GKN plc is acquiring Boeing's St. Louis-based structural component manufacturing operation for $61 million. The agreement includes long-term contracts with Boeing to produce metal and composite parts for military aircraft. The business, which employs about 1,200 workers, will be added to a new Aerospace Services subsidiary being created by the U.K.-based company as part of a restructuring plan that includes the closing of two facilities in the U.S., one in the U.K., and divestiture of Sitec, a German subsidiary.
China's decision early this year to allow Dragonair to establish freighter services to the mainland has shown early signs of paying off for the Hong Kong carrier. Long a preferred carrier into China for many Western business passengers, Dragonair could carry more than 80,000 tons of freight this year if it keeps up its current pace. It hauled 66,000 tons in 1999. Cargo represented 11% of Dragonair's revenues last year but is up to 16% so far in 2000.
The European Civil Aviation Conference's (ECAC) member states will seek to promote a common framework set to assist the relatives of aircraft accident victims. According to Estonia's transport minister, Toivo Juergenson, families suffer not only from sorrow and financial losses but also serious psychological damages in the aftermath of a crash. An ECAC meeting recently held in his country showed that such sensitive and complex issues require appropriate initiatives to be jointly considered by ECAC, the International Civil Aviation Organization and European Commission.
Johni Chan has become vice president-engineering of I-Bus/Phoenix of San Diego. He was director of systems engineering of Force Computers, San Jose, Calif.
Karen O'Donoghue has been named vice president-product marketing for Galileo International Inc., Rosemont, Ill. She was executive vice president of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp.
Completely fed up with the relatively slow progress of manned space transportation during the past few decades, one private group has taken lessons from aviation history, in an attempt to jump-start the commercialization of human spaceflight, by offering a cash prize as motivation. For four years the St. Louis-based X Prize Foundation has been gaining speed, inspiring private groups around the world to build a new generation of reusable launch vehicles to carry passengers into space.
Fraud is a real problem in dot.com companies, according to a study by the corporate security firm Kroll Associates that was reported last week in the Financial Times. Kroll conducted background checks on 70 Internet executives and board members and found 39% had ``unsavory backgrounds'' such as fraud, hidden bankruptcies, violation of SEC rules and links to organized crime. Kroll normally finds a rate of about 10%.
NASA and the University of California will establish a shared-use educational research and development facility at the proposed NASA Research Park at Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. The focus will be on information technology, biotechnology, planetary sciences, nano-technology, astrobiology and education, said Ames director Henry McDonald. UC-Santa Cruz Chancellor M.R.C. Greenwood said the research and education efforts will capitalize on Silicon Valley's technology and Ames' rich math and science environment.
Andrew Skaff has been named director of materials management, A. Eugene Hall director of planning and scheduling, Steve Gundersen manager at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Shantanu Kar manager in Boston for Frontier Airlines. Skaff was director of purchasing for AirTran Airways while Hall was director of scheduling and route planning for American Eagle. Gundersen was customer service coordinator at Salt Lake City and Kar associate trainer for Continental Airlines at Minneapolis/St. Paul.
Austrian Airlines is attempting to acquire a controlling stake in Lauda Air with which it has been involved in an escalating dispute over the future of the financially troubled carrier. Austrian is Lauda's biggest shareholder with a 36% stake. Top executives are seeking approval from the airline's supervisory board to obtain the 20% stake Lufthansa has in Lauda which would give Austrian 56%. It already has an option under an earlier agreement, which it says it will exercise, to buy 22.5% of the shares in Lauda next July from its founder, Niki Lauda.
Revitalized by today's powerful computer modeling tools, a once-abandoned gas-core nuclear rocket concept is now considered a feasible propulsion candidate for getting astronauts to and from Mars within nine months. An alternate nuclear-powered electric propulsion system could allow NASA to conduct deep-space exploration missions in much less time than would ever be possible using conventional chemical rockets.
Delta Air Lines has taken delivery of its 100th Boeing 767, the sixth -400ER (extended-range) model to be delivered this year. By year-end, Delta, the world's largest 767 operator, will add 55 new Boeing jetliners into the fleet, including 18 767s.
Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways says it is spending nearly $260 million on 30 e-business initiatives because it expects e-business activities to cuts costs by $65 million a year, by 2003. New passenger services include wireless access to flight status reports at airport lounges and gates, content in eight languages on its Web site (www.cathaypacific.com) and a booking engine that allows passengers to book one-way or multi-segment trips, including stopovers.
After successfully shooting down Katyusha rockets with the Tactical High-Energy Laser (Thel), U.S. Army officials are interested in a smaller, mobile version. Lt. Gen. John Costello, head of the Army's Space and Missile Defense Command, is vying for funding to build a prototype system while simultaneously exploring different laser options. A mobile system would be mounted in a trailer and use a smaller deuterium fluoride laser than the existing Thel design. The Army plans eventually to use solid-state lasers on a Humvee.
Jim Jannette has become director of marketing for the Space Foundation of Colorado Springs. He was senior communications and public affairs manager for McDonnell Douglas at the Kennedy Space Center and director of public affairs at Patrick AFB, Fla.
Today there is no pot of gold in space, no ``killer app,'' no next big thing that will make the moneymen of Manhattan and Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong open their purses to finance the 21st century equivalents of the expeditions that sailed from Europe 500 years ago in search of spice, silk and El Dorado. The Cold War is over, and the moneymen of Capitol Hill and the Kremlin see a dwindling political percentage in funding space missions for national prestige and passive aggressive saber-rattling.
Controversial scope-of-work issues that are dividing members of the Air Line Pilots Assn. International have been deferred to a committee for study and a report on the development of new policies and procedures.
And the torrid pace of innovation in manned space projects continues: Within weeks, the world will witness the first pizza delivery in space. That's when a Russian Progress resupply ship will fly to the International Space Station carrying Pizza Hut's newest delicacy--the Insider pizza, with cheese and sauce between two layers of crust.
Helicopter Textron has signed a six-year outsourcing contract with IBM, valued at $70 million, that makes IBM the sole provider of the helicopter maker's desktops, notebooks and servers. Chief Information Officer Sandi Walker said one reason to outsource the entire personal systems operation was the need to standardize its equipment. Bell is to replace 5,500 Dell and Compaq systems at its facilities in Texas and Mirabel, Quebec, with Thinkpad T20/X20s and NetVista A40 systems. It will add 300 IBM Intellistation M Pro graphic workstations for Bell's server environment.
The European Space Agency has begun a pair of programs under which a light launch vehicle and new-generation solid rocket motor will be designed and built, ending a long internal dispute that threatened harmony within ESA.
Groundbreaking for the new Udvar-Hazy annex of the National Air and Space Museum at Dulles International Airport has begun. Completion date for the 710,000-sq.-ft. facility is set for December 2003, the centenary of controlled, powered flight. The center takes its name from Steven F. Udvar-Hazy of International Lease Finance Corp., who donated $60 million last year to the project.
For some clouds, finding the silver lining can be a real challenge. Just ask Orbital Sciences Corp. (OSC), whose signature project--Orbcomm Global LP--in mid-September filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. The satellite-based message and data service needs to find investors willing to infuse the company with capital to cover its operating expenses until reaching cash flow break-even, and Orbcomm's huge debt burden of about $171 million has turned many potential ones away.
With a broadening telecommunications system and budding imaging network, Turkey is manifesting growing space ambitions--not only in satellite operations but in design and production as well.
Beal Aerospace Technologies Inc. last week ceased operations in the wake of NASA plans to subsidize development of human-rated vehicles the company's chief official claims would compete directly with its BA-2C heavy-lift booster system.
French brake systems manufacturer Messier-Bugatti is seeking more business in the U.S. But Boeing prefers mature, service-proven systems while Airbus Industrie favors new technology to act as marketing assets, said Yves Leclere, Messier-Bugatti chairman and CEO. The company has been approved by Boeing as a second-source supplier for the 767-200/300.
