For unmanned aircraft to be accepted into national airspace, where they would share the airways with manned aircraft, aerospace companies will have to demonstrate that pilots of remotely piloted vehicles can see other aircraft and avoid them, as on a piloted vehicle.
JetBird, which plans to establish a low-cost jet service using Embraer Phenom 100s and Phenom 300s, is receiving a capital infusion from Conrado Dornier. JetBird wasn't actively seeking outside investment for the business slated to start in 2009, but was interested in having Dornier involved, in part because of the family connections to the air transport industry in Germany.
Israel Aircraft Industries is continuing to pursue its growth strategy with a $6-million acquisition of 30% of Tiltan, a Matrix subsidiary that produces simulation products for the military. IAI officials say the partnership with a leading software vendor will maintain IAI's role as innovator in command and control applications. Tiltan specializes in advanced visualization.
Controllers are maneuvering China's 5.1-ton SinoSat-2 direct broadcast satellite toward its geosynchronous-orbit parking location at 92.2 deg. E. Long. following a Sept. 29 liftoff (see photo) from the Xichang launch site on a Long March 3B. Developed by the China Academy of Space Technology, the new spacecraft has 22 transponders and a design lifetime of 15 years. Eighteen of the transponders operate at 36 MHz., while the other four are 54-MHz. systems.
Rick Reaser (see photo) has become head of the Spectrum Management Dept. at Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems, El Segundo, Calif. He was deputy system program director for the Navstar GPS for the U.S. Defense Dept.
The Homeland Security Dept. has resumed patrolling a stretch of the Arizona-Mexico border with an MQ-9 Predator B unmanned aerial vehicle. The aircraft is the second to be deployed by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) along the Southwest U.S. border. Michael Kostelnik, chief of CBP Air and Marine operations, says the agency will take delivery of three more Predators in 2007 and have them patrolling borders as well as the Gulf Coast by year-end.
Pentagon acquisition chief Kenneth Krieg is scheduled to review Space Based Infrared System-High's progress this month. The space-based early missile warning program has experienced five major cost overruns, and Krieg has increased oversight of the system.
Boeing is fighting a familiar battle to save its C-17 military transport production line. The Pentagon walked away from the C-17 in 2005, leaving Boeing with too few customers to keep a sustainable production rate. Congress stepped in with extra funding in Fiscal 2007 to keep the line open, but Dave Bowman, Boeing's C-17 vice president, says he now needs a nod from the Pentagon for a buy of 12 of the aircraft in Fiscal 2008 to continue work beyond 2009. Boeing advanced tens of millions of dollars of C-17 funding this year.
Joe R. Reeder (see photo) has been named to the board of directors of Elbit Systems of America of Fort Worth. He is Mid-Atlantic U.S. managing shareholder for the law firm of Greenberg Traurig, chairman of the Panama Canal board and a former Army undersecretary.
U.S. network carriers are increasingly hitching their futures to international flights, which lately have garnered higher fares and more revenue than domestic services. Delta, in particular, is planning a multi-year global expansion more aggressive than many expected as a key part of its strategy to thrive after it emerges from bankruptcy protection next summer.
Gazpromavia, the aviation arm of giant gas utility Gazprom, has struck a deal with Turbomeca to jointly maintain Turbomeca turboshaft engines at a plant in Ostafievo, near Moscow.
Arabsat's Badr-4 (Arabsat 4B) is set to be launched Nov. 8 by an International Launch Services Proton M booster from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The EADS Astrium-built spacecraft will provide broadcasting and voice/data services in the Midde East, North Africa and parts of Europe.
David Groen, who is president/CEO of Groen Brothers Aviation Inc. of Salt Lake City, also will be chairman. He will succeed his late brother Jay Groen.
The booming commercial sector was strongly evident at this year's Air Show China, held at Zhuhai from Oct. 31 to Nov. 5. Airbus and Boeing continue to court Chinese airlines and industry, with the latest move being Airbus's decision to begin license production of A320-series aircraft in the country. This is possibly one opening gambit as the two manufacturers begin to examine strategies for their next generations of narrow-body aircraft.
Former U.S. Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet has been appointed an independent non-executive director of U.K.-based Qinetiq Group plc. He is now a professor at Georgetown University in Washington.
Echoing North Korea's flurry of July 4th missile launches, Iran fired several ballistic weapons on Nov. 2, including the country's longest-range Shahab-3 and the shorter-range Shahab-2. The exercise, dubbed "Great Prophet," came in response to naval exercises--some as little as 20 mi. outside Iran's territorial waters--by two dozen countries.
RAYTHEON AIRCRAFT CO. RECEIVED ORDERS FOR 112 NEW airplanes worth nearly $1 billion during the recent National Business Aviation Assn. convention. Among those were deposits for the Hawker 900XP and Hawker 750, which were introduced at the show. The 900XP, with a mid-size cabin, is scheduled for FAA certification in mid-2007, followed by initial deliveries in the third quarter. The twin-engine jet will be powered by the Honeywell TFE731-50R engine, and is projected to have an IFR range of 2,800 naut. mi. with six passengers and two pilots. Its price is $13.9 million.
China is in the midst of a critical period of testing an "indigenous" version of the Russian Su-27 Flanker, known as the J-11B, with propulsion, radar and weapons system integration underway. The effort is emblematic of Beijing's efforts to recast its capabilities for the 21st century as its military and associated defense-aerospace sector undergoes its own revolution in military affairs.
Pierre Reville has been appointed executive vice president-operations and Yves Melisse executive vice president-sales and marketing for Sabena Technics. Reville was senior vice president-component services and logistics, and Melisse vice president-sales for Europe and North America, both for Air France Industries.
Canada's MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA) will provide rendezvous and docking of the Rocketplane Kistler entry in NASA's Commercial Orbital Space Transportation competition, as well as unpressurized cargo systems for the reusable two-stage-to-orbit spacecraft. Other MDA contributions are expected as NASA milestones are set, the firm says.
Citing financial problems, Cypriot budget airline AJet (or Alpha Jet)--formerly known as Helios Airways--announced plans to cease operations within the next few months. The carrier changed its name following the August 2005 crash of a Helios Airways Boeing 737-300 that killed all 121 people on board. The 737 lost pressurization, which led to the debilitation of the flight crew and passengers and the subsequent crash.
The initial flight of the first production Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter, scheduled for December, will launch an intense, six-year, 12,000-hr. test phase due to end in late in 2012. The flight may help quell concerns from international partners about program delays and cost growth.
The FAA's consideration of an Age 65 rule for pilots, increasing the current limit by five years, has drawn its first comments from airline industry heavyweights--Southwest Airlines' Chairman Herb Kelleher, CEO Gary Kelly and COO Colleen Barrett. In a letter to the Southwest pilots' union, the trio argued that the FAA can maintain "current training, safety and medical requirements" well beyond age 60, and that the U.S. should fall in line with an International Civil Aviation Assn. Age-65 rule to be adopted Nov. 23. Earlier, 12 Republican senators said the U.S.
