Goodrich Corp. and Honeywell International have posted losses for the fourth quarter of 2001, with part of those results reflecting a sharp downturn in the commercial aircraft market. Although Goodrich's performance was better than some Wall Street analysts expected, the company still lost $54 million, or 53 cents per diluted share, compared with net income of $73.1 million, or 72 cents a share, in the same period a year earlier.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and Frontier Systems logged the ``first flight'' of their unusual A160 Hummingbird unmanned helicopter that is built to fly much longer and farther than conventional rotorcraft. The aircraft took off from an airfield in Victorville, Calif.--the former George AFB--around 12:45 p.m. PST Jan. 29 and flew for about 20 min., performing several maneuvers and operating both autonomously and under manual control, said Darpa program manager Arthur Morrish.
All Nippon Airways plans to equip the business-class cabin of Boeing 747s with fully reclining sleeper seats on routes to Europe and the U.S. The installation, which includes a wheelchair-accessible lavatory, will require a 30% reduction in business-class capacity and cost about $76 million. ANA also plans to install cameras that allow the pilots to monitor activity in the passenger cabin. If successful, plans call for installing cameras in the entire fleet. In July 1999, a mentally unstable passenger broke into the cockpit and killed an ANA captain.
China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) is completing final preparations at the Jiuquan launch site in the Gobi Desert for the third unmanned flight test of the Shenzhou manned spacecraft design atop a Long March 2F booster. Chinese government-controlled news outlets are reporting how engineers and technicians at Jiuquan and the modern new Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center are working overtime to get the flight aloft.
Of the many proposals submitted to the U.S. Defense Dept. for combating terrorism, one of the more novel is a Homeland Defense Interceptor (HDI) version of the Javelin, a small fighter-type aircraft being developed by Aviation Technology Group (ATG) Inc. The Englewood, Colo., company proposed HDI as a high-speed ``airborne patrol car'' capable of destroying terrorist-controlled aircraft. It could be armed with short-range, wing-tip-mounted versions of the AIM-9 Sidewinder or an air-to-air variant of the Stinger missile.
THE U.K.'S ROYAL AIR FORCE IS SCHEDULED TO RECEIVE a Rockwell Collins system in June that will allow long-range early-warning data to be shared among air defense and command and control units. Weapons systems will have a better air picture and be able to keep it without having to compromise their positions by turning on local radars. The data are fed into the Joint Tactical Information Distribution System (JTIDS) Link 16 network and distributed to command posts, which then supply the data to weapon systems in their air defense zones. Rockwell Collins U.K.
O'Keefe is mixing experience with fresh blood as he starts building his staff. Jeff Bingham, once chief of staff to former Sen. Jake Garn of Utah and longtime space station ``coordinator'' in NASA's legislative affairs shop, will now head it. Glenn Mahone, who high school band pal Bill Clinton appointed press secretary to Goldin, will be the chief of public affairs. Both men continue in positions they have held on an acting basis. O'Keefe turns fellow New Orleanian Paul Pastorek into a new space cadet by naming him NASA's general counsel.
Khalifa Airways is scheduled to inaugurate a weekly cargo service between its home base and Vatry Airport, a cargo-only facility northeast of Paris. An Airbus A300B freighter will be operated on the route. Khalifa's initiative is projected to significantly revitalize Vatry's business plan. Airport officials are convinced that the facility will attract a growing number of operators because of low landing charges and unlimited nighttime flight operations.
New projections by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) suggest the Administration's missile defense plan might cost upwards of $150-240 billion in the next quarter century, but they are decidedly iffy numbers. The CBO had to wade through a host of variables arising from President Bush's shift to a broad R&D program from his predecessor's blueprint for a limited land-based, midcourse intercept system. The current missile defense budget is $7.8 billion, but the Pentagon recently canceled the Navy Area Wide program, adding to the cost uncertainties.
The State Dept. and Pentagon have found a formula to allow exports of Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk high-altitude unmanned reconnaissance drone. There was concern that the Missile Technology Control Regime effectively barred the U.S. from proliferating the technology. But State and Defense Dept. officials agree the U.S. could share systems like Global Hawk on a case-by-case basis with other NATO members, Japan and Australia. The Aussies are especially interested. Also watch for interest from Germany, where the UAV is expected to make an appearance later this year.
Bill Adkins, just named staff director of the House space subcommittee, has a fallback if his new gig doesn't work out. He can go to work as an auditor. In June 2000, right after Adkins joined the subcommittee staff, he spotted a $590-million discrepancy in NASA's 1999 Financial Accountability Report. The General Accounting Office backed up his finding (although it calculated the error at $644 million), and criticized NASA's accountant for taking the agency's word for things rather than checking them out before passing on the 1999 report. The accounting firm?
Administrator Sean O'Keefe puts out the word he'll brook none of the rivalry that has marked relations among NASA field centers throughout the agency's history. O'Keefe, who is touring all 10 centers as part of his education in the ways of the space bureaucracy, has called for an end to the traditional independence of the centers, which sometimes try to outflank headquarters on Capitol Hill to protect turf through earmarked appropriations. In doing so, O'Keefe continues an effort--dubbed the Strategic Resources Review--started by predecessor Daniel S.
Spanish telecom satellite operator Hispasat has sold 11.6% of its shares to EADS and Eutelsat as part of an effort to stabilize its shareholder base and obtain financial muscle for further expansion. As expected, EADS took 5%, through a 3.5% share purchase and a 1.5% participation in a capital increase, for 47 million euros. In parallel, Eutelsat, already a major shareholder, increased its holding in Hispasat to 27.6% from 21.15%.
Ken Lackey (see photos) and Robin Siegfried have become presidents of the Nordam Group, Tulsa, Okla. Lackey also will be chief operating officer. He was executive vice president/chief financial officer, while Siegfried was president of the Nordam Enterprise Div. Donald R. (Dick) Clark has been promoted to president from vice president of the Repair Div. and Ron Richman to president from vice president/general manager of the Manufacturing Div.
An FAA airworthiness directive issued last week requires Boeing Model 767-200/-300/-300F series aircraft, line Nos. 1-819, to undergo repetitive inspections of the lubrication passage and link assembly joint in the inboard and outboard flaps of the trailing edge for discrepancies. Corrective action, if necessary, is required.
Terrorist organizations seeking to acquire weapons of mass destruction are focusing primarily on chemicals ``such as cyanide salts to contaminate food and water supplies or to assassinate individuals,'' the CIA says in an update on weapons proliferation concerns. It is the first time the spooks have included a section on chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear terrorism in their semiannual report to Congress. The agency says terrorists are interested in toxic industrial chemicals, such as chlorine and phosgene.
The European partners in the A400M military airlifter met last week in Paris in a desperate attempt to cobble together a compromise to accommodate German funding problems, thus averting the growing risk of the program's ignominious collapse. As the Jan. 31 deadline for German signature of the memorandum of understanding came and went, members of the A400M Policy Group tried to keep the project on track and avoid reopening MOU negotiations.
Susan M. Schalk, president of Aerofinity Inc., of Indianapolis, has been elected president for 2002 of the Alexandria, Va.-based Airport Consultants Council. She succeeds Peter J. Muller of Knight Piesold and Co. Other officers of the board of governors are: vice president, Ed Parrish of the LPA Group; and secretary/treasurer, Laddie E. Irion of the URS Corp. Other board members are: Paul Bowers of Airport Business magazine; G. Patrick Brown of the Austin Co.; Charles R. Chambers of Global Aviation Associates; Belinda G.
France is the first country supplying troops for the International Security and Assistance Force in Kabul to reach full operational capability. The French have some 400 troops in Kabul, out of 2,500 contributed to date for the ISAF, which is planned to be a 4,500-man force.
A chart showing lightning distribution has been developed using color variations to show the average annual number of lightning flashes per square kilometer based on space-based optical sensor data (see image). The Optical Transient Detector and the Lightning Imaging Sensor look for changes in the tops of clouds and can spot flashes even under daytime conditions. Officials at NASA's National Space Science and Technology Center said the global observations have been able to show flashes as a function of longitude, latitude and the time of year.
Aircraft parked at storage facilities in the U.S. since the September terrorist attacks could form the basis of a transition that will result in a major upgrade of the world air cargo fleet. Industry officials here said sharp declines in the residual values of many aircraft types during the past four months have resulted in a number of newer generation passenger aircraft becoming viable candidates for freighter conversions. Those newer technology aircraft, in turn, could provide a significant reduction in operating costs to cargo carriers.
The first qualification firing of MBDA's Aster 15 naval missile from an Italian SAAM/IT naval air defense system was completed last week. The Aster hit a target from a distance of 4.5 mi. at 3,300 ft. Qualification tests for the French SAAM/FR defense system, which uses a different radar, have already been completed.
Taiwan's China Airlines bucked the gloom of post-Sept. 11 financial reports among other Asian carriers by posting a pretax profit of T$1.63 billion ($54.33 million) for fiscal 2001 ending Dec. 31. The results were nearly 19% higher than forecast. Operating revenues of T$69.9 billion included T$42.9 billion from passengers and T$23.4 billion from cargo.
Boeing studies of commercial space tourism show that the costs of developing such a capability are currently impractical, according to Vice Chairman Harry C. Stonecipher. Boeing found that development of a two-stage commercial vehicle to provide 50 passengers with short orbital flights would cost at least $16 billion. Tickets would have to cost $150,000 each, and the vehicle would have to fly at least 800 times per year for the project just to break even.
FRANCES FIORINOPIERRE SPARACO CONTRIBUTED TO THIS REPORT FROM PARIS.
The first U.S. domestic air-rail code-share will test the mettle of intermodal transportation as a means of relieving airport congestion and increasing short-haul services to underserved markets. Continental Airlines and Amtrak announced their exclusive four-year code-share venture on Jan. 17. Under the agreement, set to start in mid-March, passengers will be able to connect with air services at Newark (N.J.) International Airport to four cities in Amtrak's Northeast Corridor--Philadelphia, Wilmington, Del., and Stamford and New Haven, Conn.
