The $453.4-billion Fiscal 2007 defense spending bill passed by U.S. Senate appropriators fully funds the acquisition of 20 F-22As, two C-17s and nine C-130Js. But the measure, which now goes to the full Senate, also delays production of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter by a year to permit additional testing and design maturity. The panel cut $1.2 billion in JSF procurement money.
The new owner of the U.S.'s future Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast network would be the prime contractor, not the government, under a scheme the FAA is discussing with industry. The prime contractor and its team might have to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to install the necessary ground-based equipment. This system would receive reports from aircraft on their GPS-derived position, send the latest weather maps to the cockpit, and even one day allow aircraft to see other aircraft nearby.
AgustaWestland is starting work on a new utility helicopter to fill the gap between its A139 light/medium twin and the NH90 and EH101 medium-heavy-lift models. The 7-8-ton AW149, which was launched at the Farnborough air show last week, will be powered by two 2,000-shp.-class turboshaft engines and sized to carry two pilots and 12-15 soldiers in a helilift role, or a 3-ton cargo payload. A full mock-up is to be displayed at the Paris air show next June. The first flight is planned in 2009 and certification in 2011.
Montreal-based Transat A.T. Inc. is strengthening its transatlantic market distribution system by acquiring The Airline Seat Co., a London-based tour operator, for 20.4 million pounds ($37.5 million) in cash. The acquisition builds on Transat's ownership of Vacances Transat France and Look Voyages in France and Tourgreece in Greece. Subsidiary Air Transat offers flights from Canada to 30 European destinations.
Richard N. Martin has been named regional director for Battelle at Tinker AFB, Okla. He is retired deputy commander of the 327th Bomber/Missile Sustainment Group at Tinker.
Israeli troops fighting in southern Lebanon ran head-on into the results of an intelligence failure as Hezbollah forces revealed an arsenal of advanced rockets and missiles, including the powerful C-802 anti-ship weapon, which analysts here say came from Iranian stocks.
Boeing identified Aviation Capital Group as the buyer of 14 737-800s carried on its web site as an unidentified customer. Flyington Freighters, a startup in Hyderabad, India, bought four 777 freighters for delivery in 2009. Kuwaiti startup LoadAir Cargo ordered two 747-400ER freighters valued at $494 million at list prices. Both are to be delivered in early 2009.
The U.S. Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) is completing a series of aerodynamic load tests on a 12%-scale model of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
Embraer's business jet backlog has risen fivefold in the past year and now stands at $1.25 billion, a major leap forward in the regional jet builder's push to become a major player in the corporate aircraft market. The Brazilian company also announced it has won a total of 235 orders for its Phenom 100 very-light jet (VLJ) and Phenom 300 light jet, which were launched in May 2005. Chairman/CEO Mauricio Botelho declined to break out orders between the two aircraft but said they came from more than 20 customers.
Four editors of Aviation Week & Space Technology and two writers for a sister publication have won 2006 International Aerospace Journalist of the Year Awards from the U.K.'s Royal Aeronautical Society. Michael A. Dornheim, the magazine's late senior engineering editor, won the Northrop Grumman Award for the best breaking news story for "Skunks Working," which reported--and expanded upon--the first flight of a Lockheed Martin airship (AW&ST Feb. 6, p. 24).
Japan is expected to issue a request for proposals for 60 fighters next year. Among the contenders are the Lockheed Martin F-35, Boeing F/A-18 and Eurofighter Typhoon. Lockheed Martin would like to sell the F-22 to Japan, but a law blocks international sale of the stealthy aircraft.
THE U.S. TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION is adding three airports to its list of approved gateway facilities for flights into Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee has been certified and is available to operators that qualify under the DCA Access Standard Security Program. Dallas Love Field and Memphis (Tenn.) International are completing the approval process. The addition brings to 15 the number of airports available to business aircraft operators flying into Reagan National.
AIR Inc. reports that in the second quarter, 2,070 pilots had secured new flying jobs, bringing the total to 4,306 new pilot positions created in the first half of the year. Regional carriers led the hiring with 908 pilots in the second quarter, according to the Atlanta-based pilot hiring consultancy. For July, 14.3%--or 7,747 pilots of 54,121 active--remained on furlough.
UNITED STATES Editor-In-Chief: Anthony L. Velocci, Jr. [email protected] Managing Editor: James R. Asker [email protected] Assistant Managing Editor: Michael Stearns [email protected] Senior Editors: Craig Covault [email protected], David Hughes [email protected] Editor-at-Large: William Readdy NEW YORK 2 Penn Plaza, 25th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10121 Phone: +1 (212) 904-2000, Fax: +1 (212) 904-6068 Senior News Editor: Nora Titterington
10-11 Correspondence 12 Who's Where 15 Industry Outlook 16 Airline Outlook 17 In Orbit 18-22 News Breaks 23 Washington Outlook 78-79 Classified 80 Contact Us 81 Aerospace Calendar
Rockwell Collins is being coy about whether it plans to challenge CAE Inc.'s domination of the commercial aircraft simulator market. Such speculation has been boosted by Rockwell Collins's recent $70-million deal to acquire Evans & Sutherland, a visual systems provider that's developing laser projection technology. Kent L. Slater, general manager of Rockwell Collins's services business, says laser technology would allow a full-flight simulator to use one projector instead of the up to five required by traditional projectors.
Antonov Aeronautical Scientific/ Technical Complex of Ukraine is developing a freighter version of the An-148 in an attempt to drum new life into the regional jet program.
Lockheed Martin has completed the fifth of eight planned GPS IIR-M replacement spacecraft, with the second in the series set for a Sept. 14 launch. Built at the company's Valley Forge, Pa., factory, with some payload work at ITT Industries in Clifton, N.J., the GPS IIR series affords the U.S. Air Force and other military users two new signals and better encryption and anti-jamming capabilities. It also carries a second signal for civilian users of its navigation and timing capabilities. The new spacecraft will go into ground storage until called up for launch by USAF.
Airbus hopes to ramp up the pace of assembly on the A380 again gradually in a couple of weeks, after slowing it to deal with problems, which put the program behind schedule. Tom Williams, Airbus executive vice president for programs, notes that flow issues should have been addressed by mid-August, allowing A380s to be assembled in sequence. Problems and delays with wiring harnesses caused them to have to be installed after final assembly in a laborious, time-consuming fashion. However, he concedes more changes could still come in later months.
Although the biggest role it plays in Chinese aviation is as the country's helicopter maker, China Aviation Industries Corp. II counts its expansion into regional jets with license manufacturing of the Embraer ERJ 145 as an important element in its commercial future. The ERJ 145 has been worth $800-900 million for AVIC II, according to Executive Vice President Liang Zhenhe.
The European Aviation Safety Agency has granted type certification to the Embraer 195 jet, clearing the way for the Brazilian aircraft orders to begin deliveries to a U.K. customer, Flybe, in August. The new aircraft, the largest in Embraer's 170/190 family, had won Brazilian certification two weeks earlier. Other customers with firm orders for the 195 include GE Commercial Finance Aviation Services, Royal Jordanian and Swiss.
Legislation that would eventually do away with restrictions on commercial flights out of Dallas Love Field is moving closer to passage. But the effort to overturn the 1979 Wright Amendment is racing the clock as Congress plans to leave town for its summer recess at the end of the month. Committees in the Senate and House have passed slightly different versions of a measure to lift restrictions on long-haul flights out of Love Field in eight years.
NASA is leaning strongly toward early tests of its planned Crew Exploration Vehicle on converted Peacekeeper ICBMs, using recycled motors from the late-Cold War missiles to wring out the new vehicle's launch abort system and add some data points to the computer models that will drive its design.
Chairman Gerard Arpey is leading AMR Corp., parent of American Airlines, on a road less traveled, at least by U.S. network carriers, and second-quarter net earnings of $291 million have made all the difference (see p. 38).
