The Delta unit of the Air Line Pilots Assn. is analyzing what it describes as "US Airways' hostile unsolicited bid to acquire and merge with Delta." In a Nov. 21 letter to pilots, Delta Master Executive Council Chairman Lee Moak says if the bid is "as misguided and as poor an idea" as he believes it to be, he will deploy every available resource to stop it. Moak identifies what is perhaps the largest and most critical obstacle to overcome: the operational challenge of joining US Airways and Delta prior to the completion of the America West-US Airways merger.
The Civil Air Navigation Services Organization (Canso) has been invited to participate in the European Union's High Level Group on the Future of Aviation Regulations. About 50 air navigation service providers worldwide belong to Canso. The EU High-Level Group already includes the directors-general of civil aviation for the Netherlands, the U.K., France, Germany, Switzerland, as well as the Eurocontrol director-general and representatives from the International Air Transport Assn. and Airports Council International-Europe.
Finnair is adding flights to key European destinations to further feed its Asian routes, which have become central to the carrier's long-term financial plans. To improve its feeder network, frequencies are being added to Amsterdam, Kiev and Gothenburg in Sweden. Finnair says the Amsterdam connection is closely tied to the newly opened route from Helsinki to New Delhi. The Swedish and Ukrainian expansion is set for March and April next year, respectively.
Last-ditch efforts are underway to save Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), 200 million mi. from Earth and orbiting 230 mi. above Mars on an extraordinary voyage of scientific discovery. Spacecraft have gone missing at Mars before. But never has such an integrated spacecraft infrastructure in Martian orbit and on the surface, along with corporate and NASA control centers on Earth, been combined as part of a deep-space rescue operation.
John Woodin has been named president of the Seattle-based Aeromedia Network. He was vice president/general manager of KIRO-TV and remains president/CEO of SkyBlue Productions.
USAF Lt. Gen. Henry A. Obering, 3rd (Director, Missile Defense Agency, Washington, D.C.)
Neal Chism's assertions regarding the Missile Defense Agency's use of sensors for missile defense testing (AW&ST Nov. 6, p. 10) were really off the mark.
Sikorsky has been awarded a $138.5-million contract upgrade for procurement of 12 MH-60R full-rate production Lot 4 helicopters. Work is to be completed in December 2007.
Airlines in the coming 20 years will buy 22,663 new passenger and freighter aircraft and probably more, since the projection for some of the strongest growth markets are seen as conservative in the latest Airbus look-ahead. The newly issued Global Market Forecast has upped the 20-year outlook by more than 5,000 aircraft compared to the one issued in 2004. "This is a strong growth market and we expect it to continue growing," says John Leahy, Airbus COO for customers.
A flight-test program recently flown on Scaled Composites' White Knight testbed provides a glimpse of a fuel-saving feature that aircraft may incorporate in the near future--"adaptive compliant" wings.
SAS Sweden will launch five nonstop services from Stockholm next year, starting with the Feb. 12 inauguration of Stockholm-Munich. Partnering with Lufthansa, the route will be served by five daily departures. Other destinations to be added are Malaga, Palma de Mallorca, Glasgow and Reykjavik. One-way prices start at SEK 650 ($92).
John J. Grisik, who is executive vice president-operational excellence and technology for the Goodrich Corp., has been elected chairman of the Washington-based General Aviation Manufacturers Assn. for 2007. He has been vice chairman and will be succeeded by Alan Klapmeier, who is chairman/CEO of the Cirrus Design Corp.
Ian King has been appointed chief operating officer for U.K. and other non-U.S. business for London-based BAE Systems, effective Jan. 1. He has been group managing director for customer solutions and support.
The Massachusetts Port Authority placed a sixth runway (Runway 14/32) into operation at Logan International Airport on Thanksgiving Day. The 5,000-ft. runway is designed to handle regional aircraft traffic. Planning for the new runway began 30 years ago and since 1995 has been the subject of 100 public meetings.
AeroComputers Inc., a tiny company located in an aircraft hangar at the Oxnard Airport north of Los Angeles, has developed a synchronized video and moving map system for use in homeland security and military applications and police and fire department helicopters.
The Italian army has ordered a dozen AeroVironment RQ-11A Raven small unmanned aircraft for use by deployed troops. The UAVs are slated for delivery early next year. The Ravens will be used for surveillance using a daylight television or infrared camera. In addition to its hand-launched UAV effort, the Army continues to maintain a requirement for a brigade-level, tactical UAV system, but hasn't found funds for a procurement. Meanwhile, the air force's Predator UAVs are supporting all three Italian military services.
Regarding your article "Close Calls," there is still low-hanging fruit to be harvested in the fight against runway incursions (AW&ST Nov. 6, p. 40). Though ADS-B, ground radar and in-pavement stoplight systems will have their places, some simple preventive measures go unexploited. A crew's primary focus while taxiing should be on taxiing and not on tasks that can be accomplished prior to leaving the gate.
An amateur photographer captured images of an inflight safety incident at Stockholm's Arlanda Airport on Nov. 3 and made a report that prompted the pilots of a Malaysia Airlines 777-200 to return to the airport for an emergency landing.
Airbus will close the books on 2006 with its second-best year ever in terms of order intake. However, it likely will miss an important mark in its competition with Boeing because of the comparatively low value of its sales this year. A raft of orders in recent weeks has allowed Airbus to get back into the competitive band of over 40% market share. However, the company's COO for customers, John Leahy, acknowledges that Airbus is only at 35-37% in terms of value intake. Boeing has dominated large aircraft sales, where the value is highest.
It's one of the strangest-looking aircraft in recent aeronautical history, but Scaled Composites' "White Knight" was the ideal vehicle for carrying SpaceShipOne (SSO) to high altitude. Dropped there, SSO ignited its rocket and flew into space and the record books in 2004--twice. Now, the one-of-a-kind White Knight is serving as an ideal testbed for large, heavy payloads.
Designed specifically to launch SpaceShipOne from high altitudes, Scaled Composites' White Knight carrier aircraft has become a low-cost workhorse for a number of flight test projects. Earlier this year, it flew a number of captive-carriage and drop-launch flights with the Boeing/Darpa/ NASA X-37 test vehicle (shown), and recently completed data-acquisition tests on a FlexSys Inc. laminar flow wing section having an "adaptive compliant" trailing edge (see p. 70).
Nigeria continues efforts to fix its troubled aviation system. The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority has suspended the operating license of two domestic carriers--Fresh Air and Sosoliso--because of regulation violations. It's the latest in a series of such actions taken in the wake of two high-profile accidents last year in which more than 200 died. Another incident occurred Oct. 29--an ADC Airlines Boeing 737-200 crashed, killing 98.
A European proposal to include aviation in its emissions trading system is making industry officials shudder and could cause a nasty international dispute. The European Commission is expected to complete deliberations by mid-December on a plan put forward by its environmental directorate to bring air transport into the emissions trading scheme. While airline officials initially were receptive to the idea, noting it is less stifling than more taxes, they reject the current version.
Estonian Air and Air Baltic of Lithuania have entered an international cooperation to combine efforts on flights from Paris, Barcelona and Brussels to their respective hubs of Tallinn and Riga.
Southwest Airlines is to begin an international code-share agreement with ATA by 2009 that will open markets for the Dallas-based low-cost pioneer in Canada, Mexico and, maybe, Central America. Executive Vice President Mike Van de Ven notes that Southwest already is gaining access to Hawaii with ATA code-shares.
