For nearly four years, the FAA has been quietly conducting a ``test'' in the skies above one of the busiest airports in the U.S. in which airliners are routinely allowed to exceed the normal 250-kt. speed limit in congested terminal areas.
General Electric and Germany's CargoLifter have concluded a strategic partnership whereby GE will supply and maintain CT7-8 turboshaft engines for the CL160 Flying Crane airship. GE views the 260-meter-long aircraft as a tool for large-scale logistics applications where heavy-lift capability is required. In addition, CargoLifter has introduced the CL75 AirCrane--a smaller airship that will help validate and fund its larger counterpart. A redesign of the CL160 has reduced the number of engines to eight from 16, improved aerodynamics, and decreased weight.
EADS' Spanish division will upgrade three P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft with new electronic warfare, communications, navigation and data link systems for the Spanish air force under a $100-million contract.
Structural Dynamics Research Corp. has gained another application server partner for its Accelis e-business integration product. It has aligned with BEA Systems Inc. to put Accelis on top of BEA's WebLogic. It previously made a similar agreement for Accelis with IBM's WebSphere, which is used by Boeing, among others. Accelis' clients also include Matra BAe Dynamics and BFGoodrich.
EADS' cross-border structure will be further streamlined and its overhead reduced in an effort to achieve a quick boost in earnings, according to company executives.
Rocketdyne's new RS-68 has been fired for the first time as part of Boeing's new Delta IV Common Booster Core (CBC), clearing another hurdle on the way back from design problems with the engine that have delayed the first flight of Boeing's entry in the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program.
Pratt&Whitney and the U.S. Air Force have successfully run a hydrocarbon-fueled, integrated, supersonic combustion ramjet engine at hypersonic speeds in freejet tests, recording a predicted, net positive thrust with the powerplant. The tests, conducted under the Air Force Hypersonic Technology (HyTECH) program, mark the first time a hydrocarbon-fueled scramjet not employing energetic fuel additives has successfully run under operational conditions, according to USAF officials.
Establishing a performance-based organization within the FAA to speed modernization and make the air traffic system safer is a laudable goal but whether the byzantine structure, with its tangled lines of authority and responsibility, can lead to the desired results remains to be seen. The biggest question is who will be in charge?
Germany's Motoren- und Turbinen-Union (MTU) will have responsibility for final assembly for the TP400 turboprop engine scheduled to power Airbus Military Co.'s A400M airlifter. An industrial consortium comprising MTU, Snecma Moteurs, Rolls-Royce, FiatAvio, Techspace Aero and Spain's ITP will develop the powerplant. Rolls-Royce, which will have a combined share of about 75% of the program, has a key role as system integrator managing the partners' contributions. The A400M and TP400 programs are tentatively scheduled for launch in June.
A bipartisan Senate bill that would force major carriers to divest takeoff and landing slots at high-density airports is drawing mixed reviews from lawmakers and industry.
In a stunning move, tradition-bound Boeing said last week that its three operating units will be infused with all the autonomy they can handle, and its headquarters will be shifted away from the only home the company has known. The announcement by Chairman and CEO Phil Condit may not be the only shocker to come, according to senior industry officials with close ties to Boeing. ``Another shoe will drop,'' said one individual who is close to the company. ``This is the first in a series of moves that will define the transformed Boeing Co.
Following the safest year in U.S. Army aviation, the service is now confronting a much higher rate of accidents and a substantial increase in lower level mishaps. At the midway point of Fiscal 2001, the Army has encountered 75% more Class A accidents--those including at least one fatality, destroying an aircraft or registering damage exceeding $1 million--than it did during the same time last year. With seven Class A mishaps so far, the service has already surpassed the level of last year when only six incidents of that severity occurred.
BOMBARDIER AEROSPACE HAS SOLD A LEARJET 45 to Cathay Pacific Airways for use in the airline's advanced pilot training program. Delivery is scheduled for the third quarter of this year, according to Bombardier. The airplane will be operated by BAE Systems Flight Training Ltd. (Australia), and based at Parafield near Adelaide. Learjet has delivered more than 100 Learjet 45s and the fleet has accumulated in excess of 46,600 flight hours, according to the company.
NASA'S Galileo spacecraft has won another reprieve, gaining a third mission extension that will keep it swinging among the moons of Jupiter until August 2003. It will cost an extra $9 million to send the probe on five more flybys of jovian moons, but the expected scientific return includes measurements of the mass and density of the tiny moon Amalthea and a look at both poles of volcanic Io. Launched from the space shuttle Atlantis in October 1989, Galileo has been orbiting Jupiter for five years.
Two Canadian government agencies have issued contradictory instructions to Air Canada on ticket pricing. The Competition Bureau criticized Air Canada recently for cutting fares and adding capacity in seven markets in eastern Canada, allegedly to force low-fare carriers WestJet and CanJet from the markets. Specifically, Air Canada dropped fares on those routes to less than C$100, nearly 600% lower than its highest fare on the markets. As a result, the Bureau instructed Air Canada to raise its fares on these routes and not to engage in further predatory pricing.
The Transportation Dept.'s Air Consumer Travel Report for January says that overall, 75.9% of operations were on-time, with Aloha 93.9% on schedule, followed by Northwest at 81%, and Continental at 80.6%. Of 328,851 carrier operations, 11,994 were canceled, with Delta leading at 2,949 cancellations out of 55,867 operations. Travelers lodged 2,221 complaints in January--1,972 of them against U.S. airlines, 200 against foreign airlines and the remainder among travel agents, tour operators and miscellaneous others.
EADS, BAE Systems and Finmeccanica have begun streamlining operations and laying the groundwork for Spanish and German affiliates as they prepare to merge their missile operations into a new entity that will span much of Europe.
Japan Airlines expects to invest more than $3.5 billion in operational upgrades in the next three years, or more than double the amount invested in fiscal 1998-2000. Most of the money will be for new aircraft and information technology.
The FAA is stoutly resisting Senate nudges to ease the age 60 pilot retirement rule, putting a future congressional override of the agency in doubt. FAA officials are against raising the age by law without foolproof medical evidence that safety will not be compromised. The Senate is considering raising the mandatory retirement age to 65 from 60 to alleviate pilot shortages, particularly for carriers that serve rural destinations.
SAirGroup has given itself two more weeks to make major strategic decisions on the future of the aviation group as it prepares to announce large losses for the year. Observers expect the company to report plans for the sale of some of its non-airline subsidiaries and potentially some of its airline shareholdings on Apr. 2, the day the group releases its financial results for the year 2000. Those results are expected to show deep losses due largely to the group's highly unprofitable subsidiaries in Belgium, France and Germany.
Resuming the sale of advanced military technology to Iran, Russia is making it harder for NASA to solve its space station cost problems. Two U.S. systems shelved or delayed to help cover the $4-billion station shortfall--a Boeing-built Propulsion Module and a seven-seat Crew Rescue Vehicle--could be replaced with Russian hardware.
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasianov has endorsed a cooperative effort between the Russian Aviation and Space Agency and the Australian Asian Pacific Space Center to develop a space launch capability on Australia's Christmas Island dependency in the Indian Ocean for a version of the venerable Soyuz rocket. Aviation Week's Aerospace Daily reports from Moscow that the ``Aurora'' vehicle will consist of a Soyuz core with a ``Corvette'' upper stage developed by RSC Energia.
Donald Moonjian has become vice president-marketing and Pam Smith director of inflight services for the Customers Div. of Field Services for American Trans Air. Moonjian was senior vice president/general manager of the Pacific Div. of United Airlines. Smith was manager of special projects for flight service for American Airlines. Moonjian succeeds Rick Larsen, who is now vice president-advertising and sales.
