Indonesia has grounded seven Boeing 737-300s operated by budget carrier Adam Air after the fuselage of one of them bent in a hard landing. No one was hurt in the incident, which left the tail of the 13-year-old aircraft drooping. The airline blamed a sudden downdraft and heavy rain. One of the airline's 737-400s fell from its cruise altitude and crashed Jan. 1, killing all on board. The cause is still unknown.
As the first step in expanding its long-haul fleet, British Airways says it will add four 777-200ERs to its fleet and hold four options. Deliveries are set for 2010. BA began buying the twin-engine 777 in 1991 and now has a fleet of 43, including 40 -200ERs with a mix of General Electric GE90 and Rolls-Royce Trent 800 engines. While it has not formally signed the new order, British Airways is negotiating with both GE and Rolls on the engine order. At list prices, the four aircraft are worth $800 million.
USN Adm. Timothy J. Keating has been named commander of the Honolulu-based U.S. Pacific Command. Keating has been commander of Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, Peterson AFB, Colo. Rear Adm. (lower half) Charles W. Martoglio has been appointed commander of Carrier Strike Group Seven, North Island, Calif. He has been senior military assistant to the secretary of the Navy at the Pentagon.
French armaments agency DGA says average program slippage dropped to 2.9 months last year from 3.1 months a year earlier. Associated penalties decreased, too. However, the rate at which delays add up are still higher than the figure two years ago (2.5 months) and well above the objective of 1.5 months. DGA chief Francois Lureau says he hopes to reach this target in 2007.
A likely outgrowth of JetBlue's encounter with a New York ice storm that left aircraft and passengers stranded on taxiways for more than 5 hr. is a stronger industry focus on passenger rights.
Craig Saddler has been appointed president of Sydney-based Boeing Australia. He was chief financial officer for the 787 program. Saddler succeeds Andrew Peacock, who is retiring.
The U.S. Navy's "Advanced Super Hornet" will tie together an electronic attack system with a powerful new radar that would allow the aircraft to find, deceive and, perhaps, disable sophisticated, radar-guided air-to-air, surface-to-air and cruise missiles. Moreover, it could do so at ranges greater than that of new U.S. air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons.
The second of three Boeing 747 Dreamlifters has made its first flight in Taipei. The converted 747s will be used to ferry parts and assemblies among suppliers and to Boeing for final assembly for the 787 program.
The faulty solar arrays that plagued early versions of the Boeing 702 satellite continue to haunt the company long after it says the problem has been fixed. In a 10-K report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of its 2006 business activities, Boeing revealed it faces damages of as much as $760 million in lawsuits arrising from the 702 spacecraft's performance, plus another $215 million in a claim over its smaller 601 satellite. The 702 was developed by Hughes Satellite in the late 1990s and acquired when Boeing took over Hughes.
In an indication that the Pentagon's interest in ever more effective UAVs is unwavering, SAIC received a $32-million contract to demonstrate long-endurance, airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) payloads for combat operations. Moreover, terms of the agreement also require maturation from laboratory prototype to an acquisition-ready system. However, the ISR system is to be applicable to a range of suitable aircraft. The effort requires installation of the equipment and flight testing both in the U.S. and overseas.
A recent surge in orders could lift AgustaWestland to a new level of financial health, with a €3-billion turnover mark in sight by decade's end, say executives. The Italian helicopter maker, like its Eurocopter rival, is experiencing strength in both its military and commercial business. The 2006 full results will not be disclosed until parent Finmeccanica announces its own performance, but it's clear that AgustaWestland beat its positive 2005 results: Production values last year topped €2.6 billion ($3.4 billion), compared with €2.5 billion in 2005.
France has issued a contract to Atos Origin for a demonstrator to test the operational viability of a Link 22 data relay. Link 22, a successor to the Link 16 currently employed, is being developed under the NATO Improved Link Eleven (Nile) program in order to beef up the interoperability of joint broadband communications. Atos will supply a full demonstration data link chain, including tactical processor, communications system, modem, router, radio, antenna and associated software, within 19 months for operational trials.
Japan Airlines says it will buy 10 Embraer 170s for its J-AIR subsidiary. The order, with options for five more of the regional jets, anticipates greater availability of slots from 2009 after expansion of Tokyo's Haneda airport.
The SunSailor unmanned solar-powered aircraft is being developed by Israel Aerospace Industries and Technion, the country's premier technical institution. Derivative UAVs will have longer flight endurance because they can absorb and store energy during the day and use it to propel the aircraft at night. IAI revealed a number of solar-powered UAV designs at the 47th Israeli aeronautics conference for flight and space sciences last week in Tel Aviv and Haifa. IAI officials also say they have joined a European consortium that is researching unmanned passenger aircraft.
Airbus is scheduled to open its engineering center in Mobile, Ala., on Feb. 26. The facility is part of the Airbus/EADS presence being built there with an eye on winning the U.S. Air Force KC-X tanker program. The 150 engineers at the site will be involved in A350XWB design work.
Classified imagery of a BAE Systems Hawk trainer reveals the extent of modifications made to the test aircraft for visual stealth and infrared countermeasures work. The aircraft was used for a series of trials to examine just how much the visual and infrared signature of an airframe could be reduced to increase platform survivability. At least part of the program was known by the name Chameleon. BAE refuses to discuss the work or to release imagery of the modified aircraft.
Russia plans to consolidate its 102 air traffic control centers into 13 and aims to convert its fragmented airspace into much larger zones over the next two decades. Two of the merged ATC centers are already operating, and five more will be established by 2010, according to Peter N. Shipil. He is chief of the International Relations Dept. at the Russian State Air Traffic Management Corp. and spoke at the ATC conference here. (Shipil's boss, Director General Oleg Alekseev, was unable to attend.)
Francois Baril has become president of the Turbine Technologies Group of the Esco Corp., Portland, Ore. He succeeds Perry Harvey, who has retired. Baril was the group's vice president.
Boeing's first production CH-47F Chinook heavy-lift helicopter has moved into operational testing at Ft. Campbell, Ky. The new 175-mph., 400-mi.-mission-radius design, with digital cockpit and advanced avionics, will undergo an OT phase of more than 60 hr. that is to end in April.
Airbus and EADS management are revising the details of the Power8 cost-cutting plan to overcome internal differences and formally inaugurate the program. But success may depend more on how EADS plans to unload burdensome facilities than on how it resolves boardroom disputes. Selling facilities to generate cash and streamline operations is a key element of Airbus's plan to remake itself. It is "genuinely too hard to judge," however, if the aircraft maker will present terms that could attract outside capital, says an aerospace venture capitalist.
Brian H. Rowe, a towering figure who led General Electric Aviation during the development of engines that established the company's division in everything from business jets to today's most successful narrow- and wide-body transports, died Feb. 22 at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center in Philadelphia, following surgery. He was 75.
Having introduced the first high-end synthetic vision system for fixed-wing aircraft, Honeywell last week took the wraps off the technology it is developing for helicopters.
Though the Navy toiled for years to set up a competition for its Broad Area Maritime Surveillance unmanned aerial vehicle program, its long-awaited issuance of the request for proposals was without fanfare. The service quietly put the document on the Internet Feb. 15.
