Plans for a next-generation fighter engine R&D project, and the likelihood of a forthcoming strategic research plan, promise to further Europe's efforts to refocus and strengthen its fragmented and underfunded R&D effort, but critical questions remain.
The airborne laser received mixed reviews from its program office on readiness to proceed from system integration to development, according to a General Accounting Office report. The congressional watchdog agency urged beginning development only after a prototype demonstration in an operational environment. Some of the airborne laser technology is almost to that point, according to the program office, but not the mirrors and windows that focus and control the laser beam and allow it to pass safely through the aircraft.
Chicago O'Hare (ORD) airport is close to pre-Sept. 11 operations levels as a result of jockeying between its two hubbing carriers, according to United Airlines President Rono Dutta. United started the year with a market-share advantage at ORD of about 10 percentage points over archrival American, Dutta said. After American restored capacity nearly to year-earlier levels in April, the gap closed to five points. It went back to 10 points after United followed suit, adding capacity in June.
Japan Airlines' entry into the Lufthansa Cargo-led WOW alliance and the sale of Lufthansa's share in DHL International to Deutsche Post signify new steps forward in the attempt by the German carrier and its WOW partners to establish a lead position, and ensure profitability, in the competitive air freight market. Japan Airlines Cargo joined the WOW airfreight alliance earlier this month after lengthy negotiations (AW&ST July 15, p. 19). The alliance was created in early 2002 by LH Cargo, SAS Cargo and Singapore Airlines Cargo, under the name New Global Cargo.
Anthony E. Meyer has been appointed chairman and Joel Strickland CEO of the Navitrak International Corp., Halifax, Nova Scotia. Meyer also is chairman of New York-based Meyer and Co. Strickland was a partner in the Toronto-based Capital Partners Corp. Adam Wolinski has been promoted to senior director of technology applications from senior design engineer and Ping Chen to senior manager of airborne products from software developer.
Aerosystems International received an order from Lockheed Martin for the Merlin System Software Support contract. The five-year, 6-million-pound ($9.3 million) award is to support software used on the Royal Navy's Merlin Mk. 1 helicopter.
David Williams, product support manager, and Greg Grimshaw, Collins Aviation Services finance manager, both based in Dallas, have accepted the Automated Best Value System Award from the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency's Defense Supply Center Richmond (Va.) for the Rockwell Collins facility in Richardson, Tex.
Aviation Week group editors won several honors during the Royal Aeronautical Society's (RAS) annual Aerospace Journalist of the Year Awards ceremony in London last week. James Ott, Aviation Week & Space Technology's Midwest U.S. contributing editor, was named Aerospace Journalist of the Year and won the Bombardier-sponsored prize for Best Air Transport story. The magazine's senior business editor and Northeast U.S. bureau chief, Anthony L. Velocci, Jr., won the award in the Best Business and Financial category, sponsored by Raytheon.
Esterline Technologies is entering the airborne electronic warfare field with its $67.5-million acquisition of the infrared decoy and chaff businesses of BAE Systems North America. BAE had penetrated these fields several years ago with its purchase of Tracor, which also produces the widely used ALE-47 flare/chaff dispensing system. Esterline will take over BAE's Littleton, N.C., chaff manufacturing facility and another facility in East Camden, Ark., which produces IR flare-decoys. Esterline's flares will include two new types developed by the U.S.
Though the second Bush White House is chivied for its coziness with the energy industry, the defense industry's tentacles inside the administration are more numerous. The World Policy Institute, a critic of defense cronyism, claims that White House and Cabinet-level agencies have 32 former executives, consultants or major shareholders of top defense contractors in policymaking positions. Energy appointees number 21, a third less than defense, the institute says. The connections are both direct and indirect. Northrop Grumman's James G.
Boeing will establish a European Support Center at the Fokker Services B.V. facilities in the Netherlands. The center is to provide life-cycle maintenance and service for military aircraft, beginning with the CH-47 Chinook helicopter and extending later to other platforms. Besides front-office support, the center is to include warehouse and aircraft-on-ground services.
Volga-Dnepr has kicked off the final phase of a program to upgrade the An-124-100 heavy-lift freighter and initiated a long-awaited reengining of the smaller Il-76 cargo aircraft. The moves are expected to help meet mushrooming demand for outsize freight shipments, in particular for humanitarian and peacekeeping operations, notably in Afghanistan.
Lufthansa has decided to order 10 Airbus A330-200s. The deal was not announced at the show, but could be made public shortly. The aircraft might replace the carrier's six A340-200s, which will be transferred to South African Airways. Observers noted that Boeing has offered ex-Singapore Airlines A340-300s in the competition.
EADS officials are furious with the Pentagon, particularly the U.S. Air Force, for promising publicly to let them compete for military contracts and then privately refusing every request. They have decided not to try overturning Boeing's deal with the Air Force to lease 100 Boeing 767s for the phase of the ``smart tanker'' program that will eventually replace hundreds of aged KC-135s. If the contract is rejected by Congress, EADS plans to reenter the contest with a new tanker design sporting a refueling system designed in-house.
Engineers at this isolated propulsion test facility are gearing up to begin testing rocket engine components under development for NASA's Space Launch Initiative (SLI), using test stands specifically built for advanced propulsion work--instead of the recycled Saturn V facilities that have been a Stennis mainstay over the years. Stennis test experts have already used the relatively new E-complex for an activation test of the Air Force's Integrated Powerhead Demonstration (IPD), burning off the gaseous hydrogen used to spin up the IPD's turbomachinery.
Snecma's DEM21 core engine demonstrator has run for the first time at the company's Villaroche, France, test facility. The unit spooled up to nominal speed without incident, engineers said. The small-engine project, to be used as a basis for the SM146 engine targeted for the Russian Regional Jet, features a six-stage high-pressure compressor with 3D aerodynamics designed for HP ratio, along with a low-emissions combustor and a single-stage HP turbine with active clearance control and single-crystal materials. The SM146 engine could be shortlisted for the RRJ by fall.
AgustaWestland has formed partnerships with Lockheed Martin and Thales to bolster attempts to sell the EH101 and Lynx helicopters for U.S. and U.K. defense programs. The Finmeccanica-GKN joint venture signed an agreement here with Lockheed to jointly market the EH101 heavy-lift helicopter for American government applications under the designation US101. Final assembly and production of up to 60% of components would be done in the U.S., although in the beginning production would be limited to kit assembly.
Iberia and British Airways, in an effort to meet growing competition primarily from no-frills and charter companies, plan to broaden their cooperative agreement across their global networks. The carriers have asked the European Commission for antitrust immunity on Italy-France routes. Under the agreement, the carriers plan to increase code-sharing, expand frequent-flier programs and services, and engage in joint planning of route networks.
A report on the worst near-collision in Japanese airline history--one with 677 lives at stake--has aroused public concern about the quality of the nation's air traffic control system, especially because what went wrong in the skies west of Tokyo was hauntingly similar to the July 1 tragedy in Germany. The incident occurred Jan. 31, 2001, near Yaizu and involved a Japan Airlines 747-400 (Flight 907) that had taken off from Tokyo's Haneda airport bound for Naha, Okinawa, and a JAL DC-10-40 (Flight 958) heading from Pusan, South Korea, to Tokyo's Narita airport.
People involved in the aerospace industry have historically been optimistic and tended to take the longer view of problems or challenges encountered in the development of new technology, advanced programs or marketing and economic downturns. If there were any large aerospace exhibit in recent years at which this attitude was not only required, but in strong evidence, it was at last week's Farnborough show.
A new fare structure and significant cost reductions helped make America West the only major carrier to report a year-over-year improvement in earnings, according to Chairman/CEO W. Douglas Parker. Although ``encouraged'' by the results, he cautions that second-quarter losses mirror the industry's ongoing economic challenges. America West Holdings reported an $8.5-million net loss or $0.25 per share, compared with a $42.5-million or $1.26-per-share net loss in the second quarter of 2001.
Midwest Express Airlines and its regional affiliate Skyway Airlines, have lowered their threshold for senior citizen fares from age 62. Effective immediately, people 55 and older may take advantage of the special fares.The tickets, nonrefundable, must be purchased at least 14 days prior to departure, require a Saturday night stay, and travel must be completed no later than 180 days after initial departure.
On Oct. 1, Air France and Russian airline Aeroflot will begin code-sharing on Moscow-Paris services. The airlines will jointly offer six daily flights between Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Moscow Shermeteyevo Airport. Previously, each carrier operated three separate services between the cities.
