The Thuraya satellite-based, regional mobile communications system plans to launch full commercial service to more than 20 countries in July. The system, which began preliminary service in May, was built by Boeing Satellite Systems and Hughes Network Systems for Thuraya Satellite Telecommunications Co. of the United Arab Emirates. The system is scheduled to receive 235,000 handsets by the end of the year, although Thuraya officials maintain there could be a requirement for as many as 400,000 handsets in a year's time.
The Alenia Aerospazio/Lockheed Martin C-27J Spartan military transport has received its airworthiness certificate from the Italian Civil Aviation Authority.
B. Frank Rohrback has been named vice president/general manager for propulsion at the Gainesville, Va.-based Atlantic Research Corp. He was vice president/general manager of ARC's defense business.
Priorities for the U.S. Air Force under the Bush Administration will be deeply buried targets, improved sensor technology, even more precise aerial weaponry and a reinvigoration of the service's intelligence-gathering, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities, say the service's new top civilian chief.
The FAA has named Charlie Keegan to lead the agency's 10-year airspace modernization program, called the Operational Evolution Plan. Keegan is a former air traffic controller with 22 years at the FAA, most recently as the head of the agency's Free Flight office. The OEP is an aggressive industry-wide effort to balance the growing gap between demand and capacity in the U.S. air transportation system.
A paradigm, if subtly progressive change, has been taking place at Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. It is particularly noticeable in contrast to the HAL group of the 1990s, when production prospects were alarmingly low. But it also is evident in an attitude change in India's ministerial hierarchy and at the top levels of HAL's biggest customer, the Indian air force.
Lockheed Martin is set to receive an Israeli order for 52 more F-16Is. The deal involves options acquired by Israel, which expire at the end of the year, for additional F-16s as part of an earlier acquisition of 50 F-16s. A formal contract has yet to be signed. Delivery of this second batch of F-16Is would start in 2006 and run through 2009.
UAL disclosed initial orders from Gulfstream and Dassault Aviation for its new fractional ownership program and fleshed-out its ambitions for the venture, as Dassault unveiled a new top-of-the-line bizjet model. As revealed last week in AW&ST, UAL said it would purchase 58 Gulfstream GIV-SPs, GVs and GV-SPs worth $1.25 billion, including options, to fill the top end of its new business aircraft fleet. Deliveries, which include 35 firm units, will begin in the first quarter of 2002 and extend through 2006 (AW&ST June 18, p. 94).
The $4.5-billion, British-based ``New ICO'' Global Communications project, which literally had to reinvent itself after bankruptcy and the loss of its first spacecraft, has scored a major milestone with the launch of its first test satellite.
Boeing signed up Lufthansa for its Connexion high-speed onboard broadband service, making the German carrier the international launch customer, and the first to sign a real, if preliminary, contract. Lufthansa will install the Connexion system on a 747 for three months of trial operation. If trials are conclusive, it will then outfit its entire transatlantic fleet of 80 long-haul aircraft between 2001-03.
Boeing concluded a strategic alliance with Mitsubishi Electric covering space telecom, air traffic management, multimedia, navigation and launchers. The alliance included a block buy for Delta IV boosters that could amount to six satellite launches. Boeing said it was the fifth block buy from a foreign customer. The two companies also signed an agreement to jointly explore commercial space opportnities such as resupply of the International Space Station, scientific experiments and space manufacture.
Astrium has begun qualification testing on the first of three flight-standard vehicle equipment bays for the Ariane 5 Plus launcher upgrade program. The bay, being tested by Intespace of Toulouse on an engineering model of Astrium's Eurostar 3000 5-metric-ton class bus, is intended for the Ariane 5V. The 5V upgrade, equipped with a restartable upper stage and a geostationary-transfer-orbit lift capability of 7 metric tons, will make its first flight in May 2002.
A Russian-operated Antonov An-124 heavy-lift freighter arrived on Hainan Island, China, on June 16 and parked in front of a U.S. Navy EP-3 surveillance aircraft. The EP-3 was damaged in a midair collision on Mar. 31 with a Chinese interceptor. U.S. technicians will disassemble the EP-3 for airlift back to the U.S.
The FAA has long counted runway incursions--incidents in which an aircraft, vehicle or, occasionally even a person, is on, or too close to, a runway when it shouldn't be. Now it's going to categorize them, following an analysis that shows the number of serious runway incursions is not increasing, only the minor or inconsequential ones. The findings are based on a review by a government-industry team of 1,359 incursions reported at 297 tower-controlled airports in 1997-2000.
Angela Thomas has become director of public relations and Bob DeTrano director of reservations for American Trans Air. Thomas was manager of communications for Nuveen Investments in Chicago. DeTrano was senior director of central operations for the ANC Rental Corp.
It was a busy week for Arianespace, which received orders to launch three Panamsat telecom satellites, two spacecraft for an unidentified customer, Europe's Rosetta comet probe and the French third-generation military communications satellite Syracuse 3, in addition to the LOI from Inmarsat. Confirmation of the Inmarsat order would mean 11 orders for the year, just one shy of the company's lower-range forecast for the entire year, officials said.
The Swissair Group's troubled French affiliates and Ivory Coast-based Air Afrique, which is also struggling for survival, expect Air France to play a major role in urgently needed rescue plans. The French flag carrier, however, is expressing no interest in Air Liberte and AOM. But it owns a minority stake in Air Afrique, and the French government maintains close links with the multinational African carrier's owner states and could be required to support efforts to quickly devise a survival strategy.
Taiwanese army Patriot fire units shot down a surrogate tactical ballistic missile target and an MPQ 107 target drone simulating a cruise missile in the first live firings in Taiwan of the Raytheon-supplied weapon system. Both targets were destroyed by Patriot Advanced Capability Phase 2 (PAC-2) missiles. Taiwan is not equipped with the more advanced PAC-3 missile, a hit-to-kill weapon that is much more effective against tactical ballistic missile targets.
Toronto-based Spar Aerospace Ltd. was selected by Greece's Defense Ministry to undertake the C-130 avionics upgrade program for the Greek air force. The contract is expected to be worth in excess of $100 million over a three-year period.
Malaysia Airlines and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines are planning to form an alliance that would align marketing and sales activities beginning with code-share flights between hubs at Kuala Lumpur and Amsterdam. Plans call for establishment of a joint venture on the route, and sharing of costs and revenues. Airlines affiliated with KLM and Malaysia would be involved in the new initiative, according to both carriers.
Airlines are jockeying for position as U.S. and U.K. negotiators prepare to meet informally this week in London on liberalizing the world's most restrictive aviation bilateral. American and United are the only U.S. carriers allowed to serve Heathrow under the current agreement, but both support an open skies deal that would end their hegemony. The reason: both need open skies to seek antitrust immunity that would cement their transatlantic alliances, American with Oneworld partner British Airways and United with Star Alliance partner British Midland. But three big U.S.
Sweden's LFV civil aviation authority and U.S.-based Airis Corp. have formed a joint company to develop cargo business at certain airports. A $1-billion investment is planned for Cargo City Syd, a new facility at Arlanda Airport, and Gothenburg's Landvetter Airport is next on the agenda for expansion. LFV's director of group marketing, Dan Lundvall, said cargo volumes in Sweden are forecast to double from 300,000 tons to 600,000 tons by 2010.
