LoadAir Cargo's order for two 747-400 Extended Range Freighters carries a special distinction: It is the last one Boeing will take for that model series as it transitions to assembly of the 747-8. Launched in October 1985 and first delivered in January 1989, the 747-400 was the second generation of the iconic hump-backed airplane. It has proven a potent seller in both passenger and freighter versions.
Boeing has signed preliminary documents for Liebherr-Aerospace Toulouse SAS to provide the environmental control system for the 747-8. It will use outside air supplied by the plane's General Electric GEnx engines to provide fresh cabin ventilation.
AirTran and Alaska reported tidy second-quarter profits, representing AirTran's best ever. JetBlue struggled to assimilate its new 100-seat aircraft, but managed slightly improved earnings anyway. And the new US Airways stunned the industry with what CEO Doug Parker called "truly remarkable results, given where US Airways was just a year ago."
Thai Airways International is offering four special flights to Bangkok's new Suvarnabhumi Airport on July 29 to help prepare for operations to begin on Sept. 28. The carrier will sell tickets for the flights from Don Muang Airport and Phuket's Chiang Mai Airport to Suvarnabhumi. The Don Muang flights will use a Boeing 747-400, with 10 seats in first class, 40 in business and 325 in economy. The Phuket flights will use an Airbus A340-600, with 46 seats in business and 201 in economy.
Officially, NASA managers say they won't decide until October whether to send one last space shuttle to service and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope before the fleet is retired in 2010. But barring something unforeseen on the next shuttle mission, or a serious problem lurking in the reams of flight-test data collected on the mission just finished, the decision is made, and it's a go. Look for an announcement in September, after Atlantis returns to Earth from the next mission.
Most of the talk about bunker busters is about the busters themselves: about conventional versus nuclear bombs, about their effects on civilians, the safety of their tests and their effectiveness against bunkers. Oddly, little of the talk is about the bunkers: where they are, how big they are, whether they're interconnected, how deeply they're buried. You'd need to know all these things about bunkers before busting them.
sharon weinberger, editor-in-chief of Defense Technology International, writes in this issue about the Pentagon's efforts to reflect tactical laser beams off mirrors. She is the author of the recently published book, Imaginary Weapons: A Journey Through the Pentagon's Scientific Underworld.
The U.S. Army has the most advanced infantry and aviator night-vision capabilities in the world, thanks to the state-of-the-art image-intensifier tubes that enable soldiers and helicopter pilots wearing helmet-mounted, flip-down goggles to "see" in darkness or poor weather conditions. Now, though, some military experts argue that with the global proliferation of improved European second-generation night-vision goggles, the U.S. Army no longer "owns the night" over potential adversaries.
John M. Doyle and David A. Fulghum (Washington), Douglas Barrie (London)
Continuity of production for Lockheed Martin's stealth fighter lines will continue to be a question mark, with the expectation of more congressional funding attacks. Meanwhile, hopes of an F-22 export sale may be dashed by platform modification costs and security issues.
China plans a September launch of a recoverable satellite carrying a selection of seeds to be exposed to space radiation to measure its effect on growth and productivity once planted back on Earth. The spacecraft's reentry vehicle will remain aloft for two weeks, with a payload of at least 2,000 seeds from nine categories, including grains, cash crops and forage plants, as well as fungi and molecular biomaterials. Originally planned for launch in 2002, the Shijian-8 mission was delayed by budget and other factors (AW&ST Nov. 12, 2001, p. 56).
Comair and its Teamsters-represented flight attendants are preparing to continue contract negotiations Aug. 23-24. Three days of talks last week in Washington were unproductive. Comair says its latest offer includes an average pay cut of 7.5%, or approximately $3,700 in annual pay and benefits. Both sides say they want a consensual agreement. Flight attendants have authorized the union to strike.
A U.S. Army UH-60L Black Hawk will be equipped with two new Lockheed Martin systems enabling it to better survive attacks from small arms and rocket-propelled grenades: a Hostile Fire Indicator, which senses muzzle flashes and computes their bearings, and a Visual Acquisition Disruptor--a dazzling eye-safe laser that inhibits accurate shooting. The flight evaluation and demonstration is slated for 2008. The contract is part of the Army's active/passive aircraft survivability program.
In the short term, Airbus doesn't plan to ask Europe's governments to help fund the A350XWB long-range twinjet. However, newly appointed CEO Christian Streiff indicates that such a request could come in the next few months, in the wake of the program's industrial relaunch expected in October.
While the 787 sales campaign attracts attention, Boeing has been quietly working to give the airplane the equivalent of power-by-the-hour life-cycle management contracts. Smiths Aerospace and Hamilton Sundstrand, two key suppliers for the new long-range mid-sized jet, and maintenance provider SR Technics said here that they will join Boeing's GoldCare lifecycle support program.
Boeing has won FAA certification for the short-field performance package developed at the behest of Brazil's GOL. Since then, 10 other carriers have purchased the kit for 737-600/700/800s. It's standard on the -900ER.
Efforts to conclude a Hawk 128 jet trainer production deal between BAE Systems and the British Defense Ministry are slipping at least into the beginning of the fourth quarter, caught up in the debate surrounding a broader training program.
Ballistic Recovery Systems is designing a two-stage deployment parachute system for aircraft in the class of very light jets. BRS officials say the company is beginning development work on a recovery system for the D-Jet.
U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency has approved the sale of 43 Honeywell 55-GA-714A engines for Chinook helicopters to Spain. The agency also has approved the sale of AAI Shadow UAVs to Poland. The sale would include eight air vehicles with electro-optical payloads and support equipment. Both sales are expected to be worth up to $73 million apiece.
Neelam Mathews (New Delhi), Robert Wall (Paris), Michael Mecham (San Francisco)
Boeing remains well ahead in orders coming out of the Farnborough air show, but Singapore Airlines' commitment to the Airbus A350XWB--along with its repeat A380 order--indicates the Europeans are regaining their competitive strength after months of internal strife.
In response to Frances Fiorino's commentary "TWA Flight 800: Let's Close the Book" (AW&ST July 10, p. 45), I would offer that "closure" is not possible without determining the precise source of the ignition. The current climate regarding fuel tank inerting and explosion prevention is more an exercise in chasing ghosts than fixing a problem. Without pinpointing a precise source, all efforts to mitigate fuel tank explosions, including the more than 100 ADs and Special Federal Aviation Regulation (SFAR) 88, amount to naught.
THE MARKET FOR AFFORDABLE FLAT-PANEL, glass cockpit retrofits for civil and military transports is booming, according to Roman G. Ptakowski, president of Innovative Solutions & Support Inc. of Exton, Pa. The company is working on cockpit retrofits for the Boeing 737, 747, 767 and KDC-10, as well as the Lockheed Martin C-130. In the business aviation market, the company has outfitted Pilatus PC-12s, Learjets and Cessna Citations. C-130 retrofits, for example, cost about $250,000 per aircraft and require only a few days' downtime, rather than several weeks.
Safran's Techspace Aero affiliate will take a 9.3% stake in the General Electric CF34-10A engine that equips China's ARJ21 regional twinjet. As for the CF34-10E powering the Embraer 190, in which Techspace is already a partner, the Belgian-based subsidiary will assume responsibility for design, development and production of the low-pressure compressor and forward sump.
MiG is trying to persuade the Russian air force and others of the combat utility of thrust-vector control, now being flown on a MiG-29 Fulcrum development aircraft. The Russian manufacturer is carrying out computer-modeling work and flight trails using its MiG-29OVT thrust-vector-control (TVC) aircraft. Along with examining the use of TVC in a within-visual-range environment, MiG is also looking at its applicability in beyond-visual-range engagements, says Vladimir Barkovsky, MiG's deputy general director and head of the company's design facilities.
