The Russian air force is to bear the brunt of cuts in the armed forces, losing both fighter and bomber units. Overall, the three main military services will be reduced by slightly less than 10%. While the government intends to increase defense expenditure in 2005, it is also now planning to reduce the size of all three services. The move likely reflects a desire to free up additional funding for research and development (R&D), along with the ability to procure next-generation systems.
The rationale behind the U.S. Air Force's wanting to have a gun on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is simple, says Chief of Staff Gen. John P. Jumper. Fighters operating over Iraq use their guns daily. Jumper even has visions of more sophisticated gun use to combat guerrilla warfare. On his wish list is a hovering unmanned aircraft that could navigate an urban landscape, fly to a specific building, surveil activity inside a room there and, if necessary, fire a sniper rifle to take out a target.
NTT DoCoMo, the big Japanese mobile phone service provider, is the latest to reach agreement with Connexion by Boeing's inflight broadband service for laptop applications. The agreement means subscribers to DoCoMo's Mzone wireless local area network service can use their same user identification and passwords in flight for wireless laptop Internet services and be billed by Mzone. The service is to begin on Lufthansa flights Oct. 22. All Nippon Airways will add Connexion in November, Japan Airlines in December.
Dave Collogan, editor of Aviation Week & Space Technology affiliate Weekly of Business Aviation, last week received the 2004 Platinum Wing Award from the National Business Aviation Assn. (NBAA) for excellence and lifetime achievement in aviation journalism. Fred George, senior editor of the affiliate Business and Commercial Aviation and a writer for B/CA ShowNews, also received an award from NBAA for his reporting on safety issues connected with the new class of very light business jets.
Building on a decade of victories in Asia for its Trent engine series, Rolls-Royce has captured the year's biggest prize for a new engine program with the first big order to equip Boeing's 7E7 midsize jet.
The Boeing Sea Launch heavy commercial booster is ready to resume flight operations following an investigation into the cause for the premature shutdown of its Russian Energia Block DM-SL upper stage June 28. Once again, quality control has been implicated in the cause of a Sea Launch mishap. An investigation team found that a short circuit in a cable that transmits propellant data to the Block DM engine control system tricked the avionics into thinking propellant had been depleted, causing the device to shut the engine down prematurely, the investigation board found.
On another matter, Stone says the government has a sense of urgency on improving methods to detect explosives that might be smuggled onto aircraft by passengers. He notes that 40 million passengers have gone through TSA checkpoints since enhanced checks were instituted in late August after the midair destruction of two Russian aircraft by explosives on Aug. 24. TSA began using explosives trace detectors at passenger checkpoints to examine all carry-on bags of passengers selected for additional screening as a result of that incident.
In similar news, Kid-Systeme has delivered the first cabin management system for the double-deck Airbus A380--the touch-screen Cabin Intercommunication Data System. CIDS controls such functions as heating/air conditioning by zones, entertainment systems and lighting. The CIDS comes in two sizes. Each deck will have a master 15-in. display. The master control can monitor all cabin functions, but within specific cabin zones flight attendants will be able to run systems from as many as 11 half-size displays.
World News Roundup 20 Italian defense budget may be sub- ject to severe cuts for 2005 21 German firms, General Atomics team on Predator B in Europe 21 Finmeccanica's business strategy expected to remain in place 24 NBAA rebuts claims of underpay- ment of fees by business aviation World News & Analysis 28 Stage set for strong deliveries of busi- ness jets for at least year or two 30 Supersonic bizjets, derivative aircraft mark annual NBAA convention
After aerostructures manufacturers, aero engine makers and satellite operators, it's the turn of computer reservation systems to feel the heat of private equity firms. Leading airline investors in Europe's Amadeus--Air France (23%), Iberia (18%) and Lufthansa (5%)--are expected to receive offers from Carlyle, KKR, Permira, Eurazeo and other leading funds early next month. Iberia and Lufthansa, which sold 13% of its holding earlier this year, are said to be interested.
The Italian defense budget may be subject to severe cuts for 2005, under proposals from the government now being deliberated in parliament. A sluggish economy, together with a political desire to cut taxes, is forcing the government's hand on defense expenditures. The defense ministry will lose 1.36 billion euros ($1.67 billion) from the plan for 2005 that it drafted in mid-2004. This is on top of cuts of almost 1 billion euros for the latter half of this year.
UNIVERSAL AVIONICS WILL USE THALES' SkyNav GG12W GPS receiver integrated circuit boards in the company's new flight management systems for business jets. Developed specifically for aviation use, the boards receive GPS and the Russian Glonass satnav signals, as well as the GPS' Wide Area Augmentation System signals. The receiver operates in both autonomous and differential modes, which is valuable for precision approaches, and has extensive antijamming capabilities, according to Tucson, Ariz.-based Universal Avionics.
David A. Fulghum (Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, and Washington)
This is the second report on new technology being introduced with the 3rd Wing's F-15Cs at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska. Earlier articles appeared in the Oct. 4 issue, pp. 49-51. In addition to the APG-63(V)2 AESA radar, built to detect small cruise missiles, the wing is introducing the AIM-9X and helmet-mounted cueing system. Such testing occasionally provides surprises, such as the beyond-visual-range capability of the helmet device.
The Israeli government is buying 18 Beechcraft Bonanza A36 single-engine airplanes for transportation and utility missions, and holds options for another six. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in November and end in April 2005. The contract is worth $11 million.
Noel Gauthier has become executive vice president-finance and Alain Marcheteau general counsel of France-based Snecma. Marcheteau succeeds Alain Bosser, who has been named adviser to the chairman.
Fighter units in Alaska offer a glimpse of what USAF squadrons may look like once shrinking acquisition budgets have forced test-and-evaluation activities, and even some development work, out of the test community and into the operational force.
Lufthansa Cargo and the German post office, Deutsche Post, have agreed to closer cooperation on the delivery of international air mail. Lufthansa capacity will be used by the post office in its Globalmatch service, which consolidates air mail shipments from other postal services for bulk transportation. Frankfurt will be strengthened as a logistics base, a focal point for Deutsche Post and Lufthansa. Jean-Peter Jansen, chairman of Lufthansa Cargo, said he expects increased shipments and improved capacity utilization.
Airlines in many parts of the world began increasing fuel surcharges last week as the cost of oil per barrel surged past $50 with no short-term relief in sight. In the U.S., where intense competition has squelched previous attempts to raise fares, increases seemed to be taking hold.
The Homeland Security IG Office has issued a report stating that the TSA spent $461,000 to host its first awards program in Washington last Nov. 19, including lodging, transportation and per-diem allowances for about 650 recipients and 600 guests. "In our view TSA's choices proved to be excessive," the IG said. In addition, TSA distributed $1.45 million in cash awards to 88 agency executives for their Fiscal 2003 performance appraisals or 76% of those eligible versus an average of 49% in all government agencies.
Business jet manufacturers are $247-million winners in Congress' corporate tax overhaul (see p. 32), but their perk is hardly unique. Analyzing the "Jobs Creation Act," Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan watchdog group that tracks government spending, found hundreds of goodies in the 650-page measure. There's a $44-million break for ceiling fans imported from China and other nations, a benefit that's not likely to create many American jobs.
Pier Francesco Guarguaglini has been elected president of the ADS AeroSpace and Defense Industries Assn. of Europe. He is chairman/CEO of Finmeccanica and succeeds Mike Turner, chief executive of BAE Systems. EADS co-CEO Rainer Hertrich was elected president-designate for 2005-06.
Gene M. Seibert has been elected national commodore of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary. He is a retired director of international, government and domestic contract management for Lucent Technologies.
In a Sept. 27 review of inflight technology (p. 38), Connexion by Boeing was identified as conducting a pico cell demonstration on board its Connexion One aircraft. The call with a mobile telephone was actually made with a point-to-point application using WiFi technology, not cellular.
