Emirates Airline has signed an agreement with CAE of Canada to build and jointly operate a new regional aviation training center in Dubai, UAE. Located next to Emirates' existing facility, the new center is to house six full flight simulators, including a Boeing 737-NG, an Airbus A319/320 and Airbus A330-340. The initial investment of $100 million under the 10-year agreement will be split equally by Emirates and CAE. The center is set to open in the first quarter of 2003, although interim training is planned to start in early 2002 at a transitional facility.
Robert D. Strain has been appointed executive vice president/general manager of the Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Space Systems Group, Dulles, Va. He was head of Orbital's Electronics and Sensor Systems Group (ESSG). Strain has been succeeded on an interim basis by James R. Thompson, Orbital's president/chief operating officer, assisted by Richard W. Sherman, who is senior vice president/ deputy general manager of ESSG.
State Dept. bureaucrats--already held in low esteem by U.S. satellite makers for dragging their feet in authorizing space hardware for commercial export--have now fallen afoul of the House Appropriations Committee over scientific export. The subcommittee that oversees NASA spending complains State has yet to clarify International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) so that university research will be exempt as it was when satellite technology exports were managed by the Commerce Dept.
The Kurt D675 vise part-holding capacity has been expanded to 7.5 in., a 25% increase over the D60 model. Designed to hold parts where datums, flatness and parallelism are important, this vise can be used for precision bore, tap, drill, grind and finish operations requiring close tolerance repeatability. Made of 80,000-psi. ductile iron, it has the strength and rigidity to hold all types of parts made of die cast aluminum, steel and iron, while absorbing and dampening machine vibration.
Boeing formed a Missile Defense Systems organization last week, a business enterprise within its Space and Communications operating unit, to be headquartered in Washington and Huntsville, Ala., in a move to consolidate leadership of its missile defense activities. The new organization's programs include Ground-based Midcourse Defense Segment, Airborne Laser, Space-Based Laser, PAC-3, Navy Theater Wide and Avenger.
Judson Brohmer, a Lockheed Martin subcontractor aerial photographer, was killed in an F-16 crash near Edwards AFB, Calif., on July 17 while serving as safety/photo chase during a Miniature Air Launched Decoy test mission. He was 38. Also killed was Maj. Aaron George, a pilot with the 416th Flight Test Sqdn. A graduate of the University of Southern California's communications/photojournalism school, Brohmer worked for CBS-TV before establishing his reputation as an award-winning aircraft photographer.
Airbus is planning an engineering office in Nantes, France, to develop the A380. Work will be conducted on a computerized mockup to be shared with 2,500 engineers at Airbus sites throughout Europe. This setup is intended to decrease headquarters engineering costs by 15% and remote site costs by 30% compared with the Boeing 747. Airbus' parent companies, EADS and BAE Systems, completed legal and regulatory hurdles involved in turning Airbus into a full-fledged corporation earlier this month.
With a 92% turnout, about 85% of 17,000 Boeing employees in the Puget Sound area have voted against unionization. The International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers petitioned for the vote, seeking to represent administrative, software and technology workers. Last year, a white-collar strike severely curtailed commercial aircraft deliveries at company facilities in the area for 40 days as 16,000 engineers and technicians represented by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace walked out (AW&ST Mar. 27, 2000, p. 42).
Aero Vodochody is broadening its product line beyond military aircraft to include commercial aircraft, helicopters and component parts for the future stability of the more-than-80-year-old company. The Czech company realized some years ago that it could not depend on sales of its line of trainers and light-attack aircraft to sustain itself in this time of worldwide lowered military acquisition plans forced by tight budgets and non-military priorities.
At the rate airlines are losing money--and considering the operating environment carriers probably will face for months to come--can a severe decline in orders and scheduled deliveries of new commercial aircraft be far off? That's the question key suppliers keep asking themselves, despite assurances from original equipment manufacturers that they foresee no dramatic downturn. A canvass of these companies last week revealed that not one has detected any warning signs of serious trouble ahead, but many of them believe conditions are ripe.
The pressurized orbital module of the Chinese Shenzhou II, the unmanned version of China's manned spacecraft design, continues to transmit data from orbit six months after launch. The flight's descent module returned to Earth about a week after launch on Jan. 9. The overall spacecraft is similar to the Russian Soyuz, except the orbital module can remain functional after the descent and service modules have deorbited. Unlike the Russian version, the Chinese module is equipped with solar arrays for electrical power and has small thrusters to maintain orbit.
The 100th anniversary of controlled, manned sustained flight by the Wright Brothers on Dec. 17, 1903, at Kill Devil Hills, N.C., is becoming the focal point for festive centennial events, seminars and air shows. Professional societies, government agencies and private groups that have been organizing for the past few years are now all moving quickly to establish themselves and their projected programs in anticipation of the anniversary.
Slowly and none too surely, the FAA and the Air Line Pilots Assn. are edging toward agreement on a scaled-back version of a capacity-enhancing procedure--Land and Hold Short Operations, or Lahso--that has been unavailable in recent years at some of the busiest U.S. airports. The lesser version of Lahso that seems to be emerging would provide much, but not all, of the capacity improvement the FAA has been hoping for as it tries to reduce commercial aviation delays. It also would shift some Lahso safety responsibilities to air traffic controllers.
The FAA is also taking a close look at TWA's maintenance procedures after the carrier had five emergency landings due to engine-related problems July 11-18.
The European aerospace industry's sales rose 7.2% in 2000, to 72 billion euros ($62.8 billion), according to the European Assn. of Aerospace Industries (AECMA). Order intake was up 33% and the industry's combined order book is at 290 billion euros, up 18% on 1999. The sector suffered a decline in operating profit margin, however, which dropped to 5% from 7% in 2000. But AECMA expects margins to improve this year. Slightly more than 70% of total sales were in the civil market.
Saab and BAE Systems have offered an investment and industrial cooperation package worth $3 billion to Poland if Warsaw opts for the team's Gripen aircraft. Poland is looking to acquire 60 new fighters.
NASA gets no joy from the Senate Appropriations Committee on its $4-billion-plus shortfall in International Space Station funding. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) cited ``cultural permissiveness in the space program'' as she pushed a Fiscal 2002 spending measure to the Senate floor that would grant no relief on station spending. Instead, the bill takes the austere Presidential budget request for ISS a step further.
Flush with funds for additional testing and product development, U.S. military leaders still face huge test requirements before being able to field even a rudimentary version of its planned layered missile defense architecture.
Honeywell, Boeing and NASA engineers have determined why the hard drive mass storage devices on two out of three Command and Control Computers (C&Cs) failed near-simultaneously on the International Space Station in April. The failures, combined with a different problem on a third C&C, temporarily crippled ISS operations. Investigators found that the pick-up heads on the drives had been damaged. This occurred at the point the heads were automatically returned to a parked position after contacting the drives.
The FAA's proposal to extend the slot-lottery regime at New York LaGuardia Airport through October 2002 was supposed to be a straightforward, no-brainer way of giving the aviation community time to fight over long-term demand-management measures, like congestion pricing and slot auctions. Instead, comments on the extension look like a knife-sharpening warmup for battles to come.
Testimony ended last week in the SilkAir negligence trial with Singapore judge Tan Lee Meng seeking written submittals from attorneys within five weeks. Tan also instructed the plaintiffs to choose a focus for their case--pilot suicide or negligence by SilkAir's management. They are seeking unspecified damages from the airline for the December 1997 loss of a 737 that has been linked to pilot suicide.
Iberia Regional Air Nostrum has acquired Spanish regional carrier Binter Mediterraneo from the Iberia Group. Binter Mediterraneo operates 180 flights per week to six Spanish destinations with a fleet of five CN-235s. Air Nostrum, which has a fleet of 41 turboprops and regional jet aircraft, said it plans to renovate Binter Mediterraneo's fleet as a first step toward turning the carrier into a profitable company.
John G. Asimou has been named executive vice president-operating technology and quality assurance of Republic Technologies International, Fairlawn, Ohio. He succeeds Cliff Miller, who is scheduled to retire. Asimou was executive vice president/general manager for cold-finished bar operations.
Compass Call, USAF's small fleet of communications jamming and information warfare aircraft, are finally being upgraded through a pair of contracts with BAE Systems worth $80 million. One contract will produce the next-generation mission crew simulator with delivery scheduled for November 2003. The second contract upgrades to tactical radio acquisition countermeasures system receiver, improves jamming capability and makes signal processing improvements. Enough upgrade kits are being bought to bring 14 EC-130Hs to Block 35 standards in two lots.
In a milestone for its plans to modernize the nation's ATC system, Boeing Air Traffic Management has won FCC approval to use spectrum in the 2-GHz. band and to operate a 16-satellite system.
