The results are in from Aviation Week & Space Technology's 10th annual Top-Performing Companies study. A series of articles and tables that begins on p. 46 reveals how publicly-traded aerospace/defense companies and airlines compare with their peers worldwide when it comes to operational performance. Results include a one-year snapshot and an assessment of which companies have improved the most during the past five years. The revamped methodology was backed by the largest database ever used in the study.
In Larry Williams's letter on parachute systems for UAVs (AW&ST May 15, p. 6), his point is valid, but the system is likely to run into fielding problems from beancounters on cost and force commanders from "payload lost" perspectives. Since the majority of the cost in the bird is sensors and engine, why not save those?
From the tone of your editorial "Forgeard Should Resign," things must be in terrible shape at Airbus. Or are they? I don't recall you pouncing on Phil Condit to resign during Boeing's manufacturing/delivery debacle or its corruption scandals. Those were far more serious than a delivery delay (or a stock sale) on a brand-new airplane, primarily caused by customer add-ons.
North Korea's attempt at brinkmanship has much of the world on edge. What a conundrum--how to defang the belligerent regime of Kim Jong Il. His defiance of the international community is exceeded only by its apparent determination to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile. What makes such a specter totally unthinkable, of course, is that this pariah of a nation likely already possesses a handful of nuclear weapons. Clearly, Kim has visions of a larger stockpile.
Strengthening economies are underpinning expectations for strong traffic growth during the next year, according to a quarterly airline survey conducted by the International Air Transport Assn. Even though airlines will pay an estimated $110 billion for fuel this year, about half of the chief financial officers polled said they expect profits to improve in the next year. Most foresee gains in yield.
Even with rising fuel prices and the threat of growing low-cost carriers throughout the region, seven of the 10 top-performing airlines in 2005 are from Asia-Pacific region countries, showing the strength of the airlines' management to adapt to crisis and thrive.
Swiss air traffic management organization Skyguide is deferring until 2008 unification of its upper airspace, largely to focus on other endeavors. Plans still call for the new Upper Area Control Center Switzerland to be established in Geneva. Until then, Geneva and Zurich will share operational control. For now, Skyguide officials plan to focus on modernizing technical systems at Zurich, and providing an instrument landing system for its Runway 28.
Robert Wall and Michael A. Taverna (Paris), Douglas Barrie (London)
BAE Systems' planned audit of Airbus activities will stymie EADS's ambitions to quickly integrate the troubled air transport affiliate more closely into its overall operations. Under a management reshuffle announced early last week, EADS Co-CEO Tom Enders will take the reins of Airbus from his French counterpart, Noel Forgeard, who was forced to resign.
Substantial design changes to the wing of Aviation Technology Group's two-seat Javelin "executive jet" are expected to reduce stall speeds to 90 kt. and cut wing-manufacturing costs. The Javelin wingspan is being increased by 1.85 ft., and the total area by 29 sq. ft. Adding Fowler and leading-edge flaps--which automatically deflect together when the pilot selects a takeoff or landing flap setting--will reduce stall speeds by 5-7 kt. (inset). Lower stall speeds translate into slower approach and landing speeds, as well, ATG officials note.
Raytheon's Network-Centric Systems has acquired Virtual Technology Corp. (VTC), a privately held developer of joint, net-enabled, command and control and modeling and simulation solutions. Terms were not disclosed. VTC has 125 employees.
Arrival of the space shuttle Discovery at the International Space Station marks the beginning of an open-ended space-based research program aimed at sending humans beyond the station's orbit to the Moon, Mars and ultimately across the Solar System.
To boost overseas travel, Japan Airlines and JTB Group, a national travel agency, are planning travel packages using more than 100 charter flights a year. The goal is to prompt 20 million more Japanese to fly abroad in fiscal 2007 and 10 million additional passengers to visit Japan by 2010.
Congress should increase the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) budget for unmanned aircraft and create a testbed in Alaska for integrating them into the national air space, argues the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). In a white paper prepared for a Senate hearing this week on unmanned aircraft operations in Alaska and Hawaii, AIAA urges Congress to appropriate $90 million per year for NOAA to buy unmanned aerial system (UAS) services starting in Fiscal 2007.
Richard Kunert has been appointed vice president-safety, standards and regulatory affairs for Jet Aviation, Teterboro, N.J. He was director of quality assurance, safety and security for the New World Jet Corp., Ronkonkoma, N.Y.
Sukhoi has rolled out the first production standard Su-34 strike aircraft for the Russian air force at its Novosibirsk production site. The aircraft is to replace the Sukhoi Su-24 Fencer. The air force plans to have 24 of the type in service by 2010.
North Korea is test-firing a long-range missile, conflicts drag on in Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, and radical Islamists have gained control of Somalia. It's little wonder most U.S. defense stocks have outperformed the S&P 500 index during the past year, sometimes by wide margins.
The European Parliament has passed a non-binding measure to impose fuel taxes on aviation, and include the air transport sector in emissions trading. But rather than fold aviation immediately into the wider European Union emissions trading scheme (ETS), which is currently undergoing changes, parliamentarians suggest a separate system to be run from 2008-12 for fear the inclusions of airlines would distort the regular ETS by buying large amounts of credits without reducing the output of pollutants.
AirTran Holdings Inc. plans to add 2,500 new jobs in Georgia over the next five years by creating 500 positions a year. The company already employs 5,200 crewmembers in the state out of 7,700 nationwide. The parent company of AirTran Airways says the airline operates about 230 flights a day out of the state and will add 80 new Boeing 737s in the next five years. This means the company will need to hire pilots, flight attendants, mechanics, ramp agents and customer service representatives to handle the increased traffic at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
The space shuttle is flying for the first time with a series of upgrades beyond those made to the external propellant tank. The changes include: *Improved tile gap-fillers. During the STS-114 mission last summer two protruding gap-fillers between orbiter belly tiles forced modification of an extravehicular activity (EVA) to remove the protruding fabric that could have caused unacceptable reentry heating.
A prototype of Japan's HTV unmanned orbital carrier for the International Space Station has been displayed at JAXA's Tsukuba Space Center. The module of the H-II Transfer Vehicle will be used for temperature, vibration and acoustic testing. The real vehicle is to weigh 10.5 metric tons, excluding cargo, and carry up to six tons of supplies to an altitude of 250 mi. It is to return to destruction in the atmosphere with spent equipment, used clothing and other waste material.
Iran is digging in its ballistic missiles, says a senior Israeli defense official. As part of an aggressive military stance, "they are saying they are defending themselves by putting their ballistic missiles in protected sites," he says. "They don't have any problems with budgets. They can allow themselves to build [as many as] 100." In addition to this operational effort, the Iranian government is drawing on the political lessons of Iraq's confrontation with the West.
NASA is dropping the acronyms and naming its planned replacements for the space shuttle fleet, starting with the Crew Launch Vehicle and Cargo Launch Vehicle. Henceforth they will be known as Ares I and Ares V, respectively, after the Greek god of war whom the Romans renamed Mars. The planet Mars is the ultimate target of the new vehicles, which will work their way out via the International Space Station and the Moon.
The U.S. Navy is planning upgrades to the E-2C and E-2D Hawkeye, with the most prominent being the addition of in-flight refueling capability. Initial work will focus on demonstrating the capability and determining design risks and impact of adding the probe, including on handling qualities and pilot field of view. In parallel, the service is pushing forward with efforts to allow E-2s to identify non-cooperative targets. A demonstration is planned of an antenna array and receiver, as well as processor equipment.
