China Southern Airlines has confirmed a January order for 15 Airbus A320-200s and six A319-100s and, in the process, switched engine suppliers from International Aero Engines' V2500-A1/A5 to CFM International's CFM56-5A-series. Deliveries are underway and will continue through 2006. At minimal list prices the order is valued at $1.2 billion, but company secretary Su Liang said China Southern paid less than that. The airline already operates 20 V2500-powered A320s. When completed, the new order will make it China and Asia's largest A320 operator.
Boeing has selected its own Wichita Div. to produce pylons for the 7E7 and Goodrich Corp. to provide engine nacelles and thrust reversers. The orders complete Boeing's list of 15 major suppliers in 10 states and seven countries for the proposed aircraft, which is to enter service in 2008.
Much has been published in the last year about the impending arrival of the A380. A couple of years ago, I read about the infrastructure problems in preparing airports that are able to handle such a large airplane. One problem was the width of runways and their adjacent green strips.
Lockheed Martin is fine-tuning plans for manufacturing the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and combating weight gains in the airframe as it prepares to begin fabrication of the first preproduction airplane next year.
About saving "These Behemoths" (AW&ST Mar. 1, p. 62), checking fares on the same date between a New York and Southern California city, a Big Six legacy airline published 54 fares while a low-fare rival had just six. Further, the legacy carrier's lowest fare booking and change rules ran 252 lines while the rival's were only 78.
The Pentagon's inspector general is criticizing another deal between the U.S. Air Force and Boeing that was largely negotiated when Darleen Druyun was USAF acquisition chief and before she became a Boeing executive. Pricing of a $1.32-billion contract to upgrade NATO's E-3 AWACS surveillance aircraft didn't undergo proper review, the IG has found. USAF officials concede the point in their response. In a new report, the IG recommends that options under a contract should not be awarded until a review of the pricing is completed.
Keep it simple and serve the customer." This was the theme stated over and again by Joe Leonard, the 2003 Commercial Air Transport laureate, after taking the reins in 1999 at AirTran Airways. Over the next half-decade, among the worst years in the history of airline finances, the former ValuJet has been remade under Leonard's direction into the model of a profitable, low-fare carrier.
Col. Gen. Anatoly Perminov, newly named head of Russia's Federal Space Agency, says Russia should play more of a partnership role in other nations' space programs, including the redirected U.S. effort aimed at exploring the Moon and Mars. During a Moscow meeting with European Space Agency officials, he called on ESA to join his organization in helping NASA with the plan outlined by President Bush Jan. 14, according to Aviation Week & Space Technology affiliate Aerospace Daily & Defense Report.
Bo Andersson has become managing director of Copenhagen-based RAE Systems Europe, a subsidiary of RAE Systems Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif. He had been a member of the board of directors and was president of Ericsson Micro Components. He is being succeeded on the board by Sigrun Hjelmquist, a founding partner of BrainHeart Capital.
Joakim Karlsson (Nashua, N.H.), Amedeo R. Odoni (Cambridge, Mass.)
Aviation tax policy has become so complex that it sometimes leads to misunderstandings. An example is the suggestion that "taxes now represent 24% of the price of the average ticket" (AW&ST Mar. 1, p. 49). The actual average is closer to half that level.
The Commonwealth of Virginia and Science Museum of Virginia have named John Langford, president of Aurora Flight Sciences of Manassas, as Virginia's outstanding industrialist for 2004. He was cited for his company's development of unmanned aerial vehicles.
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American Airlines is the third U.S. airline to reveal it shared millions of passenger name records with the Transportation Security Administration, and it too has been hit with a class-action lawsuit.
London-based Inmarsat is preparing to roll out its long-awaited mobile satellite broadband system, after a long and hard engineering phase, following the deployment starting this fall of its fourth-generation spacecraft network.
Lockheed Martin has won a $13.8-million contract to provide the Marine Corps Systems Command with post-production support for five AN/TPS-59(V)3 tactical missile defense radars, plus spares. Options could take the total value of the contract to $27.7 million. Designed to operate with Hawk and Patriot missile defense systems, the radars have supported U.S. operations in Iraq.
Beltway bandits are bracing for a realignment of power in Washington next year even if the Republicans maintain control over the White House and both houses of Congress. Under Senate rules, the leadership of several key aerospace-related committees is destined to change. Sen. Ted Stevens (Alaska) will have to give up his reign over the appropriations panel, although he'll still preside over its defense subcommittee. Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran is expected to take over from Stevens, who is slated to replace Sen.
Thomas Kean, Lee Hamilton and their colleagues on the 9/11 commission are performing a valuable service for Americans. Granted, there has been political posturing in the public hearings, both by Democrats and Republicans on the panel--and in the witness chair. But the commission's investigation and the national discussion that has ensued are long overdue and largely constructive.
OHB System says it has submitted a bid to build and operate Germany's Satcom Bw II military satellite communications network, in partnership with Thales and under the leadership of T-Systems, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom. OHB will provide the two small geostationary spacecraft for the 1-billion-euro ($1.2-billion) system, along with secure networks and ground stations, and be responsible for launch and initial in-orbit operation. Thales will supply mobile ground equipment, while T-Systems will manage the network. Other European and U.S.
Thermo Capital Partners has completed its acquisition of Globalstar Satellite Communications, bringing the Big LEO communications satellite company out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Thermo will invest at least $43 million in the Loral spinoff, which entered Chapter 11 in February 2002 after spending $4 billion to launch a 40-satellite constellation. Jim Lynch, Thermo's managing director, says the company projects revenues of $85 million over the next 12 months, up from $55 million in the past year.
As it did nearly 100 years ago, it took a team to fly a 1903 Wright Flyer from the sands of Kitty Hawk, N.C., late last year. Ken Hyde, a retired American Airlines pilot and head of the Wright Experience, built the replica 1903 Wright Flyer under sponsorship of the Experimental Aircraft Assn.
William R. (Russ) Boario, William M. Brown and Jack L. Walker were instrumental in the development of fine-resolution synthetic aperture radar which brought sweeping changes to the capabilities of radar, and led to dramatic new applications for air- and space-borne radars. Capitalizing on the computer revolution to enhance signal processing, their synthetic aperture radar (SAR) work transformed radar from a mere target detector to a high-resolution reconnaissance sensor approaching optical capabilities, but at much longer ranges.
Brig. Gen. David L. Stringer (see photo) has assumed command of the U.S. Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Center at Arnold AFB, Tenn. He has succeeded Brig. Gen. David Eichhorn, who has become director of the Aeronautical Enterprise Program Office in the Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.
