Italy and France will be able to perform military flights over each other's territory in the future, but they're still not prepared to nail down a formula for a joint multimission frigate program.
French aerospace supplier Groupe Latecoere has boosted first-quarter year-on-year revenue 42%, with a turnover of 171 million euros. The company has maintained its double-digit operational margin and expects to do so for the full year, the seventh in a row. As part of its cost-cutting efforts, Latecoere is establishing three low-cost production sites in Brazil, Tunisia and the Czech Republic. Company backlog has grown to about four times annual revenue.
Sen. John McCain, who launched a probe of the aborted U.S. Air Force refueling tanker-leasing deal, says he'll vote to confirm Michael Wynne as the next Air Force Secretary--even though Wynne was the head of acquisition, technology and logistics at the Defense Dept. during the scandal. "I didn't like what happened," the Arizona Republican says. "We had obviously serious disagreements . . .
Keith Williams has been named chief financial officer of British Airways, effective Jan. 1. He has been group treasurer and head of taxation and will succeed John Rishton, who will join Ahold.
Howard E. Chambers has become vice president/general manager of Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems of St. Louis. He also is CEO of Boeing Satellite Systems International Inc. He was vice president-program management and independent review for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems.
ATA Airlines has a reorganization plan in mind to meet a deadline imposed by investor Southwest Airlines while management continues negotiations with potential investors for a critical $100 million in fresh capital.
Diane Murphy (see photo) has been appointed director of communications for the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Space Technology Sector, Redondo Beach, Calif. She was executive vice president for the X Prize Foundation.
Long buffeted by takeover and merger rumors, Thales now faces a new ethics case that could damage its standing with investors, providing possible fodder for potential stalkers.
A relaxation of restrictions on travel between the U.S. and Mexico will moot some of the most common competitions among U.S. airlines for service authority. In the first rule change since 1999, three carriers from each country, instead of two, will be permitted to fly between any U.S. point and 14 cities in Mexico, including all the major resort destinations. These markets have grown in recent years, and U.S. low-cost carriers have competed in Transportation Dept. selection proceedings with network airlines to serve them. Often, three U.S.
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Hong Kong Express Airways has taken delivery of its first Embraer 170 regional jet, becoming the initial user of the Brazilian regional jet in Asia. It plans to operate four of the aircraft.
Boeing moved quickly to end a walkout by its machinists and get its aircraft assembly facilities back to work in a year that has provided the manufacturer with its best airplane-order news since 9/11. The machinists were expected to endorse a new three-year contract in voting late last week at Boeing's facilities in Puget Sound, Wash.; Portland, Ore.; and Wichita, Kan.
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David Whitten has been appointed director of global marketing at the Repair Div. of the Nordam Group, Tulsa, Okla. He was director of planning and strategy for the Goodrich Corp.'s Aircraft, Wheels and Brakes Div.
Munich's airport has opened a larger freight-handling hall that has been nine months in the building. Munich has seen a freight growth rate of 30% annually, officials for the site say, and total volume now topping 300,000 metric tons. Uses of the 4,400-sq.-meter facility will be limited to FedEx, DHL and UPS. The hall measures 8 meters (26 ft.) high and 132 meters (433 ft.) long.
The first major upgrade to the U.S. Air Force GPS constellation since the system went operational in 1993 is underway following the Sept. 25 launch of the initial "modernized" Lockheed Martin GPS block IIR-M spacecraft with dual civilian channel capability. The long-awaited shift to multiple civil GPS channels is expected to generate billions of dollars in new civilian revenues and revolutionize key civilian GPS applications over the next several years, according to USAF, the U.S. Transportation Dept. and commercial analysts.
Boeing is establishing 787 simulator training centers in Asia, Europe and the U.S. to coincide with the start of aircraft deliveries in 2008. Alteon Training, a unit of Boeing Commercial Aviation Services, expects to have six centers in play by the time launch customer All Nippon Airways receives its first 787. One center will be in Tokyo (Japan Airlines also is a customer); others will be in China, at London Gatwick and at Boeing's Seattle headquarters. Alteon offers training at 20 points worldwide.
The 12th crew will take up residence on the International Space Station on or about Oct. 3, following their planned Oct. 1 launch. U.S. and Russian safety oversight panels cleared astronaut William S. McArthur and cosmonaut Valery I. Tokarev for the Expedition 12 mission, starting with launch of the Soyuz TMA-7 vehicle from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Also on board will be space tourist Gregory Olson, who bought his "taxi seat" and a week-long ISS visit from the Russian space agency.
The Pentagon will start a new round of flight tests this fall to demonstrate the effectiveness of a revamped mobile system designed to destroy short- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles. The pressure for success is high for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) after more than a decade of design problems with the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) system.
The off-again, on-again, off-again research relationship between NASA and the Pentagon may be on again, at least if a new hire on the space agency's ninth floor has her way. Fred Gregory, the deputy administrator, says Lisa Porter, a former Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency senior scientist now advising Administrator Michael Griffin on aeronautics matters, will try to make sure the civilian agency takes military needs into account as it shapes an aeronautics program to meet the new national aeronautics policy Congress is likely to order this fall.
British forces in Iraq are increasingly turning to helicopter and fixed-wing transport in response to the growing threat of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) against ground vehicles. The risk from roadside bombs has grown markedly in the past 6-8 weeks, and since July, six British soldiers have been killed in three incidents in the region. The IEDs are also becoming more sophisticated.
TACA and Hainan have introduced new Airbus-type aircraft. Chinese carrier Hainan late last month accepted the first Airbus A319, which is to be put in service with Hainan's Chang'an Airlines. The aircraft are powered by CFM56-5B turbofans. At the same time, Latin America's TACA accepted its first A321. It bought five of the type last year as part of a 14-aircraft purchase of A320-family aircraft. TACA serves 10 major U.S. cities; Toronto; Mexico City; as well as destinations in South America and the Caribbean.
U.S. Senate and House negotiators have agreed upon a $30.8-billion appropriations bill for the Homeland Security Dept. in Fiscal 2006. The measure allots $5.9 billion for the Transportation Security Administration with $2.5 billion going to airport passenger and baggage screeners. The bill will still require 2,000 cuts in the 45,000-screener workforce. The compromise language also budgets $536 million for air and marine operations at Customs and Border Protection, including $20 million for new helicopters.
Sikorsky and Bell Helicopter Textron will offer all-glass cockpits on existing and new civil helicopter models, signaling growing confidence in the commercial helicopter sector. Significantly, the cockpit suppliers are both European-owned-- evidence that the rotorcraft world is following the air transport sector's trend toward globalization of the supply chain.
Lewis M. Kling (see photo) has been appointed presiden/CEO of the Flowserve Corp. of Dallas. Kling was chief operating officer and succeeds interim-Chairman/President/CEO Kevin E. Sheehan. He will become non-executive chairman.
