Air-India will lease three Boeing 777-200/300s for five years starting in December to add three flights to Los Angeles and three to London. Captains will be sourced from abroad, while copilots will be recruited from within the organization. The airline also is expected to evaluate bids for two 747 Combis. Meanwhile, its subsidiary Air-India Express has taken lease bids for 11 737-800s for its launch of services next April.
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) Nov. 16-17--A&D Programs. Biltmore Hotel, Phoenix. 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.
U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Robert T. Dail has been nominated for promotion to lieutenant general and assignment as deputy commander of the United States Transportation Command, Scott AFB, Ill. He has been the command's director for J-3/4.
Military space resources are providing essential communications, navigation and intelligence support to U.S. combat forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, but commanders are desperate for new ways to defeat insurgents' "idiotic technology" that kills coalition troops every day.
Europe's Helios 1B surveillance satellite, which provides military imaging to France, Italy and Spain, has been deorbited following a power supply failure. The French defense ministry noted that the spacecraft, which was launched in December 1999, was only designed for a five-year lifetime, and that full backup capacity will be available from Helios 1A. However, Helios 1A was orbited in 1995, and although the ministry insists operation is nominal, pressure is likely to grow to quickly launch the first next-generation replacement, Helios 2A.
As it looks toward a new generation of fuel-efficient airplanes, Boeing is closing the books on one of its biggest success stories from the world's first energy shock. On Oct. 28, about 5,000 company employees will mark the end of production of the 757 at a ceremony at Boeing's Renton, Wash., plant for aircraft No. 1,050. Powered by Pratt & Whitney engines, that jet is destined for Shanghai Airlines, although it and No. 1,049 will be held in storage at Boeing Field until next April before the Chinese customer actually takes delivery.
Jim MacDonald has been appointed chief financial officer/secretary and J. Dennis Heipt and Bruce McComish to the board of directors of Metal Storm Ltd., Brisbane, Australia. MacDonald succeeds Sylvie Moser-Savage, who has resigned. He held similar positions at the Endeavour Foundation. Heipt is retired as corporate executive vice president/secretary of the Science Applications International Corp., while Mc- Comish is chairman of investment bank Burdett Buckeridge Young Ltd.
Delta Air Lines and US Airways are approaching the endgame in their respective struggles to evade and survive Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. For airlines, cash in the bank at the end of September buys time to absorb seasonally poor operating results in the fall and winter. In good times the carriers earn profits and build up cash in the spring and summer. In bad times--and fall 2004 is as bad as times get--their ability to make it through the winter is in doubt.
Aviation Technology Group (ATG) and Israel Aircraft Industries have joined forces to develop and manufacture an advanced jet trainer based on ATG's two-seat Javelin T commercial jet. A Javelin prototype is expected to make a first flight before year-end.
Lockheed Martin managers concede their "design error" probably caused the Genesis solar sample return capsule to crash into the Utah desert without benefit of its planned midair recovery. A NASA failure-review panel tentatively traced the mishap to gravity-switch devices that were unable to trip a parachute-release timer upon reentry Sept. 8 because they were installed backward, apparently the result of inaccurate design drawings. "It was a design error we made," Joe Vellinga, program manager for Genesis at Lockheed Martin, tells the Rocky Mountain News.
Eight airlines are asking the European Commission to block an Italian government rescue plan for ailing Alitalia, saying the move would constitute an unfair barrier to competition. In their veto request, British Airways, Lufthansa, Iberia, TAP Air Portugal, Austrian Airlines, SAS, Hapag-Lloyd and Finnair asserted that the rescue plan is really disguised state aid. Air France and KLM, Alitalia's partners in the SkyTeam alliance, declined to join the protest, which was roundly denounced by Italian political and labor officials.
China has reduced its value added tax to 4% from 6% on imported aircraft because of the competition domestic carriers face since a U.S.-China air services agreement expanded rights for four U.S. carriers. Lowering the tax is intended to make it easier for Chinese carriers to acquire more efficient aircraft. High import costs have pushed the average debt/equity ratio for Chinese carriers to more than 90%.
Walter L. Davis is among several Army colonels who have been nominated for promotion to brigadier general. He is the incoming commander of the 20th Support Command (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and High Yield Explosive), Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. Others are: Michael Ferriter, assistant division commander for operations of the 82d Airborne Div., Ft. Bragg, N.C.; Jeffrey C. Horne, deputy commander for operations of the Army Space and Missile Defense Command, Arlington, Va.; James L. Huggins, Jr., chief of staff of the 18th Airborne Corps and Ft.
Denel Aerospace has a new design for medium-altitude, long-endurance surveillance unmanned aircraft to meet South African Air Force's emerging requirements for a reconnaissance UAV. South Africa ceased operations of the Seeker II short-range tactical UAV because of maintenance problems, so the search is on for a replacement system (AW&ST July 19, p. 164). A new program launch is anticipated for 2006, with refined requirements for the future system expected in 2005.
Momentum is escalating in the U.S. Air Force for rebuilding its long-neglected electronic warfare capabilities, in particular standoff jamming, after that mission was handed off to the Navy a decade ago. In that time, capabilities--driven by miniaturization, processing power and new electronic warfare (EW) techniques--have exploded. A major first step in resuscitating the capability is adding a powerful, long-range jamming system to the B-52.
The "novel . . . propulsive anti-torque system" featured by Lockheed Martin's unmanned combat armed rotorcraft (UCAR) sounds like nothing more than an adaptation of the well-established no-tail-rotor (Notar) concept (AW&ST Sept. 6, p. 46).
After four years of development, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is getting ready to field-test its Dynamic Tactical Targeting system. The tool is supposed to link different types of sensors to a common grid to continuously track a target. Moreover, it is supposed to allow military commanders to predict future target motion. Darpa says it has demonstrated the capability, albeit only in simulation. It now wants to exercise that capability in the field during a two-year effort that would end in late 2006.
The Transportation Security Administration's Secure Flight program, entering a 4-5-month test program, will save airlines money after initial conversion costs, TSA's national risk assessment director, Justin Oberman, predicts at a Heritage Foundation meeting. At first, airlines will spend money adapting information systems to provide passenger name record data to the TSA, but savings will follow as the TSA takes over the airlines' current job of vetting passengers against terrorist watch lists.
The future of airborne electronic attack and intelligence gathering is taking shape with at least two non-negotiable boundaries. Payloads will have to have many functions, and there will be fewer aircraft around, manned or unmanned, to carry them.
The Antonov design bureau may be a step closer to joining the ranks of the fast-growing regional jet sector, following the rollout of its first An-148-100 twinjet in mid-October. The new 70-80-seater is slated to perform its maiden flight by late November and be joined by a second flying prototype in December. The Ukrainian company aims to obtain a Russian AP-25 type certificate, after completion of a 600-flight test program, by the second quarter of 2006.
The Army's decision to pull financial support from the Unmanned Combat Air Rotorcraft (UCAR) project with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency may be on the verge of being overturned. As Pentagon officials closely review and adjust the military service's Fiscal 2006 budget submissions, the UCAR maneuver will come in for particular scrutiny, suggests a senior Defense Dept. official. "We are going to try to stop the Army from making a big mistake," he says.
John White, editor of Avion magazine, and Pam Ryan, managing director of entertainment worldwide for Spafax, have received 2004 Lifetime Achievement Awards from the McLean, Va.-based World Airline Entertainment Assn. for contributions to the airline inflight entertainment and communications industry. White was credited with pioneering the use of video for inflight safety and destination information and for duty-free sales, and with helping to create the first inflight news magazine shows.
Israeli electronic warfare contractors developing a directed infrared countermeasures (Dircm) system expect it to undergo flight tests and enter operational service on Israeli airliners as early as 2006.
