U.S. and European officials say progress was made on recent open skies talks in the first meeting since negotiations stalled last year, although an agreement on cargo is lagging. In the cargo realm, so-called seventh-freedom rights, allowing one carrier to fly from the territory of another country to a third one, are at issue. The U.S. has seventh-freedom agreements with some EU members and wants a union-wide deal, says John Byerly, deputy assistant secretary of State for Transportation Affairs.
The crash of a Nigerian Bellview Boeing 737-200 killed 117 on board Oct. 22. The aircraft went down a few minutes after takeoff from Lagos, about 20 mi. north of the airport. The Pratt & Whitney JT8D-powered aircraft was headed to Abuja on a domestic flight. It was the first accident for Bellview, which operates four other 737s and two 767-200s. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has dispatched a team to aid in the inquiry. The black boxes have been recovered.
A combined air-and-land operation in Pakistan is the largest ever entrusted to NATO's new quick-reaction force and raises new questions about the utility of a similar force created by the European Union.
Eurocontrol, the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation, is developing a Web-based training package aimed at providing air traffic management personnel with information and education about environmental issues that face commercial aviation and air traffic management.
In another sign of offshoring on the rise in the aerospace industry, a pair of companies announced plans to open aircraft parts-manufacturing plants in the central Mexican city of Queretaro. Bombardier Inc. says it will invest $200 million to open a facility that is expected at first to make wiring harnesses for Bombardier aircraft, which undergo final assembly in Canada and the U.S.
Nasdaq has informed struggling Independence Air that its stock will be delisted in 90 days, unless publicly traded shares reach a minimum aggregate market value of $15 million. The airline's shares were trading for less than 20 cents last week, down from $1.50 a year ago and $10 early in 2004 when the carrier operated as a regional affiliate of United Airlines and Delta Air Lines.
The FAA has begun full operations of the Lockheed Martin advanced technologies and oceanic procedures (ATOP) system at its center in Oakland, Calif. ATOP eliminates many manual procedures and allows controllers of traffic over the Pacific Ocean to handle requests for route changes with greater flexibility. New York Center's ATOP system became operational earlier this year and a more advanced version of the system is expected to start operations in Anchorage next spring.
Austrian Airlines is facing uncertain times, after the airline said it expects a big loss for 2005 and CEO Vagn Soerensen told the board he will not extend his contract beyond next year. Soerensen, a 45-year-old former SAS Group executive, said the reasons for his decision were of a purely private nature. After 20 years abroad, he wants to return to his home country, Denmark, with his family.
Eiichiro Sekigawa, an aviation journalist and author whose knowledge of Japanese aviation history made him an invaluable contributing editor to this magazine for more than 25 years, died on Oct. 18 after a long battle with cancer. He was 79. "Seki," as he was affectionately known by the magazine's staff, was born in Kyoto and attended Kyoto University. His earliest employment was with the Kyoto municipal government, but he soon found his calling in aviation journalism.
Chalmers H. (Slick) Goodlin, a Bell test pilot who, because of a pay dispute, forfeited his chance to become the first man to break the sound barrier, died Oct. 20 of cancer at home in West Palm Beach, Fla. He was 82.
As an aircraft mechanic at US Airways, I have seen firsthand the results of cost-cutting. All airline CEOs should take to heart the article about maintenance at American Airlines (AW&ST Oct. 10, p. 56). When a financial crisis hits an airline, cost-cutting comes first. The first target is almost always aircraft maintenance, with the thought that we'll catch up later. While this may provide quick cash, it creates problems that are more expensive to fix.
All Weather Inc. is upgrading local aviation facilities at Phu Bai Airport in Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam, with a Series 900 Automated Weather Observation System (AWOS). The system is part of a larger plan to expand the airport's ability to handle more tourist and trade traffic for Hue. AWOS features dual wind sensors that use ultrasonic technology to provide continuous operation during inclement weather as well as laser ceilometers that simultaneously detect and measure cloud height up to 25,000 ft.
Single-class business carrier Eos has begun operation of its New York JFK-London Stansted route. The airline is using Boeing 757s in a 48-seat cabin configuration. The move is to be followed by an all-business operation between Amsterdam and Houston flown by Privatair for KLM. The six weekly flights will use a new 737-700 in a 44-seat configuration.
Former Senate staffer Winslow Wheeler, known for his sometimes renegade views, suggests the Senate Appropriations Committee's attempt to publicly rein in President Bush's defense spending is more sleight of hand than good budgeting. The panel's defense subcommittee claimed in a press release it cut $7 billion from the president's budget request. But Wheeler notes that the subcommittee shifted several procurement, research and operations and maintenance items that would usually be in the Title X budget into Title IX.
News Breaks 18 USAF developing unmanned helicopter for spraying insects 18 Iran joins space club with launch of multinational payload 19 AW&ST's Japan-based contributing editor, Eiichiro Sekigawa, dies 20 Obituary for X-1 test pilot Chalmers H. (Slick) Goodlin World News & Analysis 22 New Pentagon study could spell doom for C-17, C-130J production 24 USAF space programs in crosshairs during Fiscal 2006 budget talks
Maver Mayuga, product research and development officer for Philippine Airlines, has been elected president of the McLean, Va.-based World Airline Entertainment Assn. for the 2005-06. He succeeds Kent D. Craver, manager of onboard product marketing and research for Continental Airlines. Other new officers are: vice president, Dee Brady, inflight entertainment programming manager for British Airways; secretary, Sue Pinfold, director of business operations for Spafax; and treasurer, Sylvia Arndt, director of interactive software engineering for Panasonic Avionics Corp.
Boeing is promoting the 747 Advanced well ahead of the next evolution of its 787 in terms of product launch, in part because the engines for the mid-size twin haven't evolved enough to allow for a sensible stretch version. This year, Boeing hopes to launch the 747 Advanced, a stretched update of the 747-400 seating 50 more passengers, with multiple customer orders. "We are pretty confident," says Randy Baseler, Boeing Commercial Airplane's vice president for marketing.
Italian defense budget cuts will hit pending procurement, with planned maritime and airborne early warning aircraft acquisition efforts likely delayed. The defense ministry's mid-year ambitions to secure 21 billion euros ($25.2 billion), has already been thwarted, with the proposed budget now at 19.5 billion euros. There will be more budgetary discussions that could see this further reduced to 17. 5 billion euros.
James G. Fox has become senior vice president/chief financial officer of the Fairchild Corp., McLean, Va. He succeeds John Flynn, who has resigned as CFO but remains senior vice president-tax. Fox was vice president-finance of the Energy Management Div. of Invensys plc.
Airbus is considering enlarging the size of its industrial footprint in Britain through an additional design-engineering center, among other options. Noel Forgeard, EADS co-CEO, says Airbus's "strategy has been developed because of the pool of highly skilled systems engineers based in the Midlands [of the U.K.]. In addition to these recruits we are also seeking several hundred engineers for existing Airbus [U.K.] sites." EADS owns 80% of Airbus, with BAE Systems holding the remainder.
Ground controllers ran a successful 114-sec. test on Oct. 26 of four backup thrusters on the Progress cargo vehicle docked to the International Space Station, raising the ISS altitude by about 400 meters. Still under consideration was a similar test of the primary Progress thrusters that shut down early during a station-reboosting maneuver Oct. 18. Also to be determined was the date for reboosting the ISS by about 6 mi. to position it for the planned Dec. 23 docking of the next Progress resupply mission.
A retired Northrop Grumman engineer who helped design parts of the B-2 stealth bomber's low-observable propulsion system was arrested in Hawaii by the FBI on Oct. 26 for allegedly faxing a top-secret document on the aircraft's infrared technology to a foreign official in 2002, according to the Associated Press. The AP also reports the FBI says Noshir S. Gowadia, 61, allegedly provided classified information to two other nations. He is being held without bail.
Airbus is making another run at the much-coveted Japanese market where its rival, Boeing, dominates. Airbus CEO Gustav Humbert and his chief operating officer for customers, John Leahy, held an executive forum for airline, government and other industry representatives last week in Tokyo. Humbert told the gathering: "We consider Japan to be a key country for Airbus, both in terms of a potential buyer of aircraft and as a partner in industrial co-development and co-production. . . .
Robert Musgraves and Christian Leonhard have been named co-presidents of the Denver-based Titanium Metals Corp. (Timet), to succeed J. Landis Martin, who will be retiring Nov. 15 as chairman/president/CEO. Musgraves and Leonhard have been chief operating officers for North America and Europe, respectively. Harold C. Simmons, the controlling stockholder of Timet and parent company Valhi Inc., will become chairman/CEO. Steven L. Watson, president/CEO of Valhi, will be vice chairman.
