Honeywell is building on positive feedback to the dot.com connection its BendixKing avionics business unit has made with the general aviation community by extending the same Web portal concept to executive jet and regional aircraft operators.
With Reagan Washington National Airport the only major airport in the U.S. to remain closed, locals are smarting even more from the post-attack economic squeeze and fearing it could mortally wound Arlington, Va.-based US Airways. No technical security or operational case has been advanced for closing the airport, complains the Washington Airports Task Force.
EADS reported a 38% increase in earnings for the first half of 2001. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) was 764 million euros ($711 million), on sales of 14.04 billion euros--an increase of 33%. Net profit was 456 million euros before exceptional items. Airbus, 80% owned by EADS, continued to be the single largest contributor to both profit and revenues. Airbus accounted for roughly two-thirds of the revenues, but alone achieved a higher EBIT (797 million euros) than EADS as a whole.
The European Civil Aviation Conference's (ECAC) 38 member states on Sept. 20 agreed to rapidly establish teams to prepare recommendations on effective control of cockpit access, flight attendants' in-flight security and effective air-to-ground communications in crisis situations. ECAC also plans to review passenger and hand luggage screening.
Darleen Druyen, a top Air Force acquisition official renowned for her hard-nosed management style, is telling military leaders that preparations for the war will ``absolutely not'' delay selection of a prime contractor for the Joint Strike Fighter program. The down-select is set for Oct. 26 in the competition between Boeing (now hard hit by airline woes) and a Lockheed Martin-led team that includes Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems.
Sean Lee (see photo) has been named head of corporate communications for the Singapore Aircraft Leasing Enterprise. He was Singapore-based Asian communications director for Airbus.
Christian Bittencourt has been named London-based managing director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa for L-3 Satellite Networks. He was director of sales engineering for Gilat Europe.
Hafthor Hafsteinsson has been appointed president/CEO of Air Atlanta Icelandic. He was vice president-marketing and succeeds Arngrimur Johannsson, who will remain chairman. Succeeding Hafsteinsson will be David Masson, who was assistant vice president-marketing. Arnar Thorisson, who was vice president-finance, will be executive vice president.
For Asian carriers, the 3-4-day suspension in flights that followed the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington is being measured against a general slowdown in passenger and cargo traffic that began early this year.
Before terrorists leveled the World Trade Center Sept. 11, setting the stage for a U.S. recession that now seems all but inevitable, Honeywell Aerospace was forecasting a potential recovery in orders of traditional business aircraft in about a year. But that was assuming the economy recovered in 2002 from its year-long malaise. Today, the near-term outlook for business jet sales is less certain.
Boeing quickly moved last week to cut commercial transport delivery estimates through 2002 by what could more than 100 aircraft in an announcement that surprised even some veteran Boeing-watchers by its swiftness and scope. At a hastily arranged news conference Sept. 18, one week after the terrorist attacks in the U.S., the company said it could also lay off up to nearly one-third of its commercial aircraft workforce.
A DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING (DSP) CHIP, believed to be the first optimized for the frequency domain, is in production at DSP Architectures. NASA selected a radiation-hardened version of the DSP24 for a Honeywell vector processor set to launch in 2005 as part of the agency's Geosynchronous Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer (Gifts), which will test new technology for measuring temperature, water vapor, wind and chemical composition of the atmosphere.
Hans G. Hollander, a longtime marketing consultant who specialized in services to companies at international air shows, died Sept. 2 at home in Harrison, N.Y. He was 73. Hollander came to the U.S. in 1957 from his native Germany as a cargo expeditor for Lufthansa. He later became station manager in New York. In 1964, Hollander founded American Aerospace&Defense Industries Inc. He concentrated his early efforts on the design of sales chalets. Hollander later arranged for large blocks of exhibit hall space at major air shows and then sold segments to clients.
Airport-related construction starts in the U.S. were up 57% in the first half of 2001, with a strong gain for both terminal and runway projects, according to F.W. Dodge. (Dodge, like Aviation Week, is a unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies.) It says while aviation-related building has trended upward solidly over the past two decades, the dollar value is volatile from year to year. In 2000, airport projects fell 34% to just under $3 billion.
General Electric and Honeywell have appealed the European Commission's decision earlier this year against their planned merger. The joint appeal was filed Sept. 12 with the Court of First Instance in Luxembourg, the European tribunal that normally hears EC cases (AW&ST July 9, p. 27).
In contrast with Boeing's decision to lower production and impose massive job cuts, Airbus executives last week ruled out dramatic changes in its production schedule. Airbus, however, recently revised its combined production rate for 2003 and beyond, girding for an approaching sales plateau or moderate market downturn. A long-term goal to produce an average 450 aircraft per year was put on hold several weeks prior to the terrorist attacks against the U.S.
Guangzhou Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Co. has become the first on-the-job training center for maintenance technicians for Airbus A319/A320/A321 transports in China. Gameco, an overhaul partnership comprising China Southern Airlines, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics International and Hutchison Whampoa, maintains the A320-family aircraft for Air Macao, China Northern and Hainan Airlines, as well as China Southern's fleet.
The U.S. airline industry is near financial collapse--a casualty of the recent terrorist assaults--and while a federal rescue package would certainly help, at least one or two major carriers probably will fail. No fewer than five airlines are on the ``most endangered'' list. They are AirTran, America West, Continental, Northwest and US Airways--based on their cash reserves, as well as their ability to borrow money.
KAISER ELECTRONICS HAS DELIVERED the first rear projection display to Lockheed Martin for the F-22 program, as part of a product improvement effort aimed at reducing costs. The 8 X 8-in. display will be for laboratory integration and evaluation, but is being considered for the primary multifunction display. Since rear projection displays share a common ``engine,'' they can be created in sizes not common in AMLCDs, at a large cost saving to the buyer.
U.S. military forces are moving into the Middle East and South Asia, a flow that will accelerate markedly over the next two weeks. The multinational ``Bright Star'' exercise, slated for late September, will be used to move additional forces into Egypt that will stay on in the region after the exercise is completed, Air Force officials said.
As the nation gears up to combat terrorism, NASA managers are waiting for the third shoe to drop on their straitened Fiscal 2003 budget. First came the Bush Administration's spending ``blueprint.'' That forced the agency to cover a $4.8-billion shortfall on the International Space Station, an unfunded facilities repair bill estimated at $2.5 billion, and everything else--all without adding to its long-term spending plan. The agency's top managers, already scarred from a budget-squeezing ``retreat'' this month (AW&ST Sept. 10, p.
