Bell Helicopter Textron officially opened its Customer Training Academy at Alliance Airport on Jan. 10. The facility features 18 classrooms and more than 41,000 sq. ft. of floor space for mechanics to learn maintenance procedures on the company's product line of aircraft. The building complex eventually will house three full-flight simulators for pilot training. A new, 100-acre practice area, located near the Texas Motor Speedway north of Fort Worth, has three runways. One runway is 2,000 ft. long and is lighted for night operations, and the two others are each 850 ft.
Spanish hotel operator Riu and institutional investors have acquired the 31.3% share in German travel giant TUI formerly held by German bank WestLB for a reported 930 million euros ($1.2 billion). The hotel operator purchased 17.3% of the holding and U.S. and European private equity firms, the remainder.
United Parcel Service will reduce its Airbus A300-600F order to 53 aircraft, down from 90. Forty have already been delivered; the remaining 13 are scheduled to enter into service in 2005-06. UPS plans to order 10 A380Fs (see p. 394).
Airbus economists believe the airline industry will grow 2.8 times in overall size in the next 20 years, while the world fleet will double to nearly 22,000 commercial transports, including 17,300 new aircraft deliveries.
Denmark is mulling a follow-on buy of four EH 101 medium-lift helicopters, using money saved by downsizing submarine operations, according to industry sources. The Danes already have ordered 14 of the three-engine rotorcraft and have four on option. Portugal has taken delivery of the first of 12 EH 101s it has on order. The remainder are due by the end of this year.
FAA OFFICIALS IN WICHITA, KAN., issued provisional certification of the Raytheon Hawker Horizon on Dec. 23, and the first customer delivery took place later the same day. The super-midsize-cabin jet completed more than 1,800 hr. of testing during the certification process. Flight into known icing and operation of the thrust reversers are the key items that remain to be approved before full certification is awarded in the second quarter of this year, according to a Raytheon representative. The company has received 30 orders.
June R. Shrewsbury has become vice president for F-16 programs for the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. of Fort Worth. She was vice president-strategic airlift programs at Lockheed Martin's site in Marietta, Ga.
Marc Dulude has become chairman of Proficiency Ltd., Marlborough, Mass. He was general partner of Ampersand Ventures. Shlomo Dovrat, Proficiency's former chairman and a general partner/founder of Carmel Ventures, will continue to serve on the board of directors.
Senior Russian air force officials are arguing the need to sustain its strategic bomber capability--even though it is the weakest of the country's nuclear triad--with the introduction of upgraded aircraft and weaponry.
The U.S. Army hopes to finalize contract negotiations to formally end the RAH-66 Comanche helicopter program by May 31. The program was canceled last year, and the Army wanted to contain cancellation costs owed to Boeing and Sikorsky to the sums budgeted for Comanche in Fiscal 2004. That still appears to be the case, Army officials say.
Antrix Corp., the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), and Malaysia's Measat Global Bhd. have agreed to form a joint-venture company to develop a satellite broadcasting and telecommunications operation for Asia-Pacific customers. By pooling capacity from neighboring satellites in the orbital slots of 93.5 deg. and 91.5 deg. E.
Wyle Laboratories Inc., a California-based testing, research and engineering services company, will double its size through acquisition of General Dynamics' Aeronautics Services business. An agreement signed last month will bring approximately 1,600 people and more than $220 million in annual revenue to Wyle, positioning the privately held company as a major technical services provider to the aerospace and defense community, according to Wyle President/CEO Gus Yiakas.
There are increasing signs that the Bush administration's year-end proposal to slash military spending is not the final word and that modernization initiatives that have avoided the budget ax could still face dark days. Although defense and industry officials hold out hope that Congress will override many of the proposed cuts, those closely affected by the reductions realize they now operate in a budget environment where modernization spending is inextricably tied to huge war costs associated with Iraq and Afghanistan.
Suzanne Racine has been reappointed to the Transportation Appeal Tribunal of Canada. She is a former director of government affairs and regulatory affairs at Air Transat and has been a research lawyer for McGill University's Institute of Air and Space Law.
Russian defense expenditures continue to grow, albeit from a low base. The state defense order for 2005 will total 187 billion rubles ($6.7 billion), including 112 billion rubles for hardware acquisition, according to news agency Novosti. R&D will receive 62.8 billion rubles for 2005, for 300 programs. The budget for 2004 was 148 billion rubles, and 113 billion rubles in 2003.
EADS has reportedly sold another telecom business, Multicoms, as part of an ongoing effort to spin off noncore businesses and focus on network-centric warfare (NCW) activities. Multicoms, which generates annual revenues of 50 million euros ($66.5 million), was sold to Toadcom of the U.K. for an undisclosed price. The move followed a string of earlier spinoffs, including the sale of a 75% stake in Racoms, a radio and modem supplier based in Germany, to Tadiran and the sale of shares in a civil telecom venture to Nortel (AW&ST Nov. 24, 2003, p. 26; July 28, 2003, p.
Going against the downward trend in the Italian 2005 budget, a modest amount of fresh government funding will be earmarked for aeronautical research and development. The extra funding will enable 30 million euros ($39.6 million) per year for this activity for three years. Moreover, with money tight and the European Union cracking down on financial aid for commercial aviation programs, Parliament laid down strict rules to ensure that the new funds are used only for R&D.
A.D. (Sandy) Wilson has been appointed president/managing director of General Dynamics United Kingdom Ltd., Oakdale, Wales. He succeeds Larry E. Johnson, who is retiring. Wilson was senior vice president/deputy CEO for Thales Land and Joint Ventures.
A U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge in Virginia has ruled that US Airways can cancel a collective bargaining agreement with its machinists union, the only employee group that had not agreed to the airline's plan to reduce labor costs by $1 billion. But US Airways announced it would delay voiding the agreement, after leaders of the International Assn. of Machinists agreed to hold a union vote on the airline's latest contract proposal by Jan. 21. Judge Stephen S.
Aloha Airlines and its corporate parent, Aloha Airgroup, became the fifth U.S. airline--and the second in Hawaii--to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since 2002. Aloha's president and CEO, industry veteran David Banmiller, says the carrier will conduct "business as usual" as it seeks to bring its 737 lease costs down to market levels and reduce other expenses. The privately held airline received a $45-million government-guaranteed loan in 2002 and has repaid about half of it. It has 27 737 aircraft, half of them 737-700s, and employs about 3,600 people.
Final preparations are underway at Cape Canaveral for the scheduled Jan. 12 launch of the NASA Deep Impact mission to the comet Tempel 1 on board a Delta II booster. Liftoff is set for 1:48 p.m. EST on a mission in which the impactor section of the spacecraft is to strike the comet July 4, as the flyby section images the event (AW&ST Dec. 13, 2004, p. 64). The launch was delayed from Jan. 8 by replacement of a structural ring on the Delta.
Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington), Michael A. Taverna (Paris)
Satellite images gathered over the tsunami-ravaged coastlines of the Indian Ocean are supporting what promises to be a years-long international rebuilding effort, just as they helped target future rescue efforts even before the waters receded. Commercial remote-sensing spacecraft have given relief personnel high-resolution color views of coastal plains scoured by the waves, while wide-field civil spacecraft like the U.S. Landsat 7 have started mapping areas literally reshaped by the massive Dec. 26 earthquake off Sumatra.
The acquisition of CMC Electronics' Cincinnati-based division by L-3 Communications broadens L-3's capabilities in the manufacture of infrared products. The division will be known as L-3 Communications Cincinnati Electronics Inc. Based at nearby Mason, Ohio, the company specializes in the design and production of infrared detectors, imaging sensors, missile warning systems, space launch vehicle products and spacecraft electronics. Frank C. Lanza, L-3 chairman/CEO, expects demand for electro-optic/infrared capability to expand rapidly.
U.S. regional airlines' unparalleled ability to slash unit costs, which, along with stepped-up use of the regional jet, propelled the segment's meteoric growth, may no longer be the ticket to success when growth slows down. While common wisdom usually credits low-cost carriers (LCCs) with taking Herculean steps to whittle down expenses and boost efficiency, a new analysis from Aviation Daily and partner Eclat Consulting shows regionals have achieved the greatest cost cuts in the industry.
I am so tired of hearing Europeans trying to justify subsidies. Here we go again with complaints that Boeing commercial aircraft are subsidized by military spending, that this spending provided for the protection of both the U.S. and Europe (and other nations) and allowed the Europeans to develop the A300 during the Cold War rather than put that money toward their own defense. The fact that A380 loans are dependent on a profitable production run eliminates the risks that Boeing must incur with every commercial aircraft it develops.
