The diplomatic protocol covering Eurocontrol's ``accession'' to the European Union was ratified late last week by Eurocontrol's 31 member states. The resulting close cooperation should significantly facilitate implementing the Single Sky initiative set to enhance air traffic management in Europe, European Commission Vice President Loyola de Palacio said.
DHL International and the Hong Kong Airport Authority have agreed to develop a $100-million Express Cargo Terminal at the city's international airport at Chek Lap Kok. Operations are to open in 2004.
Fact or fiction: Aerospace executives, motivated by Wall Street's quarterly earnings expectations, think it's better to strive for near-term profit growth than invest for greater expected returns in three years. It might surprise many industry observers to learn that, in fact, most aerospace executives believe investing for a greater expected return in the longer-term is better, even if it means accepting lower profits in the near future.
Gregory Kellam Scott, a former Colorado Supreme Court justice, has been named senior vice president-law/general counsel/secretary of GenCorp plc, Sacramento, Calif. He succeeds William Phillips, who plans to retire. Kathy E. Redd has been appointed assistant controller. She was vice president-finance of Grass Valley Group.
The Anser Institute of Homeland Security and the Center for Strategic and International Studies will hold a terrorism exercise called ``Silent Vector'' on Oct. 17-18 to simulate national command authority decision-making in an asymmetric war crisis. The cast for the simulation includes Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) as the president with key advisers including former Defense Secretary William Cohen, former Director of Central Intelligence James Woolsey and former FBI Director William Sessions.
In a bid to bring profits to its money-losing carriers, China approved a 6.5% increase in domestic air fares last week. Price wars and overcapacity have dogged the industry. Efforts to ban fare wars have proven ineffective. Collectively, China's 21 carriers lost $286 million in 2000, but made $96 million last year. They have had fares raised 26.5% since 1994.
France has launched a pair of unmanned aerial vehicle programs that it is hoped will help form the genesis of a European UAV effort. The first of the UAV programs, to be developed for the French army under a revised multiyear defense spending plan presented last month, is a multisensor multimission system due to begin entering service in 2008.
Sagem has been selected to provide a new-generation high-data-rate tactical radio for the French armed forces. The radio, using coded orthogonal frequency modulation technology, will enable transmission of data in the megabit-per-sec. range over a distance of several dozen kilometers in terrestrial and marine environments in which conventional radios do not work well, company officials said.
Joseph M. Voss has been named executive vice president/chief operating officer/chief financial officer of the Commander Aircraft Co., Bethany, Okla. Matthew J. Goodman, who has been president/COO, will become president/CEO. Voss was vice president of the Mooney Aircraft Corp.
David Jackson has become turbine avionics service manager for Woodland (Calif.) Aviation. He was senior engineering project manager for United Airlines.
By MICHAEL MECHAMBy WILLIAM DENNIS ( SAN FRANCISCO SINGAPORE)
A 10-day shutdown of 29 West Coast U.S. docks was blocked last week by a federal court order as billions of dollars of goods piled up. But transpacific air freight carriers could do little to exploit the situation. Transpac air freight shipments, particularly Asian imports to the U.S., have been climbing steadily this year after their precipitous decline following last year's terrorist attacks.
Arianespace formally denies reports in the French press that it will be forced to lay off a third of its 380 employees next year because of soft satellite demand. Although an action plan to deal with the crisis is indeed in preparation, the company said its order book remains high enough to guarantee present work levels for the next three years. Last month the company received its 10th order of the year, from Spainsat. It also turned in its best performance in several years with its 10th launch in nine months.
Aero Twin Inc. has flown a Cessna Caravan powered by a Honeywell TPE-331-12 turboprop engine derated to 850 shp., replacing the airplane's Pratt & Whitney Canada PT-6 powerplant. Designated as the ``850 Caravan,'' the aircraft is projected to have improved takeoff and climb performance on wheels or floats. FAA certification is set for second-quarter 2003.
The FAA has completed a final rule that creates FAR Part 91, Subpart K and revises Part 135 rules affecting fractional ownership programs. The rule will be reviewed by the Transportation Dept. for 90 days before it undergoes a second review by the Office of Management and Budget. If there are no delays, FAA could publish Subpart K and revisions to Part 135 as early as April 2003.
Finmeccanica is close to completing a takeover of trainer builder Aermacchi and preparing to reinforce its space, helicopter and avionics businesses, say company officials. The Italian aerospace and defense giant expects to complete the acquisition of a 75% stake in Aermacchi from its present owners ``in the next few weeks,'' Alenia Aeronautica Chairman Giorgio Zappa said in Athens during the recent Defendory defense exhibition. ``The only point still to be agreed is the price,'' he added. Finmeccanica already owns 25% of Aermacchi, and Zappa is its vice chairman.
Keep an eye on developments in airline distribution, that is, how the air carriers sell tickets, especially in the growing sector of online travel services. Only a week after its contract expired with the online travel agency, Expedia, Northwest Airlines launched an Internet site exclusively for travel agents that allows unrestricted access to the airline's low Web fares. The site, www.worldagentdirect.com, offers accredited agents the opportunity to view aircraft seat maps and to request seats.
As part of a privatization exercise, the Saudi government plans to shed 30% of its holdings in money-losing Saudi Arabia Airlines to a strategic foreign partner. The airline also plans to sell off its cargo and engineering services division to reduce operational expenses. Both units would be offered to foreign investors at the end of the year. The government awarded two contracts to international consultants in 2000 to prepare a study for privatization. Their study has been completed and is under review by the carrier's board.
Delta Connection's Comair, the U.S. pioneer of small jet operations, is counting on the 70-seat CRJ700 to inject new flexibility into the critical drive to meet shifting market demand while managers are looking for cost improvements of at least 14% over the 50-seat CRJ200. Comair took delivery of its first CRJ700 late last month, belated a year by the pilots' strike that sidelined the carrier for 89 days.
Robert Monetti has an intense interest in aviation security, particularly when the topic turns to preventing terrorist acts. Monetti's son Richard, then 20, and 269 others were killed Dec. 21, 1988, when an improvised explosive device in a bag--checked luggage not matched with a passenger--brought down Pan Am Flight 103 on the town of Lockerbie, Scotland.
NASA Langley Research Center is teaming with Utah State University to develop a special heat sensor to help scientists evaluate variations in climate. The Far-Infrared Spectroscopy of the Troposphere device would be installed on remote-sensing satellites to measure long-wave radiation emitted from Earth, particularly from water vapor and clouds. The sensor is set to be tested in 2005 on a stratospheric balloon at an altitude of more than 100,000 ft. The project, part of NASA's Instrument Incubator Program, is managed by the Earth Science Technology Office.
The U.S. Navy's Space Surveillance System upgrade contract has gone to Raytheon. The company will install S-band radio transmitters and receivers on the system known as the Space Fence, replacing the existing VHF devices. The ground-based system is used to track satellites flying over the U.S. The upgrade will allow it to detect 5-cm.-size objects; currently, 30-cm. sizes can be detected. The contract could grow to $396 million through 2010.
Mooney Aerospace Group has contracted with Flight Training Inc. to provide instruction for pilots buying a new Mooney. The four-day course will be taught at Mooney's facilities in Kerrville, Tex., or at Flight Training's headquarters in San Antonio. The training applies to the Ovation, Bravo and Eagle2 aircraft models.
Planetary scientists at the California Institute of Technology have spotted an icy Kuiper Belt Object half the size of Pluto, raising the possibility that other large planetoids await discovery at the edge of the solar system. The nearly 1,300-km. (800-mi.)-dia. object was given the name Quaoar, a creation god of the Native American Tongva tribe. The Hubble Space Telescope tracked and measured Quaoar, the most distant body in the solar system to be resolved by a telescope (see images).
Britain is beginning to consider holding onto its fleet of C-17 strategic airlifters once the lease expires, rather than return the aircraft to manufacturer Boeing as U.K. government officials have long opined. C-17s were leased in 2000 by the British defense ministry to meet an airlift shortfall underscored by the 1998 Strategic Defense Review (SDR). The aircraft were intended to provide an interim lift capability until the much-delayed A400M airlifter finally becomes available.
In an about-face, Germany's RapidEye has selected MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates to supply and launch a constellation of imaging satellites and provide associated ground equipment. The two companies will also work together to complete financing for the $100-million system, which will be operated by RapidEye and benefit from an undisclosed amount of German government funding. The U.K.'s Surrey Satellite Technology U.K. had been expected to win the space segment contract, with the ground segment going to a separate contractor (AW&ST Feb. 18, p. 21).
