HIT LIST Ratcheting up pressure on Washington to bring export tax laws critical to aerospace companies into conformity with World Trade Organization anti-subsidy rules, the European Union has pared last September's $13-billion laundry list of tariff candidates to a svelte $4 billion. Since the WTO has authorized that exact amount in tariff sanctions if the U.S. fails to comply, this new list isn't just carefully targeted, it's "real," House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas (RCalif.) says in a "Dear Colleague" letter.
BOMBARDIER AEROSPACE DELIVERED the 600th Challenger business jet on Mar. 7. During the past 23 years, Bombardier has delivered Challengers to civilian customers in 50 countries. As of December 2002, the fleet had accumulated more than 2.3 million flight hours with a dispatch reliability rate of 99.7%. In other news, Bombardier officials said the Challenger 300 business jet is scheduled to receive approval by Transport Canada in the second quarter and enter service with corporate customers later this year.
SIRTF DELIVERED NASA's Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), the last of the "great observatories" the U.S. space agency plans to orbit above Earth's obscuring atmosphere, has reached Cape Canaveral, Fla., for its planned Apr.15 launch date. Designed to search the heavens at dust-penetrating infrared wavelengths, SIRTF will spend about a month in a NASA clean room at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station before transfer to Pad B of Launch Complex 17, where its Boeing Delta II launch vehicle is stacked. Mating of SIRTF and the Delta II is scheduled for early April.
FIELD AVIATION IN CANADA HAS COMPLETED modifications and first flight of a Challenger CL604 Multi-Mission Aircraft for the Royal Danish Air Force. The airplane is equipped with a large radome under the forward fuselage for the Telephonics maritime surveillance radar; a sliding door mechanism in the aft fuselage that accommodates a retractable FLIR Systems electro-optical system, and a series of special surveillance sensors.
TRISHUL ABANDONED After 20 years of research and trials, India's Defense Research and Development Organization has scrapped the Trishul surface-to-air missile, after spending about 3 billion rupees ($62.5 million). Trishul was part of the Integrated Guided Missile Development program that also included the Agni, Prithvi, Akash and Nag. Only the surface-to-surface Agni and Prithvi have proved successful. The nuclear-capable Agni has entered production, Defense Minister George Fernandes said, as has an early version of the Prithvi.
SOUTHWEST BEATS FAA DEADLINE Southwest Airlines completed installation of reinforced cockpit doors on all 371 Boeing 737s Mar. 8, beating the FAA deadline by four weeks. The Dallas-based carrier is the first major U.S. airline to retrofit its fleet with the doors. A Southwest representative said each door required 12-16 hr. to install with three mechanics per airplane doing the work. The project took more than 5,000 man-hours to complete.
Bill Koch has been named president/ chief operating officer of SevenBar Enterprises of Dallas. He was president of the Sutherland Companies and had been president of AMR Combs.
Claude G. Luisada should not be too sad or lose too much sleep over the cancellation of Boeing's Sonic Cruiser (AW&ST Jan. 27, p. 8). I expressed my views almost two years ago, after a spate of promotional activity (AW&ST May 7, 2001, p. 10). Even if this project were to become a trans-sonic cruiser, the real-time advantage on long overwater routes would not be substantial. And the technical problem remains at the transition period of speed at the top end of the subsonic drag-rise curve, before Mach 1.
AIRCRAFT DONATION India's Civil Aviation Minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussain has presented Ariana Afghan Airlines President Hamid Karsai the last of three Airbus A300-B4s that India is donating to the Afghan carrier as part of a $100-million reconstruction aid package. The state-owned Indian carrier refurbished the three aircraft before the transfer. In the third quarter of 2002, Ariana expanded routes from neighboring countries to Arab Gulf States, India, Turkey and Germany. Ariana's current fleet includes three Boeing 727-200s.
Gerald (Jerry) Gentry, a retired U. S. Air Force colonel and a test pilot, died on Mar. 3 near his home in Alexandria, Va., following a heart attack. He was 67.
TRAVEL GIANTS CUT COSTS Europe's travel industry giants continue to reel in the wake of the ongoing economic crisis. Earlier this month, the industry's No. 2 firm, Thomas Cook, said it planned a new 250-million-euro ($275-million) cost-cutting measure this year, on top of a drive to save 547 million euros--including 2,600 job cuts--initiated in October, to bring the company back into the black. The Lufthansa Group affiliate reported a 213-million-euro loss in the second quarter.
AeroVironment founder Paul MacCready--an engineer who is credited with innovations in aviation, alternative energy and the environment--has won this year's Heinz Award for Technology, the Economy and Employment. He was cited for creations that have helped conquer the constraints of gravity, propel automobiles without fossil fuels, and advance technological discoveries that preserve natural resources.
Robert Wall (USS Abraham Lincoln In The Persian Gulf)
U.S. strike planners are still learning how best to fit the F/A-18E Super Hornet into their air plans, although the lack of a modern, operationally ready targeting pod will essentially keep the aircraft from participating in attacks on mobile targets.
The prototype Bombardier Global 5000 business jet reached an altitude of 45,000ft. and indicated airspeed of 340kt. during its 4-hr. first flight earlier this month. Bombardier test pilots Craig Tylski and Gary Bruce reported no problems during the mission from company facilities in Downsview, Ontario. "That we were able to take the aircraft to maximum speed on first flight represents an extraordinary feat," Tylski said.
European low-cost and second-tier national carriers are facing key structural decisions over the coming weeks against the backdrop of looming conflict with Iraq and the additional uncertainty this will introduce into an already volatile market.
Washington Outlook (AW&ST Feb. 17, p.21) reported that U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) is asking for a genius like the late Richard Feynman to participate in the Gehman board created to investigate the Columbia accident. Feynman, for all of his awards, is remembered more for his demonstration of how cold causes an O-ring to remain deformed. This was the condition that permitted the leakage of combustion gases at a joint in the Challenger solid propellant booster rockets, leading to that 1986 disaster.
Eurocopter has denied a report published in the Mar. 7 editions of The Washington Post claiming that spares for its Gazelle helicopters have been delivered to Iraq by an unidentified intermediary. "Since 1990, the company has complied strictly with the provisions of United Nations Resolution 661 . . . and no spare parts for helicopters have been delivered to Iraq," the company said in a statement.
Robert Wall (USS Abraham Lincoln In The Persian Gulf)
In preparation for war with Iraq, the U.S. Navy in recent weeks has upgraded its operationally deployed F-14D strike fighters to allow them to drop GPS-guided bombs.
Jean-Marc Batta has been named general manager of Look Voyages, a division of Montreal-based Transat. He was general manager of Vacances Air Transat (France). Batta succeeds Cedric Pastour, who will remain president/CEO of Star Airlines. Patrice Caradec, who was assistant general manager of Vacances Air Transat (France), will succeed Batta.
