Malaysia's airline terminal dedicated to low-cost carrier operations will become the first budget terminal in Southeast Asia when it opens at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in the first week of March, three weeks ahead of Singapore's Changi Budget Terminal. AirAsia will shift its base at KLIA to the new terminal, and its subsidiaries, Thai AirAsia and AirAsia Indonesia, will also operate from there. The new facility will be able to handle 4,000 passengers an hour.
Kuwait's Aviation Lease and Finance Co. (Alafco) has leased a fifth Boeing 777-200 to Air India for five years. Alafco signed a $2.9-billion deal with Airbus for 12 A350-800s with an option to buy six more in November last year. It plans to increase its fleet to 50 in the next few years. Kuwait Finance House owns 89% of Alafco and flag carrier Kuwait Airways, the rest.
EADS Military Air Systems is working up to the first flight of its Barrakuda unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) demonstrator, with a debut now likely no later than around mid-year (AW&ST Mar. 21, 2005, p. 26). A first flight tentatively had been planned for late 2005.
Peter Ingram has been named chief financial officer of Hawaiian Holdings Inc., parent company of Hawaiian Airlines. He will continue as CFO of the airline. Ingram succeeds Randall L. Jenson, who will remain a member of the board of directors.
Litigating the European Union-U.S. trade dispute over aircraft subsidies may be delayed because of recent maneuvering in Europe and the U.S. to expand complaints against each other.
Many aerospace industry and military planners have been looking toward Long-Range Strike as the next major aircraft program that would make up for the major cuts now planned for the B-52 heavy bomber force. But not so fast, Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) planners are saying. The philosophy of the review is about capabilities, not numbers. Planners, despite fewer aircraft, expect to produce an "ever-increasing incline of capabilities" to do even more missions than are currently possible.
Antoine de Chassy has been named president of the Spot Image Corp., Chantilly, Va. He has been vice president-strategy/chief operating officer of Spot Image S.A. in Toulouse. De Chassy will succeed Neal Carney.
British program officials and reconnaissance specialists admit they don't know exactly what's going to happen when the first two Astor (airborne stand-off radar) ground-surveillance aircraft are put in the hands of aircrews later this year. "This is an entirely new capability being introduced into the British armed forces. But whatever you've planned to do, when it comes into service you do a whole lot more, a whole lot differently," says Wing Commander David Norris, Astor's requirements manager.
It's really quite interesting how it sneaks up on you. Reentry from space, that is. Imagine, there you are: unencumbered and weightless, soaking in a peaceful panorama stretching more than 1,000 mi. in each direction. You've just enjoyed the ride of your life--a thundering minute-and-a-half, courtesy of a home-brewed, hybrid rocket motor. As that motor switched off, you were instantly transported to a whisper-quiet realm, immersed in the surprisingly good feeling of weightlessness.
Aircraft inventories are going to be slimmed as a result of the Quadrennial Defense Review, but there will be opportunities for purchasing the first 200 new U.S. Air Force tankers, recapitalizing some larger special forces aircraft and preparing for the next major aviation program--the long-range strike capability, which may or may not be a bomber.
With checkout continuing on its ALOS Earth-imaging satellite, Japanese space agency JAXA announced the upcoming launches of MTSat-2, a meteorological and airline enroute tracking satellite and Astro-F, an infrared imaging observatory. MTSat-2 is set for a Feb. 18 launch on an H-IIA, while Astro-F is scheduled for a Feb. 21 liftoff on an M-V. Meanwhile, JAXA has assigned an investigation team to study data transmission failures of ALOS.
Pratt & Whitney and NASA's Langley Research Center are beginning hot-fire tests of the hypersonic Ground Demonstration Engine (GDE-2) at the Hampton, Va., facility. The firings in a wind tunnel at Mach 5 conditions mark the first test of a hydrocarbon-fueled scramjet propulsion system using a single integrated flow path, fuel control system and closed-loop thermal management system. The GDE-2 engine is aimed at applications in propulsion systems for strike, global reach and space-access programs.
Rolls-Royce is nearing its goal of running the first Trent 1000, which is being designed to power Boeing 787s, by mid-month. Assembly is well underway with the first Trent 1000 build on target to the point that program officials are optimistic they will meet the Feb. 14 date set for the first engine run more than two years ago. The event will kick off an intense testing program on the road to certification of the 75,000-lb.-thrust engine July 24, 2007.
With futuristic platforms and weaponry getting battered in Fiscal 2007 budget planning, how can the 2006 QDR remain transformational? Indeed, how can senior leaders continue to promise a "wider range of options" for military response when programs involving directed energy, information operations, electronic warfare and cruise missile defense capabilities are in trouble? Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, the guiding light behind the QDR, says the answer is not to focus on the fate of individual programs.
James M. Simon, Jr., has been appointed to the board of directors of Orbimage Holdings Inc., Dulles, Va. He is founding director of the Microsoft Institute for Advanced Technology in Governments, Reston, Va., and was assistant U.S. director of central intelligence.
We read Benjamin S. Lambeth's Viewpoint entitled "The Downside of Network-Centric Warfare" (AW&ST Jan. 2, p. 86) with some surprise and a degree of concern. While the observations that Lambeth makes about the command and control of air forces during Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) have merit, they are decidedly not a critique of network-centric warfare (NCW). The basic tenets of NCW are clear: *A robustly networked force improves information sharing.
Mary Margaret VanDeWeghe has been appointed senior vice president-finance of the Lockheed Martin Corp., Bethesda, Md. She has been CEO of Forte Consulting and was a managing director of J.P. Morgan.
Bombardier Aerospace will spend the next year hammering out a revised business plan for a stripped-down CSeries program while exploring opportunities in the 80-100-seat regional jet and turboprop markets.
Steven Harfst (see photo) has been named chief operating officer of the IndiGo airline subsidiary of India-based InterGlobe Enterprises Ltd. He held the same position with North American Airlines. Harfst has been succeeded by Jeff Wehrenberg, who was president of New Heights Aviation Services and had been president/COO of ATA Connection carrier Chicago Express Airlines.
The British Defense Ministry plans to push ahead with further development of its digital battle lab, dubbed Niteworks II, though the industry structure for the program is being reevaluated. The ministry concluded a "stock-take review" of the original Niteworks effort at the end of 2005, to support the investment case for a follow-on program.
Twenty-year-old First Flight Couriers, a freight forward service in India, will become more directly involved in what its name implies by starting a domestic air freight operation in the second quarter 2006. It has leased three ATP Freighters from BAE Systems Regional Aircraft, which will be configured as E-Class bulk freighters. Deputy Managing Director R.K. Saboo says the ATPs will allow First Flight to "tailor our products" to offer better service.
Glenn Latta has been promoted to president from vice president-operations and corporate development, and Neal Pilson has joined the advisory board of JetBlue Airways subsidiary LiveTV, Orlando, Fla. Pilson is head of Pilson Communications Inc.
Space Systems/Loral has begun building Telstar 11N for Loral Skynet for connectivity to the North American fixed satellite services market. Built on a 1300-series platform, Telstar 11N will have 39 K u-band transponders serving North and Central America, Europe, Africa and the maritime Atlantic region. It's to be launched to 37.5 deg. W. Long. and complement Telstar 12. Launch is set for 2008.
