Xinhua Airlines Holdings Co., the entity that is to succeed Hainan Airlines, has received an operational license from China's civil aviation administration, clearing the way for it to begin operations. The company is the fourth largest airline in China and potentially a major challenger for the government-fostered Big Three.
The European Commission has blocked Ryanair's hostile takeover bid for Aer Lingus, citing the dominant position it would have given the combined entity on 35 routes. Ryanair's offer to relinquish some slots was deemed insufficient.
GKN Aerospace completed the acquisition of the Teleflex Aerospace Manufacturing Group last week for an undisclosed amount. TAMG manufactures engine components at seven sites in the U.S., Mexico, U.K. and France. The purchase gives GKN greater access to supplying hot-section engine components, and increases the company's footprint in the commercial jet engine sector.
The Lufthansa Technik-MTU Aero Engines Airfoil Services joint venture is expanding its Malaysia operations. A new production facility has been opened at Kota Damansara near Kuala Lumpur. More than 250 new jobs have been created so far through the expansion, and the product portfolio is to be extended further.
The second test article in the U.S. Navy's VH-71 presidential helicopter development program is set to fly in days. This aircraft is more representative of the final VH-71 configuration than the first test article, which has already executed landing tests on the White House lawn.
Italy's Elettronica and Israel's Elbit Systems have teamed up to develop another contender in the directed infrared countermeasures (Dircm) market. At the core of the program is Elbit's Music laser-based Dircm system. Plans call for targeting both helicopter and large airplane applications. The two companies have begun marketing the system and could deliver the first device by the end of next year. The Italian/Israeli design, however, will face stiff competition from Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems.
Boeing has raised list prices on its commercial aircraft an average 5.6% to keep pace with inflation. Last year, it raised prices an average 4% for the same reason. The current pricing list no longer designates prices for the 777-200/-300, although both models are still available. Here's a sample of listed prices for its most popular models in each family: 737-700 at $57-67.5 million; 737-800 at $70.5-79 million; 747-8 passenger at $285.5-300 million; 747-8 freighter at $294-297 million; 777-300ER at $250-279 million, and 787-8 at $157-167 million.
Rocketplane Kistler (RpK), one of two companies drawing NASA seed money to build a commercial route to the International Space Station, says it is "on track" to get needed private funding by the end of July after its parent company had to dismiss the respected program manager on a parallel suborbital space-tourism project.
Japan and China have agreed on four daily round-trip flights between Tokyo's Haneda Airport and Shanghai's Hongqiao Airport, beginning as early as Oct. 8. The decision supports plans for a Star Alliance triangular service linking those downtown airports with Seoul's Gimpo facility, which is also in a convenient location for business travelers.
APPRECIATION, ROBIN OLDS: If "fighter jock" were in the dictionary, there would be a picture of Robin Olds. He was a quintessential pilot, who incidentally was a hall-of-fame college football tackle who married a movie star. What's more, he looked and played the part. From his dress-code-violating mustache to his just-get-the-job-done work ethic, Olds was a maverick. And he knew just how far he could press the edges of the envelope, in the air and in the Pentagon.
Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a sensor that measures the motion generated by sound waves under water. A series of the device could be configured in compact arrays and deployed by the U.S. Navy to detect enemy submarines. According to Francois Guillot, a research engineer at the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering in Atlanta, the sensor is capable of detecting small sounds despite the surrounding noise of the ocean, and it provides clear directional information.
European Space Agency executives appear to have accepted the idea of launching the Automated Transfer Vehicle freighter after the Columbus orbital laboratory, even though policy since the two programs were conceived has been predicated on exactly the opposite. As recently as a week ago, ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain held out hope the ATV could be orbited in mid-November, a month before Columbus (AW&ST June 25, p. 45). The agency wants the ATV launch first because it is needed to pay NASA utility costs related to use of Columbus.
Denmark has issued a further request for information (RFI) unexpectedly to Eurofighter, Gripen International (Saab) and Lockheed Martin, which are competing to meet the country's requirement for 48 new fighter aircraft. The 37-page RFI includes 65 questions, mainly about financial issues and the prospects for industrial benefits, industry sources in the competing firms say. The fighter manufacturers have been given three months to respond.
When the Democrats took control of Congress last year, some observers predicted they would focus on the needs of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan--and strip funding from big-ticket weapons systems to pay the bill. It turns out they were only half right. As promised, both the House and Senate Armed Services committees have concentrated on the readiness needs arising from the toll the two conflicts have taken on manpower and equipment. But few defense programs are suffering due to the shift in emphasis.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) wants his Democratic replacement as chairman of the House Science space subcommittee to convene a hearing on NASA's Spaceguard program, which catalogs potentially dangerous Near-Earth Objects (NEOs). NASA estimates there are some 20,000 objects with impact energy of 100 megatons of TNT or more that could be considered "potentially dangerous," Rohrabacher tells Rep. Mark Udall (D-Colo.).
The Mars rover Opportunity will begin its descent into Victoria crater about July 9. The descent will be at Duck Bay, which is near where the rover first arrived at the half-mile-wide, 200-ft.-deep crater last fall. Opportunity has spent months going about one-third of the way around the edge of Victoria scouting its steep walls for key science discoveries and also looking for the best way in and out. The plan is for a descent to about 100 ft.
Aeroflot has dropped out of the bidding for Alitalia, saying it was given inadequate information about the state of the Italian carrier, and restrictions on restructuring options were too great. The Italian financial community believes Aeroflot may also have found it difficult to raise the required amount of money. AirOne, the final bidder, is to make its offer by July 12.
Is aviation a scapegoat, or a major cause of global warming? Aviation and the Environment--A Pilots' Perspective, a special report released in June by the British Air Line Pilots Assn. (Balpa), supported by the International Federation of Air Line Pilots Assns., seeks to dispel misconceptions about air travel's role. One of the most serious: Air transport is among the biggest polluters in transportation. The report notes that air travel accounts for only 2-3% of the world's CO 2 emissions--that will increase to 6% by 2050.
Singapore Airlines affiliate Tiger Airways is digging its claws deeper into the Australian market, announcing daily flights from its current beachhead, the Darwin, to Melbourne on Dec. 1.
The U.S. Air Force's Arnold Engineering and Development Center (AEDC) is conducting tests of a hypersonic boundary layer transition (HyBOLT) rocket model in a wind tunnel at the von Karman Gas Dynamics Facility. Two tests, 4 hr. each at Mach 6 and Mach 8, are intended to assess the stability of the HyBOLT/ALV X-1 rocket during the ascent phase of launch. The vehicle is scheduled for launch from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia late this year.
Air France-KLM and China Southern Airlines say they have begun exclusive talks on creating their long-expected Chinese cargo joint venture. The two companies are already close partners, with China Southern signing a preliminary agreement on June 28 toward joining the Star Alliance. Air France-KLM is independently strengthening its presence in China. The company introduced two extra weekly services between Shanghai and Paris on July 1, taking the route to 12 flights a week.
Qantas is setting up a flight training business with the aim of turning out 3,000 pilots in the next 10 years. The Australian airline, which already trains pilots for itself, sees a market in the rapid expansion of Asia-Pacific aviation. The school, to begin operating at the end of next year, will be based in Qantas training facilities in Melbourne and Sydney. Also, Qantas has sold the 4.2% stake it held in Air New Zealand as part of a now-abandoned plan to establish a strategic alliance with ANZ.
For the first time, the Missile Defense Agency has proven that an Aegis destroyer equipped with BMD (a ballistic missile defense system) has the ability to intercept a target ballistic missile in midcourse phase. This capability was demonstrated during a test on June 22. The target was launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii. The Aegis destroyer USS Decatur detected the missile and responded by launching a Standard Missile 3 Block 1A interceptor that destroyed the target after it separated from its booster.
The British Defense Ministry has spent £810 million pounds ($1.62 billion) in the past 12 months on urgent operational requirements to support combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to Adam Ingram, the armed forces minister.
