Sukhoi is planning a business jet version of its Russian Regional Jet, after passing another major milestone in the run-up to full-scale development. However, private and public funding sources must still be secured for the project to go ahead.
The U.S. Navy has set out to prove it can provide six carrier strike groups in less than a month to support contingency operations in five theaters around the world. Also, by using a new operational construct, planners say another two strike groups could be ready in 90 days to reinforce or rotate with those initially deployed. The capability will be demonstrated in "Summer Pulse 04," set for August. The carriers involved include the USS George Washington, John C. Stennis, Kitty Hawk, John F. Kennedy, Harry S. Truman, Enterprise and Ronald Reagan.
No sooner had India's civil aviation minister Praful Patel declared the growth of national carriers a priority, than Air-India proposed startup of an all-economy carrier, Air-India Express. The new airline would be operated through the carrier's subsidiary Air-India Charters Ltd. and operate to the Gulf and South East Asia regions. Air-India Express would primarily serve the three million non-resident Indians who live in the Persian Gulf region.
Airbus' A380 program is gaining momentum. The mega-transport's first airframe was assembled here in late May in preparation for ground tests that are expected to start soon.
Regional airlines have multiplied primarily due to the grossly low flight crew wages. Seat-mile costs on the smallest of mainline, narrow-body equipment are significantly lower than for small jets due to this huge disparity. Capacity purchase agreements minimize the fiscal exposure of regionals and their management, while as a four-year first officer I make $28,000 a year flying non-precision approaches into more than 20 destinations in Mexico and the U.S.
An international agreement to share passenger names is expected to provide European airlines with legal cover for divulging such information through 2007.
Instead of printing the picture of the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) flying through the barn door (AW&ST May 17, cover), you should have dug out the 10-year-old photo of the Tri-Service Standoff Attack Missile (TSSAM) going through a much smaller target hole with only 3 in. of clearance on each wingtip.
After years on a weapons-buying spree, China may be temporarily backing off arms imports. However, the slight retrenchment isn't expected to seriously affect the country's gradual path to building a modern and technically sophisticated military, the Pentagon believes. The funding development has more to do with China's military trying to absorb the slew of weapons it bought in recent years than a policy shift, the Pentagon said in a congressionally mandated annual report on Chinese military developments.
Tests with robots and the high-fidelity Hubble Space Telescope mockup astronauts use to train for servicing missions have convinced NASA managers it may be possible to maintain and upgrade the orbiting observatory without sending a space shuttle to do the job.
The U.S. Defense Dept.'s High Energy Laser Joint Technology Office is on track to demonstrate three 25-kw. solid-state laser system designs by December as part of an accelerated program to field tactical laser weapons. If successful, the JTO model could become a blueprint for joint-service research and development of other high-payoff defense technologies.
Toray Corp.'s new contract with Boeing for carbon-fiber reinforced plastic for the 7E7 will run through 2021. It's valued at $3 billion if 1,500 aircraft are built (AW&ST May 31, p. 22). Toray said it will invest about $145 million to expand its U.S. CFRP production facilities to meet 7E7 demand.
The first GE-P&W Engine Alliance GP7000 powerplant for the Airbus A380 was tested at Pratt & Whitney facilities in Connecticut before traveling to the U.S. Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Center near Tullahoma, Tenn., for further investigations. Plans call for the engine to be certificated in July 2005 at 81,500 lb. of thrust (see p. 54). Engine Alliance photo by Greg Roberts.
Chartered cargo flights from the Commonwealth of Independent States no longer will be allowed to fly into four northern Chinese airports, following a ban last week by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). The ban was in reaction to the May 18 crash of an Azerbaijani IIyushin Il-76F freighter near Urumqi, in northwestern China. Preliminary analysis of the crash pointed to overload violations, adding to a string of similar incidents involving CIS-registered Il-76s dating back to 1998 (AW&ST May 31, p. 41).
The NTSB's recommendations calling for a redesign of the Airbus A300-600 rudder travel limiter rise from a 1997 upset incident involving American Airlines Flight 903--and are unrelated to the airline's 2001 Flight 587 accident, say parties close to both probes.
Boeing will manage much of Japan Transocean Air (JTA) spare-parts supply chain. The airline anticipates a significant reduction in operating costs by taking this step. The arrangement, Integrated Materials Management (IMM), calls for Boeing to handle purchasing, inventory management and logistics of JTA's expendable aircraft parts, including bushing clamps, hoses, seals and coupling. The program builds on existing IMM programs Boeing holds with Japan Airlines and several others. No dollar figure was disclosed.
Buried in a General Accounting Office report on the F-35's supplier base are numbers on how many aircraft other countries are planning to buy. While noting that the figures are subject to change because there are no agreements on production yet, the report listed the following planning numbers: Britain, 150; Italy, 131; Netherlands, 85; Turkey, 100; Australia, 100; Norway, 48; Denmark, 48; and Canada, 60--for a total of 722 aircraft so far. Expectations are that the U.S.
General Dynamics Chairman/CEO Nicholas D. Chabraja, 61, last week extended his employment contract with the company through the end of April 2008, at the board of directors' request. Chabraja's previous agreement would have ended on Dec. 31, 2005. He has headed the company since mid-1997.
The war on terrorism has not produced the market gold mine that many had predicted in the field of command, control, communications, computers and intelligence (C 4I) technology and equipment. For the most part, annual sales in the worldwide C 4I market will remain steady or decline over the next decade, and tally a 10-year market value of about $84 billion, according to Forecast International.
The U.S. Coast Guard, tasked with identifying, tracking and intercepting terrorist threats offshore in the post Sept. 11, 2001, world, will soon have the first installment on a common operating picture of activity off the East and West Coasts.
David M. Davis, who has been chief financial officer of US Airways Group Inc., is now also executive vice president. Anita P. Beier has been promoted to senior vice president from vice president/controller and Eiliff Serck-Hanssen to senior vice president from vice president-finance/treasurer. Ronald E. Stanley has been appointed to the board of directors. He is a director of London-based business travel consulting firm Scholefield, Turnbull & Partners.
Southwest Airlines is offering cash buyouts to 33,000 eligible employees if they agree to leave the airline. The initiative is part of an effort to reduce the workforce and cope with rising fuel costs, according to the Dallas-based carrier. The offer is available only to workers with at least one year of service and would become effective in July. In 2003, Southwest closed three reservations facilities; half of the 1,900 employees affected took a buyout, while the other half accepted similar or different jobs within the company.
Congressional Quarterly's CQ Press Div. has launched three new CDRom products directed toward the energy/environmental, health/pharmaceutical and transportation industries. Each lists all municipal, state, congressional and federal government contacts across all related agencies and is searchable by name, title or keyword, with biographies and profiles included for major offices. The information is updated daily and allows for unlimited exports of all searches for outreach purposes, and the ability to personalize the database.
U.S. Air Force and industry weapon developers are assessing the feasibility of integrating lasers on some of the service's bomber fleet, although missions and timelines to do so remain undefined.
Should the U.S. Transportation Security Administration change the formula by which airlines pay the aviation security infrastructure fee? Seldom if ever has a question with so obvious an answer drifted into the federal government's rulemaking whirlpool. The formula was flawed the day it was created and has grown progressively worse. The TSA is authorized to change the formula as of Oct. 1, 2004, and if it is still intact on Oct. 2, someone isn't getting the job done.
