SLOW MOVE TO CDG Aero Mexico, CSA Czech Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Korean Air, four SkyTeam alliance member carriers, are gradually moving their Paris operations to CDG airport's newly completed 2E terminal. ADP Paris airports authority invested 750 million euros ($870 million) in the additional facilities to provide urgently needed capacity. However, the building's Phase 1 could not be completed on Apr.
Combining unmanned aerial vehicles with bistatic radar could deliver the ability to detect targets hidden inside caves, tunnels or between buildings, according to a U.S. Air Force researcher. The radar energy would be transmitted over an area of interest by a high-altitude UAV. Multiple low-altitude UAVs would then use the reflected signals to passively detect obscured targets.
MODERNIZING YEMENIA Yemen's national airline this month signed a deal with International Lease Finance Corp. to lease two Airbus A330-200s to replace its aging A310s. The move is part of a modernization and expansion plan for the airline. The A330s are to be delivered next year. Yemenia also plans to lease four more A330s, two in 2005 and two in 2006. The airline also plans to expand its routes, hoping to add a Yemen-Marseille flight later this year.
Tim Fritz has been appointed director of the Office of Aerospace and Aeronautics within the Colorado Office of Innovation and Technology. He was a state representative and had been lead engineer for the Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo.
American Airlines has reported positive cash flow from operations and a 4% year-over-year increase in unit revenues during May, and it speculated on similar results for June if early trends continued throughout the month. Weak revenues have been at the center of industry-wide losses since 2001, and the carrier told the Securities and Exchange Commission June 25 that its unit revenues remain "depressed relative to historical levels." American received $358 million in federal security cost reimbursements in May.
Capt. Charles Cox (American Airlines, Dallas, Tex.)
I read your articles on advanced cockpits with great interest (AW&ST June 2, pp.40-51). The advances in technology during the last two decades have been revolutionary, and the revolution continues.
David A. Fulghum (Le Bourget), Douglas Barrie (Le Bourget)
Western leaders are aware that network-centric operations provide their military forces with massive advantages over those who don't have the capability, but their foes also know that to have any chance at success in war they must disrupt, tap into, or destroy confidence in those networks.
The British Defense Ministry has selected four bidders to compete for its $6.6-billion defense information infrastructure program. Groups led by IBM and Lockheed Martin will compete with Atlas, which includes EDS, Cogent and General Dynamics, and RaDII, formed by CSC, BT and Thales.
The Royal Saudi Air Force is looking at retiring its Tornado F3 air defense aircraft to free up funding for a limited upgrade of its Tornado interdictor strike (IDS) fleet. The RSAF had considered implementing an upgrade program similar to the British Royal Air Force's (RAF's) Tornado GR4 standard. This option, however, appears to have been shelved in favor of a much more limited upgrade, focused primarily on those elements of the basic strike variant of the Tornado approaching obsolescence.
Regarding Prof. Theodore J. Sheskin's letter on the market prospects of the Boeing 7E7 (AW&ST May 12, p. 6), his statement "even if the new plane costs slightly more . . . " ignores the fact that other operating economies--to be derived almost entirely from engine-specific fuel consumption--will be available to Airbus and Boeing. Airbus can match Boeing in any transport category, but Boeing cannot match the flagship of the future, the A380.
Peter Blausten has become group human resources director for U.K.-based BAA plc. He has held similar positions at the Ford Motor Co. and British Airways.
COMING TOGETHER The first of the United Arab Emirates F-16 Block 60s is slated to fly late this year, with delivery in the second quarter of next year, says John Dean, Lockheed Martin's vice president for the F-16. Development of key components of the aircraft is also proceeding. Northrop Grumman is flight testing the new APG-80 active electronically-scanned radar on a BAC 1-11, and General Electric has undertaken extensive testing of the F110-GE-132 engine.
With the problems of the Ariane launcher and Galileo satellite navigation system now seemingly behind them, Europe's space managers plan to propose a two-fold increase in Europe's space spending and a streamlined organizational framework for its space program.
Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin are teaming on Pentagon unmanned combat air vehicle projects. Northrop Grumman will act as the prime as the two pursue UCAV efforts being combined at the Pentagon under a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency-led joint program office.
... AND ATV PRODUCTION AWARD, TOO Meanwhile, Feustel-Buechl said a framework contract for production of up to eight Automated Transfer Vehicles will not be signed until the end of the year, instead of this summer as had been hoped (AW&ST June 9, p. 17). ESA has come to terms with prime contractor EADS on price, but a firm and final offer is not expected until July. The ATV award, along with previously contracted procurement of Ariane 5 rockets to launch them, will be part of an ISS industrial operations agreement that is also expected to be inked toward year's end.
FULL ACCOUNTING The only way to replace the aging EP3 intelligence-gathering aircraft in the near-term, and still provide the capability through 2020, is to have the Air Force's rival RC-135 Rivet Joint take on the Navy's signals-intelligence collection role, the House Intelligence Committee believes. Such a consolidation was proposed before, but Navy officials kept the EP-3 alive by arguing that using the RC-135 was more expensive. But the House panel looked at that argument in more detail, and believes that a full accounting shows otherwise.
Bob Blanchard has been appointed Cincinnati-based director of maintenance accounting and accounts payable and Martin Godly director of financial planning and analysis for Astar Air Cargo of Miami. Blanchard was general accounting director/assistant controller for National Airlines, while Godly has been president of Aviation Business Sciences.
UNITED STATES Editor-In-Chief: David M. North [email protected] Managing Editor: James R. Asker [email protected] Assistant Managing Editors: Stanley W. Kandebo--Technology [email protected] Michael Stearns--Production [email protected] Senior Editors: Craig Covault [email protected], David Hughes [email protected] NEW YORK 2 Penn Plaza, Fifth Floor, New York, N.Y. 10121 Phone: +1 (212) 904-2000, Fax: +1 (212) 904-6068
Raytheon Aircraft Co. is scrapping and incinerating all of its Beechcraft Starship I business aircraft, and plans to complete the destruction process by the end of this year. "The business decision has been made to cease support of the Starship and take those aircraft under our control out of commission, salvage all usable parts and terminate the program," a company representative said.
SATLYNX DEAL Alcatel Space and its broadband affiliate will take a 17.9% stake in Satlynx--a two-way, high-speed Internet/DSL-in-the-sky venture created by SES and Gilat. In addition, Alcatel has contracted with EMS Technologies of Atlanta for the supply of return link subsystem and end-user terminals for Satlynx applications. Alcatel is providing systems, network and broadband technologies for the venture, including a digital video broadcasting/return channel by satellite system (AW&ST Apr. 15, 2002, p. 50).
Dassault Aviation and AVPK Sukhoi have signed a broad-ranging collaboration agreement as European and Russian firms continue to reinforce cooperative ties. Under a preliminary agreement signed on June 20, the two fighter builders will form a working group to explore how they could collaborate on combat and civil aircraft, as well as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) and supersonic business aircraft applications.
Douglas Barrie (Le Bourget), Andy Nativi (Le Bourget)
Political and contractor maneuvering to determine the extent of European industrial participation in, and technology access to, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will be played out over the coming months as partner nations move to negotiate deals. Industrial jockeying is already apparent in Italy and the U.K., both of which harbor ambitions for final assembly lines. Concern is also evident in the U.K. as to technology access and the ability to independently support and possibly modify the aircraft.
Partner countries that have been relatively passive participants on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program--expecting subcontracts to automatically flow to them by virtue of their involvement--are apt to pay a huge penalty in terms of the financial returns they can expect from their original investments. Such a likelihood comes through loud and clear in a new Defense Dept. study examining the international acquisition strategy being used for JSF--a program that's as much an experiment in how the Pentagon does business as in the application of new technology.
Russia's early warning system, designed to detect an ICBM attack in the event of a nuclear war with the U.S., is in such a shambles that leaders in Moscow might have trouble in a crisis telling a false alarm from the real thing, according to a Rand report.
A Russian company that has built secret military imaging spacecraft is about to launch an upgraded commercial version of one of the vehicles that could be used as a "poor man's reconnaissance satellite" while competing with U.S. and European civil remote-sensing spacecraft. In addition to the turnkey imaging services that the Russians would like to provide internationally, managers at the Paris air show said the Russian Ministry of Defense would also be a heavy user of the DK1 satellite.
