Despite the increased interest in scheduled executive shuttle services, Boeing is taking a wait-and-see position before launching new versions of its Boeing Business Jet. Last year company officials said they were looking into an executive shuttle version of the 717 and a scaled-down BBJ based on the 737-700 (AW&ST May 12, 2003, p. 29). BBJ President Lee Monson said recently that the 717 has been rejected as unsuitable because of range, and the BBJ is on hold until demand warrants the investment. Monson said 13 BBJs are on order or are being built.
Scaled Composites' historic flight to 100 km. last week may just be the first step to an eventual private manned orbital program, according to company founder Burt Rutan.
The future of the 728 regional jet program is very much in question, after collapse of efforts to restart development and Fairchild Dornier Aero Industries' bankruptcy filing. The search for new investors looks unpromising.
Greg Riggs, who has been senior vice president/general counsel of Delta Air Lines, also will be chief corporate affairs officer. Todd Helvie has been promoted to senior vice president/treasurer from vice president-corporate tax. He has been succeeded by Mona Warwar, who was tax counsel. Paulette Corbin has been named senior vice president of the In-Flight Service Div. She was vice president-Airport Customer Service for the Western U.S. Corbin succeeds Sharon Wibben, who has resigned.
Airbus China President Laurence Barron expects an order for at least five A380s from Air China, China Southern Airlines or China Eastern Airlines before the end of the year. Another potential customer for the airplane, Hainan Airlines, is seeking access to the U.S. market. First delivery to a Chinese customer would occur before 2008. The A380s would be flown on major domestic routes covering Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou as well as key international routes. To date, Airbus has orders for 129 A380s.
The U.S. Army has scrapped a planned acquisition of eight fixed-wing surveillance airplanes for Iraq because none of the bidders could meet requirements. However, the U.S. Central Command instead has moved forward and purchased two Australian-built SB7L-360 Seeker reconnaissance aircraft for the Iraqi air force with the goal of buying 14 more. The first are set for delivery in mid-July to the Basra airport. The Iraqi air force currently numbers about 150 people and should reach 500 by year-end, U.S. Central Command noted.
Air Canada has accepted a $250-million investment proposal from Cerberus ACE Investment which, when combined with an $850-million Deutsche Bank standby purchase agreement, will provide $1.1 billion in equity as the carrier emerges from Canada's version of bankruptcy protection. Subject to court approval, Cerberus will acquire preference shares convertible into common shares of Air Canada Enterprises, the airlines' new parent holding company.
A handful of time bombs are embedded in the upward paths of low-cost carriers whose low fares and improved service are changing the landscape of U.S. and global commercial aviation.
The U.S. Coast Guard and Integrated Coast Guard Systems have begun preliminary design and final requirements work on the new Offshore Patrol Cutter program, which accelerates the effort to launch the project by three years. The contract will establish the initial engineering effort for the 341-ft. vessel for the next year. Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin are partnering on the project.
Having been a passenger on the inaugural U.S. Boeing 737 flight in 1968, I applaud your editorial comments about that all-time, best-selling jetliner (AW&ST May 10, p. 74). However, your short history of the competition between the U.S. and European aircraft industries was a little too short. Although the European economies and industries were "devastated by World War II," they recovered long before the maiden flight of the A300 in 1972.
The Burt Rutan SpaceShipOne program has solved few, if any, cost and technological challenges that must be overcome for commercially viable human orbital flight, according to entrepreneur Elon Musk, developer of the low-cost SpaceX Falcon commercial booster.
House lawmakers are suggesting the Pentagon stop rotating oversight of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter between Navy and Air Force acquisition executives. The practice could lead to "program delays, instability, duplicative management staff and increased overhead costs," a House appropriations report states. JSF's rotational scheme calls for USAF acquisition officials to oversee the program when it is led by a Navy or Marine Corps flag officer, and vice versa.
China and the U.S. completed negotiations on a new bilateral agreement that greatly expands service opportunities beyond the existing pact that was concluded in 1999. Late this year, the U.S. will be able to name a third all-cargo airline to join Federal Express and UPS in serving China, and China will be able to designate an additional passenger or cargo airline. The new U.S. entrant will be the fifth in the market--United and Northwest currently fly to China. Each country will be able to add one new carrier, either passenger or cargo, in 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2010.
WORLD NEWS ROUNDUP 17 Defense issues helping to keep EU treaty in limbo 17 U.S.-Japanese TRMM satel- lite faces shutdown 18 NASA reorganizing to improve deep-space focus 19 New GPS spacecraft drifting into navsat constellation slot 19 Russian spacesuit problems force ISS crew to abort EVA WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS 22 Troubles engulf key Penta- gon space programs 24 International teaming to ex- plore space is dead on arrival
Although Embraer's top executives are convinced the demand for regional jets will soar in the next 20 years, they are soliciting more military business as protection against the airline industry's periodic ups and downs. Last year, Embraer posted a net profit of $136 million on $2.14 billion in revenues. During 2004's first quarter, revenues increased a robust 28% to $626.2 million, including about 20% in the defense market, a share that could grow to 25% in the next few years.
Former astronaut Sally K. Ride (see photo) has been appointed to the board of trustees of The Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, Calif. She is the co-founder/CEO of Imaginary Lines Inc. and Ingrid and Joseph Hibben professor of space science at the University of California, San Diego.
The U.S. Air Force has the ability to render enemy air defenses ineffective by making anti-aircraft missiles ignore their assignments, says the chief of Air Combat Command in what appears to be the first high-level acknowledgment that such a capability exists.
Raytheon and RAM-System GmbH. (Ramsys), a joint venture of Diehl and EADS, have extended a cooperative agreement covering Raytheon's Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) for an additional 10 years. The agreement covers sharing production, development and obligations related to third-party sales for the RAM, a fire-and-forget all-weather air defense missile that equips the German and U.S. navies, and has been ordered for South Korean and Greek naval units. RAM firing units can fire up to 21 of the 5-in.-dia. missiles which carry dual radio/infrared seekers.
Filippo Bagnato (see photo) has become chief executive and John Moore senior vice president-commercial of Avions de Transport Regional. Bagnato succeeds Jean-Michel Leonard and was chief executive of Eurofighter. Moore succeeds Paolo Revelli-Beaumont.
India's next-generation satellites--GSAT-3 and IRS-P5, to be launched this year--carry gallium arsenide high-efficiency solar cells in their large-scale arrays. Fabricated by state-owned Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd., the hardware will build on company solar panels that already power the orbiting Insat-3A, Insat-3E and GSAT-2 satellites.
The Pentagon has completed the final design review for Raytheon's Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS) Integration Backbone (DIB) and the DCGS Block 10.2 multi-intelligence core, the company says. DCGS is intended to fuse information for a wide variety of different intelligence collection systems. The company also won a $16-million contract last week to integrate the ability to task, process, exploit and disseminate the high-band signals gathered by the Air Force's Airborne Signals Intelligence Payload.
The Russian spacesuit problems that forced the crew of the International Space Station to rapidly abort an extravehicular activity (EVA) June 24 will intensify calls for more oversight of ISS safety.
NASA's potential partners in returning humans to the Moon and eventually going on to Mars and beyond are highly skeptical of the international teaming arrangement offered as a program model--the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). And those that are partners on the International Space Station sternly warn the U.S. not to back away too fast from that program in its enthusiasm for leaving Earth orbit.
Raytheon and RAM-Systems GmbH. have extended their cooperative program agreement on the U.S./German rolling airframe missile program for 10 years. RAM is an autonomous, all-weather, fire-and-forget system that puts 21, 5-in. missiles into a single launcher. The missiles have passive, dual-mode radio frequency and infrared guidance. The system is in service on more than 60 ships worldwide.
