Despite spotty results and the collapse of Indonesia's ambitious regional airliner program, plans to create competitive commercial aircraft products continue to surface in Asian capitals. The most ambitious is the 70-seat regional jet project unveiled by Avic I at the Beijing air show last summer. Called the ARJ21st, the aircraft would feature rear-mounted turbofans and avionics onboard systems to be procured from leading risk-sharing suppliers around the world on a competitive basis.
THE FLIGHTSAFETY ACADEMY IN VERO BEACH, FLA., has begun testing a prototype ``smart'' identification card to control student pilots' access to its flight line. Security screeners will verify that the student matches the photo on the card. When a student places his thumb on a reader, and the card is swiped, fingerprint information stored on the chip will confirm a match and permission to proceed to the aircraft will be given. Beta tests are expected to take 4-6 months.
The first launch of the Lockheed Martin Atlas IIIB has enabled the company to flight test 85% of the same critical propulsion and avionics hardware that will make up the more advanced Atlas V evolved expendable launch vehicle. The 246-ton Atlas IIIB, standing 176-ft. tall, lifted off from Pad 36B at 7:43 a.m. EST Feb. 21 carrying the Echostar VII spacecraft. The overall cost of the International Launch Services (ILS) mission and satellite combined was about $250 million.
TRW Inc. chief David M. Cote, 49, will succeed Lawrence A. Bossidy when he retires from Honeywell International in June. News of Cote's career move caught many TRW executives off guard. He will remain in his current position until the board of directors finds a successor. His management style should be a good mesh with Honeywell's culture. By his own admission, Cote is ``religiously devoted'' to growth and productivity, and is a strong believer in the gains that are possible by pursuing six sigma.
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration has ordered airlines to shut down VIP security lines at airports, set up to reduce check-in times for premium-fare passengers. When airlines were responsible for security, they were free to treat customers differently based on high fares. But the TSA, which took over airport security operations Feb. 17, decided as a government agency to treat all passengers equally. The short VIP lines, which handled passengers in minutes instead of an hour or more, also were said to represent an inefficient use of screening resources.
Planetary scientists have started an ``urgent'' reevaluation of NASA's Mars exploration strategy for the decade after 2009, with the long-planned Mars Sample Return mission facing further deferrals because of its billion-dollar price tag.
Jeff Peace has been appointed Seattle-based vice president/general manager of the Boeing 747 program. He succeeds Walter J. Orlowski, who has retired. Peace was program manager for the 747-400.
Netherlands-based Transavia Airlines has ordered four Boeing 737-700 airplanes, all of which are to be delivered by the spring of next year. The aircraft will be powered by CFM56-7 engines and replace 737-300s in the airline's fleet.
A U.S. Navy pilot, his canopy shattered by a flailing refueling hose, was forced to fly an hour in freezing temperatures to an emergency landing in Pakistan. In the pilot's words, ``20,000 ft. over Afghanistan in an open air [F/A-18] cabriolet is just a bad, bad place.''
Olympic Airways will not be privatized soon, as planned. Integrated Airline Solutions, a Greek-Australian group, last week failed to provide financial guarantees required by the government to become the flag carrier's majority shareholder. In the absence of other workable offerings, Olympic's management is expected to further streamline the company, abandon more unprofitable routes and cut jobs in a wide-ranging effort to become a more attractive investment. Privatizing a debt-laden carrier in the post-Sept.
Qantas posted an after-tax profit of A$153.5 million (U.S.$80.8 million) for the first half of fiscal 2001 (through Dec. 31). This represents a 41.6% decline from the first half of fiscal 2000. Total revenue increased 11.1% to A$5.7 billion, but expenditures were up 16% to A$5.4 billion. That increase was attributed to wet-leased aircraft and higher fuel and engineering costs. Fuel costs jumped 34.3%. CEO Geoff Dixon said the underlying fuel price was lower than last year, giving Qantas an advantage valued at A$130 million.
Al Qaeda terrorist cells in Singapore and a U.S. president touring Asia to warn about security should be enough to put military issues at the top of the agenda when the aerospace industry gathers in Singapore this week for Asian Aerospace 2002.
Embraer 170 prototype No. 0001, PT-XJE, performed ``better than was foreseen'' on its 2-hr. 30-min. first flight last week, according to test pilots Jose Carlos Rodrigues and Eduardo Camelier and fight test engineer Gilberto Cardoso. The aircraft was operated from Sao Jose dos Campos (Brazil) airport in slightly overcast conditions. According to Embraer, low- and high-speed taxi tests were successfully completed before the maiden flight of Embraer's first jet in the 70-108-seat category.
After years of marking time as Asia suffered through economic turmoil, U.S. and European aerospace industry representatives believe they now stand to cash in as several military modernization programs reach maturity.
Vought Aircraft Industries has been selected by Boeing to help develop aerostructures manufacturing technologies for the proposed Sonic Cruiser program. Vought already builds large airframe structures for Boeing as well as composite structures for the V-22 tiltrotor and C-17 transport.
Uses for clear, flexible tubing have been limited due to chemical attack from the fluid being transported. This product, Tygon 2075 chemical resistant tubing, is unaffected by acids, bases, ketones, salts and alcohols, according to the company. The tubing is free of plasticizers, eliminating concern of fluid contamination resulting from leaching plasticizers. The tubing will not embrittle or crack prematurely due to the extraction of plasticizer. Tygon 2075 tubing is manufactured with a smooth surface to inhibit particulate build-up on the tubing wall.
To cope with falling demand for European and transpacific service, Japanese carriers are expanding routes into Asia. To do so, they are taking advantage of the opening of a second runway in April at Tokyo's Narita airport. China is the favored destination. Japan Airlines has added thrice-weekly services to Xiamen, a coastal city that is China's busiest aircraft repair center. In August, JAL will double its services to Beijing and Shanghai to 14 per week. Japan Air System is adding flights to Shanghai and Hong Kong, as well.
Rockwell Collins Aviation Services has signed a five-year Dispatch 100SM contract with Delta Air Lines' Atlanta-based subsidiary, Atlantic Southeast Airlines, for service and support of ASA's Canadair Regional Jets.
With the U.S. Air Force's decision to begin buying some of the new turboprop-powered Predator B unmanned reconnaissance and strike aircraft (which offer larger payloads and higher operating altitudes), the services will have to find higher performance missiles to arm them.
An Israeli company believes it can help the new U.S. Transportation Security Administration deal with long lines of frustrated passengers inching through airport security screening checkpoints.
Richard A. Clarke, the Bush Administration's cyber security czar, said last week at a computer security conference in San Jose, Calif., that it's only a matter of time before terrorists launch a large-scale cyberspace attack on critical infrastructure in the U.S. such as the electric power grid or the air traffic control system. According to the Associated Press, Clarke said just as airlines knew of their security weaknesses prior to Sept.
Goodrich Corp. executive Marshall O. Larsen, 53, last week was named president and chief operating officer, putting him in line to succeed Chairman and CEO David L. Burner, who is expected to retire in 2004. He also will be a nominee for the corporation's board of directors. Larsen joined Goodrich in 1977 and was instrumental in helping to transform the company into predominantly a tier-one aerospace supplier, from a conglomerate with interests in a variety of industries.
L-3 Communications' Interstate Electronics Corp.'s (IEC) division has won a three-year, $6-million contract to support the ground-based midcourse defense segment by the U.S. Army Strategic Missile Defense Command. IEC will supply 30 digital GPS translators and two translator processors, along with engineering, logistics and field launch support. The contract includes options for two, one-year extensions that would bring the total potential value to approximately $9 million.
Boeing plans to cut the combined employment level at its Boeing Satellite Systems (BSS) and Boeing Electronic Dynamic Devices operations in Southern California by about 11%. BSS in El Segundo and Torrance-based Electronic Dynamic Devices, a subsidiary of BSS, now have a combined employment of more than 9,000 persons, but the company plans to reduce the number in El Segundo by 900 positions and another 150 jobs in Torrance.
A wide range of software takes mechanical things from design to production, but the same linked set of tools is rare for electrical harnesses. Mentor Graphics, a British company that makes design and manufacturing software for electronic products such as integrated circuits, aims to change that with a Capital Harness set of integrated tools that is being introduced this week. Most existing harness software has been developed in-house by users like Boeing, and goes back a long way to Fortran-style roots.
