Global Hawk production will progress only at the baseline rate of two aircraft per year. Pentagon officials had considered a much more aggressive program, which would have included improvements to the system. But those were nixed due to their price. The cost of the currently planned effort is about $400 million, versus almost $1 billion for a larger program.
Taiwan's EVA Air is introducing Airbus aircraft to its expanding fleet. The carrier is replacing eight Boeing 767s with eight Airbus A330-200s, two of which will be purchased and six leased. GE CF6-80 engines will power the A330-200s, which will have 261 seats in a two-class configuration.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey last week threatened to revoke Spirit Airlines' permit to operate gates at LaGuardia and Newark international airports if the carrier did not address passenger service problems that became exacerbated by a Dec. 30 nor'easter. The carrier's difficulties ``go beyond the snowstorm,'' said Steve Coleman, public information officer for the Port Authority (PA). Spirit Airlines has demonstrated a poor passenger service record at the two airports in the past six months, Coleman says, particularly at LaGuardia.
Rolls-Royce has sold the bulk of its Vickers Turbine Components business to Royal Bank Private Equity for $111 million and plans to focus on core businesses. The precision parts manufacturing operation was acquired by Rolls-Royce when it bought Vickers late in 1999. The sale involves seven units employing 1,220 people in the U.K. and the U.S. Two units based in the U.K.--Ross Catherall Ceramics and Vickers Pressings--are being retained by Rolls-Royce.
Although violence between Israelis and Palestinians is casting a shadow on U.S. relations with the Arab world, at least some developments in the area are encouraging to U.S. military officials. A new defense pact between members of the Gulf Cooperation Council--Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates--to consider an attack on one as an attack on all, and to increase the group's rapid reaction force to 22,000 troops from 5,000, is gaining strong endorsement. ``That is very, very good for us,'' says Army Gen. Tommy R.
U.S. Rep. Bud Shuster (R-Pa.), outgoing chairman of the powerful House Transportation Committee, abruptly announced his retirement late last week, effective Jan. 31. Principal author of last year's landmark ``AIR-21'' aviation modernization act, Shuster cited ``health scares'' in recent months. But the 14-term House veteran, reelected last November, was reprimanded last fall by a House ethics panel for allegedly allowing a former senior aide, Ann M. Eppard, to lobby him inappropriately, following her departure from his staff.
With this month's planned arrival of the U.S. laboratory module Destiny at the International Space Station, the outpost will take a major step toward the scientific and commercial research objectives for which the ISS is being built. It has taken 40 years of space operations, including six Russian Salyut stations, Mir, the U.S. Skylab station program and years of shuttle/Spacelab missions to reach this juncture--where a large laboratory, as advanced as any ground facility, will be configured to function in the weightlessness of space.
A turbine disk failed during the ground maintenance run of a General Electric CF6-80C2 engine, and the National Transportation Safety Board asked the FAA on Dec. 12 to address issues uncovered by the subsequent probe. General Electric issued a service bulletin on Dec. 11 suggesting that CF6-80C2 operators perform a one-time inspection of the disk when the high-pressure module is being serviced, and expects the FAA will issue an Airworthiness Directive. About 1,200-1,500 engines are affected.
Vanguard Airlines, one of several so-called new entrant carriers, continues its plans to expand its Kansas City-based operation, despite being in poor shape financially and the threat of losing its listing on the Nasdaq SmallCap Market for not meeting the financial fitness requirements of the exchange.
Lou Bieck (see photo) has been appointed president of the Interpoint Corp., Redmond, Wash., an operating unit within Crane Aerospace. He was president/general manager of Solectron Washington.
The Soviet Union never believed it was in a race to the Moon with the U.S. until mid-1963--two years after President John F. Kennedy set the U.S. goal of landing men there following Yuri Gagarin's flight in 1961.
NASA is pressing ahead with plans for a string of technology upgrades for the space shuttle to ensure the 20-year-old hypersonic space transport remains safe and operational beyond 2010. The first shuttle flight was Apr. 12, 1981, 20 years to the day after Yuri Gagarin's first orbital flight.
Production of the Airbus A380 transport will sustain 22,000 jobs in the U.S. aerospace industry including 6,000 engineers, according to Airbus Industrie projections. Consumer spending will support an additional 38,000 jobs. Company officials said the A380 program is forecast to generate nearly $5 billion in business annually for U.S. manufacturers. Airbus is tentatively scheduled to deliver the first A380 in March 2006 and plans to produce about 50 airplanes each year.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has named all 16 contractors it will be working with to develop a quiet supersonic aircraft that could spur both commercial and military aircraft developments.
Ian King has been appointed group managing director for customer solutions and support unit of BAE Systems. He succeeds Robin Southwell, who has become group managing director for Western Europe, Australasia and Eurofighter marketing. Terry Morgan has been named group managing director of operations, Alison Wood group strategy and planning director and Rod Leggetter group procurement and information technology director. Stephen Henwood has become group managing director for systems programs. He was managing director of BAE Systems Royal Ordnance and succeeds Allan Cook.
Delta Air Lines will cut its flight schedule nearly 3% for the first quarter of 2001 to accommodate for the lack of pilots. Some of Delta's 9,800 pilots continue to refuse to fly overtime as a result of a contract dispute, says the airline. Delta subsidiaries Comair and Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA) are expected to replace Delta on some routes. Federally mediated contract negotiations between the Air Line Pilots Assn. and Delta were to have resumed late last week. Around 4% of Delta's 2,700 flights will be cut in February, 3.5% in March.
Scandinavian Airlines System has completed the previously agreed sale of 20% of British Midland to Lufthansa. SAS retains a 20% stake in the U.K. carrier. Separately, Spain's Iberia, not wanting to be distracted from its effort to purchase domestic rival Air Europa, has dropped out of the bidding for British Airways' low-cost subsidiary Go, now on the auction block.
Domestic and international scheduled passenger traffic worldwide this year is expected to grow at a scant 2.7%, with international and domestic traffic accounting for 4.1% and 0.8%, respectively. This compares with an expected increase of 6.2% in world traffic in 2000. So projects Avitas, a Washington consultancy, whose forecast is grimmer than traffic and aircraft sales prognostications of leading airframers and the International Civil Aviation Organization, which recently estimated a 5.5% increase in scheduled passenger traffic in 2001.
L-3 Communications has received a work order from USAF to supply FA2100 cockpit voice recorders for a fleet of 60 C-17 aircraft. The contract also includes installations in 30 new production aircraft with options for equipping an additional 20.
John R. Summerlot, F-22 program director and integrator for the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Marietta, Ga., has received the National Defense Industrial Assn.'s Combat Survivability Award for Leadership. He was cited for contributions to the enhancement of aircraft survivability since the development of low-observable weapon systems. Denys D. Overholser, chairman of Denmar Inc., Carson City, Nev., received the Combat Survivability Award for Technical Achievement, for contributions to aircraft susceptibility reduction as embodied in the F-117A.
Lockheed Martin has conducted the first flight of the Joint Strike Fighter demonstrator that is intended to show aircraft carrier approach handling qualities. The X-35C is the third aircraft to fly in the overall JSF demonstrator program, during which Lockheed Martin and Boeing will each test two aircraft to show Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps operational requirements. The flight test program had included the Boeing X-32A for demonstration of Air Force and Navy requirements, and the Lockheed Martin X-35A to show Air Force requirements.
A group of Swiss investors has acquired Pilatus Aircraft with the intent to develop it as an independent company which would be floated on either the Swiss or U.S. stock market in 3-4 years. The investor group is acquiring the turboprop aircraft manufacturer from the Swiss technology group Unaxis, formerly Oerlikon-Buehrle, for an undisclosed sum. Analysts have estimated the deal, which is expected to close by the end of January, to be worth up to $150 million.
