During the first weeks of Gulf War II, as supply lines were stretched to their limits, a U.S. Army commander might gladly have traded a dozen trucks for one 300-kt. helicopter that could carry as much as a Lockheed Martin C-130 transport. A Utah-based company has such a rotorcraft on the drawing board--a heavy-lift gyrodyne.
BALLOON FEST The Physical Science Laboratory (PSL) at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces has been selected by NASA to operate and maintain the agency's National Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Tex.; Fort Sumner, N.M., and at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va. The balloons, which can range up to 600 ft. in diameter when fully inflated, are used to carry a payload up to 8,000 lb. to extremely high altitudes for scientific experiments.
NO KNEE-JERK REACTIONS War in Iraq is not changing aviation insurance rates because insurers revised their charges so thoroughly--and drastically--following the Sept.11, 2001, terrorist attacks. "Income to the aviation insurance market is up by leaps and bounds," commented Robert Karl, a broker with one of the industry's major aviation brokerages, Aon Aviation. Since Sept. 11, the insurance industry has recapitalized itself, so there's not as big a panic as there was following the 2001 disasater.
BELL BOYS Bell Helicopter Textron will deliver 14 206L-4 Long Rangers to Air Logistics, based in New Iberia, La., beginning in the second quarter and continuing through 2005. The aircraft will be used in support operations at offshore oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. Air Logistics operates more than 90 aircraft in the U.S., Mexico, Nigeria and Brazil. In addition, Bell has sold five Model 407 helicopters to Med-Trans Corp. for use in emergency medical transportation in the U.S. Deliveries are scheduled to begin this year.
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines plans to cut several thousand jobs in the longer term, as the airline copes with prevailing market conditions. KLM is looking at how to reduce costs by 10%. KLM believes the aviation sector will have to improve its results to survive. In the past 10 years, the average returns have fallen below 2% annually. KLM is in talks with British Airways and Air France about joining in a bilateral alliance that could lead to membership in Oneworld or SkyTeam. The carrier welcomed last week's approval of the Delta/Northwest/Continental alliance (see p.
RUAG Aerospace, a Swiss-based company plans to enlarge the customer and work package portfolio at its new German subsidiary in an effort to revitalize two former Fairchild Dornier units. It hopes to expand business for its Structures subsidiary with orders from customers other than Airbus. In the new Services division, it's looking at offering more completion and modification work. The company will make a decision by year-end about leasing one of the hangars formerly allocated to the planned final assembly of the 728 regional jet.
DASH 8SKI Bombardier Aerospace's Dash 8 is the first Western-built regional transport to obtain Russian certification, according to the Canadian company. The process began in 1997 when the Interstate Aviation Committee issued a basic certificate, but full approval was not granted until December 2002. The first airplane, a Dash 8-100, began operating early this year with Sakhalinsk Aviatrassy based at Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on the southern end of Sakhalin Island. The aircraft is scheduled to fly about 85 hr.
ILS is "uncomfortable" with corrective actions proposed for the Proton Block DM version after a failure late last year, and will suspend marketing it--despite significant extra cost and schedule delay--until it is deemed flightworthy. ILS will fly its next payload, SES Americom's AMC-9 built by Alcatel Space, on a Breeze M version Apr. 29.
E.C. (Pete) Aldridge, U.S. Defense Dept. undersecretary for acquisition, who is credited with cutting red tape and promoting military transformation, will retire May 23. Air Force Secretary James Roche lauded Aldridge because "he's chopped [acquisition] regulations from three inches to a half-inch [thick document]." Temporarily, at least, Aldridge's replacement will be his deputy, Michael Wynne.
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 79 World Business Watch 81 In Review 82 Classified 84 Contact Us 85 Aerospace Calendar
As an airline pilot I thought Stephen J. Cabot's Viewpoint was hypocritical and untruthful (AW&ST Feb. 3, p. 62). The Railway Labor Act was created to reduce disruption in interstate commerce and allow airline employees to bargain for fair and competitive wages. Cabot's proposal for binding arbitration would take away this right.
Rockwell Collins will deliver programmable audio- video systems for three Boeing 737-700s and total entertainment systems for three 767-300ERs for Ethiopian Airlines by the end of 2005.
CARGO TCAS Ending a 17-month rulemaking, the FAA adopted most of its proposed requirement that all-cargo aircraft be equipped with TCAS (traffic-alert and collision avoidance system). The agency dropped from its November 2001 proposal a TCAS requirement for cargo aircraft with less than a 33,000-lb. maximum takeoff weight, but retained TCAS II or the equivalent for turbine-powered aircraft and TCAS I for piston-powered aircraft at or above 33,000 lb.
Richard Christiansen, associate director of the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, has won the Gen. Ira Eaker Fellow award for fly-by-wire development on the center's behalf from the Central Florida Chapter of the Air Force Assn. and the Aerospace Education Foundation. The award recognizes technology contributions to aviation and was established to perpetuate knowledge of U.S. aerospace history.
The combination of quick-reaction launch systems, microsatellites carrying mission-tailored military payloads and an ability to service spacecraft in orbit will radically change the truism that overflight patterns of orbiting spacecraft normally are predictable.
Delta Air Lines has adopted a wholly new approach to serving the rich and famous with the launching of Delta AirElite's Fleet Membership Program, a hybrid that couples an exclusive charter operation with the benefits of a fractional aircraft ownership program.
Apr. 16-17--Assn. for Enterprise Integration's Network Centric Operations: "Transforming National Security and Protecting the Homeland." Sheraton Premiere Hotel, Vienna, Va. Call +1 (703) 247-9473 or see www.afei.org/brochure/3af3 Apr. 17--Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Doolittle Leadership in Aerospace Policy Conference. MIT Security Studies Program. MIT Faculty Club, Cambridge. Call +1 (617) 452-3976, fax +1 (617) 258-7858, or see www.web.mit.edu
As Boeing looks for 15-20% operating improvements in its 7E7 mid-market program, it isn't being shy about asking for production economies, too. Assuming it is launched, the new aircraft will probably have a greater impact on Boeing's future product development and manufacturing strategy than on the company's commercial airplane lineup, even though the industry thinks the timing is excellent for Boeing to innovate in the 200-300-seat market as rival Airbus focuses on large-aircraft development.
As circumstantial evidence builds suggesting a loose piece of insulating foam brought down the space shuttle Columbia, the board investigating the disaster is starting to focus on how a shuttle program devoted to safety could have missed the danger. While its members are rigorously avoiding jumping to a final conclusion, new data examined by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) point to a breach in the leading edge of the left wing near the spot hit by a slab of foam during liftoff as the accident's cause.
In a dramatic testimony to just how treacherous the business climate has become for airlines, Air Canada--with its 73% domestic market share--will be forced to restructure during the next 12-18 months while operating under the protection of bankruptcy court. As recently as six months ago, Air Canada was North America's most profitable hub-and-spoke airline. Some industry observers even saw it as a model because of its cost-cutting efforts and what seemed to be good progress in managing the operation through perilous economic times.
Midwest Airlines and the Air Line Pilots Assn. last week concluded an agreement on wage concessions. Pending union approval, a significant decrease in pilots' hourly pay will become effective Apr. 16-Nov. 1. The concessions are part of the Milwaukee-based company's strategic plan to reduce costs by $4 million a month.
EXTENDED DUTY FOR CRAF The USAF Air Mobility Command has notified Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) carriers that the 47 wide-body transports now airlifting U.S. soldiers to the Middle East will probably be needed for another 60 days. Stage 1 of the CRAF was activated on Feb. 8, and the passenger jets have been in military service ever since and will now be involved in airlifting many of the 100,000 additional troops being dispatched to the Persian Gulf region.
EXPRESS DELIVERY Mars Express, Europe's first Mars probe, has been shipped to Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in preparation for an early June launch on a Soyuz/Fregat launch vehicle. The spacecraft, along with its Beagle 2 lander and test equipment, arrived Mar. 24 on board two VolgaDnepr Antonov An-124 transports. Meanwhile, ESA engineers in Western Australia have started up a new tracking station north of Perth that will be used on the Mars Express mission.
Three multinational air-freight firms operating in the Asia Pacific region have welcomed China's decision to liberalize its foreign ownership rules to make it easier for them to invest in Chinese freight-forwarding services. Still, they are taking a wait-and-see attitude. Julia Khong, a spokeswoman for Federal Express in Hong Kong, said the new regulations are in line with the commitments China made when it joined the World Trade Organization to offer more opportunities for foreign investors.
