The SAirGroup's ailing French affiliates are urgently trying to persuade new investors that the carriers still have a future. In the wake of massive losses, the Swiss group is threatening to abandon Air Liberte and AOM in an about-face that would oblige both airlines to find new backers or cease operations.
Despite last year's summit between the two Korean leaders and an ongoing policy review in Washington over how to handle North Korea, none of the three main actors on the peninsula is seeking ways to scale back its military posture.
Thomas Pickering, vice president-international relations for Boeing and a retired U.S. ambassador to a number of countries, has received the Harry LeRoy Jones Award from the Washington Foreign Law Society. He was cited for contributions to international relations and the practice and understanding of international law.
The U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General's investigation into the Dec. 11, 2000, crash of an MV-22 Osprey encountered numerous obstacles that hampered the review process. Areas of concern highlighted in the report address technical deficiencies as well as procedural issues that complicated the fact-finding mission.
The IQPC Six Sigma for Aerospace Conference speakers list published in the Apr. 2 issue was incorrect. The following people are scheduled to lead workshops or make presentations at the May 22-23 event: Michael Kukhta, director of Continuous Improvement for BFGoodrich's Landing Gear Div. Jon Butlin, senior lean six sigma coordinator of BFGoodrich's Landing Gear Div. Rod Morgan, vice president-program management, e-Zsigma Inc. Tracy J. Houpt, LM21, deputy director of lean/six sigma for Lockheed Martin.
Airline, safety and government representatives are scheduled to meet Dec. 5-6 in Miami for the fifth annual Global Aviation Information Network (GAIN) conference. The event will address both positive and negative safety trends within the industry, as well as development of concepts, methods and products designed to make a wide variety of key data available to carriers worldwide to help reduce accidents.
Betting on increased route fragmentation in the Pacific Rim, Boeing has taken a significant step toward capturing a larger share of that potentially lucrative market. Many analysts agree Boeing is on the right track in predicting that point-to-point service--rather than larger aircraft serving major hubs--is where the bulk of air traffic growth will be in the Asia-Pacific region.
Transport Canada and the FAA have rescinded an airspeed limit imposed on Bell 407 helicopters and reinstated their 140-kt. never-exceed speed. The restriction was imposed following December's accident in the Gulf of Mexico, in which the pilot was killed. The decision to rescind was made after U.S. and Canadian airworthiness authorities and safety board personnel determined the accident investigation had produced no data to support the restriction.
Municipal officials are counseling Congress and the aviation lobby to be shrewd tacticians in their drive to streamline environmental reviews and speed up runway construction. An abatement lobbyist, NOISE (the National Organization to Insure a Sound-Controlled Environment), says short-circuiting environmental reviews and bypassing local authorities is political folly. The smarter tactic is to include environmentalists from the very beginning of the review process, urges Dennis McGrann of NOISE, which represents mainly elected municipal and county officials.
Alcatel and Alenia will supply transponders, antennas and telemetry, tracking and command hardware for two telecom satellites to be launched by Russian startup Gascom in late 2001. Gascom, owned by utility giant Gazprom and Energia, already has one commercial spacecraft in orbit. The awards follow the decision of telecom operator RSCC last month to use Alenia payloads for three Express AM satellites to be orbited in 2003.
Parcel express and cargo operator United Parcel Service--its Asia-Pacific services boosted in recent weeks by near-daily nonstop flights to Beijing and Shanghai--is a strong candidate for a new wide-body aircraft before this decade ends.
The new Khrunichev Proton M booster was successfully launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on its first mission Apr. 7 carrying the Ekran M-18 television relay satellite. The Proton M uses a digital flight control system and the new Breeze M oxygen/hydrogen upper stage. First-stage engine thrust has also been increased to more than 2 million lb. The booster can place more than 12,000 lb. into geosynchronous transfer orbit and will become a part of the International Launch Services stable of launchers.
A new era of Arctic exploration has begun--led not by explorers with frost-covered beards guiding their dog teams across ice floes, but by airlines beginning operations on the recently approved polar route structure. Be it 19th or 21st century, the motive behind the quest for the pole remains the same: to discover a faster path between the West and the riches of China and the Far East--the ``riches'' for 21st century airlines being increased traffic growth, shorter transit times, enormous fuel savings, and a more comfortable ride for passengers.
Bruce E. Weaver (see photos) has been promoted to chief financial officer from director of finance of Dallas Airmotive Inc. Marsa Hightower Bounds has been promoted to corporate director from senior manager of quality assurance and Brian Keith Shaw to director of human resources from human resources manager of the Dallas engine overhaul facility and regional turbine centers.
Federal officials have approved the transfer of Trans World Airlines' (TWA) assets, including international and domestic passenger routes and cargo hauling authority, to American Airlines, derailing a last-ditch court effort by unionized TWA workers in Israel to halt the deal. TWA terminated its daily New York-Tel Aviv service Mar.
Predator UAVs are back in the Balkans after the Joint Chiefs of Staff settled a tug-of-war between Central Command, which monitors Iraq, and U.S. Air Forces in Europe. To stem ethnic Albanian attacks in the triborder area where Macedonia, Kosovo and Serbia meet, the Predator detachment was flown from the U.S. to its old base at Tuzla, Bosnia. But planners wanted the UAVs closer to the action and quietly shifted the unit to Skopje, Macedonia's capital.
L-3 Communications is introducing a new suite of hardware modules designed for satellite telemetry, tracing and control ground systems. ``Astra,'' as the product is called, combines a variety of powerful, reconfigurable satellite communications functions that can be integrated in a single PC to reduce the price and complexity of current ground system equipment. The Astra hardware suite adds advanced modulation, demodulation and ranging capabilities to what already is on the market.
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. will build an additional nine airframe subassemblies for Japan's F-2 fighter aircraft, including aft fuselages, leading edge flaps, stores management systems and 80% of the left wing boxes. Prime contractor Mitsubishi Heavy Industries plans to build up to 130 F-2s for Japan's Defense Agency.
The BEA French accident bureau has rejected allegations that a missing spacer in the left landing gear of the Air France Concorde that crashed last July aggravated the sequence of events that led to the accident.
Midwest Express Airlines' selection of the Boeing 717 for its fleet modernization program should strengthen the twinjet's foothold in what has been a sluggish 100-seat aircraft market for Boeing. The airline's decision to place a firm order for 20 717s, with options for 30 additional aircraft, follows a year-long evaluation during which the 717-200 edged out the competing Airbus A318. The value of 717s on firm order will be $750 million, with deliveries set to run from February 2003 into 2006 at a rate of one aircraft every other month.
As the Pentagon tries to sort out its future missile defense plans, U.S. Air Force and industry officials say they could undertake an in-orbit Space-Based Laser experiment several years earlier than anticipated and accelerate the fielding of an anti-missile system.
Scaled Composites' Proteus aircraft has completed a science mission that circled the Pacific and included a flight directly over the North Pole (AW&ST Nov. 20, 2000, p. 34). The NASA-funded 36-day mission ended on Mar. 26 and was testing two atmospheric sounding instruments that may be used in future Earth-observing satellites. The aircraft reached 55,000 ft. carrying the 1,700-lb. external payload and had a flight as long as 11.6 hr.
Telesat Canada has filed a request with the Canadian government for a slot to operate a new spacecraft, Anik F3. The company declines to specify the architecture of the spacecraft, which would be orbited around 2002-03. However, Anik F2, to be launched in 2002, will feature 24 C- and 32 Ku-band transponders and ``around 3 gigabits'' of Ka-band capacity, according to Ted Ignacy, vice president of finance at Telesat. It will have a 15-kw. power output and cost C$640 million ($410 million).
Intelsat spinoff New Skies Satellite N.V. has picked Boeing Satellite Systems to build NSS-8. The 14-kw. Boeing 702 spacecraft will cover all 50 U.S. states, Central America and South America from its location at 105 deg. W. Long., and will be able to target linguistic groups across the region such as Japanese speakers in the U.S. and Peru or Spanish speakers in the U.S. Not joining the bidding was Europe's Astrium, which is still in arbitration over New Skies' rejection of one of its spacecraft in a dispute over solar array performance.
