Piaggio Aero Industries aims to introduce a new aircraft that offers greater capability than the P.180 twin-pusher turboprop. The new type, currently designated the P1XX, is anticipated for 2010--the P.180 will likely be upgraded and retained. The feasibility study for the project is now focused on finding suitable industrial and financial partners. Birthing the aircraft will likely require upfront spending of 500 million euros ($605 million), which is more than Piaggio can generate on its own.
U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Michael D. Maples has been nominated for promotion to lieutenant general and appointment as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington. He has been vice director of the Joint Staff.
Jerry B. Agee (see photo) has been named corporate vice president and president of the Mission Systems Sector of the Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman Corp. He was deputy sector president.
A French court investigation of the Air France Concorde accident is finally entering into a critical phase of the years-old inquiry. Although it was set up to determine who bears the legal responsibilities for the July 2000 crash, the scope has been broadened: Investigation judge Christophe Regnard is now wondering whether the Franco-British supersonic transport was allowed to keep its type certification long after serious technical weaknesses were suspected.
Raytheon and Lockheed Martin have reached an out-of-court settlement on a teaming arrangement for the next increment of the Distributed Common Ground Station. Raytheon sued its DCGS partner, Lockheed Martin, after the latter opted to team with rival Northrop Grumman for an upcoming block upgrade competition, raising concerns at Raytheon about protecting proprietary information.
We have numerous recent airline retirees who were once military pilots, often in combat roles. They are generally in excellent health and have logged thousands of hours.
Ongoing operations are exposing the cracks in Britain's airlift capacity, with the threat of further problems in 2006. Availability issues with the Royal Air Force's (RAF) L-1011 Tristar tanker transport and, to a lesser extent, with the Lockheed Martin C-130s, are causing difficulties. Moreover, the pending deployment of additional British forces to Afghanistan next year will place further demands on the RAF's airlift assets.
Allegations that the U.K. is snuggling up to Europe at the expense of its "special relationship" with the U.S. provoked a swift and sharp rebuttal from British Defense Secretary John Reid. In the Center for Policy Studies paper "The Wrong Side of the Hill," the London-based think tank contends there is a "secret realignment of U.K.
Capturing an airfield is only half the battle, turning it into an operational asset is the other. Securing Basra International Airport during Operation Telic provided British forces with a potential air bridge into the Iraqi theater, dependent on establishing an air traffic control (ATC) capability at the airfield.
JetBlue's new Embraer 190s will play a major role in the company's route expansion plans from Boston's Logan International and the carrier's home base, New York-JFK International. The low-cost carrier plans to add up to 10 daily Boston-New York nonstops beginning Nov. 9. It will add new daily Boston-Austin, Tex., services beginning Jan. 19 and New York-Richmond, Va., flights beginning Mar. 31. JetBlue says the Boston-JFK services will open up new connections, including Phoenix, San Diego and San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Matthew Boucher and Veronica Clifford have become members of the Titusville-Cocoa (Fla.) Airport Authority board of directors. They succeed Craig Rastello and Russell Alarie, who have resigned.
Smiths Detection began showing a prototype of its passive millimeter- wave body-scanning machine last week at the Inter Airport Europe 2005 trade show in Munich. The Tadar machine can find contraband such as weapons and explosives, and is designed for use in airports, federal buildings, prisons and embassies. It will enter production in 2006.
Rolls-Royce developers are looking deep into their research base to identify technologies that may be ready for use on the Trent 1700 the company will build for the Airbus A350. Rolls this month was able to close negotiations with Airbus to become the second powerplant offering on the new twin widebody, joining General Electric whose GEnx has already scored its first customer commitments.
The U.S. Air Force is launching an education outreach effort for foreign militaries to ensure that during future military operations, the U.S. and its allies will dominate the skies over a battlefield.
Tension is mounting between the European Commission and the management of European airlines about the direction Brussels is taking in regulating the sector. Airline representatives are concerned they are being saddled with billions of euros in additional yearly operating costs as they grapple with intense competition and high fuel costs.
French aerospace industry association Gifas is calling for France to adopt a more concerted approach to supporting foreign arms sales, similar to that which French executives claim to exist in the U.S. Gifas President Charles Edelstenne, who is also head of Dassault Aviation, asserted that lack of such an approach was instrumental in the defeat of Dassault's Rafale by the Boeing F-15 in the recent Singapore fighter competition. "The U.S. can bring to bear enormous political pressure, from the President on down. France must adopt a [similar] procedure."
Recognizing the political problems a nuclear bunker-busting weapon presents, and the unlikelihood it would be approved for operational use even if built, researchers say the Pentagon has become interested in a new approach: high-power microwave (HPM) bomb designs to attack deeply buried and hardened targets. They report that HPM weapons, designed to generate a large spike of electrical energy, have been developed to fit in the casing of 5,000-lb.-class GBU-28 aerial bombs, weapons improvised from 8-in.
European Space Agency Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain has high hopes that the agency's science program will receive a 1-2.5% boost in spending at the upcoming ministerial summit in December, allowing it at least to keep up with inflation. He noted that the entry of Greece and Luxembourg into ESA will trigger a 1.7% increase next year.
Ten European countries are pledging to work more closely together to address air tanker requirements. Following a meeting last week of the European Defense Agency's steering board, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Belgium and Portugal acknowledged a lack of progress in recent years toward meeting air-to-air refueling needs.
Britain is pushing ahead with strategic unmanned aircraft work and examining the utility of the EJ200 turbofan as the basis for an unmanned combat air vehicle engine. Classified work is underway looking at the Eurofighter Typhoon engine as candidate propulsion for an Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV). Defense Ministry material suggests it is looking at a UCAV airframe up to the size of a Hawk advanced jet trainer.
American Airlines is pouring cold water on any suggestion of rapidly deepening its ties with British Airways. Willy Walsh, the recently appointed BA CEO, is interested in closer ties, as is American. But until progress is made on open skies and anti-trust immunity, American sees little hope of moving forward.
While Britain vacillates over future military helicopter purchases, some of its present fleet is being operated flat out in Iraq. Air force, army and navy helicopter units, as well as fixed-wing transports, are at the heart of continuing high-tempo operations in southern Iraq, and a key element of the Multi-National Div. (South East).
King County supervisors, citing concerns about traffic and noise, have rejected plans by Southwest Airlines and Alaska Air Group to operate out of Boeing Field in Seattle. Southwest says Seattle-Tacoma International Airport is too expensive and proposed spending $130 million on an eight-gate terminal for 85 flights a day. Alaska initially strongly opposed commercial operations at the field, but later offered a competing $150-million proposal for eight gates to support 100 daily flights.
