United Airlines, early in its Chapter 11 reorganization, and US Airways, which thinks it still is on track to emerge from it by April, reported heavy 2002 losses and made clear, in numbers and deeds, that solving labor-cost problems remains the key to their survival.
Keeping options open on its future fighter choice, Norway signed an industrial partnership on the Eurofighter Typhoon program. It's already a Level III partner in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The government and industry will each contribute $10.8 million through 2007.
Ryanair will acquire Buzz, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines' London-based low-cost subsidiary, for about 30 million euros. Fast-growing Ryanair also ordered an additional 22 Boeing 737-800s scheduled to be delivered in 2004-05.
At the Aero-India show in Bangalore, Hindustan Aeronautic Ltd. said it had signed a contract to co-develop and coproduce the Turbomeca Ardiden (Shakti) engine, intended for future higher-power versions of India's Advanced Light Helicopter (Dhruv) program. The first engine is to run on the bench in 2005. HAL also concluded deals to supply and maintain Turbomeca's TM333-2B, the engine from which Ardiden is derived. The TM333-2B will power initial variants of the Dhruv as well as a new version of the Cheetah, a Lama derivative.
Pentagon spending on unmanned combat aircraft is going to increase dramatically over the next five years, predicts Boeing's chairman and CEO, Phil Condit. Boeing lost the F-32 Joint Strike Fighter competition to Lockheed Martin, but Boeing's UCAVs are expected to compete with the manned fighter late in its production run. The Air Force started out asking for Boeing's unmanned X-45A to duplicate the JSF's range and bomb load. The service then asked for the X-45B to increase both and the X-45C to double them.
Passengers are voting with their feet in the Osaka-Kobe region of central Japan, that nation's second-biggest aviation hub after Tokyo. By a margin of 17.6-million to 17.4-million, they prefer Osaka's old Itami airport, which handles only domestic traffic, to the newer Kansai International Airport. One reason is that Itami is closer to Osaka's downtown than Kansai, which is built on a man-made island in Osaka Bay. The fact that Itami surpassed Kansai's figures for the first time is particularly troublesome to Japan's transport minister, Chikage Ohgi.
In a move to effectively sew up the Navy's Cooperative Engagement Capability Block 2 project before it's fully started, the main competitors, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, have decided to team rather than go toe-to-toe. The deal announced last week comes days before the Navy is expected to formally open competition for the program--valued at more than $1 billion. Company officials reject the notion the arrangement is anti-competitive, noting there were about 20 responses to an early Navy solicitation.
Look for NASA to begin getting back to work this week after mourning the lost crew of Columbia. Administrator Sean O'Keefe and Frederick Gregory, his deputy, have put out the word that while the shuttle accident investigation is important, it isn't NASA's only business. That said, O'Keefe is bracing for some sharp Democratic questioning on the accident investigation Wednesday, when he appears in the Senate Caucus Room for a joint Senate-House hearing on Columbia.
Turkey and Saudi Arabia are holding off public display of support for the military buildup against Iraq. But Pentagon officials say by Feb.18, when the yearly Hajj to Saudi Arabia and a Muslim holiday in Turkey are over, efforts will become more visible, and reporters and additional combat forces will be allowed into the two countries. It's expected that journalists will be embedded within a number of U.S. and British combat units by end of the month
Ethan Martin has been promoted to vice president/principal from director of strategic analysis of Strand Associates of Denver. Chris Doan has been named executive associate. He was senior vice president-maintenance and engineering for US Airways.
Douglas Barrie (London), Michael A. Taverna (Paris)
Britain and France are attempting to reinvigorate Europe's increasingly wan efforts to bolster defense capabilities--touting the creation of a pan-European procurement agency--and also exploring cooperation on future aircraft carrier programs.
Geoff Smith has been promoted to general manager from group vice president-operations of the North Hollywood, Calif.-based Whittaker Controls unit of Meggitt Aerospace Equipment.
To meet market conditions, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has adjusted capacity for its summer schedule--Mar.30-Oct. 25. In Europe, the carrier will add two new European destinations: KLM's Cityhopper charter arm will operate two daily round-trip services between Amsterdam and Trondheim, Norway; and Air Alps will operate thrice-daily Amsterdam-Bern, Switzerland, round trips. KLM is decreasing frequencies to destinations in Great Britain and Germany and increasing frequencies to tourist destinations in Scotland, Germany and Italy.
Col. Ilan Ramon, 48, built upon his professional training in the Israel Air Force as an F-16 pilot when he was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1997. His task as a payload specialist was to command a multispectral camera for recording desert aerosols. That mission was STS-107 and, indeed, his view from space included Saharan sandstorms. Ramon was born in Tel Aviv, the son of a Holocaust survivor. He held a bachelor's degree in electronics and computer engineering from the University of Tel Aviv.
The Pentagon's $379.9-Fiscal 2004 spending request includes funding for several new but expected hardware initiatives, and continued commitment to unmanned technology and missile defense, but once again shortchanges science and technology spending.
With the possible exception of Alliant Techsystems Inc., aerospace suppliers who play a major role in the space shuttle program are unlikely to feel any impact from the Columbia disaster in the near-term.
Jay Hendrix has been named vice president-marketing and business development for United Defense Industries Inc., Arlington, Va. He is a former commanding general of the U.S. Army Forces Command. Hendrix succeeds Dennis Wagner, who has become vice president/general manager of the International Div. Wagner, in turn, succeeds Art Roberts, who is retiring.
Air Canada, posting losses for the full year and fourth quarter of 2002, nailed a "shares for sale" sign on its maintenance and regional subsidiaries, to raise revenues. The airline's preliminary report for 2002 shows an operating loss of C$218 million ($143.2 million) compared with C$731 million in 2001, and a net loss of C$428 million, or C$3.56 per share, a C$887-million improvement over the figure for 2001. The carrier had C$558 million in cash at year-end.
Capt. David M. Brown, 46, a flight surgeon in the U.S. Navy, was a native of Arlington, Va., with one claim to fame that other astronauts might find hard to match. While at the College of William and Mary earning his bachelor's degree in biology, Brown, a star gymnast, performed as an acrobat, 7-ft. unicyclist and stilt walker for Circus Kingdom. He was also taking flying lessons. But another interest was medicine, and he earned his doctorate in it from Eastern Virginia Medical School.
Edward H. Phillips (Dallas), William B. Scott (Colorado Springs )
A majority of debris stemming from the structural failure of the space shuttle Columbia during reentry was scattered across a 28,000-sq. mi. area in a swath stretching from eastern New Mexico into western Louisiana. As of late last week, however, NASA and the Environmental Protection Agency were attempting to verify reports that other shuttle parts may have fallen as far west as California, Nevada and Arizona.
Rob Kulat, chairman of Kulat Communications, which represents Aviation Week, has been elected chairman of the executive committee for 2003 of the New York-based North American Airlines Public Relations Assn.
High-resolution images taken from a ground-based Air Force tracking camera in the southwestern U.S. show serious structural damage to the inboard leading edge of Columbia's left wing, as the crippled orbiter flew overhead about 60 sec. before the vehicle broke up over Texas killing the seven astronauts on board Feb.1.
