Transaero Airlines has begun flying the first of four leased Boeing 747-200s, which had been operated by Virgin Atlantic Airways. Transaero is the first operator of passenger 747s in Russia and plans to use them for international charter flights and scheduled services connecting Russia with Southeast Asia, South America and Canada.
The Boeing Co.'s St. Louis-based Integrated Defense Systems has received a $175-million contract continuance from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for work relating to the X-45C portion of the Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS) demonstration program. The extension will allow Boeing to conduct a robust autonomous aerial refueling demo and will prolong the current flight test effort by 18 months. The company will keep to the full scope of its previously awarded efforts while maintaining the first flight schedule for the initial two X-45C vehicles.
In the not-too-distant future, U.S. airlines may have a unique opportunity to further irritate their already cranky clientele. Increasingly bereft of "frills" such as sufficient leg room, pillows and food, passengers now face the possibility of non-stop aural assault as their neighbors yak away on cell phones.
Ron Abbott (see photo) has been promoted to executive vice president-mission assurance for Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, Orlando, Fla. He was vice president-tactical missiles at the division's facility in Dallas. Stan Arthur has retired as division president.
Once again, the future of the Air Force's Space-Based Infrared System (Sbirs) High is in question as the Pentagon reviews options to satisfy the program's requirements. After disclosing a significant cost overrun and schedule slip last year--the latest in a string of such disappointments--officials have not yet announced their strategy to purchase up to five geosynchronous satellites for the system. Originally billed as a $4-billion system, Sbirs High's cost has swelled to the $10-billion mark.
Boeing has selected Rockwell Collins to provide the display for the B-1B threat situation awareness system upgrade. The 8 X 6-in. multi-function display will show flight information to improve crew situational awareness and enable inflight mission planning. Link 16 and other data link connections will allow the upgraded system to help crews improve targeting and threat avoidance. In another contract, USAF has selected Rockwell Collins as prime contractor for the second phase of the Ground Element Minimum Essential Emergency Communications Network System.
The U.S. Air Force recently completed a major system design review of the Transformational Communications System satellite segments under development by rival contractors Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Each team is working under separate contracts worth about $500 million to develop a system that can transmit high-bandwidth data securely through space and from space to high altitudes using lasers. Fielding is not expected until roughly 2015.
Another airplane has joined Dassault's Falcon 7X flight test program, which has now accumulated 27 flights and 65 flight hours since the first aircraft took to the air on May 5. A third unit will fly in September, completing the flight test fleet for the ultra-long-range model due to enter service in late 2006.
Once straitjacketed by bureaucratic hurdles and little imagination, India's aviation sector is on a roll. When it racked up $13 billion in orders for 156 aircraft at last month's Paris air show, nobody batted an eye. A decade ago, such orders would have created quite a stir. In those days, when a Boeing manager couldn't drive home long-sought deals, he consoled himself with the fact that at least Airbus hadn't either.
As part of an ongoing effort to increase the profile of next year's Berlin air show (ILA), organizers say the event will mark the first presentation of the Airbus A380 mega-transport to the German public. The aircraft will actually be in Germany long before then, since Airbus' Hamburg facility is used to fit the interior of the aircraft and will serve as the site for evacuation testing later this year. Show organizers also plan to sign a deal next month with Russian air show officials to work more closely together.
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.
