As interest in ADS-B heats up around the world, Thales is upgrading its Eurocat system to handle this new type of surveillance in Australia nationwide, giving the French company a potential edge over competitors.
Decades of brainstorming by a plethora of time- and money-wasting commissions and committees aimed at solving an imagined air-capacity problem has resulted in nothing but buzzword-driven confusion. The U.S. doesn't have a capacity problem, only a self-imposed one because airlines want only to fly to certain airports. There are hundreds of perfectly capable airports, including U.S. Air Force bases that could absorb capacity growth handily, but that would make all those doomsayers and committees irrelevant.
BAE Systems is working on a classified low-radar-observable UCAV project, dubbed Nightjar, for the British Defense Ministry. The sensitive program has been underway for several years, and an airframe may already have been built. The unmanned combat air vehicle program follows on from the company's Testbed low-observable-aircraft work, which saw a full-scale airframe built and tested on the company's radar cross-section range.
All Nippon Airways has asked Japan's transport ministry for the right to double its fuel surcharge rates on most routes to Europe and North America to $48.
Embraer is ramping up an intense certification schedule for the four members of its commercial jet family, with the Embraer 170 already in service in Europe and the U.S.
Eurocopter is augmenting and streamlining production for main rotor blades and studying new blade designs in a bid to increase competitiveness, keep up with rising output and meet future operating requirements. Profitability at the trinational company, as at other EADS affiliates, is under intense pressure because of unfavorable dollar-euro exchange rates. At the same time, capacity needs are rising rapidly, driven by the ramp-up of production for the NH90 and Tiger military helicopters and booming export sales (AW&ST May 30, p. 29).
Improperly installed components, found in critical electronics for the new Modernized Global Positioning System spacecraft series, will spark quality-control revisions at ITT Industries, which builds the parts, and at Lockheed Martin, the GPS prime contractor. Left undiscovered, the problem could have resulted in the navigation system failure of at least three of the Modernized GPS satellites about to be launched to support military and civil users around the world.
Keith Williams has become Seoul-based vice president-Asia-Pacific region for Boeing subsidiary Alteon Training. He has been director of business and simulator operations.
Nanocomposites have been hyped as having the potential to be many times stronger and stiffer than standard composites, but experiments by an aerospace company show structural improvements so modest that they aren't worthwhile. Instead, the nanofillers might improve the properties of a composite resin in other ways, such as increasing electrical and thermal conductivity or fire-resistance. The "nano" refers to ultrafine fillers that are measured in nanometers, or less than a micron in size.
General Electric Aircraft Engines says it expects 2005 revenues to reach a record $13 billion because of strong demand in both the civil and military sectors. Revenues in 2004 were $12.6 billion.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. denied JetBlue Airways' November 2004 request for an exemption for its Embraer 190 aircraft, scheduled to enter service late this year, from the requirement for cabin space to stow a folding wheelchair. Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and the Air Carrier Assn. of America opposed the application, as did three disabled-persons advocacy groups.
Paul M. Murphy (see photo, p. 16) has been appointed president of Stowe Machine, Windsor, Conn. He was general manager of Precision Speed Manufacturing.
A group of 4-H students from Farmington, Minn., beat 99 other teams to win the 2005 Team America Rocketry Challenge, held in Plains, Va. At 59.9 sec., the agricultural youth organization team's rocket came closest to staying aloft for the specified 60 sec., and its payload of two hen's eggs returned to Earth uncracked. The event, sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Assn. to interest U.S. high school students in aerospace careers, drew 500 students from 27 states.
The European AeroSpace and Defense (ASD) industries association is asking governments to provide increased financial support to sustain a competitive industrial base and to live up to the financial commitments made by the European Union recently in its 7th Framework Program, 2007-13. Providing the resources for the R&D undertaking is vital, asserts ASD President Pier Francesco Guarguaglini who also heads Finmeccanica.
The European aerospace industry continues to lag U.S. competitors in terms of generating growth, with indications that matters will worsen unless significant restructuring takes place--at least according to the latest findings of an industry-wide assessment by Paris-based AT Kearney.
Air New Zealand has acquired a $20-million Boeing 777 flight simulator to train pilots to operate the new 777-200ER, which will replace the airline's 767s. By year-end, the first of eight 777-200ER that ANZ has on order will roll off the production line in Seattle, according to Chief Executive Ralph Norris. All eight ANZ aircraft are to be delivered by the end of 2006. Norris says some 777-200ERs would be put into service to San Francisco and Japan. The airline is a launch customer for the 787 and expects to take delivery of two aircraft in 2010.
Michael A. Taverna (Paris and Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany)
French defense research agency Onera and German aerospace center DLR are attempting to give new impetus to a long-standing plan to integrate their R&D activities--particularly in aeronautics--despite occasional conflicting political and economic realities.
This nondescript industrial city south of Frankfurt is Europe's eye on the cosmos, where data from European Space Agency (ESA) scientific spacecraft are first translated into new insights on how the universe works.
Threat perceptions are receiving high priority in Sri Lanka and India. The Norwegian-led Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission is reporting that the "air assets" of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam include an airstrip in the north and two or three Czech-built Zlin Z-143 aircraft, but warned that any move by government forces to bomb it could lead to destabilizing of security in the region.
After reading concerns about airport capabilities for handling the Airbus A380 (AW&ST May 9, p. 38), I have questions about its weather-alternate requirements.
The $408-billion Defense appropriations bill for Fiscal 2006 is expected to go to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives later this week. In clearing the bill June 7, the House Appropriations Committee cut $143 million from missile defense, slashed more than $425 million from two military space programs and recommended terminating the troubled Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (Jassm) program. President Bush had requested $150 million for Jassm, but the committee's bill provides just $2 million to close out existing contracts.
South Korea's Jeju Air, which was founded in January to provide low-fare flights to Jeju Island, a popular vacation spot, has ordered five 74-seat Bombardier Q400 turboprops with options for three more. The deal is valued at $120 million.
Israeli defense electronics maker Elisra is rolling out new electronic warfare equipment applications aimed at the highly competitive military aircraft and helicopter upgrade markets.
Researchers are moving into the final phase of determining how much turbulence an A380 will leave in its wake. Airbus hopes its design will meet the goal of generating vortices no more severe than those of a Boeing 747.
