European Union and Chinese civil aviation representatives plan to meet in September to clear the way for both sides to formally negotiate an agreement that would supplant bilateral civil aviation accords EU members have struck with Beijing. The formal talks should commence late this year, EU and Chinese aviation authorities said during a summit concluded early this month. Also on their agenda is opening technical cooperation to China on matters of aviation safety and air traffic management, including the Sesame program.
When the logo of Kingfisher beer appeared on the Benetton-sponsored Formula One race car more than a decade ago, few fathomed that the high-profile brew was an Indian company. But at this year's Paris air show, when parliamentarian and liquor baron Vijay Mallya, chairman of Kingfisher's parent company, the UB Group, placed a firm order for five Airbus A380s, five A330s and five A350s on behalf of his new Kingfisher Airlines, the branding had become universally recognizable.
CMC ELECTRONICS AIMS TO MORE THAN DOUBLE its sales in five years, to more than $400 million, according to Jean-Pierre Mortreux, the president of the Canadian company. In the past four years, CMC's revenues have grown 60% and should hit $160 million this year. Meanwhile, staffing has increased 20%, to 1,000 employees. The growth comes at a time when CMC has won business as a systems integrator, complementing its traditional role as an avionics component and subsystem supplier.
Faced with spending hundreds of millions of dollars to complete a space station its astronauts would visit for at most a couple of dozen two-week stays by the soon-to-be-retired space shuttle, NASA is pushing hard on a "balanced approach" to amending the Iran Non-proliferation Act (INA) of 2000. So far, it has gotten exactly nowhere. The law prohibits U.S. payments to Russia for International Space Station goods and services, and after existing agreements expire next April that will include seats on the Soyuz lifeboats docked at the ISS.
The British Defense Ministry has selected BAE Systems for the next phase of its Falcon tactical secure communications setup. Falcon will operate with the Bowman network, Skynet V satcoms and other similar systems. Falcon is one of several at the procurement stage that will provide the infrastructure for the U.K.'s network-enabled capability.
USAF Lt. Gen. Duncan McNabb, Joint Staff logistics director, has been selected for a fourth star. If approved by the Senate, he will take the top post at Air Mobility Command.
Walter Havenstein (see photos) has become president of the BAE Systems Electronics and Integrated Solutions Group, Nashua, N.H.; Marshall Banker, president of the Customer Solutions Operating Group, Arlington, Va.; and Thomas Rabaut, president of the Land and Armaments Group, also in Arlington. Havenstein was executive vice president, while Banker was president of BAE's Information Systems Sector. Rabaut was president/CEO of United Defense.
Richard L. Armitage has been named to the board of directors of the ManTech International Corp., Fairfax, Va. He is a former U.S. deputy secretary of State, ambassador and assistant Defense secretary.
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Australian low-cost carrier Virgin Blue and the Samoan government in October will begin operating a joint venture airline, Polynesian Blue. Each holds a 49% share; an independent shareholder holds the remainder. The carrier will operate Boeing 737-800s on routes now served by Polynesian Airlines to Australia and New Zealand. Polynesian Airlines will continue to operate its turboprop aircraft and ground handling division.
Component manufacturing and quality control issues associated with flight termination batteries built by Plainfield, Conn.-based BST Systems Inc. will hold up Boeing Delta IV launch schedules for a new geosynchronous orbit GOES weather satellite and launch of the first modernized GPS on a Delta II. Those missions are being delayed by several weeks to late July or into August at the earliest.
Since its start in November 2003, Guggenheim Aviation Partners has been ready to do any good aircraft deal, from leasing passenger planes to buying them, cutting them up and selling off the engines and components.
The FAA has issued an airworthiness directive for some Boeing 727-100/ -200-series aircraft that require repetitive inspections of the carriage attach fittings on the foreflaps of each wing for cracking and other discrepancies. The move is aimed at correcting any fatigue cracking.
Contract negotiations between the FAA and its largest union, the 15,000-member National Air Traffic Controllers Assn., begin this week, and FAA Administrator Marion Blakey and Natca President John Carr gave previews last week in what Carr called "dueling press calls." Actually, Blakey's was an old-fashioned, in-person press conference in which she said the coming talks needn't be contentious but staked out going-in positions virtually guaranteed to make them so.
Mike Brand has been named president of the Cleveland-based Landing Gear Div. of the Goodrich Corp. He was president of the Teleflex Aerospace Manufacturing Group.
Hundreds of NASA and space shuttle contractor personnel in more than a dozen teams across the U.S. are being marshaled to find the cause of a hydrogen depletion sensor problem that forced the July 13 scrub of the space shuttle Discovery's initial return-to-flight countdown. Aging avionics and manufacturing quality issues on electronic components are potential factors being investigated in connection with the hydrogen fuel engine cutoff (ECO) sensor problem.
An economic cooperation pact signed in late June between the governments of India and Singapore has opened the way for Singapore's entry into India's fast-growing aviation market to provide airport ground-handling and maintenance, repair and overhaul services.
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. is grappling with production schedules, funding and supply-chain structure as it presses ahead toward achieving first flight of a pre-production F-35 in 2006, followed by low-rate initial production in 2007.
The U.S. Marine Corps plans to arm the MV-22 with a gun mounted on the aft ramp. The M240, a 7.62-mm. weapon built by Belgian firm FN Herstal, will be fielded with the first MV-22s to begin operation by spring 2007. USMC also is looking at options to provide a door-mounted gun on both sides of the tiltrotor and have it swivel about 180 deg.
For air travelers, the time-saving capability of supersonic aircraft gets a thumbs-up. For many on the ground, the noise gets a thumbs-down. With the aim of decreasing noise, NASA and four industry teams have begun a five-month study of how to design and build a low-sonic-boom demonstration aircraft--at an affordable price and within a reasonable timeframe. Boeing Phantom Works, Raytheon Aircraft, Northrop Grumman/Gulfstream Aerospace and Lockheed Martin/Cessna Aircraft Co. are the four other teams.
SEA, the company running the Milan airports, Linate and Malpensa, is headed for partial privatization. Milan's municipal authority, which owns 84.5% of SEA, plans to offer 34% of the company's shares, with the aim of raising as much as 600 million euros ($732 million). The money would then be spent on several municipal projects. Milan's mayor, Gabriele Albertini, wants the competition opened to both private and public investors, but still needs to have the plan endorsed by the Milan municipal council.
U.K.-based materials manufacturer Magnesium Elektron is completing development of a wrought magnesium alloy, Elektron 675, that is capable of retaining its strength at substantially higher temperatures than similar alloys. The company claims it will be the strongest magnesium alloy at "temperatures above 100C." A spokesman for the company, which specializes in producing metal alloys for the aerospace sector, believes Elektron 675 will be suitable for component manufacture that may have previously required the use of titanium.
