Airbus has established its "Airbus Middle East" subsidiary based in the Dubai Airport Free Zone, headed by Habib Fekih, former CEO of Dubai-based Total Airline Services Co. The aircraft manufacturer is also opening a new spare parts center there; it is to become operational in April 2007.
BAE Systems has begun flight testing the small, unmanned aerial vehicle designed to disperse the WolfPack signals intelligence unattended ground system. BAE performed the demonstration at Ft. Benning, Ga., to both its Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency customer and U.S. Army representatives, who are expected to be the ultimate users. During the trial, the system detected a mock threat. The system has a 1-hr. endurance and can carry one 22-lb. WolfPack unit for original placement or repositioning.
Talks between SAS Scandinavian Airlines and its pilots have broken down over how to negotiate future labor agreements, creating the possibility of a strike when the current contract expires Apr. 1. SAS wants pilot contracts to be negotiated through its national airline units, while pilots want to continue collective bargaining. SAS says it sees no legal obstacles to forcing its will on the pilots.
I am pleased to announce that the Aviation Week Group has initiated a strategic rebranding program to reflect our expanded coverage across all sectors of the global aerospace and defense industry. The organization, under the new name McGraw-Hill Aerospace & Defense, will provide the same award-winning editorial coverage and titles while accelerating electronic, event and print initiatives that expand its footprint into the broader A&D sector.
Arianespace and the Russian space agency Roscosmos executives last week signed a contract for the first four Russian Soyuzes to be launched from Europe's space center near Kourou, French Guiana. November 2008 was set as the date for the first launch. Arianespace is spending 121 million euros of the 344-million-euro cost of building a Soyuz pad at Kourou.
The prospect of a moderate and steady rise in aircraft deliveries from the large backlog created by a record-breaking 2,250 new aircraft orders in 2005 places Airbus and Boeing in an advantageous position "to behave like the oligopoly they really are," says consultant Edmund Greenslet. The first step down that path, he says in his Airline Monitor, is "managing production, at the margin, in their best interests rather than in the interests of the customer." If that occurs, aircraft prices will rise and discounts will decline off list prices.
MJC Engineering & Technology's (MJC's) new model SP78200-3 CNC spinform lathe features a 200-hp. spindle, 100-hp. hydraulic system and three-station automatic turret designed to handle the massive thrust generated by the hydraulic system. The machine was designed for Minnesota-based Glenn Metalcraft (GMI). The 40-employee company specializes in heavy-gauge, oversized metal spinnings geared to OEMs. Prior to commissioning this model, the company was limited to spin-forming materials no heavier than 0.500-in. thick in many configurations.
Italy is resorting to some fancy financial footwork to bolster its paltry military modernization budget; but even so, it will be unable to take on new projects in the near term. Moreover, there are concerns in military circles that the government may have reached the end of the line on funding gimmickry, since this year's maneuvering is unlikely to be an option again.
A look at aircraft to be displayed and flown at this week's Asian Aerospace exhibition in Singapore is a snapshot of how the Asia-Pacific region's interests have broadened. A decade ago, regional jets, turboprop commuters and business jet manufacturers were just beginning to test the Asian marketing waters. Asia was dominated by wide-body jets. A gradual liberalization, greater access to the Chinese and Indian markets and shifts in national defense spending have changed all that.
Lynda Johnson (see photo) has been appointed general manager for American Airlines at Dallas Love Field. She was ramp services manager at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
Star Alliance members operating at Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport are moving into a newly built check-in hall at Terminal One. Bmi and Thai airlines are already in place; several other carriers, including Lufthansa, Scandinavian and LOT Polish Airlines are in the process of relocating. The move will run through 2008, when the last carriers, Singapore Airlines, United, US Airways and Varig, will follow. The airlines will share 24 check-in desks, but assign seats independently for their respective flights.
USAF Lt. Gen. (ret.) Harry D. Raduege, Jr., former director of the Defense Information Systems Agency, has become chairman of the Deloitte Center for Network Innovation in Washington.
Technicians at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., are fitting a trio of hatbox-sized satellites to the front end of an Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus launch vehicle as NASA edges closer to the day when scientists will use dozens of inter-linked satellites to measure complex phenomena in space.
With India moving fast to become a major weapons buyer, U.S. companies used the growing partnership and trust between the two countries to dominate Defexpo, the biennial exposition on naval and land systems held here in January. So large was the U.S. presence that traditional ally Russia, which has supplied nearly 75% of India's military arsenal for decades, was relegated to third place, after the U.S. and Israel.
Donald G. DeGryse has become vice president-navigation systems for the Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., Sunnyvale, Calif. He was vice president-space radar program.
David Hughes (Brussels and Maastricht, Netehrlands)
U.S. and European governments have been talking about doubling or tripling ATC capacity by 2020-25 for several years, but neither is "walking the walk" yet as far as a significant boost in R&D spending to make this happen. That may be about to change in Europe, however, and there are some positive signs in the U.S. as well.
John Kozma has been named sales and marketing manager and Robert McMahon quality manager of Empire Aerospace, Hayden, Idaho. McMahon was chief inspector for Boeing 747s for Evergreen International Airlines.
Gerard Schreiber has become manager of business development for MC Industrial Inc. of St. Louis. He was executive vice president of the heavy industrial group at Chicago-based Graycor Industrial Constructors Inc.
Rolls-Royce will add about an engine a month through midyear to its Trent 1000 test program as it expands the scope of the intense evaluation period that has now officially been kick-started.
G. Scott Hubbard, who recently left NASA Ames Research Center as director, will be a visiting scholar in Stanford University's electrical engineering department, and will hold the Carl Sagan chair at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute in Mountain View, Calif.
With a growing number of foreign pilots flying Indian carriers, the Indian government has made an English examination mandatory for expatriates. The test focuses on pilots' ability to communicate with air traffic controllers. The decision was prompted by a 1996 accident in India when a Saudi Arabian Airlines passenger jet collided with a Kazakhstan cargo aircraft. Investigators say poor understanding of English was a contributing factor to the crash.
Researchers at Northwestern University are working with a prototype niobium alloy that demonstrated burn resistance to 1,300C (2,372F) in an oxidation test of a 10-gram rod sample. Primary inventor Prof. Gregory B. Olson and David J. Bryan, a post-graduate researcher now at General Electric in Schenectady, N.Y., who assisted him, have applied for a U.S. patent. The alloy, nicknamed "noburnium," is targeted for turbine engine blades. The hoped-for application of the metal in engines is an increase in operating temperatures that would improve efficiency.
