I do not want to raise the mandatory airline pilot retirement age. I am 48, and I am not a junior pilot on the seniority list. Having said that, the Age 60 rule will change sooner or later, International Civil Aviation Organization, or not. With almost every airline pension plan non-existent or frozen due to inept management, bankruptcy or both, the need to extend the retirement age exists for many pilots.
The ongoing war in Iraq continues to cast a shadow over the world's largest defense-spending market in the U.S., while the focus in Europe continues to be on cooperation among aircraft programs.
Air Transport Assn. President James C. May has no clue as to who pays for the U.S. air traffic control system and its services (AW&ST Oct. 16, p. 56). Airlines pay nothing in taxes to the federal government for this system. All taxes paid to the government are passed along to the passenger or cargo shipper. The airlines collect these taxes on behalf of our government for the safety of travelers and the people who never fly.
The 2006 Kolcum News and Com- munications Award, which honors the late Aviation Week & Space Technology Managing Editor Harry Kolcum, has been presented to Red Huber, senior photographer for the Orlando Sentinel. Huber has photographed space launches for two decades, and his work has appeared in National Geographic and Time magazines. Also receiving the award for communications was Debbie Land, general manager of the Astronaut Hall of Fame for the Delaware North Corp.
Airport executives say there are too many interpretations of what liquids passengers can and cannot carry in their hand baggage. Speaking at the recent annual meeting of Airports Council International (ACI) in Cape Town, South Africa, Director General Robert J. Aaronson said the standards recently adopted by the European Commission represent a "positive step" toward a uniform approach for Europe, but confusion remains elsewhere.
I continue to read articles and letters from people who want to repeal the long-standing Age 60 rule and wonder what career expectations airline pilots have had since 1959. Is it not true that every employed Part 121 pilot was hired with the expectation of accruing seniority as older pilots retired at Age 60? This is not about safety; it's about left-seat wide-body pay for another five years and choice selection for bidding.
Alenia Aeronautica has flown its Sky-X UAV demonstrator for the first time in a fully automatic mode, including takeoff and landing. The 30-min. mission occurred at the Swedish Vidsel air base. The next stage of flight trials is to be undertaken at the Italian air force Amendola base before year-end.
Volga-Dnepr has seen a nine-month revenue increase of 55%. Revenue for Il-76 operations was up 129%, and An-124-100 cargo hauling grew 14%. The cargo airline unit, AirBridge Cargo, saw revenue increase 134% to $158.8 million. Full-year sales for the group should top $600 million. AirBridge during the summer added a Boeing 747-200 to its operation, allowing it to double frequencies to Japan and Europe. Two more 747-200Fs are to be acquired next year, with two new-build 747-400ERFs slated for operations in late 2007 or early 2008.
The Joint Simulation System, or JSIMS, may be gone, but it is far from forgotten. JSIMS achieved notoriety after the U.S. Defense Dept. spent 10 years and $1 billion developing a joint forces training and simulation program, only to kill it in 2004 after numerous delays and cost overruns. While the formal program no longer exists, pieces of JSIMS live on in other forms. And its failure has inspired new approaches to joint training. The Pentagon completed a study in summer 2005 that recommended scaled-down expectations and a new acquisition model.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating an incident at Chicago O'Hare International Airport on Nov. 7 in which a United Airlines Airbus A320 taxiing behind a United Boeing 737-200 made winglet-to-horizontal-stabilizer contact. Pam Sullivan, the NTSB air-safety investigator looking into the incident, says "substantial damage" was done to the 737 horizontal stabilizer and elevator. There are scrapes and gouges on the underside of the stabilizer--one deep enough to cut into the rear spar. Damage to the A320 winglet was minor.
Guilty or not guilty? The question could soon rule the flight safety environment, and this is unquestioningly bad news. The good news is that the world's flight safety community in the last few days confirmed it is capable of speaking with a single voice. Such an encouraging statement of fact is based on an unprecedented cross-border resolution jointly devised by the Flight Safety Foundation (FSF), the British Royal Aeronautical Society, France's Academie Nationale de l'Air et de l'Espace and the Civil Air Navigation Services Organization.
Astrobiologists have simulated the chemistry that formed organic material in the atmospheres of Saturn's moon Titan and the early Earth, gaining insights into the processes that may have produced the organic material that fed early life here. By beaming an ultraviolet light into a gas sample made up of methane and nitrogen, as is found in the atmosphere of Saturn's moon, researchers from NASA's Astrobiology Institute produced aerosols that they were able to measure and analyze to gain a better understanding of in situ data returned by the ongoing Cassini/Huygens mission.
A 75% decline in sales and sudden evaporation of profits would trigger a panic attack in most chief executives, but not Geoffrey Hedrick. He hasn't cut research spending or laid off a single employee.
I would disagree with Harry Riblett when he says "the accident rate for 'puddle jumpers' has been less than stellar" (AW&ST Oct. 23, p. 6). Q Series, Saab 340 and ATR aircraft have safety records that far exceed those of most mainline models.
TAP Air Portugal is buying the country's smaller, regional operator Portugalia under a €140-million deal. It also is spending another €4 million to buy the 6% share Portugalia holds in the Groundforce handling company.
Selex's Sistemi Integrati unit has received a €44-million ($56.2-million) contract to modernize seven ATC centers in Turkey. A main center capable of monitoring Turkey's entire airspace is slated to be established in Ankara, while six local approach centers are to be readied in Istanbul, Izmir, Antalya, Dalaman, Ercan and Bodrum. Those in Istanbul and Izmir are being configured to serve as backups to the main center.
In October, capacity growth outpaced traffic at Air France-KLM, which depressed load factor, although yields continued to grow. The load factor for the carriers remained at 81.4%, led by Asia routes where traffic increased 10% on a capacity expansion of 9.7%, resulting in a load factor of 88.4%.
With the Boeing 787 expected to enter service in mid-2008 and Airbus 380 delays creating a delivery logjam, customers are now focusing on the 787 and the new 747 stretch as the ultimate in "VVIP" aircraft.
Denmark's defense minister this week is expected to signal the country's intent to sign up for the production sustainment and follow-on development phase of the Lockheed Martin F-35.
China appears to be considering development of an aircraft-carried satellite launch vehicle, similar in general concept to the U.S. Pegasus or Russian Burlak. A model of a design was on display at Air Show China 2006, which was held earlier this month. The three-stage system would have a launch weight of 13 tons and a 110-lb. payload. The aircraft type that would carry the launch vehicle has yet to be specified.
The FAA has certified the Cessna Citation Mustang personal jet for flight into known icing conditions. Type certification was achieved Sept. 8. Cessna anticipates certification by EASA before deliveries to European customers begin in the third quarter of 2007. There are 21 Mustangs in production. Plans call for delivering 40 airplanes next year, followed by full rate production in 2008. The Mustang is sold out through mid-2009.
Air Canada has increased overall capacity in Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The additional flights will be operated by Air Canada and Air Canada Jazz. The airline is increasing the number of seats to destinations it serves in the Atlantic Canada area by more than 16%, or more than 10,000 seats per week, compared with last winter.
Finnair suffered a double-digit slide in third-quarter operating profit compared with last year, blaming low ticket prices and high fuel costs. President and CEO Jukka Hienonen says structural changes underway at the airline should result in more attractive results by the third quarter of 2007, buoyed by an increase in traffic, particularly business travel.
Rumsfeld may be gone, but budget realities mean his acquisition approach is likely to continue. Key transformation efforts--the Army's Future Combat Systems, the Air Force's unmanned aircraft and Joint Strike Fighter and the Navy's Littoral Combat Ship--seem secure, in the view of many Wall Street and think-tank defense analysts. Defense-company stocks could drift upward over the next few months because Wall Street still expects a "strong" Fiscal 2008 defense budget, now far along in the planning process, says UBS Investment Research analyst David Strauss (see p. 10).
