Japanese and U.S. officials have agreed to return radar approach control for flights around the U.S. Air Force's Kadena Air Base on Okinawa to Japan by the end of 2006. The right covers a 262-mi. radius that's nearly 20,000 ft. high, plus a 157-mi.-radius/ 4,920-ft.-high airspace above neighboring Kume island. Japan has complained for years that U.S. airspace control for its military activities is too restrictive for commercial flights into Naha, Okinawa's busiest airport, which is near Kadena.
Alaska Airlines is beginning Required Navigation Performance operations at Palm Springs (Calif.) International Airport. The airline pioneered the use of RNP procedures in Alaska in 1996, and this is the first time the FAA has approved full-scale RNP ops in the lower 48 states, the airline says. Alaska expects the improved precision of RNP procedures will enhance schedule reliability.
The U.S. Air Force is exploring signals intelligence options. In particular, the service is asking industry for ideas related to the application of artificial intelligence and new digital processing hardware and software to improve sigint collection and analysis. One of the targets is better intel gathering via unmanned aircraft. Funding for the effort would run three years, starting this fiscal year with $8 million, followed by similar amounts in the next two years.
Mike Schrader has rejoined the Lancair Co., Bend, Ore., as national sales manager. He had been West Coast sales representative for Flying magazine. Schrader succeeds Rich Belzer, who is now director of marketing and international operations.
Regional authorities hope to enhance Toulouse's prominent position in European aerospace through additional programs and partnerships currently in gestation. Aeromart, a two-day business convention recently held here, confirmed that the southwest France-based supply chain and subcontracting network is growing. This has been accelerated by Airbus' decision to boost production by 30% in the next two years and its plan to launch the 245-285-seat A350.
You can now register ONLINE for Aviation Week Events. Go to www.AviationNow.com/conferences or call Lydia Janow at +1 (212) 904-3225/+1 (800) 240-7645 ext. 5 (U.S. and Canada Only) Feb. 16-17--World Aerospace Symposium/Toulouse. Pierre Baudis Toulouse Congress Center, Toulouse, France. Apr. 19-20--MRO Military Conference. Also, Apr. 20-21--MRO USA Conference & Exhibition. Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center, Dallas. May 24-25--Homeland Security Summit & Exposition. Washington.
The Japanese space agency JAXA has turned to Russia to loft its Optical Inter-Satellite Communications Experiment Satellite (Oicets) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome this summer using a Dnepr launcher. The launch will cost about 1 billion yen ($9.7 million), only a tenth as much as JAXA's H-IIA. Japan's policy is to use indigenous launch vehicles for home-built satellites, but the delays caused by stand-down of the H-IIA have backed up demand.
The recently completed terminal building at Harrisburg International Airport includes a state-of-the-art baggage screening system that is one of the fastest and most automated in the U.S.
Frank Morring, Jr. and Michael A. Taverna (Darmstadt, Germany), Michael A. Dornheim (Pasadena, Calif.)
The next Titan landing will likely include a rover, now that Europe's Huygens probe to Saturn's largest moon has delivered enticing images and data of a landscape that looks a lot like Earth--except with hydrocarbon rain, marshy methane lakebeds and granite-like ice canyons.
Improved mission duration and better station-keeping are the next goals for Japan's space agency in its drive to develop a remotely controlled stratospheric airship as a platform for communications, weather observation and broadcasting.
EasyJet intends to use Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg Airport as a major base for European operations. The low-cost carrier will place three Airbus A319s at the airport, and is to recruit the aircrew locally.
European aerospace giant EADS is entering a new phase, one marked by the pending inauguration of a new team and by the desire of company leaders to redirect the revenue stream to achieve a better balance between the defense and civil domains.
Delta Air Lines was late to win cost concessions from its pilots and nearly sank into Chapter 11 for lack of them, but the newly launched product of its cost-cutting, SimpliFares, will move and shake U.S. commercial aviation this year. Atlanta-based Delta, reporting mammoth losses for the fourth quarter and full-year 2004, expects its fare initiative to reduce revenue throughout this year, but ultimately support profitable operations. The initiative reduces the number of fare types, caps prices and loosens restrictions on fares aimed at business travelers.
The European Commission has confirmed it will scrutinize Alitalia's newest recapitalization plan, to ensure that the ailing carrier's proposed financial revamping will not distort competition. Investors are expected to inject 1.2 billion euros ($1.56 billion) into the company's airline arm (dubbed AZ Fly) no later than July in preparation for an in-depth restructuring. Ground activities, which will be dubbed AZ Services, are expected to be placed under a state-owned umbrella.
Boeing has named Korry Electronics of Seattle, a subsidiary of Esterline Technologies, to provide flight-deck control panels, including overhead panels and switches, for the 7E7.
European Space Agency Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain says he, too, has a backup plan in the event the upcoming requalification flight of the Ariane 5 ECA heavy-lift launcher does not succeed. Unlike the situation two years ago, when the ECA failed on its maiden launch, the basic Ariane 5G has a clean bill of health, and there's a sufficient backlog to meet foreseeable demand. Dordain suggests the agency might stop or stretch ECA development in the event of a new failure. The ECA completed a launch rehearsal on Jan. 12, clearing the vehicle to fly on Feb. 11.
Swiss authorities are trying to achieve a balance in investigating the first crash of a Pilatus PC-21 trainer in order to minimize negative focus on the company while giving due attention to safety concerns.
Greece has inked a preliminary agreement with Aermacchi to involve Hellenic Aerospace Industry and other Greek companies in development and production of the M-346 advanced jet trainer. Greece would be the first nation to join the program, which Aermacchi has been trying to convert into an international initiative, with partners sharing development funding.
Air Canada plans to operate nonstop flights four times weekly, starting June 2, between Toronto and Beijing. The airline says the service is the first direct link between eastern Canada and mainland China. The carrier says its new Asia services--which include daily flights from Vancouver to Beijing and Shanghai, and from Toronto to Hong Kong--will boost seating capacity 16% between Canada and China, and provide 45% more cargo tonnage compared with January 2004.
Hearty congratulations are in order to the European Space Agency team that dropped the plucky Huygens probe down on the surface of Titan, and to ESA's collaborators at NASA and the Italian space agency ASI. It was an astounding engineering feat that already has added volumes to human knowledge about Saturn's largest moon.
Last week's unveiling of the Airbus A380 is a crowning achievement for the European company, its employees and suppliers from dozens of countries. It is a significant reminder of what the global aerospace industry can accomplish, and should highlight to everyone that despite much talk that the aerospace industry is a mature one, there is still plenty of room for technical innovation.
Air Canada, in code-share with Star Alliance partner United, is offering daily Boeing 747-400 service from Hong Kong to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The Canadian carrier provides twice-daily nonstop service to Hong Kong, from its Toronto and Vancouver hubs.
ESA officials expect to start the subsurface sounding radar on the Mars Express orbiter in March or April, and not toward the end of the year as feared earlier (AW&ST Aug. 2, 2004, p. 20). ESA Science Director David Southwood says engineers are satisfied that the complex linear coupling mechanisms involved in deploying the radar boom will not harm the other instruments on the spacecraft. The Marsis radar is intended to search for underground aquifers.
Catherine Kuenzel (see photo) has been appointed vice president-field operations in the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Information Technology Sector, Herndon, Va. She was director of the company's cryptologic systems division.
