The Zodiac Group has negotiated a $600-million contract to acquire the Huntington Beach, Calif.-based C&D Aerospace Group, a maker of aircraft cabin equipment. It is part of a consolidation trend in the business segment. C&D Aerospace had $400 million in revenue last year. Zodiac says it will finance the acquisition internally. Regulatory approval is still required.
Kawasaki Heavy Industries will use Vistagy Inc.'s FiberSim specialist computer-aided design software for composite structures for fuselage work on the Boeing 787.
The FAA has proposed an airworthiness directive that would require new repetitive tests, inspections and analyses of rudder servo actuators on Airbus A300B2-B4, A300-600 and A310 aircraft. The action is prompted by reports of actuator desynchronization. The FAA points out that desynchronization of one of three actuators, combined with an engine failure, could result in failure of the related hydraulic system and loss of one of the two synchronized actuators. In turn, this could create additional fatigue loading and possible cracking of the attachment fittings.
FRACTIONAL OWNERSHIP OPERATOR NETJETS and Raytheon Aircraft Co. (RAC) have reached a tentative agreement whereby NetJets will buy up to 50 Hawker Horizon super mid-size business jets for its fleet. According to RAC, the agreement calls for a 10-year maintenance program, and is scheduled to be in place by mid-April. The Horizon received FAA certification in December 2004, and production is underway at RAC's facilities in Wichita, Kan.
Donald R. Schreiber has been named chairman/CEO of Kellstrom Industries, Miramar, Fla. He was CEO of GE Aviation Materials. As chairman, Schreiber succeeds James C. Comis, 3rd.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. made final the rest of its tentative decisions on service to China, affirming selection of American Airlines for daily Chicago-Shanghai nonstops beginning in March 2006.
The U.S. Homeland Security and State Depts. announced a "Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative" last week that will require U.S. citizens and foreigners to have passports to travel from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Latin America or Bermuda into the U.S. starting Dec. 31. There will be some exceptions under existing programs such as the Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspec-tion, which is for pre-enrolled frequent border crossers who have undergone background checks.
Even as U.S. and European trade negotiators continue their back-and-forth over aircraft development subsidies, strategists on both sides of the Atlantic are weighing what to do if, as expected, the talks' self-imposed Apr. 11 deadline passes without an agreement. For later, the U.S. eyes other offenders, notably Japan and Russia.
One of NASA's new overseers in the House thinks another look at the space agency's organization may pay off before it embarks for good on President Bush's program of exploring beyond low Earth orbit. Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) says the agency's present structure--set up by former Administrator Sean O'Keefe to tighten its focus on exploration--risks wasting the human capital built up over past decades, particularly in the hard-hit aeronautics programs.
Boeing will convert 10 Lockheed C-130 transports to MC-130H Combat Talon II configuration under a $134-million, first-phase contract from the U.S. Air Force. Plans call for two airplanes to be delivered as part of the initial phase, followed by $446 million to modify the remaining eight. Deliveries are set to begin in July 2008 and continue through 2011. Lockheed Martin and L-3 Communications will receive subcontracts to support Boeing in development and modification work. The MC-130H features a glass cockpit and a sophisticated electronic-warfare suite.
Rachel Ehrenfeld has some facts wrong about man-portable air defense systems (manpads) and airliners (AW&ST Mar. 14, p. 98). Airliners by design are robust platforms; they can take hits and survive. Let's look at two airplanes that have landed with damage that no manpad hits could have inflicted--the Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 that lost most of its cabin roof in 1988 and United 747 that lost a major section of fuselage above the cargo door in 1989.
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The space shuttle orbiter Discovery with its ATK Thiokol solid rocket boosters and modified Lockheed Martin external tank is positioned on Launch Complex 39B at the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC), ready to return the program to flight as early as mid-May (see pp. 24 & 54). The Apr. 6 rollout was the first since Columbia was transferred to Pad 39A in December 2002 preceding its Feb. 1, 2003, accident.
Sen. John McCain strikes again, this time literally reshaping the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) acquisition. The service owed the Arizona Republican no more than a report on cost impacts of converting Boeing's contracting status in the $21-billion program from its "Other Transaction Authority" status--typically used for small research or prototyping projects--to a traditional contract.
Daniel J. Crowley (see photo) has been appointed executive vice president/general manager of the Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, effective June 30. He will succeed Bob Elrod, who plans to retire. Crowley will join Tom Burbage, executive vice president/general manager of JSF Program Integration, at the helm of this international program. Crowley has been president of Orlando, Fla.-based Lockheed Martin Simulation, Training & Support.
Your articles on the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds were very welcome! You mentioned the Blues eventually getting F/A-18C/D Hornets. A better idea would be the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. As some Echo models are finished with testing or made available from other fleet sources, it would be great to see them in Blues markings for the team's 60th anniversary. Also, I hope we will soon see an expired Blues F/A-18A in the National Air and Space Museum.
You published two fine articles on the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds. It was also nice to see us maintenance types get some good press. I have been fortunate to see the Blues fly every aircraft from the Grumman F11F in 1962 to then-McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 in 1989.
There is a widening gap between Europe and the U.S. over aerospace research and development. It may not seem like a big deal, but it's the nature of the gap that ís intriguing.
Boeing has named Asian Composites Manufacturing Sdn Bhd of Malaysia to produce aileron panels and components for the 737NG aircraft. ACM is an alliance between Sime Darby Bhd and Naluri Bhd of Malaysia, Hexcell Corp. and Boeing. It will supply the components to Hawker de Havilland, a Boeing subsidiary in Port Melbourne, Australia. ACM currently produces composite structures for all Boeing aircraft in production.
The Hellenic Air Force has added the Joint Helmet-Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS) to its F-16 Block 52 fighters, and completed tests of the air-to-air and air-to-ground modes of operation. The JHMCS is supplied by Vision Systems International of San Jose, Calif.--a joint venture of Elbit Systems and Rockwell Collins. JHMCS allows a pilot to cue a high-off-boresight air-to-air missile onto a target with a turn of the head, and permits head-on engagements against enemy aircraft without air combat maneuvering. The system is in its fourth block of LRIP.
This is the first of a series of articles on the technologies and policy issues with which NASA has been grappling in preparation for the space shuttle's return to flight. Discovery and a crew of seven are scheduled to be launched next month on Mission STS-114. Four thermal protection repair technologies will be carried by the STS-114 mission on Discovery when the space shuttle program resumes flights as early as mid-May. Three of the concepts will be tested in orbit and the fourth kept in reserve.
New Zealand will buy NH Industries NH90s to replace the air force's aging Iroquois transport helicopters. Details about the cost, total number and delivery timeline are still being worked out.
Gulf Air has signed an agreement with Lufthansa Technik for inventory and component maintenance services over a five-year period. The Total Component Support contract is worth $138 million. Outsourcing the work to Lufthansa Technik will improve the availability of components and reduce downtime and schedule disruptions, according to Gulf Air. The airline will save about $21 million over the life of the contract.
Low-fare carriers are demonstrating they hold the key to customer satisfaction--they ranked first in performance in the 2005 Airline Quality Rating report. The AQR report might be described as the Oscars for airlines. The 15th annual report prepared by the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Wichita (Kan.) State University rated 16 carriers with at least 1% of domestic passenger volume in 2004.
