The European Court of Justice of First Instance has upheld a July 2001 ruling barring General Electric from acquiring Honeywell, which eventually caused the takeover to unravel. GE and Honeywell had asked the court to annul the decision, as it later did in a series of European Commission merger findings, including one in 2002 that struck down a 1999 ruling involving U.K. charter airlines Air Tours and First Choice (AW&ST Nov. 11, 2002, p. 24).
After five major cost overruns in as many years on its Space-Based Infrared Sensor High missile early warning system, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne says the Pentagon is holding the fourth and fifth geosynchronous satellites "hostage" until the first three prove their utility.
Braking is a puzzle in the Southwest Airlines runway overrun at Chicago-Midway airport on Dec. 8. The crew set the automatic braking selector to maximum, and told NTSB investigators the system activated after a firm touchdown. But later the captain flying the Boeing 737-700 noticed the aircraft was not decelerating normally and he and the copilot applied maximum manual braking. The flight data recorder (FDR) shows autobrakes and manual brakes provided high brake pressure throughout the landing roll. To confuse the issue, Southwest policy is not to use autobrakes.
47 PHOTO CONTEST BEST OF BEST 48 SPACE 51 GENERAL 54 CIVIL 58 MILITARY 62 WINNERS AND JUDGES 64 HONORABLE MENTION 108 ASAA ART AWARDS 122 ASAA HONORABLE MENTION Cessna seaplane beached on the sands of Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas, Florida. Edward Fisher, Atlantic Beach, N.Y.
Sales at aviation composite supplier Hexcel Corp. are up 10% from a year ago and Chairman/CEO David E. Berges thinks the civil aircraft industry's rebound is gathering strength. "This time we have [demand from] China and India and Eastern Europe," he notes confidently. Precision weapons and space systems contractor Alliant Techsystems also is posting healthy sales gains, but its chairman/CEO anticipates more challenging times. "We're not going into flush years for the Defense Dept. or NASA," says Daniel J. Murphy.
The Missile Defense Agency's chief says his confidence in a developmental--and recently troubled--system designed to protect the U.S. from ballistic missiles has increased after its first successful interceptor launch in more than a year.
The fallout from the crash of a DC-9 operated by Nigeria's Sosoliso Airlines on Dec. 10 has elevated to the highest political levels concerns over the lack of aviation safety standards in the country. The crash killed all but one of the 110 people on board. Most perished when the aircraft struck the runway on its approach to Port Harcourt from Abuja, although several died later from sustained injuries. Voice and cockpit data recorders have been recovered and sent to the British Air Accident Investigation Branch for review. The U.S.
Lufthansa German Airlines is expected to kick off a competition soon for 100-seat regional jets, to replace aging equipment in service and expand its fleet. Lufthansa's regional jet plans have been in flux since it canceled an order for 60 Fairchild Dornier 728JETs. But now it is expected to move into high gear, according to industry officials. The carrier is likely to issue a request for proposals in the coming weeks, with a fleet decision to be announced in May or June.
Pilots at reorganizing Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines are reviewing agreements approved by officials of their respective Air Line Pilots Assn. units that propose substantial contractual revisions. A courtroom showdown was averted when Delta's management and the union reached a tentative interim agreement that calls for a wage reduction of 14% and a pilot cost reduction of 1%. The agreement also would end a program, set up last year, that would allow pilots who took early retirement to return to the cockpit.
Unveiling a grand defense industrial strategy, the British government is signaling that the Joint Strike Fighter will be its last manned combat aircraft and that it will launch an unmanned combat air vehicle technology demonstrator in 2006.
After 14 years of development, the U.S. Air Force has declared the stealthy F-22 ready for combat, and Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley says the first foreign deployment of the twin-engine fighter to the Pacific could come as soon as next spring.
In the midst of sunny, near-term financial forecasts (see p. 24), Aerospace Industries Assn. (AIA) CEO John Douglass sees policy clouds on the horizon. The association has given up for now on reform of export control rules and will instead try to make the current system work better, shooting for commitments on reform from presidential candidates in 2008.
The International Air Transport Assn. (IATA) expects the airline industry to return to profitability only in 2007, as U.S. carriers expect overall losses to continue next year and Europe's airlines will come under more intense cost pressure with fuel-hedging positions expiring.
Neil A. Armstrong Homecoming Badge issued on Sept. 6, 1969, in Wapakoneta, Ohio. Civil Air Patrol Cadet ID Card issued by the War Dept. when the CAP was under jurisdiction of the U.S. Army Air Forces. Guard badge worn by an officer of the U.S. Army Air Corps Police during World War II. TWA pin that was given out to young riders in the sky. American Legion medal from Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1932. Note the monoplane flying over the Brooklyn Bridge.
The number is so impressive for a commercial jet that it's easy to confuse it with the thousands of Air Force bombers this factory once rolled out: Spirit Aerosystems has completed the 5,000th 737 fuselage.
Best of Best, Patrick H. Corkery, Littleton, Colo. Corkery has been shooting marketing and communications photography for Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver since 1980. A journalism graduate of Northern Illinois University, his work has appeared in many Lockheed Martin publications, as well as those of outside companies. Corkery's work has appeared many times in magazines and newspapers including on several Aviation Week & Space Technology covers.
The European Space Agency has issued a launch contract to Arianespace for the Herschel/Planck twin astronomy mission. The award--the sixth of the year for Arianespace--will see the mission, which has been plagued by severe cost overruns, orbited on an Ariane 5 in the first quarter of 2008, instead of late 2007 as planned.
The British Defense Ministry has acquired a significant number of late-model Russian-manufactured shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles for countermeasures development and trials purposes.
General Dynamics Corp.'s deal to buy fast-growing Anteon International Corp. could alter the landscape in the defense information technology (IT) business, creating a new top-tier challenger to powerhouses such as Lockheed Martin Corp., Northrop Grumman Corp. and Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC).
The contractor competition for the new GOES-R Geosynchronous Operational Environmental Satellite series was misidentified as the existing GOES-N project led by Boeing (AW&ST Dec. 12, p. 50). An article in last week's issue incorrectly stated the revenue increase at Hexcel during the first nine months of the year (p. 27). Hexcel's revenues were up $80 million, or 10%, from the same period a year ago.
