Boeing, which was solidly profitable in the first quarter, is more bullish on the near-term outlook for commercial aircraft demand. Some industry analysts, though, remain guarded about the strength and timing of the recovery, and believe orders will be weak to modest through 2006. Boeing Commercial Airplanes delivered 76 aircraft and captured 36 gross orders during the quarter, including ones from Nippon Cargo Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways and WestJet. Backlog totaled $62.2 billion at quarter-end, compared with $63.9 billion at the end of 2003.
The French space agency CNES reports that the Philae lander carried on board Europe's Rosetta comet probe, launched on Mar. 2, has concluded inflight testing. The tests showed all onboard instruments and ground systems to be functioning correctly, CNES said. Philae is to land on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko late in 2014.
Engineers were looking forward to a plateau in the degradation of solar power on the Mars rovers, but now they are not so sure this will happen. Dust accumulation on the solar arrays has cut a little more than 20% of the power on the Spirit rover after about 114 Martian days, or Sols, of operation, and a little less than 20% on Opportunity after 93 Sols. Based on experience with the Mars Pathfinder rover in 1997, engineers expected degradation to stop at this point, but telemetry does not definitively show a slackening of the decline.
NASA is looking for another partner to digitize its priceless library of still and motion space imagery and put them on the World Wide Web for all to see. The agency, which holds more than 115,000 films and videos and millions of stills dating back to the dawn of U.S. space exploration, wants to make them available to the online public through a commercial outlet that would receive the imagery free of charge in exchange for digitizing and organizing them.
Full-service airlines are closing ranks in response to low-fare carriers' continuing assault on their once-assured supremacy in the marketplace. The transformation of the industry is expected to accelerate further and faster in the coming months.
The Airborne Laser program may face a nearly $1-billion cost overrun even as Pentagon officials scale back expectations on what will be accomplished in the coming months. The Missile Defense Agency and Boeing-led ABL team incurred a $242-million cost overrun last year, but that number is expected to increase. Based on past performance, the General Accounting Office in a new report projects the overrun on the existing contract to total $431-942 million.
Chinese health authorities are reporting that nine SARS cases have either been clinically confirmed or remain under investigation as of Apr. 29, according to the World Health Organization. Seven were reported in Beijing and two, including one fatality, in the Anhui province.
The International Space Station gave a quick preview of the upcoming Transit of Venus when it flashed across the disk of the Sun in less than a half second on Apr. 23. Photographer William G. Hartenstein captured the 0.4-sec. transit using a Celestron 8-in. F10 Telescope, a Canon 1D camera shooting 8 frames/sec., and a GPS receiver to position himself in the center of the station's shadow. The stationary dot on the solar disk is a sunspot.
Henry Toby, who is East Coast U.S. marketing manager for Securaplane Technologies Inc., Tucson, Ariz., has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Professional Aviation Maintenance Assn. He was honored for his more than 40 years of work in aviation, primarily in avionics sales and service.
France has selected EADS to supply a high-speed penetrating UAV demonstrator, in cooperation with Italy's Galileo Avionica. The demonstrator, called Carapas and scheduled to be delivered in 18 months, will serve to establish specifications for France's Multisensor Multimission tactical UAV program. Based on Galileo Avionica's Mirach 105-5 aerial target, Carapas will fly at Mach 0.25-0.65, and have a range of 600 km. and payload of up to 60 kg. for ESM/Elint reconnaissance missions.
As a taxpayer, I want to understand our expenditures for U.S. Air Force programs among others. We have been developing the F/A-22 next-generation fighter for more than 20 years. The cost has mushroomed on a per- plane buy from $80 million to between $120-300 million. We now understand USAF has had to redesign the avionics and computational architecture because the chips will be out of production. In the private sector, a program manager with this abysmal performance would be fired. When will the Defense Dept.
Singapore Technologies Aerospace and Israel Aircraft Industries' Bedek Aviation Group have signed a licensing agreement with Boeing to convert 757-200s to freighters for customers worldwide. Boeing will license to ST Aero and IAI the data relating to the 757-200 Special Freighter Supple-mental Type Certificate (STC). The first conversion is expected to be ready for operation by the third quarter of 2005. Both ST Aero and Bedek expect around 250 -200s will be converted in the next 20 years.
Catherine J. Cronin, a student at the Parks College of Aerospace Engineering and Aviation of St. Louis University, is one of three winners of $5,000 academic scholarships from Delta Air Lines that were awarded at the recent Women in Aviation International convention. The others are: Tralee Chiusano, a student in business aviation management at Southern Illinois University; and Erin M. Burleson, a student of aeronautical technology at Purdue University. Winners of $30,000 training scholarships are: Lisa L. Soderquist of Calgary, Alberta, and Judith A.
NASA has nixed Russia's request for a year-long expedition to the International Space Station to free up a Soyuz "taxi seat" for a paying customer. The U.S. agency told its Russian partner the station's "reduced operational state" while the space shuttle is grounded would make it difficult to keep a two-person crew on board for a full year. Of particular concern to NASA was the lack of available "countermeasures" on the station--extra fluids, exercise equipment and other gear the crew would need to offset the effects on their bodies of longer exposure to microgravity.
Robert Wall and Douglas Barrie (Washington and Eglin AFB, Fla.)
U.S. and British military planners are formulating upgrades to some of their newest weapons with an eye to enhancing flexibility and countering a broader set of targets. The movement is driven largely by recent combat experiences and the fact that development efforts on the baseline programs are drawing to a conclusion.
Neither Transportation Security Administration federal airport screeners nor private contractor screeners hired in a pilot program performed well in recent covert tests. In fact, Homeland Security Inspector General Clark Kent Ervin told the House Transportation and Infrastructure's aviation subcommittee last week that both groups performed "equally poorly." Rep. John L. Mica (R-Fla.), who heads the aviation panel, wants an "emergency meeting" with the top leaders of the Homeland Security Dept.
May 2-6--Aerospace Medical Assn.'s Annual Scientific Meeting. Egan Convention Center, Anchorage, Alaska. Call +1 (703) 739-2240 ext. 106, fax +1 (703) 739-9652 or see www.asma.org May 3-5--International Federation of Airline Dispatchers Assns. World Dispatch Conference/Annual General Meeting. DoubleTree Hotel, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Call +1 (773) 968-9593 or see www.ifalda.org
Two SES Global companies, SES Astra and SES Americom, have ordered three launches from International Launch Services--the first time the two affiliates have jointly contracted for launch operations. The first satellite, AMC-16, is a hybrid K u/K a-band satellite being built by Lockheed Martin. To be launched in early 2005 on a Proton rocket, AMC-16 is identical to and initially earmarked as a backup for AMC-15, which is intended to inaugurate SES' Americom2Home service at 105 deg. W. Long. (AW&ST Oct. 13, 2003, p. 48).
Kenneth D. Stein, David M. Safon, Stephen E. Zweig and Lisa M. Brauner have joined the New York law firm of Ford and Harrison after dissolving their firm of Benetar Bernstein Schair and Stein.
NASA managers will decide by June 1 whether to pursue a robotic mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope, having received evidence that it may be possible at least to extend the telescope's lifetime with a plug-in power and propulsion module.
MBDA announced completion of low-altitude attack trials of its Albatros-Aspide air defense system for the Brazilian navy. The tests were requested under the navy's Niteroi-class frigate combat system upgrade program, for which the Albatros-Aspide is being supplied, under the overall responsibility of AMS-DSN. Two of the six Niteroi-class frigates have been retrofitted with the system, which allows Aspide missiles to be fired from frigate guns for outer-layer air defense applications.
Alan Butterfield has been promoted to vice president-line maintenance from managing director for airframe/OSV/facility maintenance of United Airlines. He succeeds Bill Norman, who has been named vice president-base maintenance. Arnold Lewis has been appointed vice president-marketing programs and president of United Loyalty Services. He was vice president-strategic alliances at AARP Services Inc.
The Austrian Airlines Group has signaled that it's interested in the privatization of Bulgaria Air. At a meeting with the Bulgarian economics ministry, Austrian CEO Vagn Soerensen asked about the government's interest in selling its holdings. Bulgaria Air operates four Boeing 737s out of Sofia, Varna and Plovdiv, all of which fit the Austrian carrier's goal to offer more destinations into Eastern and Central Europe (AW&ST Feb. 23, p. 48).
Lufthansa has increased its penetration of China's market and helped Shanghai Airlines fulfill its goal of becoming an alternative to China's three major carriers on routes to Europe (AW&ST Mar. 15, p. 45). Operating from its bases in Frankfurt and Munich, Lufthansa already serves China's three biggest markets in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou. A code-share with Shanghai Airlines that begins May 1 will add Shenzhen and Qingdao, plus more capacity to Shanghai and Beijing. Lufthansa reaches five other cities through a code-share with Beijing-based China Airlines.
