The forced resignation of pilot union representative Christian Paris from the Air France board of directors last week could spell trouble for the airline as it prepares to open talks on a new labor contract. The union forced Paris to step down during the shareholders' assembly, suggesting he was not sufficiently backing its interests.
Boeing says China Cargo Airlines has ordered two 747-400ER freighters valued at $430 million at list prices. Deliveries are set for July 2006 and August 2007.
In the face of growing concern about terrorist threats, France and several of its neighbors are approving agreements that call for dismantling national territorial overflight restrictions. The pacts will give the nations' air forces more flexibility in responding to attacks. The bilateral agreements that are now being put into place represent a significant policy change, because they effectively grant a foreign military the right to operate, albeit with restrictions, in another country's airspace.
Overcoming the East Coast's capacity glut, Southwest Airlines parlayed higher fares, cost controls and its aggressive fuel hedging program into a $277-million operating profit for the second quarter of 2005. Net profit reached $159 million, and both represented year-over-year increases of more than 40%. Continuing double-digit capacity expansion despite brutally competitive market conditions for airlines of its size, Southwest is targeting 15% earnings growth for 2006. "We've got the momentum to pull it off," CEO Gary Kelly told securities analysts July 14.
The NASA Kennedy Space Center is seeking input from commercial or military development programs that could make immediate use of the huge shuttle landing runway here as shuttle operations begin to wind down. Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) testing by Northrop Grumman and Zero Gravity Corp. commercial operations are two concepts already being discussed with potential users. "We believe there could be many types of potential uses," says Jim Kennedy, center director.
An expanded plan to fund a network of research clusters stands to help Airbus and other European aerospace/defense contractors, government agencies and R&D institutes leverage one another's technology strengths, as Silicon Valley does in the U.S. The French government last week selected the regions of Midi-Pyrenees and Aquitaine, around Toulouse and Bordeaux, as one of six "world-class" clusters.
Capt. Denny Breslin's comments are spot on regarding the Federal Flight Deck Officer program (AW&ST July 4, p. 6). As a former federal law enforcement officer and firearms instructor, I worked closely with the Allied Pilots Assn. during deve- lopment of the FFDO program. Our group was met with hostility and institutionalized resistance by the Transportation Security Administration. Suggestions of practical policy and standard procedures were dismissed because they came from pilots.
Safran unit Aircelle plans to shut down an aging production facility at Meudon la Foret, near Paris, dedicated to aero engine nacelles. Safran said there will be no direct layoffs; most of the 620 employees will be transferred to a new plant at Plaisir, also near Paris.
U.S. Air Force leaders are reviewing a new vision that could guide the service's science and technology research expenditures for decades. A "strawman" vision was to be presented at Macdill AFB, Fla., during last week's Corona Top conference, a periodic gathering of USAF generals and top civilian leaders. The conference typically consists of strategic-level discussions about high-priority current and future issues.
Passenger counts at Indian airports are expected to jump 2.5 times in the next five years--to 50 million from 19 million--as a booming economy and new low-cost carriers stimulate demand. They will step into airports plagued by bureaucratic wrangling that delays construction. The Center for Asia Pacific Aviation, a Sydney-based consultancy with an office here, estimates India must spend $20 billion in public and private investment over the next decade if it's to keep pace with the growth spiral.
Lord King of Wartnaby, who led the privatization of British Airways, died July 12 in his sleep. He was 87. King was named chairman of BA in 1981 by then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. By 1987, the flag carrier was a listed company with a heavily oversubscribed initial public offering. During King's tenure, BA's route structure and fleet were overhauled, while 23,000 jobs were cut. He retired in 1993.
Michael A. Taverna and Robert Wall (Taverny, France)
French commanders are convinced that progress in integrating communications and information systems will be crucial to allowing NATO's quick-reaction force to become an effective fighting tool. For the time being, "forced entry" into a country in the face of stiff air defenses, and finding and attacking "time-sensitive targets"--such as mobile ballistic missile threats--remain outside the alert unit's immediate ability. But for other missions, such as noncombatant evacuations, the new NATO Response Force (NRF) is seen as largely operational.
Rosoboronexport has inked a deal with China to supply 100 Salyut Al-31FN turbofans for Beijing's newest fighter, the J-10. The turbofans are slightly modified from the Al-31s used in Sukhoi Su-27s, which China operates as well. The deal, estimated to be worth $300 million, follows deliveries of 54 engines of the same type last year.
Evergreen International Aviation's modified Boeing 747 Supertanker (AW&ST June 27, p. 14) could be a superb supplement to the U.S. Forest Service in what is starting out to be a tough forest-fire season in the West. Its 20,000-gal. capability (an entire swimming pool) should be noted.
NASA's New Horizons Pluto probe is on track for a January launch as it undergoes ground tests at Goddard Space Flight Center, Md., before shipment to its Florida launch site. Shown here in a Goddard clean room at the start of three months of spin, acoustic and thermal vacuum testing, the spacecraft is topped by its 2.1-meter high-gain antenna. The visible and infrared imager dubbed Ralph is the plate-like object at the right end of the probe, just below the ultraviolet imaging spectrometer named Alice.
I am disappointed with the recent spate of NASA bashing ("Griffin Headed on Bad Course" and "NASA Repeating Itself" [AW&ST May 30, p. 8]). The problem with NASA is that it has not had the hands-on approach that Administrator Michael Griffin has provided. The "government's role is oversight" myth is exactly what has kept NASA impotent before contractors. "Oversight" has come to mean rolling over to what the prime contractors want. You tell contractors to build what you need, not build what they want.
Boeing said it delivered 155 commercial aircraft during the first half of 2005 (85 in the second quarter), continuing a slight increase over previous years. The 737 and 777 accounted for all but 20 of the deliveries. Through May 31, Boeing's order backlog was 1,225 aircraft, including 872 737s and 168 777s. Its official order count for the 787 has risen to 128 out of 166 orders and commitments. At this point in 2003, Boeing had posted 145 deliveries; last year that count rose to 151.
The Deep Impact impactor spacecraft scored a direct hit on comet Tempel 1 on July 4 (see p. 28). The flyby craft took this picture 67 sec. after the strike, with its high-resolution camera. The ejected material is illuminated by sunlight and is much brighter than the comet nucleus, which is darker than charcoal. The Deep Impact team includes NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. and the University of Maryland. Image by NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Maryland.
The orbiter Discovery's 8-min. 30-sec., zero-to-Mach 25 launch to orbit will be propelled by Space Shuttle Main Engines and Solid Rocket Boosters that have undergone substantially increased testing and rigorous quality oversight in the two years since the Columbia accident. Any serious propulsion emergency on the 4.5-million-lb. vehicle, climbing initially on 7.4 million lb. thrust, could be a life-or-death issue for the seven-member STS-114 crew.
Add something new to the "How-Much-Does-THAT-Cost?" file. The Transportation Dept. issues its first monthly report, mandated years ago by Congress, on U.S. airline incidents involving pets on board their flights, "a new source of information that will help consumers make informed decisions about whether and how to travel with their pets." During May, we learn, four pets died, five were injured and one was lost in operations by six airlines. The department says two million animals are carried by air each year. That implies an incident rate of six per 100,000 operations.
Karl Kettler forgot a piece of the puzzle in his comments on what he believes are airlines' self-imposed capacity problems brought by restricting flights to hub airports (AW&ST June 13, p. 8): It is the "not in my backyard" mentality of neighbors of underused or unused airfields. Just look at the closure of MAS El Toro in Orange County, Calif., and the political aftermath.
Lufthansa Systems hopes its new airline information technology project FACE will help carriers cut distribution costs by enabling legacy systems to communicate with emerging IT products.
Defense electronics company Elbit Systems Ltd. is acquiring Koor Systems Ltd.'s 70% holdings in Elisra Electronic Systems Ltd. for $70 million in cash. In addition, Elbit is accelerating the acquisition of a portion of Koor's 18.2% stake in defense communications company Tadiran.
USAF Col. (ret.) Richard Graham has received the Kelly Johnson Trophy from the SR-71/U-2/KC-135Q Blackbird Assn. The trophy is a lifetime achievement award for contributions to the SR-71 Blackbird program and is named for Clarence L. (Kelly) Johnson, the former head of the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works. Johnson was considered responsible for the development of approximately 40 aircraft, including the U-2. He also was involved in the design of the SR-71.
