Iran has just completed conversion of a powerful ballistic missile into a satellite launch vehicle. But the 25-30-ton rocket could be a wolf in sheep's clothing to test longer-range Iranian missile technologies. The Bush administration will likely view the vehicle as a rogue rocket developed in a cabal of Iran and North Korea. The new launcher has recently been assembled and "will lift off soon," says Alaoddin Boroujerdi, chairman of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission.
Finnair is going to suffer an earnings loss for 2006, although it will register an operating profit, says President/CEO Jukka Hienonen. The loss is blamed on structural arrangements--notably a €15-million ($19.3-million) second-quarter charge for the struggling technical division--and changes in fuel-derivatives market values. However, Hienonen adds, the reduction in oil prices seen in recent weeks is having a positive effect. He promises much better results for the year. Meanwhile, the carrier continues to expand its Asian routes.
Conflicting information and swift accusations continue to earmark the investigation of the Sept. 29, 2006, midair collision of a Legacy 600 and Gol Airlines 737-800 over the Amazon jungle. Brazil's lead accident investigator, Renato Sayao, according to an Associated Press report, says the country's air traffic controllers are partly responsible for the collision.
Flight testing of an upgraded Russian MiG-29K Fulcrum, destined for India, is getting underway amid discussions to further strengthen strategic aerospace relations between Moscow and New Delhi.
Finding Amelia: the True Story of the Earhart Disappearance by Ric Gillespie Naval Institute Press, 2006, 280 pp., $28.95 ISBN 1-59114-319-5 In 1932, Amelia Earhart became one of the most admired women in the U.S. after completing the first solo crossing of the Atlantic by a woman, five years after Charles Lindbergh's historic flight to Le Bourget.
The New Orleans Aviation Board is offering an incentive program designed to bring operations at New Orleans Louis Armstrong International Airport back to their pre-Hurricane Katrina levels. The effort waives landing fees and offers facility credits for a year to airlines that increase flights or start service from new cities. As of November 2006, the airport's passenger volume was at 70% of pre-Katrina levels, said airport official Michelle Duffourc.
In the fall of 2004, an aerospace analyst who no longer works on Wall Street opined that U.S. defense stocks were peaking and, citing impending pressure on Pentagon spending, suggested that his clients consider selling.
The Marine Corps is planning to quickly add a sophisticated countermeasures system to its CH-53E heavy-lift helicopters already in Iraq, while the service continues to plan for the first deployment of the new MV-22 tiltrotor to support operations there this fall. The heavy-lift helos are workhorses in Iraq, shuttling Marine Corps equipment around the theater as U.S. forces grapple with the technical challenge of countering improvised explosive devices (IEDs) planted along roadways. However, helos are subjected to the threat from shoulder-fired missiles.
The Italian air force will use an interim simulation training capability for its Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft until the full mission simulator finally is available.
PRAGUE'S NEW INTEGRATED AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL CENTER is being equipped with 2,048 X 2,048-pixel liquid crystal displays supplied by eg-electronic GmbH. of Germany. The screens provide high contrast and brightness for ATC applications. The German company is supplying the displays to ALES Automated Aviation Systems, a private engineering company certified by Civil Aviation Authority of the Czech Republic. The ATC project represents the largest investment to date in such facilities in the Czech Republic.
Patriot air defense missiles on fighter aircraft? Lockheed Martin is under contract to the Missile Defense Agency to continue an air-launched, hit-to-kill initiative for homeland defense that would enable fighters to carry and launch Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles to intercept enemy ballistic and cruise missiles. The $3-million risk reduction and assessment program will define the concept and expected performance--initially when fired from an F-15C at a ballistic missile.
Integrated flat-panel cockpits are now being developed on a large scale for retrofitting airline and business aircraft, and similar systems are being designed for general aviation piston-powered aircraft as avionics suppliers penetrate new market segments.
Turkish cargo operator MNG Airlines plans to buy two Airbus A330-200Fs and has an option for one more. It's the fourth carrier to commit to the freighter since its launch this month.
As India becomes aviation's hottest big growth market, international suppliers are setting up training schools for pilots to fill infrastructure bottlenecks in the fast-growing aerospace industry.
German aerospace center DLR has founded a new Space Transportation System Institute, to be sited in Bremen. Its focus will be on work concerning systems analysis and technology, and their applications for space systems.
Kenneth H. Guss has become president/general manager of the Fluid Controls Group of Meggitt Aerospace Equipment, Simi Valley, Calif. He was president of Chatsworth Products Inc.
The stealthy Raptor fighter and intelligence-gathering aircraft is ready for war, but probably not the war we've got, says Air Combat Command's chief, Gen. Ronald E. Keys. Essential electronic surveillance systems may be too sensitive--overwhelmed by the density of U.S. and allied emitters--to be useful in the electronically polluted environment of Baghdad, the main focus of the new U.S. military surge.
German accident investigators have determined that major structural elements of the horizontal stabilizer of the Grob Aerospace G180 SPn utility jet departed the aircraft before the second prototype crashed Nov. 29.
Pratt & Whitney received a Northrop Grumman award for JT8D-219s to re-engine the U.S. Air Force's Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint Stars) fleet. Pratt & Whitney was the only competitor for the work, which prompted delays as the Air Force sought additional competitors for the work. This summer, General Electric agreed to offer what company officials called a "generic CFM56" to provide the Air Force the competition it was seeking. Total program value is estimated at about $700 million.
Mike Golden has become assistant administrator of operational process and technology/chief technology officer of the Transportation Security Administration. He was Southwest Airlines' senior director of airport security technologies.
Malaysian Airline System will keep its order for six A380s, the government says. Struggling to right its poor financial performance, the carrier had seemed likely to cancel, since the aircraft may not fit well with its new, less aggressive business plans.
Safran Chairman/CEO Jean-Paul Bechat says talks to merge the company's Snecma liquid and ion propulsion engine businesses with those of EADS Astrium remain frozen due to continuing disagreement over valuation and EADS's problems at Airbus that have rendered the matter secondary. But Bechat says he still believes the merger, which would rationalize and consolidate Europe's space-engine industry, is a good idea.
