A pair of new satcom operators north and south of the U.S. border are poised to reinforce a close operational partnership involving direct broadcasting system provider EchoStar and wholesaler SES Americom. But with EchoStar also accelerating its own satellite procurement plans, some are wondering about the future of the arrangement.
Bob Kane has been named director of Canadian sales for Teterboro, N.J.-based Dassault Falcon. He was head of concept sales in the Western U.S. Kane succeeds Cass Anderson, who is now Western U.S. sales manager.
Air Transport Assn. traffic and yield data for U.S. airlines in January and February, plus gains in March from Southwest Airlines' widely followed fare increase, lend promise to first-quarter airlines' financial results, expected this month. The ATA reports that mainline passenger traffic was up 1.1% in the first two months of 2006, a modest amount, but capacity was down 2.2% and load factors increased 2.5 percentage points to 75.1%.
Bombardier is profitable again. The Canadian aircraft and mass transit company posted net income of $249 million for the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, compared with a net loss of $85 million the previous year. Business aircraft deliveries surged 45% to 186, helping offset a 25% slide in regional aircraft deliveries, to 149. Total revenues in the company's aerospace business increased 1%, to $8.1 billion, while order backlog rose 5% to $10.7 billion.
After 18 very exciting and rewarding years as publisher of Aviation Week & Space Technology and leading the Aviation Week Group, now McGraw-Hill Aerospace & Defense to reflect its transformation and expansion, I will retire from The McGraw-Hill Companies at the end of 2006.
A possible mega-merger between French telecom giant Alcatel and Lucent Technologies Inc. is driving new interest in defense electronics company Thales, long a target of bigger European defense players. An Alcatel board meeting, convened late last week to discuss the Lucent proposal, also dealt with separate negotiations that would center on Alcatel transferring its space and secure communications businesses to Thales in return for additional equity. The move would increase Alcatel's stake in Thales to 25% from 9.5%.
No clear directive actions are emerging from the investigation into the crash of a Flash Airlines Boeing 737-300, largely due to disagreements among the Egyptian, French and U.S. authorities. There are only a few areas of consensus between the Egyptian investigators--who emphasize technical faults with the aircraft--and their French and U.S. counterparts--who suspect that the flight crew was instrumental in the Jan. 3, 2004, crash that killed 148 people, primarily French tourists.
Boeing and Alliant Techsystems have teamed to compete for the new Israeli Short-Range Ballistic Missile Defense program that Boeing is pursuing with partner Israel Aircraft Industries. ATK is to build the system's rocket motor components, which it already does for the first and second stages of Israel's Arrow II interceptor program.
Space Exploration Technologies had a rough start with the loss of its first Falcon 1 rocket on Mar. 24, but its future customers are hanging in with the low-cost launch company, says SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk. SpaceX engineers believe they know the reason for the accident, and Musk hopes to make the second flight by September or October.
I had to laugh when I read Mr. Boyd's comments (AW&ST Feb. 27, p. 12) where he opines that passengers will select planes equipped with entertainment systems over bare bones aircraft. I do not fit his passenger model. I recently flew from South America on a U.S.-built aircraft. I was in one of the three seats out of each row of seven that contained a large box--full of the same entertainment system that also took away half the length of each armrest's padding.
Lockheed Martin is not a bidder in the Gulf Cooperation Council's Hud-hud intelligence satellite system program. The company was described on this page in the Mar. 27 issue as the leader of an industry team competing for the contract.
Alaska's Cope Thunder exercises, which have provided a forum for international participation with U.S. forces, is being renamed and upgraded to provide training on the same level as the Red Flag event held at Nellis AFB, Nev. The idea is to produce a common set of exercises for standardized training capabilities at both sites. However, the first Red Flag Alaska will be conducted without international participation and without the newly operational F-22, scheduled to take part in a separate exercise in Alaska this summer.
Citing "confusion over safety," NASA engineers believe questions about fire and toxic hazards on the French propulsion system for a new U.S./French satellite will help define future U.S. requirements for participation in unmanned international space missions. The issues pit U.S. post-Columbia safety rigor against French technology transfer on the Calipso environmental mission set for launch Apr. 20 from Vandenberg AFB, Calif.
NASA's plans to reopen its Fiscal 2007 science budget next month to address scientists' complaints don't mean the budget will actually be changed. Indeed, Administrator Michael Griffin is holding fast to his position that for now it's more important to spend money on flying humans to space. And if the science community can't agree on changing the way science funds are allocated, he says, the allocations won't change.
With debt down, orders up and additional cash infusion from the sale of its railway business about to flow in, Finmeccanica is anticipating stronger growth over the next 24 months, after having beat forecasts for last year. The Italian defense contractor anticipates sales will expand 18-22% by the end of 2007 and earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT), 30-36%--largely on the strength of surging orders--confirming earlier predictions and adding to red-hot growth last year (AW&ST Apr. 11, 2005, p. 28).
Spain's Ferrovial has enlisted Australian investment bank Macquarie as an adviser on its bid to acquire British airports operator BAA. The Australian bank had been touted as a possible rival bidder for BAA.
British defense scientists could have to wait up to three months to find out if they have achieved a key element of developing scramjet propulsion--stable and sustained combustion. A prototype scramjet engine designed by defense technology company Qinetiq was launched successfully on Mar. 25. Good telemetry was received during the Hyshot III test launch (see photo), and this will now be studied in detail to determine whether stable combustion was achieved during the critical 5-6-sec. phase of the flight when scramjet ignition was to occur.
I have 23 years of experience as a Defense Dept. contracting officer and while I agree that the provisions of the Berry Amendment on specialty metals are restrictive in today's "global market place" I do support the Defense Dept. contention that we have been applying this provision for years (AW&ST Mar. 13, p. 24).
A series of fires on board Bombardier CRJ200s prompted the NTSB on Mar. 30 to issue urgent recommendations aimed at preventing their recurrence. Six of the seven fires occurred in the last six months, and all involved Ultem 2200 (polyetherimide) surface material of the 1K4XD contactors, which are switching devices for three-phase AC electrical power. None of the incidents involved loss of life. However, "the potential exists for an uncontained fire to compromise the oxygen line, which could develop into an even more critical situation," according to the safety board.
Geoffrey Grove, President (Pilgrim Screw Corp., Providence, R.I.)
I have to take issue with your editorial that lambastes the lowly screw (AW&ST Mar. 13, p. 70). First, I have to set straight some issues that you got wrong. You are talking about the Berry Amendment, known in the industry as DFARS (Defense Federal Acquisition Requirements Supplement) 252.225-7014.
I'm one of those aging pilots that Matt Zuccaro mentioned in the article "Helo Ops Gaining Lift" (AW&ST Feb. 27, p. 53). The pool of military pilots is certainly drying up, and those coming up are the future. The trick is to get the youngsters interested in the industry. The honor and glory are not so much at issue now. The thing that gets attention is the pay scale.
The FAA finalized a tentative decision to extend through Oct. 28 its limit on flight operations at Chicago O'Hare Airport (AW&ST Mar. 27, p. 17) with a single change: It will drop the restrictions sooner if its longer-term solution to O'Hare congestion takes effect earlier. The agency rejected proposals from the City of Chicago, which operates O'Hare, that the restrictions be dropped entirely or loosened if retained.
The one-stop shop for running all U.S. military satellites, the Joint Space Operations Center (JSPOC) in California, is being linked more effectively to its higher headquarters, U.S. Strategic Command (Stratcom), formed after 9/11 in Nebraska to combat weapons of mass destruction. Connections of the year-old JSPOC to commanders of U.S. military theaters worldwide are also being strengthened.
Finnair is the launch customer for the Rolls-Royce Trent 1700 turbofan. The airline made the commitment as part of its order of nine Airbus A350-900s, firming up a previous decision. First aircraft delivery is slated for 2012. The carrier also has options for four more aircraft.
