Air One has taken delivery of the first of 40 Airbus A320s it has ordered. The aircraft are arranged in a two-class configuration with 159 seats. CFM International is the engine provider, with the CFM56-B6/P engines. Air One intends use Airbus single-aisles to replace its entire 737 fleet, which currently stands at 31 aircraft. The carrier also operates five Bombardier CRJ900s in regional operations. Projected delivery rates for the Air One A320s call for one aircraft to be handed over each month, starting in February.
The Italian government, increasingly concerned about Alitalia's long-term viability, has told carrier management to find partners to help it emerge from its financial morass. Additionally, Rome has approved a revised industrial plan, for 2007-09, prepared by the airline's board, affirming its goal to make Alitalia an efficient network carrier. There's no immediate financial risk to the airline, even at its current red ink status, with available funds expected to keep it solvent for about a year.
Saturn, with its ring system spanning 621,000 mi., is imaged from the NASA Cassini orbiter flying 1.3 million mi. above the planet as it eclipsed the Sun. Earth is visible (arrow) nearly 1 billion mi. away. For scale, the width of the entire Saturn ring system is 2.5 times greater than the distance from Earth to the Moon. A ray of sunlight refracted by Saturn's atmosphere peeks under the 121,000-mi.-dia. planet at bottom left.
Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England conducted yet another high-level meeting late last week to chart a course for the $276-billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. The secretaries and chiefs of staff of the Air Force and Navy and the commandant of the Marine Corps were summoned to attend, as were a handful of assistant and undersecretaries of defense. This followed an England session with the Pentagon's Cost Analysis Improvement Group and a special team he assembled to analyze the impacts of congressional cuts for Fiscal 2007.
Robert D. Taylor has been appointed to the board of directors of Frontier Airlines. He is managing director of Blue Capital Management of Los Angeles and a former partner in McKinsey and Co.
Arianespace affiliate Starsem plans to orbit a modified Soyuz 2.1b launcher, equipped with a new Khimavtomatika RD-01124 third-stage engine, on Dec. 21. The launch, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, will orbit France's Corot planet-finding mission.
Airbus will start producing single-aisle aircraft in China in 2009, having completed talks to establish a final assembly site in Tianjin to help satisfy demand in that country for such aircraft. The strength of the market was amplified by a decision from China Aviation Supplies Import and Export Group Corp. (Casgc) to order for 150 A320 family aircraft. China last year already ordered 150 of those aircraft, as well as committed to taking the same number of Boeing 737s. What airlines will operate the new A320s hasn't been decided.
ONE TURBOPROP AIR PILOT AT THE NBAA CONVENTION noted that satellite weather transmissions of returns from U.S. National Weather Service Doppler radars on the ground beamed to the cockpit are so good that he turns the airborne weather radar off at times. Other pilots say they use satellite-delivered weather pictures for strategic flight planning and airborne radar for tactical guidance to avoid thunderstorm cells nearby.
British Royal Navy Adm. (ret.) Sir Alan West has been named to the Defense Advisory Board of QinetiQ. He is a former first sea lord, chief of the Naval Staff and a member of the Defense Council and Admiralty Board.
Brazil has taken delivery of its first EADS CASA C-295. Another three aircraft are to be handed over this year, two more than initially planned. The total order is for 12 aircraft. The C-295s replace Brazilian air force C-115s. The order for transport aircraft also put EADS on contract to modernize eight P-3BR maritime patrol aircraft, through use of the European defense company's Fully Integrated Tactical System.
Cessna's Light Sport Aircraft, with company test pilot Dale Bleakney at the controls, flew for the first time Oct. 13 from McConnell AFB, Wichita, Kan., and landed 30 min. later at the city's Mid-Continent Airport.
AirTran Airways estimates lost bookings resulting from the London terrorism scare cost the carrier $8-12-million in lost revenue and says it countered a 51.8% increase in fuel costs with a fare increase. But the carrier still posted a $4.3-million loss in the third quarter.
In the last few weeks, in the aftermath of Airbus's latest setbacks and EADS's concerns about the A380 mega-transport's tenuous future, European political leaders committed some serious gaffes. They publically aired opinions that interfered with the aircraft manufacturer's corporate governance and revealed meddling of the highest degree by French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Angela Merkel into the Airbus boardroom.
You can now register ONLINE for Aviation Week Events. Go to www.aviationweek.com/conferences or call Lydia Janow at +1 (212) 904-3225/+1 (800) 240-7645 ext. 5 (U.S. and Canada Only) Nov. 13-15--Aerospace & Defense Programs, Phoenix. PARTNERSHIPS Nov. 29-30--Aeromart 2006, Toulouse. Nov. 14-15--CPI for Aircraft Maintenance, Phoenix. Dec. 5-6--Essentials of PBL Contracting Process, Washington.
Filipe Morais de Almeida has been appointed CEO of TAP Air Portgual subsidiary VEM Maintenance and Engineering. He was chairman/CEO of Bombardier Portugal.
On the face of it, the European Commission's regulatory review of Ryanair's attempt to acquire Aer Lingus ought to be relatively straightforward. Led at the turn of the new century by then-Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio, the EC has embraced airline consolidation as inevitable and, perhaps, economically positive. Ryanair says its service and Aer Lingus's overlap on 17 direct routes, not a large number.
High-resolution radar returns from the Moon's poles strongly suggest that future lunar explorers won't be able to mine deep craters there for water ice to convert into oxygen and rocket fuel. The finding by U.S. and Australian researchers, if true, could have a dramatic impact on the lunar-surface infrastructure NASA is developing.
French defense exports for the year are likely to top the €4.11 billion achieved in 2005, with roughly €4 billion in orders already in hand, according to the defense ministry. It's the second year of growth after exports fell in 2003 to €3.4 billion Helicopter activities, such as NH90 orders and the U.S. Army decision to buy Eurocopter EC145s, dominate so far this year.
A coalition of airlines, companies, government agencies and aviation alphabet groups interested in alternative fuels are agreed on a name: the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI). Nearly 80 delegates attended sessions Oct. 23-24 in Atlanta sponsored by the FAA and Georgia Tech. They received updates of reports from the initial meeting last May and authorized a steering committee to begin the task of mapping out goals.
Virgin Atlantic Airways is deferring delivery of the Airbus A380 for the second time, but isn't canceling any part of its six-aircraft order. The airline has opted to push the handover date back to 2013, rather than taking the first aircraft in late 2009. Virgin says it can bridge the period by extending use of its Boeing 747-400s. Virgin expects that by the time it fields the A380, teething problems will have been resolved.
The first strike in Learjet's history ended last week when union workers approved a revised contract offer by parent company Bombardier. About 1,100 production and assembly workers in Wichita, Kan., walked off the job Oct. 2 after rejecting an offer for a 10% pay raise over three years. The new contract provides an 11% raise over three years, a $1,500 one-time bonus and higher pension and insurance contributions by Bombardier.
Liberalization of anachronistic airline-ownership rules would benefit both carriers and consumers, claims a British Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) discussion paper. While there has been progress in removing "arcane controls over market access . . . strict nationality-based controls on . . . ownership" continue to hamper development. The CAA argues that additional liberalization, accompanied by sensible prerequisites . . .
ONE ECLIPSE CUSTOMER, DAYJET CORP. OF DELRAY BEACH, FLA., is hiring captains for its operation expected to start up in Florida early next year. Bill Thomas, manager of flight standards, says the company plans to hire pilots with a minimum of 3,000 hr. (including 500 hr. in jets). Some of the captains being hired even have airline experience and have either retired early from financially troubled carriers or have passed the age of 60 and still want to fly. DayJet is gearing up under the leadership of airline pros such as Don Osmundson, vice president of flight operations.
Radar will begin making its transformation by year-end from the large, heavy device inside aircraft to large, thin arrays that become part of the wings of long-endurance unmanned vehicles or the skin of a high-altitude airship. Within a few more years, radar will be available in shapes that fit one-dimensional curves like reconnaissance pods or the fuselages of large, manned reconnaissance platforms. These include the E-10 surveillance aircraft, E-3 AWACS and RC-135 Rivet Joint (signals intelligence) follow-on designs.
