Boeing and Tenzing added muscle to their Internet-in-the-sky initiatives as a newcomer presented a dedicated live TV satellite network. A week after signing up a trio of U.S. airline partners, Boeing concluded an agreement with Lufthansa to install its Ku-band Connexion system on 80 aircraft in the German carrier's Atlantic long-haul fleet. Connexion will allow passengers to access high-speed e-mail, Internet and TV for about $20 per hr.
Radar designers can buy a package of software tools from Artech House (www.artechhouse.com). Radar System Simulation Software has algorithms written in Mathcad 2000 to design filters, pulse compressors, waveforms and other elements, to model radar cross section, and analyze the performance. Plus it should have some Russian techniques--the package is written by Sergei Leonov of Raytheon Systems Canada and Alexander Leonov of the Moscow Institute of Technology.
Arianespace registered a record number of orders at this year's Paris air show, confirming its position at the top of the commercial launch market. However, it could not dispel claims from U.S.-Russian rivals that new heavy-lift booster models are closing the gap.
American Airlines and the Transport Workers Union, which represents mechanics at the carrier, reached a tentative agreement June 24. Mechanics would receive an immediate wage increase of 8-22%, depending on their work classification plus a 3% increase in the second and third years of the contract, which also improves benefits, retirement and work rules, according to American. Union members will vote on the pact within 30 days of receiving details. American and the TWU began negotiations in October 2000.
Japan has issued a request for proposal leading to development and purchase of 80 new 4-engine maritime patrol aircraft to replace its P-3s. The newly designed aircraft are supposed to use an indigenously-developed turbofan, industry officials said. Kawasaki is seen as the front-runner, although Mitsubishi Heavy Industries also is expected to compete. Contract award is scheduled for later this year, although some industry officials are skeptical about funding viability. The U.S.
POLAND'S PZL OKECIE has chosen Illinois-based Flight Visions Inc. to supply and integrate the avionics for an upgrade demonstrator of the PZL-130 TCL OR2 trainer. Pending successful demonstration, the systems will be integrated with 30 new PZL-130s.
Virgin Blue last week legally challenged Qantas' takeover of Impulse Airlines by filing a formal complaint in Sydney Federal court against the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which approved the deal. Virgin Blue is claiming the ACCC failed to follow its own guidelines in that it did not consult with Virgin Blue about the takeover, or provide the carrier with reasons for its approval of the deal.
EADS will become Patria Industries' strategic partner and invest 42 million euros ($36.1 million) to acquire a 26.8%-stake in the Finnish company. The agreement will focus on aircraft aerostructures and defense electronics businesses and could be extended to space activities, Patria executives said. The state-controlled company made an $8.3-million net profit on $180 million in revenues last year.
NASA'S HIGHWAY IN THE SKY (HITS) Phase II cockpit display will be on view at the Experimental Aircraft Assn. AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wis., July 24-30. One goal of the new software is to offer ``a true out-the-window view'' for more intuitive attitude and course guidance, according to AvroTec, which will show HITS II on its AvroTec FMP500 LCD displays in a Lancair Columbia 400. The software was developed by NASA's Advanced General Aviation Transport Experiments government/industry consortium as an interim step toward a real Synthetic Vision system.
The U.S. and Israel may be nearing a confrontation over who should get U.S. funding to build a missile-carrying unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that can locate and destroy mobile ballistic or air-defense missile launchers. Israel's future defense plans include both missile-carrying and reconnaissance versions of unmanned aircraft as key contributors to the country's defense. To that end, Israel Aircraft Industries has been developing longer endurance and larger-payload UAV designs for the role.
Donald D. Strench has been named senior vice president-finance and administration/chief financial officer and Noell Michaels senior vice president-sales of the UAL Corp.'s business aviation subsidiary. Strench was president of Transaction Partners, while Michaels was sales director of the Gulfstream Aerospace Corp.
With no white knight on the horizon, Air Liberte and AOM could cease operations in the next few days while Sabena Belgian World Airlines is outlining a Chapter 11-like bankruptcy proposition in an attempt to protect itself while regrouping. The French court that temporarily froze Air Liberte's and AOM's debt will rescind that order this week. Despite emergency cost-cutting measures implemented in the last few weeks, losses are estimated at $800,000 per day.
The downturn in international traffic has started spilling over into the internal European market. Passenger traffic within Europe grew by only 0.6% in May compared to last year and load factors declined 2.8 points to 63.4%, according to the Assn. of European Airlines. Long-haul passenger traffic in May was down 2.8%, with the North Atlantic and Far East markets each showing a 5.6% decline. The international cargo market also weakened, dropping by 4.5% in May after three months of marginal growth.
Despite requesting the largest increase in defense spending in more than a decade, the Bush Administration has been unable to present a path for fundamental change at the Pentagon in its Fiscal 2002 budget. Now signs are emerging that fiscal realities may stymie radical change again next year, unless the Pentagon can free-up money internally.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. awarded two slot exemptions at Reagan Washington National Airport to Alaska Airlines, enabling the new-to-the-market carrier to launch a daily Boeing 737-900 Seattle round-trip this fall. The Transportation Dept. issued the exemptions originally to TWA for Los Angeles service under AIR-21 legislation that created 12 exemptions for operations beyond 1,250 mi. of DCA. It reclaimed the slots when the St. Louis-based carrier was acquired by American Airlines. The Transportation Dept.
John D. (Mike) Rice has been elected secretary and Susan V. Chernenko treasurer of the Silver Spring, Md.-based National Assn. of State Aviation Officials. Rice is director of aviation for New Mexico, and Chernenko is acting aeronautics director for West Virginia.
European regulators have rejected General Electric Co.'s last-minute attempt to save its $42-billion bid for Honeywell International, despite an offer that included selling a minority stake in its GE Capital Aviation Services (Gecas) division, the Associated Press reported late last week. The European Commission rejected the revised offer on its substance, not because it came too late, the report said. The action is expected to clear the way for the EC to formally block the merger at its meeting on July 2.
Le Bourget Deutsche Zeppelinreederei, the first operator for the Zeppelin NT, is expected to receive its operating certificate for the airship in July. The company plans to start revenue flights immediately thereafter, initially using the airship for sightseeing tours over Lake Constance. The first prototype of the Zeppelin NT (``new technology'') took part in the daily flight presentations at the Paris air show last month.
Six sigma is an aging aerospace buzzword that is finding its way into design programs. To incorporate these quality standards, Engineous Software has added a ``Six Sigma Robust Design Module'' to version 6.0 of its iSight design optimization software. The program can link separate analysis programs to produce an overall optimized result.
One of the more perplexing questions nervous investors and many industry observers are trying to answer is whether a severe downturn in commercial aircraft production may be looming just over the horizon. Their concern isn't exactly a trivial one, as production of new jetliners by Boeing and Airbus is the engine that drives much of the aerospace industry.
Tom Crouch, senior curator for aeronautics at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, has received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio. He was honored for his career as an author, editor, lecturer and scholar of aviation history, and for his support and promotion of Dayton's aviation heritage and WSU's Wright Brothers collection.
George J. Yohrling and Joseph Napoleon have been promoted to executive vice presidents of the Curtiss-Wright Corp., Lyndhurst, N.J. Yohrling was head of the company's motion control business, while Napoleon was president of the Curtiss-Wright Flow Control Corp.
The Pentagon's lead agency for radical innovation has an array of near-term flight and field tests planned for air and space technologies that are intended to meet the Bush Administration's avowed goal of superiority across the complete range of military operations, officially dubbed ``full spectrum dominance.''
