As cargo demand rises, particularly in Asia-Pacific, ABX Air is operating nine Boeing 767-200 freighters, to be a full dozen by the end of this year. Early in 2008 it will add two 767s, one an extended-range aircraft from Air China. It is looking for two or three more 767s for modification and delivery later in the year. Since May, the Wilmington, Ohio-based operator has dedicated two freighters to All Nippon Airways and is negotiating to increase that service.
The Air Force Research Laboratory has selected Rolls-Royce and GE Aviation to develop technologies for the Adaptive Versatile Engine Technology program, the service’s next-generation propulsion system. The LibertyWorks research unit of Rolls-Royce in Indianapolis will carry out the cost-sharing assignment valued at $296 million over two phases. Cincinnati-based GE Aviation’s cost-sharing contract is valued at $231.2 million. The goal is to achieve high-thrust capability and a separate loiter operation with reduced fuel consumption.
Dignitaries will gather this week at Stennis Space Center to break ground on a new test stand where one of the main engines for NASA’s planned return to the Moon will get its hot-fire checkouts. Inauguration of the A-3 Test Stand reprises the role Stennis was built to play during the Apollo era, when the big engines for the Saturn V were perfected in the relative isolation of its 125,000-acre acoustic reservation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Rohit Philip has been named vice president-financial planning and analysis, Todd Arkenberg vice president-employee experience and Robert Sahadevan vice president-Mileage Plus, all for United Airlines. Philip succeeds Kathryn Mikells, who has become vice president-investor relations. Philip was assistant treasurer. Arkenberg has been managing director of United Express, while Sahadevan was managing director for investor relations.
Adolfo Liguori has been appointed director of cargo for Switzerland for Swiss WorldCargo. He was head of product management and succeeds Urs Stulz, who is now managing director of cargo for Europe.
Elbit hopes to resolve its disagreement with unions at Elisra in the coming weeks on the way to fully integrate the acquisition, management says. The company also revealed first-half financial results that for the first time reflect the acquisition of Tadiran Communications. However, costs associated with the integration resulted in $27.1 million in expenses, which led to a net loss in the second quarter of $24.4 million; gross profit was up, though, by 30% to $116.5 million.
Raymond Bennett has been appointed sales director for the Upper Midwest U.S. for the Hawker Beechcraft Corp., Wichita, Kan. He was vice president-sales for Cleveland-based Flight Options.
The big multiservice Valiant Shield held in Guam has wrapped up with an air-and-sea review. It also has won its place in history with the reemergence of Russian long-range surveillance flights by the country’s strategic bomber fleet (in this case two Tu-95s) that flew near Guam during the exercise. Pacific Air Forces chief, Gen. Paul Hester, has contradicted Russian reports of the flight, which claimed an encounter with U.S. aircraft. He says the Russian Bears didn’t come within 300 mi. of the island and weren’t intercepted by U.S. aircraft.
The U.S. ballistic missile defense system will be renamed the ballistic and cruise missile defense system within one year, predicts Dave Kier, Lockheed Martin Missile Defense vice president. Some lawmakers are pushing the Pentagon to centralize efforts, currently spread among the services and Defense Dept. organizations, to counter cruise missiles. To date, the Pentagon has rejected a merger with BMD, citing a need for the Missile Defense Agency to focus solely on the need to refine antiballistic missile technologies.
Brussels Airlines is augmenting the frequency of its service to seven destinations in Africa from Brussels, increasing the available seats by 30% each week. The carrier operates four Airbus A330-300s on these routes and is increasing the number of flights per week to Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi.
Raytheon has been tapped to provide a new radar-warning receiver for Canada’s F/A-18s. The Pentagon says the $209-million contract will cover 59 ALR-67(V)3 RWRs and 24 partial shipsets of the system.
The Ariane 5 ECA rocket has completed its third of six planned launches this year, with another launch of two commercial satellites (Intelsat 11 and Optus D2) slated for the end of next month. During the Aug. 14 mission from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, the launcher carried two commercial satellites, Spaceway 3 and BSAT-3a. The Ariane lifted off at 8:44 p.m. local time, carrying around 8,840 kg. (19,500 lb.) of payload into geostationary transfer orbit.
Air Canada Jazz pilot Robert Perkins has received ALPA’s 2007 Air Safety Award. Perkins, who is Airport and Ground Environment Group vice chairman for both ALPA and the International Federation of Air Line Pilots Assns., won ALPA’s highest safety honor for his contributions to advancing flight safety. He is credited with advocating programs aimed at reducing runway incursions, including installation of enhanced airport surface markings, and runway status and hold-short lights at North American airports.
The Russian government is trying to kick-start engine manufacturers to consolidate the country’s fragmented aerospace propulsion sector. President Vladimir Putin issued a decree Aug. 11 that will integrate the first group of companies. He also approved an initiative intended to form three additional firms. The two moves cover all of the country’s engine manufacturing and design capabilities.
Growing energy worries and rapidly improving technology are giving new impetus to the 40-year-old space solar power (SSP) concept, offering a clean way to meet the long-term energy needs of the global economy. Although the idea of using spacecraft to collect renewable energy from the Sun and beam it to Earth as microwaves or laser light has been around since the early 1960s, it is only recently that a convergence of economic and technological factors has started to make the idea feasible.
Singapore Airlines has set the date for the ceremonial start of A380 operations: Oct. 25. That’s the day that SQ380 will leave Changi International Airport for Sydney’s Kingford Smith Airport. The flight will follow an Oct. 15 handover ceremony of the aircraft, also known as MSN003, at Airbus’s Toulouse facility, where A380 final assembly takes place. After repeated delays with A380 assembly, Airbus in December promised to achieve the October delivery. Quietly, the aircraft maker was trying to beat that deadline.
Air Canada is the launch customer for a desktop software application developed by the Galileo global distribution system that will allow subscribing travel agents in Canada to access the full range of Air Canada’s fare products and flight passes. All information is integrated into the travel agents’ accounting system. A Galileo official says direct-connect capability is needed for travel agents to sell a variety of novel new services many airlines are now offering.
Louis Smith documents all the reasons for the shortage of pilots except the one that really counts: free market supply and demand forces (AW&ST Aug. 6, p. 66). He is right that the military pipeline has dried up. He is right that reductions in pay and benefits are making the airlines increasingly a poor career choice. But he is wrong that collective bargaining agreements and seniority list-merging will solve the problem.
China’s largest airline, China Southern, will buy a catering service, an aviation training operation and a travel agency from the state company that owns most of its shares. Such transactions are common in China as the government seeks to offload businesses to listed subsidiaries of state holding companies.
The International Civil Aviation Organization has become the focal point of the broad debate over how governments and airlines will go about reducing aviation’s greenhouse gas emissions. The most controversial method comes from the European Union where legislation is being contemplated to require international airlines operating in the EU to participate in its Greenhouse Gases Emissions Trading Scheme. It is by far the largest effort underway to reduce emissions.
Bell-Boeing’s Joint Program Office has won an $82.4-million U.S. Navy contract add-on to begin production of an additional USAF CV-22 Osprey special operations tiltrotor aircraft. Boeing also pulled in an $18-million Navy contract to design and build the Undergraduate Military Flight Officer ground-based training system for NAS Pensacola, Fla. The system can provide introductory training for naval flight officers, weapon system officers and international military flight officers training for advanced aircraft.
Adolfo Morales (see photo) has been named executive vice president/chief operating officer for North America for Worldwide Flight Services, Irving, Tex. He was senior vice president-planning and control.
Boeing is studying contingency plans to maintain its May 2008 delivery target for the first 787-8 in the face of mounting software and systems delays that could push first flight back into October.
The British Royal Air Force’s BAE Systems Nimrod MRA4 maritime patrol and surveillance aircraft has undergone lightning strike tests as part of its development program. The aircraft used was PA03. Other recent trials included the release of a Stingray torpedo, using PA02. The air force now plans to field a dozen MRA4s in the anti-submarine, anti-surface warfare, and surveillance roles. A full operational capability for the aircraft is anticipated in 2013. The present RAF in-service date is 2010.
Travel within Europe is dragging down premium traffic growth rates, according to the International Air Transport Assn.’s Premium Traffic Monitor. First- and business-class traffic grew worldwide by 1.9% in June, following a 0.7% fall in May. But within Europe, it was down 6.3% in June, after falling 10.5% in May, suggesting that the strong low-fare competition in Europe on short-haul routes has created a structural change and the declines are not cyclical. Those routes only account for 10% of all premium traffic revenues.
