OnAir, a joint venture of Airbus and Sita Information Networking Computing, has chosen Siemens to provide Airbus aircraft with global system for mobile communications (GSM) capability. Siemens will provide the GSM technology in the form of a lightweight pico cell and an onboard channel selector under the exclusive agreement. Airline passengers will then be able to connect to the pico cell inflight with their cell phones, laptop computers and personal digital assistant devices. A satellite link will connect the aircraft to the ground-based infrastructure.
Governments' growing appetite for satellite capacity continues to drive more official agencies to strike long-term capacity agreements with private operators. Late last month, Algeria Telecom selected Eutelsat to provide broadband capacity for public administrations and enterprises throughout the country. The service will be supplied by the Atlantic Bird 3 and a new DVB-RCS standard platform at a teleport near Algiers.
U.S. airlines are operating more efficiently than they have in years, traffic is at record levels, and more seats than ever are filled. They're also barreling toward a collective loss of $5 billion or more this year. The disconnect: An unrelenting spike in oil prices that has effectively wiped out big cost-cutting gains made by legacy carriers.
NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate has awarded some study money to the two teams competing to replace the space shuttle with a simpler Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) that can range from the International Space Station to Mars. Teams headed by Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman/Boeing each will get about $28 million for engineering support to the agency's review of ways to hasten the transition from shuttle to CEV.
James Woolsey has been appointed chairman of the Technical Advisory Committee of San Diego-based Information Systems Laboratories. He is a former CIA director, undersecretary of the Navy and ambassador to Tactical Nuclear Weapons Negotiations. Other members of the new committee are: Norman Augustine, retired chairman/CEO of the Lockheed Martin Corp.; U.S. Army Gen. (ret.) Paul Gorman, former commander of the Southern Command/commanding general of the Army Training and Doctrine Command; Kent Kresa, retired chairman/CEO of the Northrop Grumman Corp.; and USN Adm.
Jennifer Betka has been appointed vice president-interactive for New York-based Sirius Satellite Radio. She was vice president-global marketing for Time Warner.
In Inside Avionics, Honeywell Aerospace President and CEO Rob Gillette observes that it takes many years to develop "domain expertise," since it's one thing to write code and quite another to know how to apply it to aircraft (AW&ST June 13, p. 190). Gillette went on to say Honeywell wants to tap into Chinese design engineering talent.
A top National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) official says "near space" has potential for military purposes but--for now--only at lower altitudes. The environment is favorable up to about 85,000 ft. but deteriorates above that, says Air Force Col. (ret.) Pedro Rustan, director of advanced science and technology for NRO. "The percentage of the weight that you can use for the payload is down to about 1% by the time you are at 75,000 feet," he says.
After more than 20 years of development, the U.S. Navy's operational test and evaluation arm has deemed the V-22 operationally suitable and effective although procurement officials say they are fixing some items in time for fielding the first 12 in 2007.
Airbus has some catching up to do if it wants to beat Boeing in terms of orders for 2005. But entering the second half of the year, the European aircraft maker's new management faces more serious matters than merely winning bragging rights. Through midyear, Boeing is ahead in aircraft orders by more than 100, with a bit more than 400 received. Airbus' order book lists a comparatively thin 276.
Eurocopter has delivered five AS350 B3 Squirrels to Helicopter Transportation Group of Scandinavia, with five more on option. HTG already operates 35 Eurocopters. In a separate move, Eurocopter said it would establish a maintenance and support facility in Poland to service the EC120 and EC130 light helicopter lines, in cooperation with Polish operator Heli Invest. Additionally, the first NH90 assembled by Patria of Finland made its debut flight on July 13. Patria, partly owned by EADS, is set to assemble at least 50 of the frigate/ transport helicopters by 2011.
Emilio Romano, who is CEO of Mexicana, has been elected to the executive committee of the Miami-based Latin American Airline Assn. (AITAL). Other committee members are: AITAL President Juan Emilio Posada, co-chairman of Avianca; AITAL Vice President Pedro Heilbron, CEO of Copa; Enrique Cueto, CEO of LAN; and Roberto Kriete, CEO TACA.
Maastricht Upper Area Control Center in the Netherlands handled 7.9% more traffic in the first half of the year compared with the same period in 2004 and set a daily record on July 1 with 4,479 flights, up 5.8% from the previous record on Sept. 10, 2004, according to Eurocontrol. Despite the strong growth, delays are down to 6 sec. per flight during the first half of this year from an average of 40 sec. during the first six months of 2004.
Randall J. Brady has been promoted to director of sales and marketing from national sales manager of the Industrial Div. of Deft Coatings Inc., Irvine, Calif.
NATS and the Irish Aviation Authority welcomed what they called a ground-breaking report from consultants that finds that U.K. and Irish airspace could be consolidated into a "functional airspace block." The consolidated upper airspace over the two nations could be controlled from centers at Shannon, Prestwick and Shanwick, but more work is needed before such a proposal would be presented to the respective governments. Eurocontrol is encouraging nations to create larger functional airspace blocks as part of its single European sky initiative to increase ATM efficiency.
Pierre Dubois, former CEO of MBDA France, has been appointed to the strategic committee of Toulouse-based i3M. He has been an industrial and commercial consultant.
The notion of encouraging air travelers to undergo background checks in exchange for access to expedited security screening at U.S. airports has a lot of appeal to road warriors. Small wonder. They're fed up with the frustrations and indignities that pretty much define commercial flying.
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro wants Defense Dept. Inspector General Joseph E. Schmitz to report the status of an investigation into an Air Force contract awarded in 2001 to Accenture under the supervision of then-USAF acquisition manager Darlene Druyun. She subsequently was convicted of conspiring with Boeing's then-chief financial officer to steer business to that aerospace company. DeLauro (D-Conn.) says she is particularly interested in the award of the Financial Information Resource System contract to Accenture because the company has an offshore corporate parent.
Bell Helicopter Textron plans to initiate flight testing of its M407 helicopter with the more powerful Honeywell HTS900 engine in the fourth quarter of this year. It replaces the Rolls-Royce 250-C47B. Bell officials determined they needed a more powerful engine for their U.S. Army Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter bid and to compete in India for the country's high-altitude utility helicopter program. Engine integration design has been completed. Flight testing would take place at Bell's XworX rapid prototyping facility.
Edward Fred, president/CEO of CPI Aerostructures Inc., Edgewood, N.Y., has won the Ernst & Young Metropolitan New York Entrepreneur of the Year 2005 Award in the manufacturing category. Paul Graziani and Scott Reynolds, cofounders of the Analytical Graphics Corp., Exton, Pa., have won in the technology category in the Ernst & Young program for Greater Philadelphia and Central Pennsylvania. Mark S. Newman, chairman/president/CEO of DRS Technologies Inc., Parsippany, N.J., won in the government services category in the program for New Jersey.
India and the U.S. will investigate the compatibility of data from U.S. Landsat and Indian IRS satellites under an agreement reached during the first meeting of the India-U.S. Joint Working Group on Civil Space Cooperation in Bangalore. The bilateral panel also set up a study of the feasibility of establishing an Earth station in India for the U.S. National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (Npoess).
FedEx's plans to introduce the Airbus A380 into its fleet is a major factor in its decision to move its Asia-Pacific hub from Subic Bay, the Philippines, to New Baiyun Interna-tional Airport in China in 2008, the same year it begins flying the new aircraft. Subic Bay's approaches are considered too restricted for safe operations with the A380, especially in typhoon season. The company now uses MD-11s as its transpacific freighters. Guangzhou's status as a major industrial city in the Pearl River Delta was considered a plus, as is China's booming economy.
Vought Aircraft Industries is responsible for construction of the Global Aeronautica manufacturing complex being built at Charleston, S.C. (AW&ST June 27, p. 58).
Problems with a critical development program and continued uncertainty in Sweden over the country's commitment to a European unmanned combat air vehicle project are adding to the list of woes for the country's main aerospace and defense company, Saab. Technical hurdles in developing the tactical mission system for Sweden's NH90s has forced Saab to take a second-quarter charge and will drive down earnings for the year. The $32.5-million charge alone will reduce this year's operating margin by 1%, the company reports in its half-year earnings statement.
