6, 8 Correspondence 10 Who's Where 12 Market Focus 14 Industry Outlook 15 Airline Outlook 17 In Orbit 18-20 News Breaks 23 Washington Outlook 47 Inside Avionics 63 Classified 64 Aerospace Calendar 65 Contact Us
While we all applaud the air crew's skillful handling of the JetBlue nose gear incident on Sept. 21, the emergency responders on the ground get fewer kudos.
Continental Airlines eked out its second consecutive quarterly profit while Southwest logged its umpteenth, nearly four times greater. American ended its streak at one, falling back into red ink, and JetBlue forecasted a loss this fall bigger than its net profit of $22.2 million during the previous three quarters. In other words, the summer was just another quarter in the fourth year of the U.S. airline industry's wrenching realignment.
International Lease Finance Corp. has agreed to buy 20 Boeing 787s in a more than $2-billion deal that neither the aircraft maker nor leasing company is discussing. ILFC is in talks with Airbus about a potential purchase of the 787's rival, the A350.
JAXA has identified wireless energy transmission technology as an area where it wants to contribute to future exploration initiatives, starting with the Moon. The Japanese agency and its industry partners, notably Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), plan to orbit a demonstration satellite able to beam 100 kw. of solar power collected in orbit back to Earth as microwaves or lasers by 2010. But the technology might be better applied to support lunar bases, says JAXA Vice President Kaoru Mamiya.
Planned talks in Washington next month are expected to determine the climate for transatlantic commercial air-transport relationships for the foreseeable future. Last week's resumption of open skies talks in Brussels between the U.S. and European Union has air transport industry officials hopeful that relations between the two will lead to more positive spirit on a broader level, but significant concerns remain on both sides about what is achievable.
Space officials in Moscow are watching the U.S. House of Representatives closely as it nears action on amending the Iran Non-Proliferation Act of 2000 to allow NASA to buy Russian hardware for the International Space Station. But at the working level that doesn't necessarily mean they are eager to gouge Uncle Sam on the price. Alexander Medvedchikov, a senior space engineer who is deputy director general of the Russian space agency, says amending the act would strengthen the ISS partnership by giving it more flexibility to add a second Soyuz to the station.
U.S. aviation assets will be needed in Afghanistan for the foreseeable future, even if NATO troops expand their role as planned, a panel of military experts says. "If you look at the European members of NATO, what they can actually generate in helicopter lift is very, very small," Christopher Langton, a retired British army colonel, tells a conference on Afghanistan at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. Another speaker, U.S. Army Col. David Lamm, former chief of staff of Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan and now a National War College professor, agrees.
News Breaks 18 Airbus adds second A380 to flight test program 19 NASA team proposes changes to reduce the chance of foam loss 19 Saturn moon Dione poses for photographing scientists 20 Former Air Force One lands at Reagan Library pavilion 20 Russia promotes sale of MiG-29s to fulfill Indian fighter requirement World News & Analysis 24 ISS partners working with NASA to move their hardware forward
Boeing has snagged a new export customer for its Joint Direct Attack Munitions guidance kit, winning an Australian competition to fit the near-precision weapon on F/A-18s. The contract was signed last week. Australia plans to spend A$50 million ($37.5 million) for the weapon. Lockheed Martin and Raytheon were the losing bidders in the program. The Royal Australian Air Force expects to field the new system in 2008. The JDAM will be not integrated on the F-111, which is slated for retirement around 2010.
Northrop Grumman has chosen Alabama as a home for its plant to modify commercial Airbus A330s into refueling tankers for the U.S. Air Force. It would join teammate EADS North America at the Mobile facility if the new team manages to snag all or a piece of the KC-135 replacement work. The facility will be next to EADS's assembly plant. The property would be leased from the local airport authority, says Martin Dandridge, Northrop Grumman's top tanker official.
The Pentagon finalized an agreement with Northrop Grumman to settle up for changes made to the Joint Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS) program following a $1.1-billion budget cut handed down last year. The deal, worth up to $56 million, allows for a third vehicle in the company's X-47 program, even though the requirement has gone away. Also included are an in-flight refueling test and a carrier-landing demonstration on a ship, as opposed to an earlier plan to showcase the capability at NAS Patuxent River, Md.
EADS IS TEAMING WITH DRS TECHNOLOGIES of Parsippany, N.J., to market and produce the EADS Hellas laser-based obstacle warning system that's being evaluated for possible use on U.S. military helicopters. The system can detect obstacles such as power lines. Hellas systems are already in use on German police helicopters, and a version is in development for German military NH90s. The U.S. Special Operations Command is testing and evaluating the system.
Eminent scientists want the British government to reconsider its disdain for participating in manned space exploration, prior to a key European meeting later this year. A trio of top U.K. scientists argue politicians need to revisit the rationale for not supporting British involvement in human space exploration. At 3 billion pounds ($5.3 billion) plus, the cost may prove prohibitive. The scientists suggest a required investment of around 150 million pounds a year over a 20-25-year period.
Ground controllers hope they can adjust the orbit of the International Space Station by this week, after Progress transport thrusters being used to raise the ISS by about 6 mi. cut off early Oct. 18. The maneuver is needed to position the station for the planned Dec. 23 docking of the next Progress set for launch. The initial cause was isolated to a problem in the Progress pressure sensor feedback loop. Should the Progress system be unusable, the ISS can use its own thrusters for this and future orbit changes.
Extreme-weather trials of the Airbus A380 are expected to begin soon, now that a second aircraft has joined the flight test program. The Rolls-Royce Trent 900-powered A380, designated MSN004, along with the first-flight aircraft (MSN001), are to be joined by a third A380, MSN002 soon, so Airbus can ramp up the pace of flight testing. In the almost six months of flight trials so far, the first A380 has completed more than 105 flights and 360 hr. More than 2,500 hr. are planned for the entire program, which will involve five aircraft.
To reduce the chance of foam loss from the space shuttle external tank, a NASA team after a review is proposing near-term changes that should be accomplished before the next flight. Officials expect the changes can be implemented in time for the current May 3-23, 2006, launch planning period.
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Chapter 11 reorganization of Delta Air Lines is striking hard at Comair, its Cincinnati-based regional subsidiary. Comair intends to trim $70 million from annual expenses through downsizing that will include the layoff of 1,000 employees, a 26% reduction of block hour flying and a decrease in aircraft utilization rates to 8.5 from 11 hr. a day. Comair President Fred Buttrell says 30 leased aircraft, chiefly 50-seat Canadair Regional Jets, will be removed from the 174-aircraft fleet, 11 by December.
Mesaba Airlines, regional partner of Northwest Airlines, last week filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Mesaba President John Spanjers said the decision "was not an easy one" but a necessary one. He said the changes imposed on his airline by Northwest since its own bankruptcy filing, along with industry turmoil, caused a dramatic reduction in Mesaba's revenues and left the Airlink partner with an "unsustainable" cost structure. The filing will not affect operations, says Spanjers.
Katie A.M. Pribyl has been named director of communications for the Washington-based General Aviation Manufacturers Assn. She was an administrator at Phaneuf Associates for the FAA National Aviation Safety Data Analysis Center and a pilot for Independence Air.
Backscatter X-ray machines are not being used at U.S. airports yet to screen passengers for explosives, weapons and drugs, but American Science and Engineering Inc. (AS&E) may change that with its upgraded system. The Billerica, Mass.-based company has extensive experience with backscatter systems used by the U.S. government to examine baggage and cargo, but its Body Search system shows images of a passenger's body deemed too revealing for airport use by the American Civil Liberties Union, which also opposes scanning based on ethnic profiling.
Envisat, the European Space Agency's environmental spacecraft, has confirmed global warming trends across the globe. Mission Manager Henri Laur says data from Envisat, which was launched in 2002, in combination with results from the earlier ERS and Topex-Poseidon spacecraft, show the average sea level has risen 3mm. per year since 1992. The rise is attributed partly to ice melt, but mostly to thermal expansion due to an increase in water temperature.
Finnair is boosting its Boeing MD-11 wide-body fleet, focusing on adding frequencies and destinations in Asia. Before year-end, the Finnish flag-carrier expects to add a seventh MD-11 to its fleet, with another to come next year. After starting operations to Guangzhou last month, Finnair plans to offer service next year between Helsinki and Nagoya--its third route to Japan. Finnair President and CEO Keijo Suila says that in the coming years "we will add between one and two new destinations in Asia per year and increase frequencies to current destinations."
