Skybus Airlines--which is seeking FAA certification as a startup Airbus A319 operator based at Columbus, Ohio--has completed another round of financing. CEO Bill Diffenderffer says institutional investors have added $72.7 million, bringing the total to $160 million. Investors include Skybus Chairman Bob Kidder, former CEO of Duracell, and David Meuse, who headed former Bank One Capital.
Telespazio is starting production of the ESA-backed Pan-European Satellite Telecom Adaptor, a ground-based switching unit that is intended to support European civil protection teams by allowing them to use a variety of satellites to communicate, even if deployed in remote locations after a major disaster. Telespazio is working under an ESA contract and leading an industrial team which includes Alcatel Alenia Space, Indra and Hispasat in the development of this tactically mobile and compact unit, which in prototype form weighs about 700 kg. (1,543 lb.).
French air force Rafale F2 strike fighters will be the backbone of France's air combat contribution in Afghanistan in coming months. They and their navy counterparts are fresh off their combat debut.
Rockwell Collins will provide integrated avionics to the Royal Singapore Air Force's 10 C-130s so they can comply with the latest air traffic management requirements.
A CH-47 helicopter of the Japanese Ground Self Defense Force crashed in heavy fog on a 1,700-ft. mountain on Tokunoshima island, north of Okinawa, Mar. 30, killing all four servicemen on board.
Orbital Sciences Corp. will build a third small geostationary communications satellite for Australia's Optus Networks, which has selected Arianespace to launch the spacecraft in 2009 on an Ariane or Soyuz vehicle. The satellite, Optus D3, will be based on Orbital Star spacecraft bus, as were the other two Optus spacecraft, and provide direct broadcasting service across Australia and New Zealand.
Brazil's National Civil Aviation Agency has approved Gol's acquisition of Varig, enabling the Sao Paulo-based airline to begin a transformation of Varig into a low-cost carrier.
The FAA reports the Lockheed Martin-supplied Advanced Techno-logies and Oceanic Procedures system is now in service at the Anchorage Air Route Traffic Control Center in Alaska. New York and Oakland centers already are using the system, which modernizes air traffic control in oceanic airspace.
Space Shuttle managers will decide as early as this week whether the STS-117 shuttle Atlantis mission will be rescheduled for launch by late May or be delayed into early June because of hail damage to its external tank. Depending on progress repairing the damaged tank--No. ET-124--by Kennedy Space Center and contractor technicians (see photo), managers could opt to use the repaired tank for a launch no later than about May 23.
Bernard P. McVey (see photo) has been named vice president-business management/chief financial officer of the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Information Technology Sector, McLean, Va. He was the sector's vice president/controller and had been vice president/business manager for C4ISR and Naval Systems for the company's Electronic Systems Sector.
Arinc Engineering Services is offering more than an acre of hangar space under one roof--81,000 sq. ft.--in its Aircraft Modification and Operations Center at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City. Four Lockheed Martin C-130s can be accommodated inside and eight more on the ramp. Arinc Vice President Mike Young says three aircraft programs are already being overhauled--the Fairchild-Dornier C-26 surveillance aircraft for the State Dept., and the Cessna Encore and Citation X. Arinc transferred work force and operations from its former Sundance Airpark facility nearby.
Snecma says the first elements of its Silvercrest business and regional jet engine demonstrator are starting to roll off production. The first engine demonstrator run is planned for year's end. So far, the impeller prototype and one of the blisks have moved from manufacturing to the assembly site. Parts delivery should be completed in the summer, to provide enough time to build up the highly instrumented core demonstrator.
The first officer of a Garuda Indonesia Boeing 737-400 that crashed on landing Mar. 7 urged the captain to go around, says Indonesia's top accident investigator, reporting the contents of the cockpit voice recorder. The first officer did not fully extend the flaps because the aircraft was flying too fast, the investigator says, and the pair argued. The investigation team has found that no malfunction prevented flap deployment, but has not yet issued a formal report on the crash, in which 21 people died.
Russian industry may be talking a grand strategy of commercial aircraft renewal, but a senior executive cautions that a pragmatic approach is what's necessary. Some in Russia's newly integrated aircraft industry--the Russian United Aircraft Corp. (OAK)--propose a sweeping civil aircraft program, but Aeroflot CEO Valery Okulov suggests near-term focus on a single aircraft family development.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes is continuing to increase its 737 delivery rates. For the first quarter, it delivered 106 aircraft, including 83 737s. The corresponding figures for 2006 were 98 total deliveries and 72 737s. Wide-body deliveries were static--17 777s (same) and three each of the 747 (four) and 767 (same).
Industry is scrambling to respond to the British Defense Ministry's move to abandon a "get-well" upgrade program for mothballed Chinook helicopters, the latest twist in a messy procurement saga. The ministry is ditching its planned "fix-to-field" effort for its Boeing Chinook Mk3s. Instead it is going for a less-ambitious, less-capable and less-costly modification that will gut elements of the model's hybrid digital cockpit to deliver what is akin to an Mk2 Chinook standard.
NORTHWESTERN MICHIGAN COLLEGE HAS TAKEN DELIVERY of three Cessna Skyhawks for its flight training program. Another eight are scheduled to be delivered during the next 14 months. Aaron Cook, director of aviation at the college, says all of the Skyhawks will be equipped with Garmin's G1000 fully integrated avionics package. He says the Skyhawk was chosen over five other aircraft because of its safety record, reliability and ease of maintenance. The college offers an associate degree in aviation.
Eaton Corp.'s purchase price for Argo-Tech Corp. was reported incorrectly in a recent Market Focus column (AW&ST Mar. 12, p. 10). The price is $695 million.
Avio and ESA technicians continue investigating the reasons for the anomalous behavior of an Avio Zefiro 9 solid-fuel rocket motor during its second hot-fire test, carried out Mar. 28 at the Italian joint military firing range in Salto di Quirra, Sardinia. Planned for the third stage of ESA's Vega launch vehicle, the Zefiro 9 performed according to expectations for the first 35 sec. of the test. But then sensors registered a drop in the motor's internal pressure. The motor kept burning beyond the planned 105 sec., damaging its nozzle.
Looking to what some think should really be the "next" idea in airplanes, the Boeing Phantom Works is cooperating with a number of European suppliers on a hydrogen fuel cell demonstrator aircraft. Manned test flights of the emissions-free converted Dimona motor glider are expected at mid-year in Spain. The glider will be modified with a Proton Exchange Membrane from U.K.-based Intelligent Energy. A hybrid system, it combines a fuel cell with lithium-ion batteries to power an electric motor driving a conventional propeller.
Julie Ellis, a partner in the Memphis, Tenn., law firm of Butler, Snow, O'Mara, Stevens and Cannada, will be president of the Washington-based International Aviation Womens Assn. (IAWA) for 2007. President-elect is Debra D. Fowler, senior aviation attorney at the U.S. Justice Dept. Other officers and board members elected for 2007 are: secretary, Abby L.
China's People's Liberation Army has agreed to open more airspace around the southern island Hainan, allowing flights to and from Southeast Asia to follow more direct routes.
Compass Airlines has received its FAA certificate as a Part 121 air carrier. Chairman/CEO Neal Cohen says the wholly owned Northwest Airlines subsidiary will begin Washington Dulles-Minneapolis/St. Paul service next month with a 50-seat CRJ200.
Dean McColgan and Liz Vivian (see photos) have become Northwest U.S. regional managers in Boeing's Government Relations and Global Corporate Citizenship (GCC) organization.
