The carving up of US Airways assets, particularly valuable East Coast slots, will have a far more deleterious effect on low-fare competition than the proposed mergers of four U.S. major airlines into two mega carriers.
The Pentagon's ``Title 10'' service-specific wargames are demonstrating that a robust military space infrastructure will be essential to preventing, controlling and winning future conflicts. Set in the 2010-17 period, these national wargames have demonstrated the value of advanced systems, such as rapid-response spaceplanes, an on-orbit radar constellation and weapons that strike time-critical ground targets from space.
Horizon Air will equip its 30 Bombardier CRJ700 regional jets with dual Collins FMS-4200 Flight Management Systems, dual GPS4000A Global Positioning Systems and Airborne Communications and Addressing Reporting Systems. Production deliveries are scheduled to begin this month.
BFGoodrich's Aerospace Div. has entered a 10-year nacelle fleet-hour agreement with Impulse Airlines to provide repair, overhaul and support for the Rolls-Royce BR715 engines on the carrier's Boeing 717-200 aircraft.
B.K. Thomas, who from 1966-69 was an Aviation Week&Space Technology engineering editor based in Washington and Cape Canaveral, died of a heart ailment Jan. 14 at home in Satellite Beach, Fla. He was 74. Thomas wrote most of Aviation Week's Apollo mission launch stories. Previously, he was a Navy aviator who flew Skyraiders off the USS Kearsarge on strikes against Korea. He graduated from the U.S. Navy Test Pilots School at Patuxent River, Md., and the forerunner to the Navy's Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program.
The U.S. Army has awarded Cubic Defense Systems of San Diego a $9.8-million contract for additional ground data terminals to support the E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System program.
John C. Clark has been selected to direct the NTSB Office of Aviation Safety, succeeding Bernard S. Loeb, who has retired. Clark has been with the NTSB in an aviation role since 1981, and was the deputy director of the Office of Research and Engineering and the deputy director of Technical Investigations and Operations in the Office of Aviation Safety.
A Yemeni hijacker, claiming to be a supporter of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, was overpowered by the crew of a Boeing 727 after landing at Djibouti. The man, armed with a pencil-shaped gun, commandeered the aircraft soon after takeoff on Jan. 23 from the Yemeni capital of Sana en route to Taiz. He demanded to be flown to Baghdad but the crew convinced him of the need to divert to Djibouti to refuel. There were no injuries among the 91 passengers on the flight, which included the U.S. ambassador to Yemen, Barbara Bodine. She and several other U.S.
The U.K. government has approved new, performance-based charge formulas that contain penalties for National Air Traffic Services (NATS) if air traffic control delays increase over current levels. The penalties are set on a sliding scale starting at a maximum of $3 million in 2001, rising to $8.3 million in 2005. At the same time, the government has decided to cap the charges levied on airlines by NATS, which is soon to be partially privatized, at 2.2% below inflation in 2002. Final bids are due this week from the three consortia bidding for a 49% stake in NATS.
Enemy ballistic and cruise missiles are supplanting surface-to-air missile systems as the targets U.S. Air Force planners would strike first during the opening phases of a conflict. Starting any air war with an exhaustive suppression of enemy air defenses campaign has long been gospel for Air Force officers. But the proliferation of cruise and ballistic missiles and the ability to use them to thwart U.S. efforts to build up its force--so-called anti-access strategies--is causing service officials to rethink their plans.
The number of Boeing commercial transport deliveries should remain relatively stable this year and in 2002 at a level about 8% higher than last year, according to Chairman and CEO Phil Condit. Condit's delivery forecast was made against a backdrop of declining revenues but improving operating earnings and profit margins. For the fourth quarter, revenues during 2000 were $14.7 billion, down 3% from the fourth quarter of 1999.
D. Brad Frederiksen has become chief information officer of United Shipping&Technology subsidiary Velocity Express Inc. of Minneapolis. He was vice president-information technology for MedSource Technologies Inc.
Astrium Ltd. and Paradigm consortium partner Logica have won a contract from the U.K. Defense Procurement Agency to provide a new management system for the Ministry of Defense's military satellite communications system.
Crossair and GE Capital Aviation Training have formed Crosscat, a joint venture based at Basel-Mulhouse Airport in Switzerland, to train flight crews, flight attendants and maintenance technicians for Embraer and Saab regional transports.
The Greek air force has concluded an order for four twin-engine Eurocopter AS332C1 Super Puma combat, search and rescue helicopters. They will be powered by 1,877-shp. Turbomeca Mikila 1A1 turboshafts.
The German regional airline system is beginning to feel the effects of Lufthansa's acquisition of 24.9% of Eurowings and its desire to coordinate the activities of its partners. Augsburg Airways, the first Lufthansa franchise partner, will stop flying its two most profitable routes from Munich to Paderborn and Dortmund, Germany, at the end of March. In return, Augsburg, which competes with Eurowings on these routes, will begin serving Geneva and Basel, Switzerland, from Munich. Augsburg took delivery of its first two Bombardier Aerospace Q400 Dash 8s last week.
Momentum is building for an industry/government group to attempt to solve the air traffic congestion conundrum. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta is seen as being much more interested in working with the FAA, Congress and industry to remediate delays and flight cancellations than was his predecessor (see p. 43).
Solid fourth-quarter and year 2000 earnings reports issued by major U.S. aerospace companies last week--including General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon--testify to the industry's heavy emphasis on improving its operational performance.
The U.S. Air Force has selected Orbital Sciences Corp. to provide target vehicles and related support for the Sounding Rockets Program-2, under a seven-year work order.
The second largest customer for Bell, Boeing's V-22 tiltrotor, the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command, is reconsidering its commitment to the system in the wake of technical problems and revelations about maintenance irregularities that have thrown the program into turmoil.
The Senate is in a hurry to reform high-technology export law, but industry cautions that aggressive White House backing is essential if a decade of legislative failure is to be overcome.
