Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assn. (AOPA) has filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois to prevent "further illegal efforts to destroy Meigs Field." The City of Chicago covertly closed the airport early on Mar. 31 (AW&ST Apr. 7, p. 55). The suit, which names the city and the Chicago Park District as defendants, contends that Chicago violated federal rules by not providing advance notice before severely damaging the runway to make it unusable.
MYTRAVEL EYES JOB CUTS U.K. travel firm MyTravel will axe 2,000 jobs by next year and sell off non-core activities to compensate for a severe fall-off in business triggered by uncertainties related to the Gulf conflict. An initial spinoff involving financial services unit Travelex was announced last week. The job reductions come on top of 700 cuts revealed earlier this year.
The war against Iraq represented an opportunity for British Harrier GR7 crews to use several new weapons in anger for the first time. It also highlighted shortcomings of current systems, which they want rectified in coming years.
MORE TIME TO RENEGOTIATE Italy has extended the length of time in which private companies can operate public airports before having to renegotiate rights, and to unify the different concession regimes now in place. Currently, some companies enjoy global concessions allowing them to operate for up to 40 years. This group includes Milan, Rome, Venice and Bergamo, and will soon include Turin and Genoa. A second 18-airport group is operated privately on a temporary three-year basis, while awaiting approval of a permanent, 40-year agreement.
JFK AIRTRAIN TESTS TO RESUME Operational testing of the $1.9-billion AirTrain light rail system at New York JFK International Airport is to resume this month--now that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's Safety Board (PASB) concluded that a fatal Sept. 27, 2002, accident was "not caused by any design or construction deficiencies of the track, supporting structure, the railcars or automatic train control systems." Work on the system came to a halt after a three-car monorail test train traveling at 55 mph. entered a curve designed for 25 mph.
LANDING SITES NASA's "follow the water" mantra guided selection of the targeted landing sites for the two Mars Exploration Rovers (MERs) set for launch in June. If the complicated missions go as planned, the first MER to reach Mars will bounce to an airbag-protected landing on Jan.4, 2004, at the Gusev Crater just south of the Martian equator. Three weeks later, on Jan. 25, the second rover is scheduled to land using the same technique halfway around the planet in the area known as Meridiani Planum.
AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY & LAUREATES HALL OF FAME AWARDS PRESENTED APRIL 8, 2003 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM WASHINGTON, D.C.
As a passenger I don't care how much pilots get paid. I just want them to be capable, properly trained and diligent. That seems to be what we have, with a few inebriated exceptions. I also want the airlines to maintain the aircraft, and thus it is in my interest that they earn a profit and aren't pressured to squeeze the maintenance and training budgets. I want low air fares so it is of interest to know how much flight crews cost.
SABRE DANCE Tough as times may be, United Airlines is continuing to make business commitments. It has signed a three-year contract with Sabre Travel Network calling on the carrier to provide all of its published fares to Sabre Connected online and offline travel agencies. Previously, the three-year option was available only to airlines with bookings outside the U.S.; now it extends to those operating within the U.S. as well.
WORLD NEWS ROUNDUP 18 Delta launches low-fare carrier Song, based at JFK 19 American averts bankruptcy filing; United wins concessions 19 Launch of first NASA Mars Exploration Rover delayed WAR IN IRAQ 22 Details of the coalition's use of airpower are revealed 24 Low-profile ops in Iraq could hurt USAF modernization 27 A-10s struck by heavy antiair- craft fire in battle for Baghdad 28 RAF GR7 operators want even more high-tech upgrades THE SHUTTLE LOSS
PROFUSION OF PLANS When money is tight at government agencies, they tend to do a lot of planning. The FAA, no exception, is developing what an agency official calls a five-year "Phase One" as the near-term, low-cost, high-payoff part of its rolling 10-year Operational Evolution Plan (OEP) for increasing National Airspace System capacity. At the same time, it is looking beyond the OEP, 20-25 years out, toward new-technology, space-based air traffic management (ATM) architectures advocated by Boeing, Mitre and others. And staffers are talking with Defense Dept.
Space Laureate honorees are the space shuttle and International Space Station NASA/contractor launch and assembly teams led by Ron Dittemore, shuttle program manager; Bill Gerstenmaier, ISS program manager; Joe Mills, ISS Boeing program manager; and Russ Turner, president and CEO of United Space Alliance. All of these managers and their teams face the challenge of renewing the shuttle program and sustaining ISS operations in wake of the loss of Columbia during reentry Feb. 1.
6 Correspondence 8 Who's Where 10-11 Market Focus 13 Industry Outlook 15 Airline Outlook 17 In Orbit 18-19 World News Roundup 21 Washington Outlook 63 Inside Business Aviation 74 Classified 76 Contact Us 77 Aerospace Calendar
30 SECONDS OVER TOKYO Eighty silver goblets were flown last week in a North American B-25 Mitchell medium bomber to Vacaville, Calif., site of the 61st reunion of the Doolittle Raiders. USAF Academy cadets and officers of the Dept. of History escorted the cups on the bomber. The goblets are engraved with the names of 80 crewmembers who took off in 16 Mitchells from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet on Apr. 18, 1942, to conduct a surprise attack against Tokyo. After the reunion each year, the goblets are returned to the Academy for display in Arnold Hall.
The hemorrhaging of red ink by U.S. airlines continues to boggle the mind, with market professionals now forecasting even larger first-quarter losses than they had anticipated. Most expect a total first-quarter loss of around $3.5 billion, before extraordinary items, versus the earlier estimate of $2.4-2.7 billion. For the same period last year, the loss totaled $2 billion.
Zeev Gofer has become corporate vice president-marketing and business development for Elbit Systems, Haifa, Israel. He was corporate vice president-aircraft and helicopter upgrades and systems. He succeeds Ran Galli.
Steve Fossett showed how progress can be made when he flew around the world solo in a balloon last summer, capping a nearly decade-long quest to achieve this remarkable goal for the first time.
NORTHERN EXPOSURE Commodore Aviation Inc., a heavy maintenance division of Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI), will change its name to Empire Air Center and relocate to Rome, N.Y., from Miami. The state and city will pay to renovate B-52 hangars at the former Griffiss AFB, now known as the Griffiss Business and Technology Park. IAI has a 20-year lease on 355,000 sq. ft. of space and 20 acres of ramp area. Plans call for Commodore to begin overhaul work at the new site in September.
U.S. defense contractors, buoyed by relatively stable program funding, are expected to report a healthy first-quarter financial performance. Less fortunate are companies for which civil aviation constitutes a large part of their business; their numbers will reflect the prolonged down-cycle in commercial, regional and business jets.
CROP WATCH Satellite-derived imagery could help farmers reduce production costs and improve crop yields, but only if accurate geological data can be delivered within 24 hr. at reasonable prices, according to a study by two Aerospace Corp. researchers. Frank Wong told attendees at the 2003 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Aerospace Conference that the top 7% of U.S. farms--those with annual revenues greater than $250,000--are candidates to incorporate imagery-related technologies and processes.
Scaled Composites' White Knight aircraft flies above the company's earlier Proteus high-altitude research craft. White Knight will release a three-man rocket ship from under its gull wing as part of a suborbital space program announced by Scaled last week (see p. 64). Photo by Cory Bird.
Editor-In-Chief David M. North (left) and Senior Engineering Editor Michael A. Dornheim (center) recently received an exclusive look at Scaled Composites' novel spaceship program (see p. 64). Scaled President Burt Rutan showed North and Dornheim the work in progress at his Mojave, Calif., facility, and gave them an opportunity to fly the simulator for the rocket-powered spaceship. They also witnessed a firing of a candidate hybrid rocket engine. Construction of the spaceship has progressed rapidly since the visit on Mar. 19, and it was scheduled to be rolled out on Apr.
AMADEUS BUYS OPODO SHARE Computer reservations system operator Amadeus will take a 16.7% stake in Opodo, an Internet travel portal operated by Air France, Lufthansa, British Airways and six other European airlines. Amadeus officials insisted that the company would provide essential technologies to Opodo, and had no intention of becoming a distributor or increasing its share in the future.
FOLLOW THE MONEY Members of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board are starting to probe the "context" in which the space shuttle's Feb. 1 mishap occurred, and that includes funding. John Logsdon, a George Washington University space policy wonk who serves on the board, will lead an effort to track budget trends in detail.
A recent wargame focusing on national security space matters reconfirmed that U.S. laws and policies must evolve in tandem with the integration of space and terrestrial combat capabilities.
