The British government, Airbus and parent EADS are attempting to patch up their strategic relationship, whose starting point will be the outcome of the Airbus Power8 review. Airbus CEO Louis Gallois was due to meet with British Trade Minister Alistair Darling and Defense Procurement Minister Paul Drayson in London on Feb. 15.
Management at Comair, the wholly owned Delta Connection carrier, is grappling with myriad problems as its pilots' group in coming weeks mulls over a proposed letter of agreement. First, it needs a contract with the Air Line Pilots Assn., the last major piece of financial restructuring, to allow Comair to emerge from bankruptcy with Delta in the second quarter as is scheduled. If it doesn't get one by Mar. 4, Comair plans to impose terms of a bankruptcy court-approved contract.
The U.S. Navy has awarded a $186.5-million foreign military sales deal for upgrades and sustainment of seven P-3C patrol aircraft that will be operated by the Pakistani navy.
Although the agreement is still fresh, the planned merger between Telesat Canada and Loral Skynet is likely to lead to more business for satellite makers and launch providers, not less.
Israeli officials won't discuss the parameters of its Arrow ballistic missile defense weapon test last week other than to say the missile and target launch sites were farther from each other than in previous tests, it took place at night and the altitude of the interception was higher and at greater speed than before.
David Hughes (Maastricht, Netherlands; Brussels, and London)
The main issues facing Eurocontrol and the FAA in air traffic modernization are diverging, as European officials cope with an immediate need to cut the carbon footprint of aviation while the U.S. struggles with uncertainty on ATC leadership.
USMC is returning its MV-22s to service after a grounding earlier this month. The Pentagon grounded all USAF and USMC MV/CV-22s after discovering a fault caused by a chip in the flight control computer. They are being returned to service after inspection and replacement of problematic chips. Deployment of the first MV-22s to Iraq still is expected later this year.
NASA's Fiscal 2007 continuing resolution shifts $460 million in space shuttle and earmark funding over to exploration--"the best we could do," according to Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) who chairs the appropriations subcommittee that funds the space agency. The continuing resolution, which keyed off Fiscal 2006 spending levels, allocates $3.4 billion to the exploration systems mission directorate.
Skybus Airlines management is focused on pending FAA certification and startup of Airbus A319 service this spring from its Columbus, Ohio, base. The airline on Feb. 13 selected CFM56-5B engines for the 65 A319s that were ordered last fall. The CFM56-5Bs are new configurations called Tech Insertion engines that are expected to deliver lower maintenance costs, nitrous oxide emissions and fuel burn.
Douglas Walker has become senior vice president-aviation capital of RBS Greenwich (Conn.) Capital. He was managing director/senior counsel-finance and corporate affairs at United Airlines.
You can now register ONLINE for AVIATION WEEK Events. Go to www.aviationweek.com/conferences or call Lydia Janow at +1 (212) 904-3225/+1 (800) 240-7645 ext. 5 (U.S. and Canada Only) Apr. 17-18--MRO Military, Atlanta. Apr. 18-19--MRO Conference, Atlanta. Oct. 17-18--MRO Asia, Shanghai. PARTNERSHIPS Mar. 21-- Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Space Age, Unesco, Paris. Apr. 9-12--National Space Symposium, Colorado Springs. Apr. 30-May 2--RFID Journal Live, Orlando, Fla.
Regarding your article about the impending aerospace brain drain, the problem is not so much a shortage of skilled workers as it is the lack of incentives to work in the aerospace and defense industry.
Thierry Pfeiffer has become vice president-sales and marketing for Flightscape Inc. of Ottawa. He was manager of the Sagem AGS product line. Paul Rider has been appointed a product development executive. He was manager of the Teledyne Vision/ReVision product line. Eric Smith and Colin Tate have been assigned to the Asian office to provide technical sales and application support.
Thai Airways International confirms it will buy eight A330s, each with a special discount of $10 million as part compensation for delayed A380 deliveries. The airline says it will also deduct $28 million from payments for the A330s as further compensation. The decision confirms that Thai will be taking its six A380s, but the airline made no mention of buying more.
Canada's Ciel Satellite Group has hired International Launch Services for a mission to orbit its Ciel 2 satellite on a Proton/Breeze M vehicle late in 2008. Built on an Alcatel Alenia Spacebus 4000 C4 spacecraft bus, Ciel 2 will deliver high-power K u-band services in North America from an orbital slot at 129 deg. W. Long.
The U.S. Navy is testing models of its F-35C version of the Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter at the U.S. Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Center near Tullahoma, Tenn. A 12% scale model has undergone aerodynamic loads tests in the facility's 16-ft. transonic wind tunnel. In addition, AEDC has been testing the F-35's Pratt & Whitney F135-PW-100 engine in a test cell environment. AEDC is conducting other evaluations of F-35C models in the 4-ft. transonic tunnel.
Safran expects this year to turn around its troubled Defense Security division, which has been buffeted by program performance problems and accounting irregularities that combined to force an adjustment to 2005 results and led to a €101-million ($131.3-million) operating loss for the segment last year. Overall, Safran suffered a 60% drop in net income to €177 million, even though its propulsion business has been performing strongly.
That the FAA is moving to remove the discriminatory Age 60 Rule is good news. Some obstructionists argue that the proposed Age 65 limit is also arbitrary, so no change should be made. Indeed, the nation's policy on such matters, as stated in the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, is that no employment will be terminated at a chronological age, but only on the basis of ability to do the job. Airline pilots are already the most frequently tested employees in the world, and their ranks are regularly thinned by this process.
Douglas Barrie and Neelam Mathews (Bangalore, India)
Pending bidders for India's potential bumper fighter buy are struggling to straighten out political and procurement snags prior to the eventual release of a request for proposals.
Southwest Airlines is providing power outlet stations at Dallas Love Field to allow passengers to charge electronic devices while waiting in the gate area. Each station has five receptacles and there is no fee for using the electricity. According to Southwest, the test program will continue for six weeks to analyze customer response. If demand warrants, plans call for installing outlets at all 63 airports served by the carrier.
Robots that NASA plans to send as early scouts for humans on the Moon could wind up as the "bill payer" for International Space Station resupply costs after the space shuttle retires. The need will be particularly acute during a space-access gap that may be extended by proposed cuts in the agency's Fiscal 2007 spending.
Art Stephenson and David Rosener, both vice presidents of the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Space Technology Sector, El Segundo, Calif., have been assigned as vice presidents and deputy program managers of the U.S.'s National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System program. Stephenson will be responsible for day-to-day program operations and execution, while Rosener will focus on development of the Visible Infrared Imaging Sensor by subcontractor Raytheon Co.
Cindy Y. Lam has been appointed Toronto-based director of sales development for Canada for South African Airways. She was an executive with Cathay Pacific Airways.
Chinese delegates will have some explaining to do in Vienna later this month, when they sit down with representatives of other spacefaring nations to adopt international guidelines designed to mitigate the growing problem of man-made space debris in Earth orbit.
