Air Canada ends its first year as a low-cost carrier with strong performance--and begins its second eager for growth and ready to conclude a firm order for 32 Boeing wide-body aircraft. The carrier's parent company, ACE Aviation Holdings, reported a third-quarter operating income of C$320 million ($270 million), a C$77-million increase compared with the same period in 2004. Air Canada had a net operating income of C$270 million (including C$128 million income tax), compared with a net loss of C$81 million last year.
Leon Kaufman, Professor of Physics, Emeritus (Department of Radiology, University of California, San Francisco)
I see that you have bought into the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) smoke screen about the "only" problem with X-ray backscatter screening is that of "naked" images of the body (AW&ST Oct. 17, p. 46).
Triumph Group's year-over-year operating income rose 34% to $13.2 million in the quarter ended Sept. 30. Quarterly sales increased 8% to $183.6 million, pushing backlog to $756.7 million, up 35% from a year earlier.
Italo Poli, who was an executive with Swissair for 30 years before retiring, has received the World Airline Entertainment Assn.'s 2005 Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to the airline inflight entertainment and communications industry. Poli began his career in airline inflight entertainment in 1964 as manager of audio-visual for Swissair. In 1969, he led a group of airlines--Swissair, SAS, KLM and UTA--in setting a new standard for inflight entertainment among European carriers.
A pair of satellite telecom missions is getting underway after months of delays due to satellite and launcher unavailability. Arianespace has set Nov. 10-11 for launching Spaceway 2. The six-ton Boeing 702 spacecraft was initially targeted for broadband applications, but redirected to high-definition television service when the Spaceway system was acquired by DirecTV. Together with Spaceway 1, launched on Apr. 26, the new unit is expected to handle 500 local HDTV channels to major U.S. markets.
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Richard A. Kravit has become director of contracts/general counsel of the Mooney Airplane Co., Kerrville, Tex. He was director of contracts/in-house counsel for M7 Aerospace, which purchased the U.S. assets of Fairchild Dornier.
Europe's aerospace and defense industries' association ASD has expressed concern over a decision by the European Parliament to trim the 2006 budget bill for homeland security research from 24 million euros ($29 million)--the figure proposed by the European Commission--to 15 million euros. ASD said the move, which follows a similar reduction in the 2005 budget, will hamper work on network design, interoperability, system integration and other areas that are ground work for a full-fledged homeland security program starting in 2007.
Eurocopter has established a subsidiary in Japan to help boost sales in that country, particularly in the defense arena. Eurocopter holds more than 50% of the civil and government market there, but a much smaller share of defense orders.
The National Research Council of Canada Institute for Aerospace Research has agreed to work with Transport Canada to gather data on emissions from commercial aircraft cruising over Canada. Canadian officials are concerned about the possible negative impact of such emissions on the nation's sensitive environment in high latitudes. NRC will instrument its T-33 research aircraft to collect emissions data while flying behind commercial transports, with the first proof-of-concept flights set for next year over St.
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AirBridge Cargo airline, a subsidiary of the Volga-Dnepr Group, has placed a $450-million order (at list prices) for two Boeing 747-400ER freighters. They will be powered by General Electric CF6-80C2B5F engines. AirBridge became Russia's first carrier to operate a 747 when it acquired a used -200F in 2004. Since then it has added two more -200Fs to its fleet, which also includes Russian-built freighters.
India has completed qualification of the indigenous cryogenic upper stage engine it has developed for the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), and is expected to flight test the engine soon. Intended to replace the Russian-supplied cryogenic stage on the GSLV, the new upper stage was designed to deliver about 7.5 tons of thrust. Ground qualification included some 4,000 sec. of cumulative hot-fire tests. India hopes to use the new engine to garner some commercial business for its big satellite-launching rocket.
I've been watching and reading a plethora of information on the Bush administration's decision to go back to the Moon. In "Moon-Bound, Again" and "Space Race Redux" (AW&ST Sept. 26, p. 22; Oct. 3, p. 24), there are no specific goals listed that America is to achieve by going back to the Moon.
Rolls-Royce's advanced concepts shop, now named Liberty Works, is focusing its efforts on a few key defense areas, say officials visiting in Washington. Researchers are looking at low-speed engines for week-long surveillance flights, expendable and cheap Mach 3+ engines for high-speed reconnaissance, and stealth propulsion systems for persistence in enemy territory, as well as engines that produce huge electrical power output--into the low-single-digit megawatts--for directed-energy weapons and long-range sensors.
An international team working on new flight demonstrations in Sweden believes it's possible to boost runway capacity by 30% by downlinking "4D" trajectories and coordinating arrivals up to an hour in advance.
Nicolas Brun (see photo) has been named vice president-communications for Paris-based Alcatel Alenia Space. He was vice president-corporate and marketing communications for the Carlson Wagonlit Travel Group.
Damage from Hurricane Wilma in late October is forcing Lockheed Martin to replace a 200,000-lb.-thrust Aerojet solid rocket motor on the Atlas V set to launch the New Horizons spacecraft to Pluto from Cape Canaveral Jan. 11. The Atlas was not on its launch pad, but inside the 300-ft. Atlas Vertical Integration Facility (VIF) when the storm struck. Part of the structure's large high-strength fabric door tore under 75-mph. winds, and some door or other storm debris struck the solid motor attached to the launcher.
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have spotted two bodies that may be the second and third moons of Pluto. Designated S/2005 P1 and S/2005 P2, the objects are some 27,000 mi. from Pluto and roughly 5,000 times fainter than the planet (see image). Although they appeared to have moved in orbit around Pluto in separate observations three days apart in May, more Hubble observations in February 2006 are planned to confirm that they are actually moons.
ATA Airlines, in a major tweaking of its developing operating plan, is suspending all flights at Denver, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and to and from its headquarters city, Indianapolis. In all, 11 unprofitable daily nonstop flights will be suspended as of Jan. 10. The carrier, in reorganization under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, will continue to keep its headquarters in Indianapolis. Officials say they have signed an agreement with Indianapolis International Airport to retain for five years its lease of corporate office space.
This year's distinguished panel includes aerospace experts from the civil, military, academic and research sectors. Dan Griffith, a senior certification test pilot for the U.K. CAA, has logged more than 5,200 hr. in nearly 300 aircraft types and has participated in JAA certification for Boeing and Airbus aircraft. USAF Col. (ret.) Pedro (Pete) Rustan, Jr., former director of small satellite development for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office, is chief technical officer of Tellaire Corp.
Regarding Dale Gibby's letter on the V-22 (AW&ST Oct. 24, p. 6): I have similar concerns regarding the wisdom of placing the means of sustentation at the ends of the wings. They, of course, are not usable wings when rotated above the horizontal position. Much thought and planning have gone into mitigating the potential risks of this configuration, and I suppose the project managers are now to the point of letting the project run in actual use and seeing if their contingency systems are adequate.
Stratasys has launched RedEye RPM, the world's largest rapid prototype and part-building service, according to the company. RedEyeRPM.com is an online extension of the BuildFDM service, which constructs prototypes and parts using the FDM process for customers in North America. RedEye augments this by allowing automated, instant quoting and round-the-clock ordering. A proprietary, secure quoting/ordering engine preserves user confidentiality by analyzing design-file data without uploading it.
While the improvement in body screening will be effective for preflight procedures, here is an account of a recent experience that defies current security practices.
