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.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has denied Rocketplane Kistler’s protest against NASA’s funded Space Act Agreement (SAA) terms. In early 2007, RpK lost its bid to provide Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) to NASA when it missed its financial milestones. That freed up $175 million in seed money, and NASA expects to sign an SAA with the winning bidder in a new COTS competition by the end of this month.
Dozens of U.S. and foreign carriers are appealing a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) ruling that has cost them hundreds of millions of dollars in retroactive airport security fees. The carriers, including American, Southwest, Aloha, United, US Airways, Delta, Northwest and Air New Zealand, are appealing a May 31, 2007, decision by TSA requiring them to pay collectively an additional $98 million a year, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2005, to defray the costs of screening airline passengers and their baggage.
Some readers may have missed the underlying significance of the numbers in “Seeking Earth’s Twin” (AW&ST Jan. 14, p. 49). Some trigonometry can show the Corot mission is doing a pretty good job at finding planets despite the odds. I presume the investigators have a more refined expectation of success, but I’ll play loose with some approximations.
Problems with its Visible/Infrared Imager/Radiometer Suite (VIRS) will delay launch of the Npoess Preparatory Project (NPP) from 2009 until mid-2010, but NASA hopes to use the delay to restore the Cloud and Earth Radiant Energy System (Ceres) instrument to the mission. Michael Freilich, director of the Earth Science Div.
“There will be no encore performance” of 2007’s strong traffic growth this year, says Giovanni Bisignani, director general of International Air Transport Assn. International passenger traffic increased 7.4% last year, compared to 2006’s 5.5% growth. The trend in increasing average load factors—75.1% in 2005, 76% in 2006 and a record 77% in 2007—will likely end in 2008, with demand growth forecast to slow to 5% on a 5.2% capacity increase. Airfreight traffic increased 4.3% in 2007, down slightly from 4.6% in 2006.
Does “gracious” air travel have a future? The answer is a resounding yes, based on the robust traffic growth of so-called boutique carriers. Their two-digit expansion could disrupt the legacy airlines’ yield management, capturing an increasing share of high-fare passengers.
Cessna is preparing to unveil the details of a large-cabin intercontinental aircraft that will expand its fast-growing business jet line into the super-midsize segment.
NASA has given the J2-X rocket engine it is developing for a return to the Moon its first hot-fire test, albeit a brief one. Engineers at Stennis Space Center, Miss., tested a pyrotechnic igniter Jan. 31 in a J2-X powerpack test article installed on historic test stand A1. Initial indications are that all objectives were met, setting up a full, fueled test for as early as Feb. 7. NASA plans to test the Saturn-vintage engine upgrade in stages, using old hardware where possible, to accelerate its development.
The space shuttle Atlantis will deliver a pair of grease guns to the International Space Station next month that may be used one day to lubricate the balky mechanism that rotates its starboard solar array like a windmill to follow the Sun. But a little of the pressure to get the big solar alpha rotary joint (SARJ) moving again has been relieved, now that the ISS crew has replaced another Sun-tracking device that was also out of order.
New Israeli UAV designs will incorporate radar, visual and aural stealth, carry both short- and long-range missiles and, in time, serve as platforms for nonexplosive devices such as lasers and high-power microwave weapons. Israel’s largest designers and producers of unmanned aircraft—Elbit Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI)—foresee the expansion of UAV use in the Israeli military and among its foreign customers, which have become a major source of revenue growth for both companies.
The Port of Seattle’s Aviation Div. represented 4.8% of the total air emissions associated with the airport, while the public’s portion was 11.4% in 2006, according to a new study on greenhouse gas emissions released by Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The airport, which has been aggressive in reducing its carbon footprint, is using the study to help set goals as part of its environmental strategies.
EOS, a Novi, Mich.-based manufacturer of laser-sintering systems, says the technology is gaining acceptance among a variety of manufacturers because it can be tailored to individualized series production at less cost. The process uses a laser to heat and melt powdered plastics or metals layer by layer until a build is complete. Parts and tools are delivered directly from CAD data. The fact that the method lends itself to specialized production was attractive to 28% of those surveyed at recent German trade shows, EOS says.
As a milepost for the Royal Australian Air Force’s airborne early warning and control program, the first Boeing 737 modified there made a 2.5-hr. functional check flight from RAAF Base Amberley to verify air-worthiness.
Ian V. Ziskin (see photo), the Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman Corp.’s chief human resources and administrative officer, has been inducted as a fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources .
