Market Focus 12 Speculation on L-3 breakup credited with company's stock increase News Breaks 18 Litening pod used in attack on Al Qaeda brass 20 BAA board backs takeover bid by Ferrovial 20 Continental orders increase its 737 and 787 fleets 21 Boeing gets first customer in Europe for 737-900ER 22 Npoess, Global Hawk get nods despite soaring costs 22 Obituaries for Stanford's Ashley, Northrop Grumman's Marchisotto World News & Analysis
There has been a lot of speculation about the success of very light jets (AW&ST Apr. 24, p. 72), with several manufacturers vying for the anticipated market. Forecasts have differed greatly, from sales of 5,000 by the FAA to a few hundred by skeptics. Rationally, the concept of a low-cost but fast and comfortable private minijet appears solid. Indeed, that was the idea for the first Learjet.
Eight nations are lining up to bid for a multibillion-dollar Saudi border surveillance system aimed at equipping the desert nation's 5,000-km. (3,107-mi.) border with an array of advanced sensor systems to protect against intrusions from neighboring states, in particular Yemen and Iraq.
Prospects of a bidding war for British-based airport operator BAA have receded as Spanish engineering management company Ferrovial late last week increas- ed its stake in BAA, and the BAA board recommended accepting a revised offer. U.S.-based investment banking firm Goldman Sachs tabled a rival bid to the original Ferrovial offer, and late last week analysts in London were watching to see whether Goldman Sachs would launch a counterbid. The revised Ferrovial offer values BAA at 10.1 billion pounds ($18.61 billion), or 950.25 pence a share.
South Korea has given the final approval for the KHP military transport helicopter development program in which Eurocopter and Korea Aerospace Industries are partnered. South Korea plans to buy 245 helos of the type.
I was taken aback by Jon B. Kutler's Viewpoint. This big-time player in the defense/aerospace sector believes " . . . the bad publicity from overruns . . . has the potential to create more damage than the overruns themselves." He says a big advantage to secret government/industry facilities is they can make weapon system development costs "less visibly associated with specific programs."
The U.S. Air Force's anxiously awaited Next-Generation Long-Range Strike (LRS) Phase 2 study should be completed this fall, giving service leaders a portfolio of options for platforms that could be operational in 2018.
Italian space agency ASI plans to participate in a pair of projects aimed at reinforcing space cooperation with Argentina. The first, to be undertaken with Argentine space agency Conae and the University of Cordoba, will seek to make Earth observation data and services available to other Latin American countries.
Swiss officials said they foiled a planned terrorist attack against an El Al Israel Airlines aircraft late last week. Seven individuals were under arrest as part of the investigation.
Pogo Jets has put on hold for several years its ambitious plans to launch point-to-point "air limo" service with very light business jets because it hasn't yet found the aircraft that is a good match for its business model. Former American Airlines Chairman and Pogo CEO Robert Crandall said he doesn't expect to launch service until 2009 at the earliest. The time line assumes that "a plane gets built" that fits within his plan, Crandall said, hinting that the launch could slide even later.
Holt Ashley, professor emeritus at Stanford University known for his research and books in the field of aeroelasticity, died of natural causes at home in Woodside, Calif., on May 9. He was 83. Ashley earned his graduate degrees in aeronautical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He taught at MIT, then joined Stanford's Aeronautics and Astronautics Dept. in 1967. He became emeritus in 1989.
President Bush intends to nominate Robert L. Sumwalt, 3rd, as a member of the National Transportation Safety Board. The five-member board has two vacancies. Upon confirmation, Sumwalt would serve the remainder of an outgoing member's five-year term ending Dec. 31, and an additional five-year term expiring Dec. 31, 2011. Before joining the Columbia, S.C.-based Scana Corp., where he is manager of aviation, Sumwalt had a 24-year career as a US Airways pilot and was group chairman for human factors and training with the Air Line Pilots Assn.
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin is reaffirming U.S. willingness to cooperate with Russia on robotic lunar and planetary missions in the wake of concerns raised by top Russian managers that flight coordination is being thwarted by Bush administration policy and NASA's manned lunar emphasis. While cooperation with the U.S. has been excellent on the International Space Station, future cooperation is now "an open question, with no single answer," says Nikolay F. Moiseev, deputy director of the Russian space agency.
The $32.08-billion Homeland Security Dept. spending bill passed by the House includes $6.3 billion for the Transportation Security Administration but rejects a White House-proposed $1.3-billion airline passenger security fee increase. The spending amount itself is more than $1 billion higher than President Bush's budget request for Fiscal 2007. Bush wants to replace the current two-tiered security fee schedule with a single, flat fee of $5 for a one-way trip, doubling the fee for passengers flying nonstop. Congress rejected a similar increase last year.
U.S. Air Force F-22 pilots will continue honing their cruise missile defense tactics during the stealthy fighter's first deployment outside the continental U.S., according to Alaskan Command officials. Although the Lockheed Martin F-22 has yet to demonstrate its unique abilities to detect and chase down cruise missiles during an end-to-end test, senior Air Force officials say they are laying the groundwork for maturing this mission.
Bell Helicopter Textron has selected Aurora Flight Sciences to build its Eagle Eye unmanned aerial vehicle airframe. The first TR916 will fly in 2008. The team will deliver 45 UAVs and 33 ground control stations to Lockheed Martin, which is partnered with Northrop Grumman to manage the U.S. Coast Guard's acquisition of ships and aircraft. An Aurora official says this contract is the second large manufacturing deal for the Manassas, Va.-based contractor after building Global Hawk UAV wings, fuselages and tails.
A Viewpoint on this page on defense procurement displays a misunderstanding about how the Defense Dept. is addressing the problem of contract overruns (AW&ST May 29, p. 66). The piece asserts that a "back-to-basics" approach is destined to leave the U.S. with second-best technology. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Marc Cavaliere has become executive vice president-North America, based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for South African Airways. He was vice president-sales and distribution for Spirit Airlines. Cavaliere succeeds Phillip Bekker, who will join the CEO's office in Johannesburg.
Baltia Air Lines is attempting to raise $1.5-2 million to complete its FAA certification and acquire by lease a Boeing 747, with which it hopes to start New York JFK-St. Petersburg, Russia, service by late fall. CEO Igor Dmitrowsky is planning a weekly round trip carrying passengers in three classes and cargo. In 10Q and 10K filings with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission for the first quarter, Dmitrowsky says the company intends to spend $450,000 for certification expenses, $300,000 for aircraft and $300,000 for general and administrative expenses.
The U.S. Air Force is finalizing its intratheater cargo lift requirements through a study that could usher the service back into the business of delivering small amounts of military goods to the most forward operating locations--a task that has recently fallen to the Army.
Asian traffic is driving much of the current wave of airline alliance growth, but in the area of the industry's biggest concern, oil prices, carriers are looking to other arrangements than these umbrella partnerships for potential help.
Space Systems/Loral will build the next Sirius satellite radio spacecraft under a $260-million deal that includes a Proton launch and $100 million in financing from Loral. Set for completion by the end of 2008, the new geostationary satellite will complement the three Sirius spacecraft already serving the U.S. market from highly elliptical orbits. New York-based Sirius says the "hybrid" arrangement will enhance redundancy and signal coverage.
Carefully crafted attempts to overturn or delay the administration's loosening of airline foreign-ownership restrictions and its unilateral imposition of an air traffic controllers contract sustained important, possibly crippling defeats in Congress last week. A provision in the Senate supplemental appropriations bill, which would have delayed the Transportation Dept.'s ownership rulemaking four months to enable Congress to weigh in, was stripped from the legislation during the Senate-House conference, so the department will be able to complete work on the rule.
John Provenzano has become director of government affairs for the Washington-based General Aviation Manufacturers Assn. He headed advocacy on civil aviation issues for the Aerospace Industries Assn.
Concerns are growing among international airlines that a weaker global economy could dramatically impact current strong industry revenue performance and that there is large sector-wide overcapacity on the horizon.
