Flight safety experts are closely monitoring ultralong flights such as Singapore Airlines' new nonstop routes between Changi Airport, Los Angeles and New York. Services covering distances close to 9,000 naut. mi. are setting records in terms of duration, with flight times averaging 18 hr. They also are creating major cockpit crew management challenges and sparking fatigue-related issues not previously encountered.
South African Transport Minister Jeff Radeb told delegates to an International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) conference in Nairobi, Kenya, last week that the U.S.' all-encompassing response to security is driving international requirements. The U.S. actions are based on American perceptions of the post-Sept. 11, 2001, threat, and the aviation sector is not immune to the pressure to comply due to globalization trends, Radeb said.
Dina Hyde has been named general manager for the Boeing Phantom Works of the Advanced Unmanned Systems Concept Exploration Group, Irvine, Calif. Hyde was general manager for supplier management and procurement for Boeing Phantom Works.
Many thanks for the comprehensive and informative article about the status of Rolls-Royce Deutschland, together with the photo of the site to put the scale in perspective (AW&ST May 10, p. 59). We were surprised, however, at the bypass ratio quoted for the proposed new turbofan family, of 22 or 23:1. This is far higher than has been proposed for even the most advanced engines. The engines for the Boeing 7E7 will have only 10 or 11:1 bypass ratios.
The Japanese government says it will prop up a troubled discount carrier called Skynet Asia Airlines even as the nation's first two startups--Skymark Airlines and Hokkaido International Airlines (Air Do)--show profits after years of struggle.
The first three of 16 AgustaWestland Super Lynx 300 helicopters are entering service with the Royal Air Force of Oman, which will become the second operator and the first customer to fly the aircraft in a multi-role configuration. The aircraft are equipped for land and sea missions including search and rescue, utility, troop transport and coastal patrol. The Super Lynx 300 features CTS800 engines, a fully integrated avionic system with color liquid crystal displays, new weapons systems and an upgraded airframe.
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Airline consultant Edmund S. Greenslet chides Wall Street for an obsession about the danger to earnings posed by high fuel prices. He says there is no clear evidence over a 30-year period that higher than average prices caused earnings to decline. In the June Airline Monitor, Greenslet used the fuel burn of a Boeing 737-800 on a 2.7-hr. flight to illustrate his point. A 40% increase in the fuel price would cost an extra $617 per flight. But the fuel surcharge, averaging $6 per ticket, produces $642 per flight and more than offsets the cost of fuel.
A lot of nations around the world are following the U.S. lead in developing air marshal programs, according to Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson. He told government and industry officials at a security seminar sponsored by the Japan Interna- tional Transport Institute in Washing- ton on June 30 that having armed agents on passenger aircraft isn't a popular idea everywhere. But he noted that 14 countries have set up similar programs and 23 have requested training from the U.S.
Hidden in a recent report on improved communications from the U.S. General Accounting Office is a backhanded indictment of network-centric warfare. The June report on military operations notes that the rapid flow of information has created two major problems. First, the rapid pace of operations overloads systems and personnel. Second, but perhaps more dangerous, is the fostering of a more "centralized style of command and control which can create tension between command staffs and operators in the field," the report says.
German's parliament has approved the purchase of air defense equipment for its navy frigates. In its final meeting before summer recess, the defense committee gave the green light to the acquisition of Raytheon Standard Missile SM-2 Block IIIAs and Evolved Sea-Sparrow Missiles, built by a Raytheon-anchored multinational consortium. The $443-million program includes 78 SM-2s and 265 ESSMs.
Budget pressures and growing airlift needs may breathe life into the concept of a commercially operated Boeing C-17, which appeared dead only months ago. Several years ago, the U.S. Air Force proposed having Boeing sell a small number of commercially configured C-17s, called BC-17X, to a freight hauler, which could then be asked to perform transport services in an arrangement similar to the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) program. For additional revenue, the freight hauler could sell services to others.
So where does United Airlines go from here? Nearly 19 months into a Chapter 11 reorganization that will take longer than it expected, deep in cost-cutting that almost certainly isn't deep enough, facing the future without a government loan guarantee it had counted on, United is embarking on yet another uphill struggle--this time to secure nonguaranteed loans and probably investment capital to finance its exit from bankruptcy protection.
Steve Loranger has been named president/CEO of ITT Industries. He had been Textron executive vice president/chief operating officer since October 2002.
The second Chinese/European Space Agency Double Star magnetospheric spacecraft is being readied for launch by the end of this month on board a Long March booster fired from the Taiyuan launch site, 500 mi. south of Beijing. Designated Tan Ce (TC-2), which is Chinese for Explorer, the spacecraft will be placed into a 435 X 24,220-mi. polar orbit to complement readings from the TC-1 spacecraft launched into equatorial orbit from Xichang in 2003. Data will be relayed to the ESA ground station at Villafranca, Spain, and Chinese ground stations in Beijing and Shanghai.
Southwest Airlines and its 7,400 flight attendants last week reached a tentative contract agreement that includes higher wages and changes to work rules. The union's executive board voted to submit the collective bargaining agreement to the membership for approval. Details of the pact were crafted by negotiators for the Transport Workers Union Local 556, AFL-CIO; Southwest's Executive Chairman Herb Kelleher and the airline's President/COO Colleen Barrett.
James W. Wasson has become chief technology officer for BAE Systems North America's Platform Solutions Sector, Johnson City, N.Y. He was a research and development program executive at Smiths Aerospace Electronic Systems, Grand Rapids, Mich.
Early in December, Virgin Atlantic Airways plans to launch daily flights from London Heathrow to Sydney via Hong Kong using Airbus A340-600 transports configured with 45 seats in first class, 28 in premium economy and 233 in economy class. It is the airline's first foray into Australia, although the carrier's low-cost Virgin Pacific already operates throughout the country.
Technical and professional workers at Boeing's Wichita, Kan., facility are to vote July 7 on a three-year contract. Negotiators for the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace IFPTE Local 2001 said they secured contract improvements in the proposal, which is the third made by Boeing, but SPEEA didn't make a vote recommendation.
Industry officials anxiously awaiting word from the Navy on the future of the Broad-Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) unmanned aircraft--a UAV adjunct to the manned maritime patrol aircraft--may have to learn patience. Navy officials apparently are considering a three-year delay for the program, which was expected to kick off this year.
The twin-engine Dassault Falcon 2000EX Easy has received European Aviation Safety Agency and FAA certification, completing a 1.5-year flight test program of 143 flights and 335 hr. The company already has delivered 27 2000EX aircraft without the Easy cockpit. Dassault has 15 2000EX aircraft in completion at Little Rock, Ark. First delivery is expected within a month.
Although it has been interesting to watch Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne program, it is hardly groundbreaking or revolutionary. In fact, it appears to be recreating the same accomplishments of the X-15 program more than 40 years ago (AW&ST June 28, p. 28).
