In a close vote, the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization selected Taieb Cherif of Algeria for a second term as ICAO secretary general over William R. Voss, director of the Air Navigation Bureau and the U.S. nominee. Cherif received 19 of the 36 council votes. Voss, a former air traffic controller, garnered 17. Officials say Voss's performance, after a short, five-week-long campaign, indicates that ICAO reform, backed by the U.S. and the U.K., has strong support in the council.
In an orchestrated change of command, Japan Airlines Chief Executive Toshiyuki Shinmachi has stepped down in favor of a hand-picked successor, the airline's 58-year-old chief financial officer, after a drumbeat of dissent by board members and senior airline officials.
The U.S. Export-Import Bank is proceeding with the planned sale Mar. 13 of a Boeing 737-400 it recovered from Air Nauru for nonpayment of a loan. Air Nauru is the airline of the Southwest Pacific island Republic of Nauru. It was Exim Bank's second aircraft repossession in 15 years. An official says the bank has received 80 expressions of interest in the "as is" condition, cash-only sale of the 737. IBA Group Ltd., which inspected the aircraft in early February, found it to be in good shape, though a C check is due.
Every time I read about something like the Cessna 560 Citation that went off the end of the runway at an airport in California (AW&ST Jan. 30, p. 18; Aug. 8, 2005, p. 42), or the Airbus A340-300 at Toronto with the same fate albeit less tragic, I ask myself: Why don't aviation authorities require video cameras on both ends of runways? Security cameras are not expensive and are virtually everywhere. Two cameras on each end of the runway--one on each side, pointing toward the opposite end--could record approaches and touchdowns.
Lockheed Martin has conducted the ground launch of a medium-range guided test vehicle using its Hellfire Junior missile. It is the company's offering for the U.S.'s Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System II requirement. The Eglin AFB, Fla., test was to demonstrate safe launch and separation, stable flight and performance of the seeker.
Air France Cargo will shift one of its three weekly flights from Paris to Houston northward to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport beginning Apr. 1. The Boeing 747-400F will make a stop each Saturday at Mexico City before flying on to DFW. France accounts for 17,400 tons of cargo annually at DFW and the new service will raise that number by 7,800 tons, according to Air France Cargo.
Louis F. Koch has been promoted to vice president from director of human resources for Dallas-based Aviall Inc. Joseph Y. Lacik has been promoted to senior vice president from vice president-information services for Aviall Services.
EADS Astrium's Infoterra unit, which will operate Germany's 1-meter-resolution TerraSAR-X synthetic aperture radar imaging satellite, says more than 10,000 farmers operating on 250,000 hectares (618,000 acres) of farmland are using a satellite-based precision-farming system developed with Arvalis, a leading French agricultural institute. The Farmstar system has helped farmers cut nitrogen fertilizer use by 10-15 kg. per hectare in 70% of the farms covered.
Flight-testing has begun for the Captor active electronically scanned array radar program designed for the Eurofighter Typhoon. The radar is fitted to a BAC-111 testbed. The Typhoon now has the Captor mechanically scanned antenna radar.
This week, Aviation Week & Space Technology debuts a revamped Market Focus page that has been in the works since last summer (see p. 11). Our stock table has been simplified and expanded, with an emphasis on new listings of airlines and aerospace/defense companies from Europe and Asia to complement the broad list of U.S. stocks you're used to seeing.
ATA Airlines is teaming even closer with code-sharing partner Southwest Airlines now that Indianapolis-based ATA has emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Seats on ATA flights are available through Southwest Airlines reservations and at southwest.com as well as ATA reservations and ATA.com. Southwest is emphasizing ATA's flights to Hawaii, which Southwest does not serve. ATA's business plan calls for 56% of revenues from charter operations and no expansion until 2007-08. A $12-million operating profit is expected for this year.
The sizzling pace of Heli-Expo signals a new round of growth in the civil helicopter sector as demand for vertical-lift services drives sales and operational tempos ever higher. The three-day event, held here last week, drew more than 16,000 people and 520 exhibitors to the Helicopter Assn. International's annual meeting. HAI President Matt Zuccaro says the helicopter business is bustling with activity and will spark growth this year in all segments.
The next 12 years won't be easy for U.S. carriers. There'll be some pain, some gains--but in the long run, airlines will emerge in a stronger economy and enjoy increased demand.
Growing interest in enhanced vision technology and airport security demands have led a small French engineering company to try to adapt a system it's developed for the automotive market to aerospace.
The Pentagon is taking another look at an unmanned reconnaissance aircraft design that it rejected more than 10 years ago in favor of Northrop Grumman's popular Global Hawk. The newest version of the single-engine Global Hawk, the RQ-4B, will carry a 3,000-lb. payload and generate extra electrical power to run a combination of radar, electro-optical/infrared and signals intelligence sensors. But that's not enough for the power-hungry sensors the Defense Dept. now wants to put into the sky.
The title-holder for longest distance jet in commercial operation has changed from Airbus to Boeing now that Pakistan International Airlines has taken delivery of the first of two 777-200LRs it ordered. The A340-500 was the long-distance champion, but the -200LR can fly 9,420 naut. mi. with belly tanks, 420 naut. mi. farther than its Airbus rival.
The European Commission will take an important step next month toward tackling airport capacity problems looming in Europe, which are seen as a major roadblock to improving air traffic flow by 2025.
Craig Covault (Kennedy Space Center), Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington)
NASA and its International Space Station partners will accelerate launch of the European Columbus and Japanese Kibo pressurized ISS modules on the space shuttle ahead of any attempt to service the Hubble Space Telescope. The schedule change involves a major repackaging of ISS elements in the assembly sequence to ensure the full station configuration can be completed as early as 2009, before termination of shuttle flights in late 2010.
The tribute to Robert B. Hotz (AW&ST Feb. 20, p. 110B) was fitting for a great journalist, editor, and unabashed American leader and patriot during the Cold War. Would that publishers and television news producers read that tribute carefully, especially that sentence: ". . . withheld information it (AW&ST) thought critical to national security, such as the existence of the Mach 3 SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft."
Michael A. Taverna (Paris), Douglas Barrie (Tel Aviv)
French efforts to build a European unmanned long-endurance reconnaissance capability face collapse if prime contractor EADS cannot come up with additional financing. A top-level review of the country's unmanned aerial vehicle strategy recommends pursuing the French-led collaborative medium-altitude long-endurance program, known as EuroMALE, but only if it is modified, and more countries actually sign up.
M. Spence (Ron) Howard has been appointed president of Division Americas of Reston, Va.-based Gate Gourmet. He succeeds Peter A. Pappas, who is now president of the Global Aviation Services unit. Howard was vice president of the Chelsea Food Services and the Inflight and Food Services divisions of Continental Airlines.
The development program for the Airbus Military A400M transport is entering a critical phase as engine tests ramp up to prove basic turboshaft performance, and governments try to work out how to support the aircraft for the long haul. There's little margin for error, with a tight development and fielding schedule. Already, engine makers have asked their workforce to put in extra hours to keep the program on track.
MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates reported an 11% jump in 2005 revenues, to $833 milllion, from 2004 levels. The Canadian-based supplier of space- and Earth-based information products and services netted $68 million, compared to $52.5 million a year earlier.
Arianespace and NASA have rescheduled launches this month that were delayed earlier. After a telemetry problem with Eutelsat's Hot Bird 7A forced a slip in the Feb. 24 launch date of its heavy-lift Ariane 5 ECA rocket, Alcatel Alenia Space has reverified the telemetry system and cleared the satellite for launch. A subsequent umbilical line disconnect forced a rollback Feb. 25 at the launch facility near Kourou, French Guiana, so a new connector could be installed.
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