The Chicago Dept. of Aviation will provide sound insulation for 2,100 homes near Midway International Airport over the next three years under a $52.5-million program. The latest allocation, to come in $17.5-million annual increments, will bring the total Midway investment in sound insulation to $180 million. The 2005 money will be directed to soundproofing 700 homes, 200 more than in 2004. A portion of the funds, $3 million a year, will be dedicated to insulating schools. Since 1996, 2,586 homes have been insulated near Midway.
A decade after the 777 entered commercial service, Boeing is putting the fifth version of the world's largest twin-engine aircraft through flight tests. Due for certification in December, the -200LR is shown on its first flight earlier this year, accompanied by a T-38 chase plane over northwest Washington. This newest 777 will offer airlines a globe-hopping range of 9,420 naut. mi.--the industry's longest-- and it will serve as the platform for a 777 freighter. Photo by Boeing Flight Test Photo Manager Joe Parke.
Pierre Sparaco (Hamburg, Germany and Toulouse, France)
Twenty airports will be ready for the A380 in 2006, when it enters service, and an additional 18 hubs will complete preparatory updates by 2008, according to the European manufacturer's program executives. Richard Carcaillet, product marketing director of Airbus' A380 Marketing Div., says all key airports currently served by Boeing 747s will become A380 destinations. He adds, "Eleven declared U.S. A380 destination airports handle 80% of all U.S. 747 flights today," indicating they can handle high-capacity aircraft.
Northwest Airlines made it official last week that it will become one of the Boeing 787's biggest buyers, placing a firm order for 18 787-8s valued at $2.2 billion, and taking options on 50 more. Northwest will be the first North American customer to receive the aircraft, taking its first six beginning in August 2008. Since the 787 will not enter service until about mid-year 2008, that indicates Northwest was able to secure production slots very soon after the program launch in April 2004 but chose not to announce the order until last week.
JetBlue Airways is expanding operations from Boston Logan International Airport. On May 3, it added new nonstop flights to Las Vegas, San Jose, and Oakland, Calif. The New York JFK-based low-fare carrier moved from Logan's Terminal E, where it had two gates, to Terminal C, where it now has three gates and 14 ticket counters. And more gates are to come--one every six months between 2006 and 2009--for a total of 11. The airline also offers daily flights from Logan to Long Beach, Calif.; Fort Lauderdale, Tampa and Fort Myers, Fla. and Denver, Colo.
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Chuck Parks (see photo) has been appointed vice president-North American sales for Aitech Defense Systems, Chatsworth, Calif. He was director of business development for systems for Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing.
Safety- and engineering-related pictures of the shuttle Discovery in orbit will include imagery by secret U.S. Defense Dept. ground-based high-resolution systems and, where possible, one or more U.S. Air Force/National Reconnaissance Office imaging reconnaissance satellites already in orbit. Advanced versions of the original KH-11 digital-imaging reconnaissance satellite have had the capability to do medium-resolution "space-to-space imaging" of other vehicles dozens of miles away in space since the early 1980s.
Mesa Air Group subsidiary Freedom Airlines will become a Delta Connection carrier under an agreement forged between Delta Air Lines and Mesa. Freedom will operate up to 30 CRJ200 aircraft on Delta routes for a 12-year period, with the first aircraft scheduled to enter service as early as October 2005.
Southwest Airlines has long been a standout in the beleaguered U.S. airline sector, posting profits for 56 consecutive quarters while running one of the most efficient operations the industry has ever seen. But have Wall Street's expectations for its stock soared too high?
I have been flying on commercial airlines for 35 years, logging the equivalent of 160 days in the air. Unfortunately, I can attest that the "romance of flying" that once existed is on its deathbed. The symptoms are rife. I went from being a pampered passenger to being a customer who is told to take a seat and don't move. I am ordered to close my window shades to the beauty of the sky so that fellow customers can watch an inane movie. Or worse, my "window" turns out to be a blank wall because the airline has squeezed in more rows of seats.
Buoyed by robust growth in its aerospace business, metal casting and forgings supplier Precision Castparts Corp. reported net income of $41.1 million (63 cents a share) for the quarter ended Mar. 31, a 70% gain from the same period a year earlier. Quarterly sales rose 27% to $809.5 million. Ammunition and space propulsion supplier Alliant Techsystems saw its quarterly net income decline 3% to $48.2 million ($1.26 a share), but its revenue increased 18% to $800 million.
Investigators examining the rudder that separated in flight from an Air Transat A310 on Mar. 7 discovered delamination damage to two rear attachment lugs (AW&ST Mar. 21, p. 20). The information was revealed in a Transportation Safety Board of Canada incident update released last week. The damage was discovered during an ultrasonic inspection of the aircraft's vertical tail assembly conducted Mar. 19 at Airbus facilities in Bremen, Germany. Loads and aeroelastic models are being formulated to evaluate the damage.
On May 3 Lockheed Martin received the center fuselage structure for the first preproduction F-35 Joint Strike Fighter at its facility in Fort Worth. Built in Palmdale, Calif., by F-35 teammember Northrop Grumman, the fuselage section will be mated to the forward fuselage and wing, built in Fort Worth, later this month. The empennage assembly, manufactured by teammember BAE Systems at Samlesbury, U.K., is scheduled to arrive in Texas at the end of the month. First flight of the F-35 is tentatively scheduled for the third quarter of 2006.
NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin has backed away from the exploration course set under his predecessor, deciding that agency personnel will handle systems engineering and integration (SE&I) for the new exploration initiative instead of bringing in a contractor. Griffin halted release of a planned SE&I request for proposals that had been the subject of well-attended government/industry meetings here and in Nashville, Tenn., over the past month. The agency released a policy statement Apr. 27 withdrawing plans for the RFP.
Once again I found a lot of European- bashing in your correspondence section (AW&ST Apr. 18, p. 6). I am not surprised because Airbus starts to be a problem for the U.S. industry. Nobody talked about Airbus in the 1970s; most of the U.S. aerospace industry was laughing at these poor Europeans who dared to build a plane, the A300, with no experience and know-how.The subsidy problems were not addressed; nobody in the U.S. was betting on Airbus becoming a key aerospace industry player.
The first flight of the Airbus A380 opens the next era of civil transport. It is an era that is unusual for its contrasting views of how the market for airliners will unfold, and one with big differences in technology. And it is an epic battle between two powerful, highly visible companies--Airbus and Boeing--each of which reach around the world both in their customers and suppliers. The last time the game was this interesting was when Boeing's 747 came out, followed by the Douglas DC-10 and Lockheed L-1011. The new outcome might take a decade to be realized.
AC Propulsion has flown a solar-electric drone continuously for more than 24 hr., which company officials believe is the first time this has been done. The SoLong aircraft used lithium-ion batteries to store solar cell energy during the day to power it at night. SoLong has a 15.6-ft. wingspan, weighs 25.4 lb., and transmits television and telemetry back to a ground station.
Just to set the record straight: When Alaska Airlines started to "pioneer" the use of head-up displays in 1989, Swissair had been operating the MD-81 for seven years to 50-ft. decision height using a HUD (AW&ST Mar. 28, p. 54).
Michael Benson has become executive vice president/chief information officer of DirecTV, El Segundo, Calif. He was solutions partner at Businessedge Solutions Inc.
Britain plans a major upgrade for its seven Boeing E-3D Sentry early warning aircraft. Under the rubric of Project Eagle (E-3D Advanced Generation Long-term Enhancement), the Defense Ministry is seeking a prime contractor to implement the program. Requests for proposals have been issued to several companies, with the ministry seeking two potential primes by year-end. Contractor selection is anticipated by 2007, with the upgraded aircraft expected to enter service early in the next decade. The ministry is keen on ensuring its AWACS aircraft remain compatible with the U.S.
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC) said it will terminate and become trustee of United Airlines' four defined-benefit pension plans under an agreement the agency says is better than remaining an unsecured creditor in United's bankruptcy reorganization. Subject to approval by United's bankruptcy court, the PBGC would take over pensions that are underfunded by $9.8 billion, $6.6 billion of which is guaranteed.
Alitalia expects the European Commission (EC) to rule in favor of its restructuring plan. Unconfirmed reports out of Brussels say that the airline satisfies the EC's requirements for state aid. A draft decision will be reviewed by Transportation authorities prior to the EC's formal vote, which is expected in late May.
Eumetsat says design changes following a NASA decision not to provide a wide-swath ocean altimeter for the Franco-U.S. Jason-2 altimetry satellite will delay launch of the spacecraft up to four months. Deferral of the launch, initially set for April 2008, will increase the risk of a break in continuity with Jason-1, which was orbited in late 2001.
The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (Speea) says Boeing is violating the National Labor Relations Act by designating employees as "voluntary resignations" if they do not want to accept job offers from Onex Corp., which is buying Boeing's Wichita, Kan., and Tulsa, Okla., facilities.
