Japan's Mitsui & Co. and Israel Aircraft Industries are expected to join a 50/50 joint venture in January for Boeing 767-300 conversions, according to the Nikkei business news service. IAI's Bedak unit is a major aircraft modification and conversion center but does not hold licenses from the Seattle manufacturer for such work. The announcement came as Boeing chose Italy's Alenia Aeronavali as its partner for the -300 Converted Freighter Program (AW&ST Oct. 16, p. 52).
BAE Systems' divorce from Airbus is now final, leaving EADS holding 100% of the aircraft maker. The nearly year-long drama of BAE Systems unloading its 20% stake to EADS ended Oct. 14. BAE Systems received €2.75 billion in cash from EADS for its shares. The amount was set by an independent financial institution after EADS and BAE Systems couldn't come to terms. BAE instigated the sales process in April.
Italy's Enav is set to complete the acquisition of the Vitrociset ATC radar support and maintenance business. The first installment of €21 million has been paid. The ATC support business generates about €80 million in revenue. Its main client is Enav, with annual contracts worth around €70 million.
Tired of waiting for the U.S. Transportation Security Administration to set standards, 14 House of Representatives members are calling for an investigation of security vulnerabilities at foreign repair stations working on U.S.-registered aircraft. The lawmakers want the Government Accountability Office to look into the potential risks of terrorist sabotage at overseas locations. U.S. carriers have outsourced 50% of repair and maintenance of their aircraft, according to the Transportation Dept.'s inspector general.
Jim Blasingame (see photo) has been promoted to senior director of sales from director of sales for Honeywell programs for Dallas Airmotive. Steve Barlage has been named the company's Rolls-Royce engine manager for the Northeast U.S. He was vice president-regional sales and East Coast general manager for The Air Group. Daniel McLandsborough has become Pratt & Whitney Canada regional engine manager for the North Central U.S. He has been manager of maintenance coordination for Jet Linx Aviation.
Alteon Training and Asiana Airlines are broadening their agreement as the airline expands its Boeing 777 fleet. The wholly owned Boeing subsidiary is to install a 777-200/-300 full-flight simulator at the airline's Seoul training center. The equipment should be ready by April 2007. Alteon also plans to move an Asiana-owned 737-500 full-flight simulator from Seoul to Alteon's new center in Singapore.
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has performed what it describes as the world's first hands-off, autonomous air refueling engagement. It was a Navy-focused test using a probe-and-drogue refueling system. The tanker was linked to a NASA F/A-18 configured to operate as an unmanned testbed. On the tanker was the Autonomous Airborne Refueling Demonstration system that uses GPS-based relative navigation, an optical tracker to ensure the refueling drogue hits the center of a 32-in. basket.
The delays in Airbus A380 deliveries are forcing airlines to continue operating higher fuel-burn aircraft and carry the cost of unused infrastructure. Some are even still scrambling to fill capacity demands. The freighter conversion business is also falling victim to the A380 postponement. Companies that have taken slots at cargo conversion facilities now are struggling to find the airplanes to be modified since a number of 747-400 passenger aircraft are being forced into prolonged service life, industry officials say.
From Bouncing Bombs to Concorde: The Authorized Biography of Aviation Pioneer Sir George Edwards by Robert Gardner Sutton, 2006, 334 pp., $34.95, ISBN 0-7509-4389-0
EADS Astrium is prime contractor for France's Helios 2 intelligence satellite system (AW&ST Oct. 2, p. 36). Alcatel Alenia Space supplied the very-high-resolution camera subsystem and other payload components.
With its highly visible testing of what appears to have been a nuclear device (see p. 26), North Korea joins the small group of nations with a declared atomic weapons program. Despite the overheated statements by some within the Bush administration that "this will not stand," North Korea will remain a nuclear weapons state for a very long time, given the weak and unlikely-to-be-enforced sanctions by the U.N. Security Council--not to mention the lack of viable military options.
NATO is starting to address equipment deficiencies highlighted by its expanding mission in Afghanistan. One of the first lessons is that the sharing of surveillance video must be improved. In addition, NATO modernization priorities--including possible additions to the agenda mapped out in 2002 to boost allied warfighting capabilities--are expected to be discussed at the Nov. 28-29 alliance summit in Riga, Latvia.
Bradley Perrett has joined the staff of Aviation Week & Space Technology as Asia-Pacific editor. He is based in Beijing and will head Aviation Week's news coverage of the region. Perrett, a 42-year-old Australian, is a veteran correspondent and editor with the Reuters news service, holding posts in Canberra, Singapore, London and Beijing. Prior to his Reuters tenure, Perrett was senior political and economics correspondent for Knight-Ridder Financial News in Canberra. He has backgrounds in economics, business, and aviation and defense writing.
Counterinsurgency (COIN) experts put unmanned aircraft, better communication links and unattended sensors at the top their acquisition wish list, but one British general--a veteran of Bosnia and Iraq--says don't forget cyberspace. The virtual world of the Internet provides a virtual safe haven for terrorists and insurgents to communicate, plan operations and detonate improvised explosive devices (IEDs), says Maj. Gen. Jonathon Riley, the top British officer assigned to U.S. Central Command.
Sherry Carbary has been named president of Seattle-based Boeing subsidiary Alteon Training. She was vice president-strategic management for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Carbary succeeds Pat- rick Gaines, who is now Boeing vice president-customer support for Asia-Pacific.
Lockheed Martin has completed sled-tests of its supersonic Rattlrs missile, carrying a simulated penetrating warhead. The company's Skunk Works plans to conduct flight tests late next year. Company officials say the lightweight Rattlers warhead, coupled with its supersonic speed, can "provide the penetration depot of significantly heavier penetrators."
Michael A. Taverna (Cherbourg, Biscarrosse and St. Medard, France)
Behind the multibillion-dollar effort to renew France's nuclear arsenal lies a huge investment in test infrastructure, most of it for the new M51 ballistic missile. Among the facilities--for the most part unique in Europe--is an underwater rig named Cetace (Cetacean), near the Toulon naval base in southern France. Cetace was built for water breach tests performed on a full-scale inert model (see cover) and to test prototype elements such as the launch tube, gas ejection system, membrane and control-command system.
Brian Moriarty has been named head of the Design Engineering Dept. at Aero Gear Inc., Windsor, Conn. He was design engineering manager at the Kaman Aerospace Corp., Bloomfield, Conn.
ExpressJet Holdings plans a December launch of its jet charter business, ExpressJet Corporate Aviation. It is a division of subsidiary Express Jet Airlines, which does business as Continental Express. The new operation will fly Embraer 145XRs in a redesigned 50-seat configuration with XM radio available at each seat. It will also offer customized flight service options. By May 2007, ExpressJet Corporate Aviation plans to operate 10 aircraft that will come from ExpressJet Airlines' current fleet.
The SETI Institute, which combs the radio spectrum for signs of intelligent life beyond Earth, is taking a page from its own history to offset Bush administration cuts in funding for astrobiology research. The Mountain View, Calif.-based institute was created with private funds from high-tech entrepreneur David Packard and others after congressional Luddites thought they'd found some political hay in canceling NASA funding for the use of radio-astronomy and advanced signals process to search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (SETI).
Charles E. Doyle has become San Francisco-based managing director for sales and service for United Services. He was managing director of materials management.
Eurocopter expects to reach €€4 billion ($5 billion) in revenue as early as next year, although no later than 2008, says CEO Fabrice Bregier. Sales this year should reach around €3.8 billion, or growth of 15%. Deliveries this year will reach around 390 helicopters, and orders are expected to be about 600--half of them Ecureuils. Also this week, the U.S. Government Accountability Office is to rule on a protest filed against Eurocopter's win of the Army Light Utility Helicopter program.
Annette Kreuziger has been appointed Swiss WorldCargo's manager for Germany and the Nordic countries. She has been trade lane manager for greater China for Lufthansa Cargo.
The German military is slated to formally take delivery of the first NH90 helicopter in a few weeks, says a Eurocopter official. The military type certificate should be issued in 2-3 weeks. The title transfer is slated for early December. Greece and Finland also are to get their first helos this year. That's more than two years late on the original contract.
NASA will probably buy seats on commercial suborbital space vehicles, Administrator Michael Griffin says. He tells a group of space entrepreneurs and financiers in Las Cruses, N.M., last week, that it would be logical to buy the commercial services both for microgravity experiments and astronaut training on vehicles such as Virgin Galaxy's planned SpaceShipTwo--if the nascent industry literally gets off the ground.
