Air New Zealand is acquiring 17 Bombardier 50-seat Dash 8 Q300 turboprop aircraft for its Link carrier Air Nelson, which will replace 17 Saab 340As. ANZ has options for an additional 10 Q300s and 13 Q400 70-seat transports. Deliveries will start in July at a rate of one aircraft every six weeks. The 17 aircraft are valued at U.S. $269.5 million, which the carrier intends to pay off with debt instruments. If the options are taken, the amount could increase to $716 million.
Japan's government is rethinking the business case for the Quasi-Zenith satellite program to develop a new generation of spacecraft that will combine global positioning services with a communications and broadcasting mission. Among the innovative ideas being proposed: use the satellites to control Japan's rail network (AW&ST Feb. 23, p. 96). The program mixes development funding--$820 million from the government, $730 million from industry--and is headed toward launching a three-satellite network beginning in 2008.
America's Founding Fathers never saw an airplane, but they valued transportation. George Washington, for one, spent years promoting plans for a canal from the Potomac River over the Appalachians to the Ohio River. Transportation meant liberty, economic growth and national unification. Washington would never understand why our government prevents law-abiding Americans from flying their own aircraft into his namesake city. He knew all about national defense and military threats, but I'm sure Washington would see these restrictions for what they are: political cowardice.
Kent Craver, manager of onboard product marketing and research for Continental Airlines, has been elected president of the McLean, Va.-based World Airline Entertainment Assn. He succeeds Mary Rogozinski, manager of onboard systems planning for United Airlines. Other officers are: vice president, Maver Mayuga, product research and development officer for Philippine Airlines; secretary, Sue Pinfold, director of business operations for Spafax; and treasurer, Sylvia Arndt, CEO of Inflight Productions USA.
Rudy Toering (see photos) has been appointed manager, Paul Hewett assistant manager and Jim Lonas director of training of the impending Farnborough, England, training facility of FlightSafety International. Toering also will remain director of European business development. Hewett was chief pilot for Motorola U.K.
As a business traveler who spends some of his flight time working on reports or preparing plans, I am interested in the rapidly approaching improvements in online connectivity and found your article "The Activist Passenger" interesting (AW&ST Sept. 27, p. 38).
Boeing received a $767-million contract last week for five years' work on the X-45C Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle. First flight of the more operationally representative X-45C is slated for 2007. The Boeing award follows a similar five-year contract that was issued to competitor Northrop Grumman several weeks ago.
Maxime A. Faget, the Langley Research Center engineer who made important aeronautics breakthroughs and designed the Project Mercury spacecraft that carried the first U.S. astronauts into space, died at home near Clear Lake, Tex., on Oct. 9. He was 83 and had been battling bladder cancer.
Finmeccanica's business strategy is expected to remain in place despite a management reshuffling that was completed late last week. Pier Francesco Guarguaglini remains chairman of the Italian aerospace/defense group, and Giovanni Castellaneta has been appointed vice chairman. He was Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's diplomatic adviser. Giorgio Zappa, chief executive of Alenia Aeronautica, has become Finmeccanica's chief operating officer. He succeeds Roberto Testore, who resigned and recently joined Trenitalia, the state-owned train operator.
To submit Aerospace Calendar Listings, Call +1 (212) 904-2421 Fax +1 (212) 904-6068 e-mail: [email protected] Oct. 21--Wings Club Meetings: Charles Elachi, director of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Also Nov. 18--Robert A. Milton, president and CEO of Air Canada. And, Dec. 15--Gerald Grinstein, CEO of Delta Air Lines. Yale Club, New York. Call +1 (212) 867-1770, fax +1 (212) 480-3641 or see www.wingsclub.org/events.html
After years of limiting foreign sales of the Tomahawk land-attack cruise missile to the U.K., the U.S. Navy is nearing agreement on T-LAM deals with other European allies. Although the Navy favors such sales, the agreements would require a State Dept. endorsement, says Keith Sanders, the service's deputy program executive officer for strike weapons. Three countries are believed to be at the top of the potential buyers' list, with Spain as the hottest prospect. The U.S.
THE PERFORMANCE OF HIGH-SPEED optical communications systems may be enhanced as a result of a new theory from scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The hypothesis describes light-pulse dynamics in optical fibers and explains how an interplay of noise, line imperfections and pulse collisions leads to deterioration of information in optical fiber lines. A better understanding of the physics will allow comparison of different techniques for suppressing information outages.
David W. Danjczek has been appointed corporate vice president-compliance and ethics for the Titan Corp. of San Diego. He has been vice president-administration/secretary of the Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI and director of its Ethics and Compliance Council.
Apparently continuing its recovery--at least from the critical list--Swiss International Air Lines continues to see load factors edging up. Figures released last week showed the airlines' average load factor for the first nine months of 2004 up at 75.2%. Load factors from the first half of the year averaged 73.4%. European short-haul routes remain difficult, though the figures also show improvement. The nine-month average stands at 62.1%, up just over 3% for the same period for 2003. Load factors on its intercontinental routes also climbed by 3.6%, to 80.9%.
Regarding George Hamlin's question--"why make rule changes to rescue the legacy carriers, given their track record?"--certainly they were handmaidens to their own destruction, chiefly by managements' agreements to expensive labor contracts, which destabilized their economic equations and made profitability elusive if not impossible. However, it's not all the airlines' fault; the U.S. government also bears responsibility (AW&ST Oct. 4, p. 8).
Germany's Diehl BGT Defense and Rheinmetall Defense Electronics will team with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems to offer that San Diego-based company's Predator B medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle in Europe. General Atomics will supply the air vehicle and the German firms, the payload and ground segment. Diehl will act as the lead.
Craig Welsh has been named vice president-customer business for China for International Aero Engines, East Hartford, Conn. He was Asia-Pacific general manager for Pratt &Whitney.
Swedish developers are devising a massive electronic warfare enhancement for the JAS 39 Gripen that would give the multi-role fighter a fully integrated defensive system usually associated with new-build aircraft. Flight testing of the basic equipment has already begun, and equipment developer Ericsson expects that, barring funding cuts, production-ready hardware should be available around 2009. But that doesn't mean the gear will find its way onto Gripen, particularly given Sweden's austere defense budget. Flight trials on Gripen haven't been scheduled.
Despite widespread dissatisfaction with the current formula, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) hasn't decided yet whether or how to change the way it sets the aviation security infrastructure fee, the amount it charges airlines as their share of security costs. By law, each carrier was liable during Fiscal 2002, 2003 and 2004 for the amount it spent on screening in calendar year 2000, before the government took over security operations.
Production and modification of military aircraft of every description sustain aerospace/defense companies worldwide, ranging from the single-engine Pilatus PC-9 turboprop trainer to the four-engine Boeing C-17 long-range transport. While the number of new programs has greatly diminished in the last decade, new designs are in various stages of development. They include the Airbus A400M transport and Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
Russia is continuing to restructure its defense sector, with aerospace manufacturer NPO Mashinostroenya to form the core of a consolidated guided weapons and space systems company. This pulls together 11 entities involved in the design and manufacture of cruise and ballistic missiles, as well as satellite platforms.
As French President Jacques Chirac returns from a state visit to Beijing, European aerospace managers find themselves holding little more than some new orders for existing models of Airbus aircraft and a joint effort to develop a medium-lift helicopter--a modest result, considering the pre-trip hype, particularly over the A380 mega-transport.
Romania is offering to lease a large underused military base for training and as a staging area for forward deployment. The U.S. has been seeking new bases in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia to improve access to crisis areas and compensate for the wind-down of troop strength in Western Europe and Asia. Romania has contributed forces to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and was recently accepted into the European Union.
