The initial flight of the Sukhoi Su-35 multirole fighter has been delayed until around the end of the first quarter of 2008. The company had been aiming to fly the aircraft before the end of 2007. The aircraft is expected to enter series production for the Russian air force in 2010, and the acquisition program is included in the government’s procurement road map up until 2015.
When the U.S. airline industry began 2007, conventional wisdom ran that one or more mergers of big carriers were imminent. As the year heads into its final week, little consolidation has yet to materialize, and investors are paying a heavy price.
The European Commission is trying to determine if Olympic Airlines has once again received state aid in violation of European competition rules. This time, the review is focused on financial support received since 2005; the European Commission found Olympic and the Greek government in violation of subsidy rules over funding provided before 2005.
Airbus has avoided a nasty political controversy by selecting national champions to take over facilities it is unloading in France, Germany and the U.K., but the financial community believes the putative loser in the bidding, Spirit Aerosystems, could end up in the best situation, financially.
China Eastern says it is negotiating to buy 40 Boeing 737s and will take 40 Airbus A320s from a batch of 110 that the Chinese government agreed to buy on behalf of airlines in November.
Air France has started its inflight mobile phone use trials with partner Mobile OnAir on a specially fitted Airbus A318 seating 123 passengers. The first commercial flight took place Dec. 17 between Paris and Warsaw, but the aircraft will be operated on different routes to gauge customer acceptance. Customers first will be limited to data transfer, such as text messaging or use of their devices for e-mail or Internet applications. Cell phones must remain off during takeoff and landing, with the service only active in cruise once above 10,000 ft.
EADS Astrium and the German aerospace research agency (DLR) hope to start technology trials for a lunar lander in March, as part of a newly formed cooperation agreement between the two entities. The research activities are in anticipation of a decision by European science and research ministers to OK a lunar landing project. The European Space Agency (ESA) ministerial will take place in November.
Air China parent China National Aviation Holding Co. is trying again to block Singapore Airlines’ proposed purchase of a stake in China Eastern. After giving up an earlier attempt to buy China Eastern in association with Air China affiliate Cathay Pacific in September, the state holding company has now enlarged its own stake in the struggling airline to 12% and says it will vote against the Singaporean deal at a shareholder meeting on Jan. 8.
Frankfurt Airport is going into the detailed planning stage for its various expansion projects, after operator Fraport received regulatory clearance in principle to build a fourth runway. The state government of Hesse last week published a detailed approval document that outlines how the airport can expand. The clearance as such is no surprise, but Frankfurt gained more exceptions than expected from a planned nightly curfew, causing widespread protests in neighboring communities.
NASA has selected a pair of celestial targets for the Deep Impact spacecraft that blasted the comet Tempel-1 with a copper projectile on July 4, 2005. Under the Extrasolar Planet Observation and Characterization and Deep Impact Extended Investigation (Epoxi) mission, the Ball Aerospace mothership will use the larger of its two telescopes next month to examine planetary systems that have been discovered around other stars, and then conduct a close flyby of the comet Hartley 2 on Oct. 11, 2011.
Fifty-five House members joined 19 senators in pressuring the Pentagon to add funding in its Fiscal 2009 budget proposal for continued production of Boeing’s C-17 transport. The Long Beach, Calif., production line would close in 2009—and jeopardize 30,000 jobs around the U.S., the lawmakers point out—unless the Air Force orders more. Some senior military officials, including U.S. Transportation Command chief Gen. Norton Schwartz, admit they may need more than the 190 on order, and a new study of airlift requirements is getting off the ground.
Singaporean budget carrier Tiger Airways has ordered 20 A320s. It took options on the aircraft when it ordered 30 other A320s in October. With the latest deal, its fleet will reach 70 aircraft by 2016.
Canadian simulator manufacturer CAE has logged more than C$126 million (U.S.$125.3 million) in orders for eight full-flight simulators and associated training devices for several airlines. Previous to these orders, the company said in November it had sold 21 simulators this year. These new orders include a Boeing 787 full-flight simulator for Continental Airlines, three Airbus full flight simulators for US Airways and an A320 full-flight simulator for Etihad Airways of Abu Dhabi, plus Simfinity training devices for all three customers.
The fair integration of airline employees’ seniority during a merger is the intent of language that was inserted into the U.S. federal omnibus spending bill for fiscal 2008. Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Kit Bond (R-Mo.) were responsible for the amendment, saying about 1,250 former TWA employees are at risk of losing recall rights five years after being laid off following the 2001 acquisition of TWA by American. The provision seeks to establish a fair manner for integrating seniority lists in future mergers.
The past year has produced spectacular advances in space exploration. The International Space Station began to take on its final shape; NASA’s Mars rovers continued to crawl across the red planet’s surface long after they were expected to have died; Japan and China sent orbiters to the Moon, and the New Horizons probe picked up a gravity assist from Jupiter on its way to Pluto. All of them—human and robot alike—sent back pictures. Here are some of the best.
Eurofighter has put on ice its efforts to try to sell the Typhoon to Denmark and Norway. The two countries have been informed of the consortium’s decision to suspend participation in the fighter procurement programs there. EADS was leading the campaigns in Norway and Denmark. Changes to the procurement process in terms of timing and structure prompted the decision. Other contenders for the programs are the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, and an improved variant of the Saab Gripen.
Jan. 7-10—46th American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ (AIAA) Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit. Grand Sierra Resort Hotel, Reno, Nev. Also, Jan. 23‑24—AIAA Strategic and Tactical Missile Systems Conference. Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, Calif. And, Mar. 31-Apr. 3—Sixth U.S. Missile Defense Conference and Exhibit. Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Washington. Call +1 (703) 264-7500, fax +1 (703) 264-7551 or see www.aiaa.org
Four years into Wide Area Augmentation System operation, the FAA is expanding the GPS positioning aid with additional coverage areas and is publishing WAAS approach procedures at large airports in hopes of persuading airlines to use the system.
The last Jaguar strike aircraft on the British military register was withdrawn from service on Dec. 20. Defense technology specialist Qinetiq used the aircraft for trials. Royal Air Force Jaguars were withdrawn last April.
As he orbited in the International Space Station, astronaut Daniel Tani learned that his 90-year-old mother, Rose Tani, was killed Dec. 19, when her car was struck by a train in the Chicago suburb of Lombard, Ill. It is believed to be the first time an astronaut has lost a close family member while in space. Tani was informed by his wife and a flight surgeon via private video conference. The earliest he will return to Earth, barring an emergency on the station, is in January on the next space shuttle mission.
The Fiscal 2008 omnibus appropriations bill agreed to by Congress and President Bush has something for everyone, politically as well as fiscally. All the non-defense departments and agencies get an appropriation instead of a more restrictive continuing resolution. Bush gets enough war funding to last through spring with no withdrawal strings attached, and Congress gives up its attempt to add about $23 billion to the total Bush proposed for domestic discretionary spending.
NASA has a much clearer idea of what it will take to get its stalled space shuttle and International Space Station programs moving again in January, after a round of sophisticated fact-finding in Florida and in orbit. Troubleshooting at the pad with the space shuttle Atlantis fully fueled narrowed the source of the problem that kept it on the ground through its December launch window to a connector that passes through the walls of the big external fuel tank. That eliminates hard-to-reach sensors inside the tank as the source of the trouble.
The Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (Jassm) accomplished its third flight test Dec. 20 after Lockheed Martin implemented hardware and software fixes into the stealthy cruise missile after a halt to flight testing this spring. The missile’s reliability dipped to 58%, partially a result of a GPS dropout problem. USAF Lt. Gen. Donald Hoffman, military acquisition deputy for the service, says this test addressed software fixes designed to reduce noise in the GPS signal while the missile is in flight.
