Korean Air Cargo's long climb to the top has been recognized by the International Air Transport Assn., which ranked it first in freight ton kilometers among commercial airlines, at 8,164 billion, in 2004. Lufthansa Cargo had held the title since 1986. (FedEx ranks first in total freight carried.)
Preparations for the launch of Discovery kicked off a major new foreign object debris (FOD) prevention program for the shuttle's massive Launch Complex 39B pad facility. This is to prevent anything from the pad itself posing a risk to the vehicle, as its 7.4-million-lb. liftoff thrust blasts the facility.
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The Pentagon has named Army Brig. Gen. Walter Davis to lead the new Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Center of Excellence at Creech AFB (Indian Springs Airfield), Nev. The new center is designed to foster interoperability among the services as well as develop joint operating concepts.
NASA's plan to use new vehicles based on space shuttle components to launch crews and heavy payloads hasn't won unanimous endorsement from the Air Force, which has a stake in finding as much business as possible for its Atlas V and Delta IV evolved expendable launch vehicles (EELVs).
The German defense budget is slated to grow slightly by 1.4 billion euros for Fiscal 2006 and reach 24 billion euros ($29 billion). Additionally, the defense ministry would have spending authority of another 520 million euros from money raised through the sale of equipment and infrastructure. The long-term budget forecast calls for defense spending to reach 25 billion euros in 2009. The plan unveiled last week also includes funding for a new national air transport research endeavor that would run from 2007-12 and receive 190 million euros.
Chinese weapons development continues apace with progress in both the surface attack and air-to-air arenas. Work on a turbofan- or turbojet-powered cruise missile is in the full-scale trials stage at least, while an active radar-guided air-to-air missile verges on series production. Images of the cruise missile show the weapon being tested with a booster for ship or surface launch. Moreover, sled-tests are being conducted, likely intended to examine intake airflow and engine start-up characteristics.
In an effort to expand its internal air freight capacity, All Nippon Airways says it will sell the 27.6% share it holds in Nippon Cargo Airlines (NCA) to Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK), which has equal share in NCA. A date for the sale has not been fixed, but it is expected to take place by the end of August. No announcement on sale price was made. When completed, the sale will make Nippon Cargo a subsidiary of NYK.
Herve Buchwalter (see photo) has been appointed chairman/CEO of France-based Spot Image. He succeeds Jean-Marc Nasr, who is moving to a new position within parent company EADS. Buchwalter was head of international business development within the Earth Observation, Navigation and Science Business Div. of Astrium.
Coupling air traffic management research more closely to problems that must be solved soon is now a high priority for the U.S. and Europe as they try to avoid gridlock. But the current capacity crunch is propelling the Europeans to forge ahead more quickly. "We will hit the capacity wall soon," says Bo Redeborn, director of air traffic management (ATM) strategies for Eurocontrol. The organization has 35 member nations and aims to develop a seamless pan-European ATM system.
Garth Petersen has been named managing director of sales and marketing for the United Services subsidiary of United Airlines. He was director of worldwide sales. Petersen succeeds R. Gene House, who is retiring.
6 Correspondence 8 Who's Where 10 Market Focus 12 Industry Outlook 13 Airline Outlook 15 In Orbit 16-18 World News Roundup 21 Washington Outlook 45 Inside Avionics 54-55 Classified 56 Contact Us 57 Aerospace Calendar
World News Roundup 16 European Defense Agency eyes tech- nologies for long-endurance UAVs 17 Germany probes air proximity inci- dent over North Atlantic 17 France and neighbors dismantling national airspace restrictions 18 Break-up of Italy's Vitrociset group entering its final phase World News & Analysis 22 Ex-Missile agency chief seeks way to fix Pentagon procurement 24 U.K. industry, government tackle policy, acquisition concerns
Formal World Trade Organization proceedings are set to commence this week to start adjudicating the U.S.-European battle over aircraft subsidies. However, European government officials may make a last-minute offer to settle the Boeing-Airbus matter outside the WTO.
Bruce Hoffman has been appointed to the Rand corporate chair in counterterrorism and counterinsurgency. He will continue as director of Rand's Washington office. Hoffman also has been a senior adviser on counterterrorism to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.
The European Commission has issued a final warning to the Cypriot government to come into compliance with community rules on civil air traffic investigations or face litigation. The commission issued a "reasoned opinion" that the country needs to demonstrate it is complying with a rule that every accident or serious incident be reviewed by an independent civil aviation entity. Cyprus has two months to show it is in compliance with European Union rules. Otherwise, the European Commission may bring a case against the country before the European Court of Justice.
The article on Airbus' selection of a U.S. assembly site should have been entitled "Alabama Wins, U.S. Aerospace Workers and Nation Lose" (AW&ST June 27, p. 34).
Two air show-related crashes in North America resulted in fatalities last week. Veteran air show performers and long-time members of the International Council of Air Shows, Jim Franklin and Bobby Younkin, were killed on July 10 in a midair collision while performing at the Saskatchewan Air Show in Moose Jaw. They were flying in small biplanes, simulating a World War I-era dogfight.
China's new Shijian 7 scientific spacecraft is completing checkout in orbit following its July 6 launch on board a Long March 2D from the Jiuquan space center in the Gobi Desert (photo). The Jiuquan pad used for the flight is part of a new twin-pad complex built there over the past several years for both Shenzhou manned flights and for unmanned missions. The Shenzhou Long March 2F pad is located only a few thousand feet from where the 2D lofted the science mission. The Shijian 7 flight is part of a long series of Shijian multi-disciplinary science endeavors.
Uncertainty is a way of life when it comes to managing air traffic, but new probability analysis is aimed at taming this beast. For traffic flow managers, uncertainty about what might happen on any day in a given block of airspace is exacerbated by canceled or added flights, variable traffic flow and disruptive weather.
An incident involving a Vietnam Airlines flight to Moscow last week highlights ongoing coordination problems between Russian civil and military air traffic control systems. The weekly Hanoi-Moscow flight was almost directed to leave Russian airspace after miscommunication between Russian civilian and air force controllers. The air force had not received formal notification from ATC on the flight and ordered controllers to divert the Boeing 777.
BAE Systems may take a while to digest its $4.2-billion acquisition last month of United Defense Industries (UDI), but the U.K.-based company isn't finished shopping in the U.S. market. "The strategy remains the same," BAE Chairman Dick Olver said on a visit to Washington last week. BAE's North American subsidiary has made six acquisitions in the past 14 months and now accounts for about one-third of the company's total revenues (AW&ST Feb. 7, p. 49). But Olver says there's still room to grow, noting that the U.S. makes up nearly half of the global defense market.
GENERAL DYNAMICS CANADA HAS CHOSEN Telephonics Corp. of Farmingdale, N.Y., to supply 31 shipsets of integrated maritime surveillance radar and Mk. XIIA identification-friend-or-foe hardware and optional spares. The contract, valued at more than $50 million, also includes 20 years of service and support. First deliveries are set for July 2007.
The agenda for the latest meeting of Britain's National Defense Industry Council is suitably terse, covering just two items--acquisition and defense industrial strategy. Both are deemed critical. Senior industry executives and government officials met under the banner of the National Defense Industry Council (NDIC) July 5 to begin to thrash out acquisition and industrial policy issues.
THE FAA MADE ONE SMALL STEP toward a satellite-based navigation system on July 7 when it decommissioned 216 NDB approach procedures. But FAA spokesman Paul Takemoto notes that the actual decommissioning of NDB ground-based navaids is farther down the road. Currently, he says, 80% of NDB services are provided by nongovernment entities such as airports, municipalities and state governments.
