The Army's desire to purchase twin-engine transports for on-demand delivery of small, high-priority loads is stalled due to low-key disagreements with some in the Air Force about who owns them, who controls them and how many the Army wants. The roles-and-missions disagreement over the so-called C-XX program will go for adjudication to the Pentagon's Joint Requirements Oversight Committee (JROC) panel, chaired by the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, later this month.
Thomas R. Harter has been appointed to the board of directors of US Airways Group Inc. He succeeds Perry Hayes and will be the board representative for the US Airways' chapters of the Assn. of Flight Attendants and Transport Workers Union. Harter is senior vice president/consultant at The Segal Co. in Washington.
New facilities in North America for global freight and package delivery companies are providing fresh evidence of growth as different directions in the $55-billion sector are emerging. In the last week, DHL opened regional sort centers in Denver and Salt Lake City, two of seven facilities slated for start-up in the next two months as part of a $1.2-billion investment program. FedEx set up service centers in Aurora, Ill., and Fremont, Ind., and UPS in Louisville, Ky., was preparing for a far-ranging boost in supply management.
European nations are divided on setting up a high-speed broadband access network to help bridge the "digital divide" and ensure that Europe does not fall further behind the U.S., where satellite broadband plans are advancing by leaps and bounds. Greece and Cyprus are exploring the feasibility of ordering a second HellasSat for the proposed network (AW&ST Sept. 13, p. 28), while Italy is studying a dedicated K a-band spacecraft of its own, perhaps on a partnership basis.
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Evergreen International Aviation Inc.'s Air Center at Marana, Ariz., will handle maintenance for the NASA-DLR Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (Sofia) when it begins flying next year. Sofia is a converted Boeing 747SP from United Airlines, which had been set to provide operational care until the airlines' straitened finances necessitated its withdrawal from the project. Sofia, which has an open-air cavity for clear sky viewing at 40,000 ft., is undergoing structural modifications by L-3 Communications Integrated Systems in Waco, Tex.
Arianespace says it is planning the second reflight of its new Ariane 5 ECA heavy-lift launcher as early as next spring, even though the mission is tentatively scheduled for the maiden flight of Europe's Automated Transfer Vehicle to the International Space Station in October 2005. This would mean assigning a commercial payload to the mission--the second of two mandated by ESA after the ECA failed on its inaugural mission in December 2002.
A bird strike forced an American Airlines MD-80 flight crew to return to Chicago O'Hare for an emergency landing. According to an airline spokesperson, Flight 1374 departed O'Hare for Philadelphia at 1:41 p.m. local time on Sept. 16 with 107 people on board. A goose struck the left Pratt & Whitney JT8D engine at about 3,000 ft. altitude. Flames were reported shooting out of the engine. The flight crew declared an emergency and set wheels down at 2:19 p.m. No emergency evacuation was necessary, according to the airline. No injuries were reported.
Douglas Carpenter has become chief scientific officer/director of research and development for QuantumSphere Inc., Costa Mesa, Calif. He was chief scientist at Technanogy and had been staff scientist at the Hercules Aerospace Co.
British Airways is cutting 2% of its flight schedule from London Heathrow Airport over three months to try and alleviate staff shortages and aircraft availability issues.
Dassault Aviation reported a decline in operating earnings to 155 million euros for the first half of the year, down from 189 million euros a year ago, and a decrease in net income to 119 million euros from 141 million. Sales also decreased to 1.3 billion euros from 1.5 billion. However, orders rose to 1.3 billion euros from 1 billion partly on the strength of increased business jet demand.
Global airline demand for maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services in 2004 will show an increase--albeit modest--for the first time in three years, and grow by about $4.8 billion during the next five years. That's according to Back Aviation Solutions and Strand Associates Inc. (SAI). The two aviation consulting firms recently completed an independent market forecast of key MRO trends for Overhaul & Maintenance, a sister publication of Aviation Week & Space Technology.
Facing the threat of large-scale pilot early retirements by Oct. 1 and getting a "no-confidence" vote from airline auditors, Delta slip-slides closer to bankruptcy. In a Sept. 15 Securities and Exchange Commission filing, auditors said Delta's recurring losses, labor and liquidity issues "raise substantial doubt about the Company's ability to continue as a going concern," and noted "significant" obligations, including debt maturities, operating lease payments, and required pension funding due in 2005 and beyond.
Jean-Pierre Mortreux (see photo) has been appointed president/CEO of CMC Electronics Inc. of Montreal. He was president/ CEO of Thales Avionics North America, also in Montreal.
The U.S. Air Force's top leaders say the service will buy several wings of the short takeoff/vertical landing F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, following the news from Lockheed Martin's engineers that the aircraft is shedding more than a ton of weight and gaining thrust.
While keeping a watchful eye on Hurricane Jeanne, personnel for unmanned space launches at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and space shuttle managers at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) are getting back on track in the wake of Hurricane Frances.
L-3 Communications bought the then-Raytheon aircraft modification center in Waco, Tex., in January 2002 and is responsible for the structural modifications to the Sofia observatory (AW&ST Sept. 13, p. 18).
Shannon Alberts has been appointed managing director for board and shareholder services for Alaska Airlines. She was director of corporate affairs/assistant corporate secretary.
William Shea, former associate FAA administrator for airports and head of the California Transportation Dept. Aeronautics Div., has been named to the editorial board of the Journal of Air Transportation Worldwide, which is published at the University of Nebraska at Omaha's Aviation Institute.
The $428-million North Terminal Redevelopment Project is underway to replace the dated L.C. Smith Terminal at the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport. The Airport Authority board has approved a $32.8-million contract with Gensler Architecture, Design & Planning for engineering services. The terminal will feature an in-line baggage check system. Eight airlines--Air Canada, American, America West, Independence Air, Spirit, Southwest, US Airways and United--have approved the project for up to 29 gates. A 2008 opening is anticipated.
Boeing has received FAA and JAA certification of a satellite-based automatic landing system that has demonstrated a runway centerline accuracy of 1 meter. A single system works for all runways at a host airport, can be applied regionally and has proved itself in equatorial regions, where signal consistency is a concern.
Boeing expects Etihad Airways of Dubai to complete an agreement to purchase five 777-300ERs. Etihad, which began operations last November, has been on an ordering spree for long-haul services, having signed up for 24 Airbus aircraft at the Farnborough air show (AW&ST July 26, p. 26).
