Having spent 34-plus years in the U.S. Marine Corps and having fought for just about every Marine aviation program has provided me with a concern that every one we select be the very best possible, not only for this great country but also for every individual who steps foot into the aircraft, either as a passenger or crewmember.
Your editorial concerning the Boeing-Airbus assistance controversy ignores the root cause of Boeing's problems (AW&ST Oct. 11, p. 90). The editorial meanders about claims of largely unverifiable levels of debatable government financial assistance to both parties and makes the level playing field as the central core for reform. But you fail to address the long-blatant and largely successful anti-competitive practices that have lulled Boeing into a state of complacency and expectations.
The French government plans to sell 30% of the shares in Areva--a state-owned nuclear engineering company. The sale could affect a proposed Snecma-Sagem merger. Under terms of the proposal, Areva would have a 7.5% share of the combined companies (AW&ST Nov. 8, p. 32). The partial privatization of Areva would reduce the government's control of the future entity, in which the state would have a 35.9% direct stake. Snecma officials say its board of directors has approved the merger, set to occur by mid-2005.
The Australian Macquarie Group will acquire a 70% stake in Biac, Brussels-Zaventem airport's management company, for 735 million euros ($948 million). Belgian Budget Minister Johan Vande Lanotte's team rejected rival proposals submitted by France's Vinci and Spain's Ferrovial. Macquarie, a fund management and financial services company, is heavily investing in multiple industry segments, including air transportation. Biac last year posted an 18.9-million-euro profit on 271.4 million euros in revenues.
QinetiQ's Tarsier Radar System was first announced at the Maastricht air traffic control conference this year, and has been in test at major airports in North America and Europe.
That technology innovation is the lifeblood of any industry is a given. That it is especially so for the broad spectrum of aerospace-related venues stands to reason, as does the volume and inventiveness of emerging or enhanced products and services each year. To achieve these breakthroughs, the market is driven by a raft of factors--safety, speed, accuracy and cost-saving among them, with security increasingly being an impetus.
Although acknowledging the value of ongoing efforts to restore the efficiency of passenger terminals, European airlines are rebelling against growing costs of airport operations. After the Assn. of European Airlines (AEA) undertook a study of airport fees, it found that major airports are not simply passing on the costs of handling passengers, they're billing airlines well above that cost. It's time for the European Commission to curtail this practice, says Le Thi Mai, the AEA's director of infrastructure and environment.
State-owned Indian Airlines' $2-billion proposal to acquire 43 Airbus A320-series aircraft, which has been on hold for two years, has been cleared by the Public Investment Board. The board also has decided to ask the government to guarantee funds for the acquisition. Civil Aviation Secretary Ajai Prasad said the 19 A319s, four A320s and 20 A321s will cost $133 million less than earlier estimates due to the falling value of the dollar. The aircraft deliveries are to start in 2006.
Lufthansa German Airlines will not reach its planned staff cost-cutting target this year due to longer-than-expected negotiations with pilots and other employee groups.
Five American Airlines flight attendants were injured, one seriously, when Flight 952 encountered severe turbulence on Nov. 2. The Airbus A300B4-600 departed Miami and was about 50 mi. southwest of its destination, New York-JFK, between 21,000-23,000 ft. altitude, when the event occurred, according to FAA preliminary data. Under a June 2002 airworthiness directive stemming from the Nov. 12, 2001, crash of AA Flight 587, an Airbus A300-605R, the aircraft type would require certain inspections following an inflight incident that results in extreme lateral loading.
Setting the stage for potentially stormy labor negotiations during the second half of her five-year term as FAA administrator, Marion Blakey tells employees in a satellite-phone broadcast that their pay structure is out of whack and, when measurable against the private sector, increasingly higher than the market. Blaming "agreements negotiated before I got here"--under her predecessor, Jane Garvey--Blakey says employees are treated differently.
The quality of food served on airliners has long been open to public criticism. Now, water. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Nov. 9 received commitments from 12 major U.S. carriers to pursue more testing of the quality of drinking water on board aircraft. Results of initial tests conducted by the EPA from August-September showed 12.6% of the 158 inspected aircraft carried water that did not meet agency standards. The agency last week initiated more water quality inspections on aircraft at 14 U.S.
GenCorp received a $770-million ($17-a-share) takeover offer from New York investment fund Steel Partners II, one of its major shareholders. Steel Partners blasted "misguided business decisions" by the California-based aerospace propulsion supplier and said a decision earlier this month to publicly offer 6.6 million shares of common stock would dilute the interests of existing shareholders. GenCorp did not im- mediately respond to the offer, but its stock rose 24%, to $17.50, on Nov. 11.
SES Americom has started high-definition TV services using AMC-11, kicking in what it says is the industry's first two-satellite HD cable neighborhood. The neighborhood, dubbed HD Primetm, commenced operation in May with an identical C-band satellite, AMC-10, located at 135 deg. W. Long. In addition to AMC-11, situated at 131 deg. W., Primetm also includes a backup spacecraft--AMC-7--at 137 deg. W. On Nov. 1, Americom's sister company, SES Astra, started supplying services to three HDTV channels operated by Munich-based Premiere.
Orbital Sciences Corp. has all the time it needs to do extra loads analysis on a NASA autonomous operations test mission, having decided its engineers "didn't feel comfortable" with the analysis that had cleared the mission for launch. "A review of projected loads data, or the G-forces the payload experiences upon ignition of the Pegasus second-stage, is being reevaluated to ensure mission success," the space agency stated in announcing the latest delay of the Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology (DART) mission. Launch had been set for Nov.
Boeing's ScanEagle UAV has now logged more than 1,000 flight hours in Iraq since it was deployed with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force late last summer. Critical hurdles that the 4-ft.-long, 10-ft.-wide unmanned aerial vehicle (seen on its launcher) has cleared include the ability to operate in extremely hot, dusty and high-wind conditions. The aircraft gives live electro-optical and infrared feeds to battalion-level combat operations centers, to shrink the time for surveillance or targeting data to move from the UAV's sensors to shooters on the ground.
A slot-race via consolidation of Japan's unprofitable discount carriers is not going smoothly. Skymark Airlines, eager for more slots at Tokyo's Haneda airport, has been trying to acquire Hokkaido International Airlines (Air Do), without success. A merger or acquisition of one by the other would be complementary, and they both operate Boeing 767s. Next April, the transport ministry is due to allocate more slots at Haneda to discount carriers, to be split among Skymark, Air Do, Skynet and Star Flyer.
Intelligence demands from the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have changed dramatically in the last year from traditional data on organized forces to an intense focus on individuals, events or organizations and what links them--including their financial underpinnings. Moreover, enemy communications have evolved in that time from classic radios to hard-to-detect (low-power), hard-to-decipher (encrypted), hard-to-pinpoint (cell phone) communications.
Rhonda Gagner has been named head of cargo marketing, John Barry head of air carrier marketing and Brian Sexton public information officer for the Williams Gateway Airport Authority, Mesa, Ariz.
Further elements of Finmeccanica's U.S. strategy are falling into place and company executives signal that additional steps to bolster its position lie ahead next year.
Robert L. Nelson, who is chairman of Ballistic Recovery Systems Inc., South St. Paul, Minn., also will be CEO. In that position, he succeeds Mark B. Thomas, who has resigned but will remain as a consultant.
The Citation CJ3's combination of more powerful engines, a fully integrated avionics package and a more spacious cabin make it an attractive entry to the highly competitive small-cabin segment of the crowded business jet market.
Acting Pentagon acquisition chief Michael Wynne last week formally signed off on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program restructuring that accommodates engineering changes to reduce weight on the aircraft. The new plan slides first flight of the short take-off and vertical landing aircraft to late 2007, but ensures it will be in a production-representative configuration. Earlier plans did not include weight reductions on the first Stovl aircraft.
