British Airways and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines are exploring a merger that could reshape the European airline industry as well as global strategic alliances. BA and KLM officials last week stressed that ongoing discussions still are at a preliminary stage. ``There is no assurance that they will result in any transaction between the parties,'' the officials pointed out in a joint statement. They declined to comment further on the negotiations or the envisioned time frame.
Aviation safety was the big winner when the International Telecommunication Union wrapped up its World Radiocommunication Conference-2000 in Istanbul on June 2. A united effort by the global aviation industry succeeded in blunting Mobile Satellite Services' attempts to share spectrum reserved for aircraft navigation.
Raytheon has won a $26-million order from the U.S. Air Force Electronic Systems Center to produce the first 11 AN/ GPN-30 terminal area radar systems. Deliveries will begin October 2001.
Eurofighter industrial partners are on track to starting final assembly work on the first of five instrumented production aircraft at BAE Systems Warton, England, facility in early September. Eight front fuselage units and three stage-one rear fuselage units are in assembly at BAE Systems, with work on 10 center fuselage units underway at DaimlerChrysler Aerospace's Augsburg, Germany, plant.
Alan Bender, an associate professor of aeronautical science and a Western Region faculty adviser for the Extended Campus of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU), has won the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum's A. Verville Fellowship for 2000-01. During his sabbatical, Bender plans to research and write a book on the development and growth of no-frills airlines.
Boeing's Joint Strike Fighter flying testbed participated in its first live bomb evaluation last week. The testbed--a Boeing 737 modified with the JSF's avionics--received target information, including a synthetic aperture radar map, from another aircraft via data link. The JSF surrogate then further refined the target's identification and location with its own onboard sensors. Finally, the testbed passed the target location to a bomb-carrying F-15 that actually dropped the Joint Direct Attack Munition weapon. Eyewit nesses said the bomb struck the target vehicle.
Embraer has built a Visualization Center that uses a large stereoscopic display and other virtual reality equipment for marketing presentations and design reviews for the new ERJ-170/190 family of regional jets (see photo). The 7.5 X 20-ft. ``WorkWall'' display is made by Fakespace Systems Inc. and has three rear projectors, giving a total resolution of 3,456 X 1,024 pixels to allow complex assemblies to be viewed in detail.
Chewing gum is back on sale at Portland International Airport after a 20-year hiatus. The airport banned gum sales at retail stores in the airport in the late 1970s after the airport became fully carpeted. Gum in the carpets posed a major maintenance headache. The rule was recently reversed because many air travelers chew gum to relieve air pressure changes during flights, the airport said, although it is still tough on the carpets.
After two years of testing, Pratt&Whitney is standardizing its stress and thermal finite element analysis tools on ANSYS software, and it will be used as a primary tool for engineering simulation. P&W found some of the benefits to be reduced thermal analysis computation times, reduced pre- and post-processing times and parallel/distributed processing capability. . . .
House Science Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-Wis.), is surprised to learn just how successful the Mars Polar Lander mission was, after all. Last December, the lander began its descent to the red planet but was never heard from again. That flop was NASA's second in a row at Mars and it cast a pall over its faster-better-cheaper approach (see p. 47).
Julia Pulzone has been appointed senior vice president/chief financial officer, Linda Billings director of communications, Karol (Bo) Bobko vice president-product development for the Houston-based Johnson Engineering Unit and John M. (Mike) Lounge manager of the Enterprise program, all for Washington-based Spacehab Inc. Pulzone was vice president/CFO of Paragren Technologies Inc., Reston, Va., and succeeds Mark A. Kissman, who has resigned.
Geoffrey Buie-Collard, principal engineer of Marathon Power Technologies, Waco, Tex., has received the U.S. Defense Dept. Value Engineering Achievement Award. Buie-Collard and his team developed the battery cell as part of the Vented Nickel Cadmium Battery Improvement Team. The design has led to a 90% reduction in battery maintenance on A-10s.
James C. Stoecker has been named president/CEO of Lufthansa Technik Component Services at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. He was general manager of sales, marketing and business development for North America.
The FAA and the U.K.'s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) this month jointly approved STG Aerospace's emergency floorpath guidance system for long-haul aircraft. The SafTGlo system, formerly known as Pathfinder, is based on specially treated strontium aluminate photoluminescence technology. Following short-term exposure to ambient lighting, the system emits an intense glow. According to the U.K.-based company, a leader in the development of photoluminescent technology for evacuations, the system is nonradioactive and nontoxic.
A U.S. government decision to approve export sales of the new AIM-120C5 configuration of Amraam to allied air forces is ``imminent,'' according to Raytheon executives at ILA 2000. Currently only the ``B'' version is available to foreign customers. The AIM-120C5 has an extended rocket motor, improved warhead and clipped wings and fins to facilitate internal carriage. The 5-in. rocket motor extension is accommodated by a shortened actuator unit.
Jon Beesley, a Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. test pilot since 1986--when the company was General Dynamics--has won the Chuck Yeager Award from the Engineers Council for his work on the F-22, F-16 and F-117 programs. The award honors career dedication to the progress of aerospace technology.
The U.S. Air Force is preparing to drop bombs from an unmanned aerial vehicle--an undertaking that for a long time was considered off-limits because of the 1988 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty. The experiment, slated to be conducted by USAF's UAV battlelab at Eglin AFB, Fla., would involve an RQ-1A Predator UAV and a version of the small smart bomb, a 250-lb. class, GPS-guided munition the Air Force has developed. Initially, Air Force officials plan to limit the test to inert weapons.
Delta Air Lines Chairman and CEO Leo F. Mullin has been appointed chairman of the board of governors of the International Air Transport Assn. for a one-year term. Mullin foresees IATA facing three major issues--industry safety, global aircraft noise standards and ATC system constraints.
Gunnar Eklund, general manager for the Americas of Icelandair, has received the Airline Professional of the Year Award from the Baltimore chapter of The Academy of Travel, Tourism and Hospitality.
Lockheed Martin has agreed to transfer an autoclave and associated equipment to Enaer of Chile, enabling the government-owned aircraft manufacturer to build advanced composite parts for commercial and military aircraft. The transfer, part of a long-term cooperation between the two aircraft builders, is aimed at improving manufacturing efficiencies and technologies at Enaer's facility in Santiago. It also boosts Lockheed Martin's chances of selling its F-16 fighter to Chile.
A U.S./Russian agreement to open a joint warning center in Moscow by mid-2001 for the exchange of information on missile and space launches is good as far as it goes, but shared data should be more detailed, American analysts say. Designed to deal quickly with any ambiguous situations arising from data generated by each other's systems for early warning of launches, the Joint Data Exchange Center (JDEC) is supposed to lead eventually to the maintenance of a unified database for the multilateral exchange of such information.
Air transportation between the U.S. and Portugal is expected to rapidly increase following the completion of an open skies accord that replaces an outdated, restrictive bilateral agreement. The accord is to be implemented in the next few weeks, pending the Portuguese parliament's ratification. Portugal, which is the 10th European Union member state to conclude such an accord with the U.S., firmly supports the European Commission's proposal to negotiate a Transatlantic Common Aviation Area covering free market access and a joint safety policy.
Airbus Industrie, which hopes to deliver the first A318 twinjet in the fourth quarter of 2002, is developing extended-range versions for its smallest commercial transport. The consortium has 127 firm orders and 56 commitments for the 107-117-seat A318, a shortened-fuselage derivative of the 125-seat A319, said Colin Stuart, vice president of marketing. Launch customers include America West, Frontier Airlines, TWA, GATX Flightlease and the International Lease Finance Corp., Air China, Air France, British Airways and Egyptair.
Legend Airlines is scheduled to begin four daily nonstop, round-trip flights from Dallas Love Field to New York LaGuardia on Sept. 6. Legend, which began revenue operations in April, has received 18 slots at LaGuardia as well as slots for two flights daily between Love Field and Chicago O'Hare International Airport. No inaugural date has been set for the Chicago service, according to airline officials. Competitor American Airlines operates 24 flights daily between Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and LaGuardia.
