Boeing Commercial Airplanes President Alan Mulally was expected to say late last week that the Mach 0.95 Sonic Cruiser program has been shelved. It would have competed in the 200-250-seat class market now filled by Boeing's aging 757 and 767s and Airbus' A300/A310 products. Customers have responded positively to the idea of a new aircraft in that seat range, or slightly larger, but favor operating efficiency over speed because they doubt passengers will pay to fly faster.
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Boeing is expanding on a series of 3-4-day airline training courses on maintenance and airline safety procedures with offerings for cabin and ramp crews. Called the Boeing Safety Management System, the course series is split into two modules, an on-site training program that combines the company's Procedural Event Analysis Tool (PEAT), which has been around for several years and has been used by some 65 airlines worldwide, with a new Cabin Procedural Investigation Tool.
Laurent Schneider-Maunoury (see photo) has been appointed vice president-operations of Messier-Dowty, Velizy, France. He succeeds Guy Giard, who plans to retire at year-end. Schneider-Maunoury was director of the Creusot facility that manufactures low-pressure turbine disks.
The Galileo spacecraft has finally started transmitting stored science data from its last flyby, after Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers were able to revive the crippled tape recorder.
British government officials have confirmed the U.K. has the ability to place undercover, armed police officers on commercial passenger flights. While the government was unwilling to discuss details, implicit within the statement is the suggestion "air marshals" are now, or will soon be, deployed on some flights.
Criminalization of data from accident investigations was a key issue raised by attendees of the Global Aviation Information Network's regional conference held in Tokyo recently.. GAIN is an industry-led coalition of airlines, manufacturers, labor, governments and other aviation organizations aimed at promoting and facilitating voluntary collection and sharing of safety information worldwide. The question of criminalization is especially sensitive in Asia due to deep-rooted cultural influences in the region.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman C.W. Young (R-Fla.) says he's determined to run 11 Fiscal 2003 appropriations bills--last year's unfinished business--through the House by Jan. 28, the day of President Bush's state of the union address. Young and his likely Senate counterpart, Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), intend to replace the current continuing resolution, which expires Jan. 11, with one that lasts until Jan. 31, and then work toward spending bills for all federal agencies except the Pentagon, which got its money last fall.
The DGA French armaments agency has ordered 10 Eurocopter EC725 Cougar helicopters, worth $285 million, equipped with electronic warfare, rescue and antiterrorism systems.
Three years and a world airline economic crisis later, Boeing says its high-speed, two-way Internet service is ready for revenue operations on the world's major air routes. The January debut on a Lufthansa 747-400 will be the culmination of a bumpy ride for the company in terms of the Internet's evolution and its best customers' finances. But Connexion by Boeing is establishing its market, not least because Lufthansa shares its vision of how airborne Internet services will influence the airline industry.
Donald C. Winter (see photo) has been appointed corporate vice president and president of Northrop Grumman Mission Systems, formerly TRW Systems, where he was president/CEO. Wesley G. Bush (see photo) will become corporate vice president and president, effective Feb. 1, of Northrop Grumman Space Technology, Redondo Beach, Calif. He will succeed Timothy W. Hannemann, who will retire. Bush was president/CEO of TRW Aeronautical Systems prior to its October sale to the Goodrich Corp.
As the U.S. Transportation Dept. moved toward deciding whether to allow the Delta-Northwest-Continental code-share alliance to go forward, attach conditions to it, challenge it or review it further, United and US Airways announced availability of their first code-share flights. Beginning Jan. 7, US Airways passengers will have access via United from Chicago to 10 cities in the western U.S. And travelers with United tickets will be able to reach 14 points in the East, Southeast and Caribbean on US Airways through Charlotte, N.C.
GULFSTREAM AEROSPACE CORP. has officially ended production of the Gulfstream IV business jet in favor of the G300 and G400. The final GIV (airframe serial number 1499) was the 500th airplane built. The G300 has a range of 3,600 naut. mi. while the G400 can fly up to 4,100 naut. mi. Production of the first G400 and G300 is underway at the company's facilities in Savannah, Ga. In related news, Vought Aircraft Industries recently delivered the 200th shipset of wings for the Gulfstream V ultralong-range jet, which has been redesignated as the G550.
Italy's Volare Airlines plans an April startup of a low-cost subsidiary, currently dubbed "Volareweb.com." Ticketing will be available through the Internet or ticket agencies, and initial service is to be offered from Venice and either Milan Malpensa or Bergamo Orio al Serio airports to destinations in France, Spain and Germany with six Airbus A320 aircraft. However, Volare Chairman Gino Zoccai said the company has not ruled out offering low-cost services on domestic routes.
Christopher C. Bernhardt (see photo) has become president/general manager of ITT Industries Avionics Div., Clifton, N.J. He was vice president/director of programs at ITT Industries.
The world is starting to run out of Internet addresses, Clarke says, and this could provide a path to improved security. The need for additional addresses is forcing a move to a new protocol, IPV6 (Internet Protocol Version 6), that will provide enough address space for the foreseeable future and also allow for easier implementation of encryption and authentication. Some countries are already running out of space, and Japan, China and the European Union will switch over in 2005. The Defense Dept. hasn't picked a rollover date yet but will decide early next year.
Pratt & Whitney Canada, a major manufacturer of smaller turboshaft and turbojet engines, is running a 3-5-year Digital Enterprise program. Part of that program is the Digital Engine Initiative, which is to make an engine using a virtual digital environment for the entire design and manufacturing process. The company already uses the Dassault Systemes Catia computer-aided design software, but has ordered the latest Catia V5 version to power the Digital Engine Initiative. There are to be 200 Catia V5 seats by the end of the year and up to 300 more in 2003.
In United Air Lines' bankruptcy filing, the company vows to join forces with employees and other stakeholders to remake itself into an "efficient and vibrant airline" that will emerge from Chapter 11, "able to rise to the competitive challenges" it faces. A great deal more than good intentions will be needed to achieve that ambitious goal. United acknowledged in the same legal brief that it had been determined to avoid bankruptcy.
The FAA's collaborative work with industry on the Operational Evolution Plan (OEP) has increased national airspace capacity by 5%, which is 2 percentage points above plan, according to FAA Administrator Marion C. Blakey. Version 5.0 of the OEP is scheduled for release early next year, with the goal of increasing capacity 31% by 2010 when demand is projected to grow 25%. In 2003 new runways will be completed at Denver, Houston, Miami and Orlando.
