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EasyJet's takeover of British Airways subsidiary Deutsche BA (DBA) appears to be seriously threatened by a lengthy dispute with pilots regarding new work rules and pay, indicating yet another possible turn in the rapidly evolving German air transport market.
Just days after a spectacular recovery operation finished raising the European Space Agency's Artemis telecom technology satellite to its intended orbit, a potential operating budget shortfall is forcing the agency to consider leasing out all or part of the spacecraft's payload.
David Johnson has been named assistant vice president-technical operations for the Washington-based Aerospace Industries Assn. He was director of engineering management.
Kudos for recognizing the importance of hybrid rocket technology (AW&ST Feb.3, p. 50), and for the detailed coverage. One valuable feature of hybrid rockets that you did not mention is that they burn much more cleanly than solid rockets. With hydroxl-terminated polybutadiene-fueled motors, toxic species are removed by moving away from ammonium perchlorate solid oxidizer. As for paraffin, the main combustion products are even more benign: water and carbon dioxide.
With war clouds gathering over Iraq, U.S. vendors of higher resolution satellite imagery worry that the government will temporarily block their businesses. The companies' operating licenses allow the government to turn off service for national security reasons. During operations in Afghanistan, the military implemented a much more palatable form of "shutter control." It simply bought up all the problematic Space Imaging imagery. Since then, competitor DigitalGlobe has joined the fray, prompting fears the government no longer can afford to buy all the commercial spy pix.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper says he'd like small UAVs that can hover outside windows and fire small-caliber bullets and disabling gas inside. He also dreams of a stealthy, unmanned gunship far smaller than the AC-130 and armed with miniaturized laser and high-power microwave weapons. Meanwhile, Gen. Hal Hornburg, the Air Combat Command chief, cautions warfighters to eschew information operations for manipulating noncombatants' perceptions or playing around with the Internet.
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Royce Forman, senior scientist of the Structural Engineering Div. at the NASA Johnson Space Center, has won the 2002 John W. Lincoln Award. Hewas cited for his work in advancing the technology associated with the concept of aircraft structural integrity. Lincoln worked at the Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, and was a pioneer in the development and application of durability and damage tolerance design to ensure the safety and longevity of military and commercial aircraft.
Kent Kresa, chairman/CEO of the Northrop Grumman Corp., has received the 2002 Howard Hughes Memorial Award from the Los Angeles-based Aero Club of Southern California. He was recognized for contributions to the advancement of aviation and space technology.
Stephen J. Cabot's Viewpoint, "Bring Binding Arbitration To Airline Disputes" (AW&ST Feb. 3, p. 62), was nonsense-- the author, a labor lawyer, garbled his airline history; his arguments had more holes than substance; and his assertions of cause and effect had little relationship to reality.
Insurance rates and tort reform topped the list of key issues at this year's Heli-Expo convention here, but operators and manufacturers were optimistic that 2003 will bring modest growth in utilization and sales of new aircraft. High insurance costs have pummeled helicopter operators during the past 18 months, although there are signs that these increases are starting to abate. A number of U.S. operators have been forced out of business, while others are struggling to contend with rates that are driving up their fixed costs.
Safety concerns continue to plague the aging Concorde fleet (AW&ST Dec. 9, 2002, p. 20). On Feb. 19, Air France Concorde F-BTSD, en route from Paris to New York, was diverted to Halifax, Nova Scotia, after the captain shut down the No. 3 engine due to a suspected fuel leak, according to the carrier. The landing was normal, and no injuries were reported among the 47 passengers and 9 crewmembers. In November 2002, an Air France Concorde crew shut down an engine after a warning light appeared in the cockpit.
ECLIPSE AVIATION HAS CHOSEN the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW610F engine to power the twin-engine Eclipse 500 business jet. The engine, flat-rated to 900 lb. thrust at takeoff (sea level, ISA +10C), will be equipped with dual-channel, full authority digital engine controls. Certification is tentatively scheduled for early in 2006. Late last year, Eclipse management rejected the EJ-22 engine built by Williams International after it failed to produce adequate power.
NASA's proposed Orbital Space Plane (OSP) won't necessarily have wings or be reusable, but it would allow the International Space Station (ISS) to accommodate the seven-person crew originally planned. And while it could eventually supplement the space shuttle as a way to get humans to the ISS, it won't be a quick replacement.
Robert L. Brown, who has been deputy director of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Charlottesville, Va., has been appointed director of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, which is managed by Cornell University and is at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.
USN Vice Adm. (ret.) Dennis McGinn (see photo) has been named Washington-based vice president-strategic planning and business development for Battelle, Columbus, Ohio. He was deputy chief of naval operations for warfare requirements and programs at the Pentagon.
Andreas Pluss (see photos) has been appointed vice president/general manager of Jet Aviation in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He succeeds Norbert Ehrich, who has returned to the West Palm Beach, Fla., facility as vice president-special projects. Pluss was purchasing manager at corporate headquarters in Zurich. Wolfgang Dillbaum has become director of material management and distribution for the Saarbrucken, Germany, parts distribution center. He was vice president- sales and marketing for the Rheinland Air Service.
Recent news that Lufthansa German Airlines will remove 10 more aircraft from German and European routes comes as no surprise to European airline analysts, given what Dominic Edridge of Commerzbank Securities described as "the appalling fare outlook, particularly in intra-European travel." Still, he believes the market has yet "to fully realize how bad [the industry] is going to be this year."
Air Canada last week welcomed the Finance Ministry's reduction of the Air Traveler Security Charge (ATSC) on domestic routes to $C7 (U.S.$4.60) per one-way ticket (C$14 round trip) from C$12 (C$24 round trip).
Ilyushin Aviation says it has entered Air India's competition for long-range transports with a bid for the Il-96-300. Airbus and Boeing have submitted bids based on a buy of 10 aircraft with options for seven more. The Russian team claims its bid, which includes Pratt & Whitney PW2337 engines and a Rockwell Collins digital cockpit, can knock off 30% of the estimated $1.5-billion value of the order. Ilyushin hopes one factor in its favor is that Russian President Vladimir Putin has chosen the same aircraft for his executive jet.
