Aviation Week & Space Technology

At opposite ends of this city, two aircraft manufacturers are building corporate jets with near-identical cabin size, performance and price with each hoping its product, once in operation, will fare better in a difficult market. While both the Bombardier Challenger 300 and the Raytheon Aircraft Hawker Horizon programs were started at different times, they are likely to reach FAA certification within a year of each other. They also are entering a marketplace where contending aircraft from Gulfstream Aerospace and Dassault Aviation are already established.

Former FAA Administrator Jane Garvey has been appointed executive vice president and chairman of the transportation practice of Washington-based APCO Worldwide.

Feb. 3-4--American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics' Defense Excellence 2003 Conference. Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center, Washington. Call +1 (703) 264-7500. Feb. 3-5--Aerospace Lighting Institute's Night Vision Goggle & Glass Cockpit Seminar. Airport Marriott Hotel, Los Angeles. Call +1 (727) 791-0790 or see www.aligodfrey.com. Feb. 4-6--Society of Automotive Engineers' North American Aviation Safety Conference. Westin Peachtree Hotel, Atlanta. Call +1 (724) 772-8530 or see www.sae.org/calendar/meetings.htm.

Air Canada, which reported profitability in the second and third quarters of 2002--and the only international carrier in North America to report black ink in the second quarter--advises it will report a fourth-quarter loss and full-year operating loss. The carrier anticipates the loss will be less than for the fourth quarters of the previous two years (AW&ST Oct. 7, 2002, p.52). Air Canada's alert came along with its traffic report for December.

Raytheon Co. will be the intended sole-source provider for development of the Extended Range Active Missile (ERAM). It will replace the Raytheon Area Theater Ballistic Missile Defense program, which the Pentagon canceled last year because of cost overruns. ERAM is being designed to protect ships from cruise- and Scud-type missiles. The replacement system will use the same basic components as the Area Theater ballistic missile defense, Aegis system and the Standard missile. One program objective is to achieve initial operational capability no later than 2010.

A decision to indefinitely postpone Europe's Rosetta comet rendezvous mission, a week after presentation of an inquiry report on the failed launch of the upgraded Ariane 5 EC-A last month, has revealed that concerns with the booster extend well beyond the EC-A version to the Ariane 5 launch system as a whole.

Proposed fare hikes have raised hackles among British and Irish airlines. Ryanair lodged a complaint with the U.K. Office of Fair Trading over the Civil Aviation Authority's (CAA) decision to allow the National Air Traffic Service to raise fares. British Airways has complained to the CAA about revised pricing proposals concerning charges at Heathrow.

The prototype Cessna Citation Sovereign business jet flies over the California countryside. The Sovereign has completed development testing and is poised to enter a final certification phase that is scheduled to continue until late this year. Cessna is developing the airplane to fill a gap in the midsize cabin market segment (see p. 42). Photo by Tom Zwemke.

Iraq's purported access to GPS jammers is getting a lot of attention, but that doesn't necessarily mean they could seriously impair U.S. combat operations. "I'm not worried about that," said USAF Gen. Lance Lord, head of Air Force Space Command, which is in charge of the GPS satellite constellation. However, one issue that will require close attention is bandwidth management. Lord expects bandwidth demands to be met, but that it could require some adjudication. In the long run, the space community will have to increase bandwidth availability.

A Thai-government-led effort to exploit regional tourism has attracted interest of the tourism-minded Singapore government, according to Thaksin Shinawatra, Thailand's prime minister (AW&ST Jan.13, p. 391). He said the as-yet-unnamed carrier will operate from Chiang Mai in northern Thailand to tourist destinations in Myanmar and the Yunnan province of China, and along the Mekong River countries of Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia.

Monte Belger, who retired from the FAA last September as acting deputy administrator, has been named vice president of the Transportation Systems Solutions unit of Lockheed Martin Air Traffic Management, Rockville, Md.

Vance D. Coffman, chairman/CEO of the Lockheed Martin Corp., has been named chairman of the board of governors of the Washington-based Aerospace Industries Assn. Alan R. Mulally, executive vice president of Boeing and president/CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, has been named vice chairman. Reelected were John W. Douglass as president/CEO and George F. Copsey as secretary/treasurer. Members of the executive committee for 2003 are: Coffman; Douglass; Mulally; Stephen L. Hayes, president of Parker Aerospace and vice president of the Parker Hannifin Corp.; Robert D.

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THE FAA HAS APPROVED production of new crankshafts for certain Textron Lycoming IO/TIO-540-series piston engines installed in a number of high-performance general aviation airplanes.

Central/Southern US: (AR, CO, IA, KS, LA, MO, OK, TN, TX, UT), Central & South America: See Tom Davis above. Western US: (AK, AZ, CA, HI, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, WA, WY), Western Canada: (BC, AB) Soulek & Associates; (818) 762-9988; Fax: (818) 762-9972; e-mail: [email protected] Midwest/Northern US: (IN, KY, MI, OH, WV, IL, WI, MN, WY, ND, SD, NE), Central Canada: (MB, SK) Charles Talley; (312) 346-7330; Fax: (312) 346-4462; e-mail: [email protected]

The U.S. Air Force is moving ahead with plans to quickly equip a small number of C-17s with laser-based infrared countermeasures. Northrop Grumman, contractor for the Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures (Laircm), will be in charge of the quick reaction program, nicknamed "Laircm light" because it features one rather than the two jamming turrets that will be used in a fully configured system. USAF opted for the simplified system to accelerate delivery. The $7.2-million contract could lead to the upgrade of 12 C-17s.

Iran's strategically important oil facilities on Kharg Island in the northeast Persian Gulf are clearly visible in this image of the Iranian island taken in August by the Expedition 5 crew on board the International Space Station. NASA normally does not allow crews to photograph politically sensitive sites. According to the U.S. State Dept., Iran's oil wealth has helped to sponsor terrorism.

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In "Delta IV Thrusts Boeing Against Atlas V, Ariane" by Craig Covault (AW&ST Nov. 25, 2002, p. 23), the Delta IV first stage is stated as containing 365,000 lb. of liquid hydrogen and 85,000 lb. of liquid oxygen and the second stage 38,000 lb. of liquid hydrogen and 7,000 lb. of liquid oxygen. The first-stage propellant loading weights were repeated in a caption for "Delta IV Priced for Satcom Market Battle" (AW&ST Dec. 9, 2002, p. 56).

This year Airbus is scheduled to deliver 300 commercial transports, an estimated 15-25 more than arch rival Boeing, an industrial milestone the Europeans are celebrating quietly and humbly, in this hostile economic environment that has been good for none.

While grappling with some thorny program challenges in the U.K., BAE Systems received a welcome boost from the Pentagon last week with two contracts worth nearly $800 million. BAE Systems Mission Solutions won a 20-year F-16 avionics support contract worth $485 million, while its Applied Technologies unit received a $298-million contract for support of the Aegis combat system.

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AirTran Airways plans to launch twice-daily round-trip service May21 between its base in Atlanta and Denver, a United hub. Denver will be AirTran's 41st and westernmost destination, and the carrier's connections in the eastern U.S. beyond Atlanta will counter some of United's developing code-shares with US Airways.

In an effort to resolve lingering flight control concerns and move ahead with the critical test program that could decide the fate of the MV-22 Osprey, the tiltrotor last week returned to sea for the first time since the resumption of flight testing.