Ackerman who, during his 10-year tenure as CEO of Elbit, has seen the company’s business increase to $1.5 billion in 2006 from $307 million in 1996.
Spain has completed its portion of the $64-million contract to equip Tiger HAD helicopters with Spike-ER anti-tank missiles. General Dynamics Santa Barbara Sistemas is serving as prime contractor for the Rafael-developed weapon, and will provide logistics support. The Spike-ER program to Spain is to be completed by 2012. The country’s army also uses Spike.
Last month, American Airlines announced its first loss in the last seven quarters (AW&ST Jan. 21, p. 39). The board of directors of parent AMR Corp. approved a one-time payment of $800 to all eligible employees. Now I know what it’s like to be treated like an executive. My company loses money, and I am rewarded for a job well done!
David A. Fulghum (Washington), Douglas Barrie (London)
Boeing is trying to chip away at Lockheed Martin’s lead in the future fighter stakes by pitching further variants of the F/A-18 Super Hornet, followed with the promise of a leap to what some now dub a sixth-generation combat aircraft. The company is continuing to push both the Super Hornet and the F-15 Eagle in the export arena, and may be eroding some potential Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter markets. In the mid-term, however, Boeing requires a new platform if it wants to sell combat aircraft beyond the final iterations of its current generation.
Thailand and Sweden have completed an arms transfer package to provide six Gripen fighters and two Saab 340-based Erieye airborne early warning systems to the Thai military. Valued at about 3.8 billion Swedish kroner ($596 billion), the fighter package includes two single-seat C-models and four two-seat D-versions. The agreement means detailed talks will now start between Swedish armaments agency FMV and Saab. Hand-over of the equipment is to start in 2011.
Roger Connor, History Committee Chair (American Helicopter Society)
Douglas Barrie’s comment that “on Nov. 13, 1907, Frenchman Paul Cornu is generally held to have become airborne [in a helicopter]” can now be clarified (AW&ST Nov. 12, 2007, p. 66). Gordon Leishman of the University of Maryland has brought Cornu’s flight test notes to light, which translated, read for Nov. 13: “The machine rises with a 55-kg. sandbag. We try to hold it down, but I find myself lifted up and carried away, Jacques is almost too.
Qantas Airways is pushing aggressively to grow beyond its home market and position itself as a leading Asia-Pacific-region airline group, as early signs of regional consolidation emerge.
I appreciate your editorial on the difficulties in designing, manufacturing and delivering a super-large engineering project (AW&ST Jan. 21, p. 58). Neither company should wallow in schadenfreude. It just shows that these programs are fiendishly difficult to execute, even with the best brains available. All projects need excruciating attention to detail as well as all other considerations. Thank you for bring us all back to Earth.
In the spirit of giving credit where credit is due, European government and aerospace leaders are becoming serious about putting their money where their mouths are when it comes to shaping a more environmentally sensitive industry—an agenda that could well have competitive implications for their U.S. counterparts.
French space officials are counting on France’s upcoming turn at the head of the European Union to promote new milspace and climate initiatives—and obtain a long-awaited increase in national space spending.
Four years ago, Hellenic Aerospace Industry S.A. (HAI) fit the stereotype of a state-owned aerospace/defense contractor to a tee—bloated, inefficient, unprofitable and slow to respond to market opportunities. The company—Greece’s largest such enterprise—was little more than a government-sponsored jobs program. Sales had been on a decline for years, sinking to a low of $97 million in 2004. HAI effectively had been in a slumber since it was formed in 1975.
Virgin Blue is likely to have a turbulent year as it prepares to launch a long-haul subsidiary and could see a new majority shareholder. The airline, founded in 2000 by Richard Branson’s Virgin Group and local investors, has long been content as Qantas’s primary competitor in the Australian domestic market. Originally set up as a low-fare airline, Virgin Blue has changed its strategy and now follows its “new world carrier” blueprint, offering frills like assigned seating, lounges and a frequent-flier program.
EADS North America is beginning to explore how to penetrate the lucrative U.S. defense market with its A400M even as EADS in Europe struggles to keep the transport program from slipping further from its delivery schedule. The airlifter market in the U.S. could open up in the coming years, as several strategic studies laying out future requirements are nearing completion.
The U.S. Army and Air Force plan to decide within 18 months whether to buy the Army’s Warrior version of the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Predator UAV. This aircraft uses traditional fuel rather than aviation fuel. USAF, which already flies the MQ-1B Predator, is buying two of the Army’s C-version aircraft, which will be delivered in July and August.
United Launch Alliance will continue to market its Delta II medium-lift space launch vehicle once its main U.S. government contracts wind down, restructuring the Boeing-heritage program for expected lower launch rates. “Contrary to some public reports, ULA is not backing away from Delta II because of the reduced market,” says ULA President/CEO Michael Gass.
A new site will accommodate a 40% larger Singapore Airshow this year, allaying concerns that the split with Asian Aerospace in 2006 would damage the region’s largest aviation and space exhibition. As before, the focus is on global companies selling to Asian buyers.
Arianespace Chairman/CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall says the launch provider is looking at buying additional Vega light launchers in addition to more Soyuz medium-class and Ariane 5ES heavy-lift boosters, because of strong demand.
Controllers have adjusted the orbit of China’s Chang’e 1 lunar probe to shorten the time it will spend in darkness during an eclipse on Feb. 21. By raising the 200-km. orbit by 2 km. on Jan. 27, the Beijing Aerospace Control Center reduced the spacecraft’s expected period without sunlight to 2 hr. from 3-4 hr.
When Canadian aircraft builder Bombardier Inc. indefinitely delayed the launch of its 110-130-seat CSeries jet in early 2006, conventional wisdom held that the project was as dead as Boeing Co.’s Sonic Cruiser. Gary Scott, the Boeing veteran recruited to lead the CSeries project, lost his swank offices and much of his staff. And analysts began to question whether Bombardier, which was losing out in regional jet (RJ) sales to Brazilian rival Embraer, might be driven out of the civil aircraft business altogether.
The Alitalia board has approved the 2008 budget, stressing the need for “a substantial injection of financial resources.” The plan would be obviated if talks to sell Alitalia to Air France-KLM are successful.
The U.S. Air Force plans to issue a draft request for proposals (RFP) for a new Space Fence this month, followed by a formal RFP in July. The Space Fence, formerly operated by the Navy, is an array of ground-based sensors designed to monitor objects in orbit. Data collected by the fence helps the USAF maintain a catalogue of objects in space and to know whether objects pose a threat to satellites or the International Space Station.
Adm. Timothy Keating, commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, says his recent meetings with military and political officials in China were “less of a sermon, less confrontational” and more collegial than in the past. But he’s trying to set up a modern-day version of the Cold War “hotline” to Moscow that would give U.S. military officials the ability to contact their Chinese counterparts in the event of a crisis. Washington and Beijing will continue to discuss the establishment of a direct communications link this month, but progress is slow.
