World News Roundup 26 Startup airline agrees to buy $3.8 billion in 737-800s and 7E7-8s 26 First leasing customer for Boeing 747 freighter conversion program 27 EADS and Snecma explore space propulsion merger 28 Japan looks to U.S.' Yakota base for more airport capacity World News & Analysis 32 Day by day, Delta and US Airways are running out of both time and money 34 American, Northwest and Continental results bow to high fuel, low yields
Osama bin Laden doesn't appear to be in day-to-day control of Al Qaeda or any other terrorist group, says Lt. Gen. David Barno, chief of the combined forces command in Afghanistan, but "there's nothing that would indicate to us that he has died." As to his earlier prediction that bin Laden would be run to ground by year-end, Barno says, "I don't make predictions any more in terms of when we're . . .
BAE Systems is joining the Lockheed Martin team competing for the Joint Tactical Radio System Airborne and Maritime/Fixed Station activity. The team is squaring off against a Boeing-led effort, with a decision slated for Fiscal 2006.
The FAA is adapting for Chicago O'Hare airport the system it uses to allocate unscheduled arrival opportunities at the remaining High-Density Rule airports--New York LaGuardia and Kennedy, and Washington Reagan. The system, subject to public comment in a fast-track rulemaking, will apply from Nov. 1 through Apr. 30, 2005, the period in which the agency is limiting scheduled arrivals to 88 per hour. (AW&ST Aug. 23/30, p. 48) to avoid congestion and delays.
Sagem reported a 16% jump in operating earnings over the first nine months of 2004, to 143 million euros ($180 million), on sales of 2.2 billion euros (up 12%). Growth was mainly attributed to non-defense activities.
The crash of an MK Airlines Boeing 747-244BSF aircraft that killed all seven crewmembers was the fourth for the East Sussex, England-based cargo carrier since it began operations in 1990. The aircraft, Reg. 9G-MKJ, Flight MK1602, carrying mixed cargo, crashed at takeoff from Runway 06 at Halifax (Nova Scotia) International Airport on Oct. 14 at 3:55 p.m. local time. According to preliminary FAA accident data, the 747 crashed into a quarry and was destroyed. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is investigating.
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.
