German officials arrested three men last week and were seeking more in what police categorize as a successful move to break up planned terrorist attacks on facilities frequented by Germans and Americans. Officials indicated that aviation facilities and Ramstein Air Base may have been targeted. German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schauble says the investigation still needs to show if the Frankfurt airport was at risk.
As the Air Force attempts to strengthen its ability to respond to a growing number of bid protests quickly, its acquisition corps is facing huge challenges. Two major problems loom. First, the number of skilled procurement officers is shrinking thanks to personnel cuts across the Air Force. So, fewer officials are available as the service continues to overhaul its entire fleet of aircraft and satellites. This is taking place at a time when USAF’s need for highly complex systems is growing along with the requirment for more technical expertise.
Bombardier’s proposed CSeries airliner will benefit from engines with bypass ratios around 10:1, a figure unheard of for a narrow-body airliner and only recently heard of for widebodies. The company says each of the three engines it’s reviewing—from Rolls-Royce, Pratt & Whitney and CFM International—offers such a high bypass ratio. It hopes to choose one of them, or maybe two, by year-end as it works toward a launch decision on the 110- and 130-seat aircraft within 12 months.
Struggling government airline Garuda Indonesia is in preliminary talks with Airbus for 20 A320s to be delivered in 2009-10. Garuda ordered 25 Boeing 737‑800s in March.
Private equity firm Apex Partners has closed a deal to acquire Telenor Satellite Services. The company will be combined with France Telecom’s former mobile satellite communications unit and folded into a new satellite service provider, Vizada. Telenor’s satellite broadcasting unit is not included.
The failure of a 1.5-million-lb. Russian Proton booster, carrying a 4.5-ton Japanese communications satellite, has International Launch Services concerned about whether it can hold onto a $1-billion customer backlog. Meanwhile, JSAT Corp. in Tokyo is assessing the impact of the overall $275-million accident on its long-term satcom business plan.
Boeing has added 95 orders valued at list prices of $6.6 billion for 737s, in three separate actions. China Southern Airlines says it wants 55 737-700/-800s to add to 129 737s in its fleet. Xiamen Airlines has ordered 25 -800s with 10 purchase rights. It recently took delivery of the last -800 from 10 it ordered in 2005. And Aviation Capital Group ordered 15 737s, bringing its total of the type to 64.
Telesat Canada and SES’s new Canadian affiliate, Ciel, both indicate they plan to fill all of the new orbital positions attributed by Canada this summer. Telesat received five slots, including one for Ka-band, and Ciel, seven. Several of Ciel’s slots are likely to be brought into service through outsourcing deals with other operators such as EchoStar. Details of the two projects have yet to be worked out, but Canadian authorities want the slots in use by 2010.
Jason Chen (see photo) has been named site leader for Crane Aerospace & Electronics facility in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. He was chief production officer for Chen Hsong Holdings Ltd., Shenzhen, China.
Ray White has been named deputy assistant administrator for security operations of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration. He was acting federal security director at Dallas Love Field. White succeeds Earl Morris, who is now federal security director at Salt Lake City International Airport.
Lockheed Martin, already in competition with Boeing to build eight GPS Block III satellites, has begun producing an upgraded payload for one of the GPS IIR-M spacecraft to be launched next year that will add L5 as an additional frequency chiefly to benefit civil aviation. L5 is to be included in the Block IIF GPS series now under development by Boeing, but that design has “many critical processes” to complete before it is ready to fly, according to the U.S. Air Force.
Inside the conference center of a heavily guarded complex in the heart of Kabul are displayed the photographs of 20 men of various nationalities, including five Americans. None of them were military personnel, yet all perished in the line of duty. They were DynCorp International employees—security specialists, linguists and police mentors—who were killed helping to carry out the international community’s ambitious recovery plan for this war-torn country.
Embraer has delivered the first 170 series regional jets to Australia’s Virgin Blue Airlines. The carrier has orders for six 170s and 14 of the larger 190 series airplanes. In addition, Virgin Blue holds options for three more 190s and 17 purchase rights. The 170 is configured for 78 passengers. The 190s, scheduled for delivery early next year, will operate under ETOPS (extended operations) performance standards issued by certification authorities.
An Air China Airbus A319 made its first RNP approach into Lhasa, Tibet, using procedures developed by Naverus of Seattle. The airline has already been operating Boeing aircraft into Lhasa and Linzhi, but this is the first Airbus aircraft approved by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) to use RNP. The European Aviation Safety Agency supported the CAAC effort that led to the first Airbus approach on Aug. 23. From now on, Air China A319s will use GPS-guided RNP approaches to negotiate the Himalayan mountain valleys into Lhasa.
Pacific Blue, a New Zealand-based subsidiary of Australia’s Virgin Blue Airlines, will begin domestic flight operations on Nov. 15—the beginning of the summer season down under. Auckland-Wellington, Auckland-Christchurch and Wellington-Christchurch service will be offered, placing the airline in direct competition with Air New Zealand and Qantas. Pacific Blue has been flying Trans-Tasman and South Pacific routes for three years.
NASA won’t launch its planned Global Precipitation Measurement mission until 2013, but a 27-year database of space-based and ground sources already offers evidence of increasing tropical rainfall. “A warming climate is the most plausible cause,” says Robert F. Adler, senior scientist at the Goddard Space Flight Center’s (GSFC) Laboratory for Atmospheres. In the American Meteorological Society’s Journal of Climate, Adler and fellow GSFC scientist Guojun Gu reported tropical rainfall has been picking up steadily since 2001.
The first stage of testing of the Giove-A satellite for the Galileo navigation system has been completed successfully, according to the British National Space Center. Signals from Giove-A were received by ground sites and analyzed, and adjustments introduced where required. The Galileo system is due to enter service in 2012. Thales Alenia Space plans to deliver the Giove-B satellite to the European Space Agency on Sept. 3. Giove-B is the second Galileo precision navigation and timing prototype.
Tapping FAA Administrator Marion Blakey to head the Aerospace Industries Assn. (AIA) after she completes her term this month looks like a smart move to a number of industry analysts. For example, Richard Aboulafia, vice president of analysis for the Teal Group, comments that Blakey is “a popular figure, and a big part of this job is consensus building among executives with very diverse agendas.” Aboulafia says he was surprised by the appointment because Blakey has little or no experience in the defense or space sectors.
AW&ST incorrectly stated the weight of the S5 truss “spacer” installed on the International Space Station during the STS-118/13A.1 assembly mission with the space shuttle Endeavour (AW&ST July 30, p. 52; Aug. 13, p. 28). According to NASA, the hardware weighed 4,010 lb.
Final assembly of the first Airbus Military A400M is now underway at the production site in Seville, Spain. The first five production aircraft are intended for flight testing. The schedule for the A400M program has been delayed, with a three-month slip in the start of production along with a shift in the first-flight date. A program review is ongoing to assess if first deliveries can still take place in 2009. A slip is seen as likely.
NASA’s award of a contract worth as much as $1.125 billion to Boeing for production of the Ares I upper stage will bring some new managers to the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The foam-covered 84-ft. aluminum-lithium stages will be built on the same government-owned factory floor where Lockheed Martin now builds the big foam-covered aluminum-lithium external tanks for the space shuttle fleet. Boeing managers will begin moving into the mammoth facility in advance of the shuttle fleet retirement in 2010 to prepare for the follow-on Ares I work.
Two years after it went dead, JAXA’s Hayabusa control team has used new operational sequencing to resurrect a third of the spacecraft’s four ion engines, boosting the Japanese space agency’s chances of returning the asteroid sample return mission to Earth. When Hayabusa began its return on Apr. 25, after a rendezvous with the asteroid Itokawa, project manager Junichiro Kawaguchi was relying on only one of its four propulsion units, engine “D.” It has used up 13,500 hr. of its 14,000 hr. service life.
General Electric is becoming bigger by going smaller. Its purchase for an undisclosed sum of Prague-based Walter Engines, maker of M601-series turboprops, is expected to help the giant U.S. manufacturer pave inroads into some of the world’s less-developed but fastest growing markets.
Analysis of the F-22’s combat potential reveals significant development of its advanced capabilities for surveillance from high-altitude, cruise missile defense, and speed and dispersion across the battlefield.
The FAA chose a team led by ITT Corp. over Raytheon- and Lockheed Martin-led contenders to develop the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast ground-based network to modernize the U.S. ATC system. The ITT team will receive $207 million initially to develop and deploy ADS-B equipment and up to $1.6 billion through 2025 if options are exercised.
