LTU has decided to acquire 25 Airbus transports as part of an extensive fleet renewal and reorganization program designed to turn around the troubled German charter airline. The LTU acquisition, for seven A330-200 widebodies and 18 A320-family units, will enable the Dusseldorf-based carrier to go to an all-Airbus fleet, saving on maintenance and pilot training costs, company executives said. An initial order, signed last week, covers six A320s to be delivered by the spring of next year. The other units will be delivered by the end of 2003.
The U.S. Army has awarded $4-million concept exploration contracts to teams led by Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon to work on the Aerial Common Sensor intelligence-gathering aircraft. The Army plans to have ACS replace its de Havilland RC-7 Airborne Reconnaissance Low multi-intelligence platform and Raytheon RC-12 Guardrail signals-intelligence aircraft.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has selected Lockheed Martin Aeronautics to produce components for eight additional F-2 production aircraft, under a fourth annual contract valued at more than $100 million. The three previous pacts covered a total of 28 aircraft.
The British Labour government's plan to privatize air traffic services survived attempts to kill it in the House of Commons last week. But Prime Minister Tony Blair's government was embarrassed by the defection of substantial numbers of its own party members, including a former transport minister, who either opposed the controversial plan or pointedly abstained during votes on a series of amendments.
Jamie S. Gorelick, vice chair of the Federal National Mortgage Assn., has been named to the board of directors of the United Technologies Corp., Hartford, Conn.
The effort to revitalize New York-New Jersey airports is becoming more visible. Last week, a new system of color-coded signage began a test run at LaGuardia Airport's Central Terminal Building and in Terminal A at Newark International Airport. The ``signs and directions'' program is part of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's $15-billion airport redevelopment effort aimed at improving service for the 90 million passengers who use the JFK International, Newark and LaGuardia airports yearly.
DaimlerChrysler Aerospace's MTU Munchen has established a subsidiary in the U.S. to facilitate operations with its North American-based partners including Pratt&Whitney, General Electric and Honeywell. The company, called MTU Aero Engine Design, is located in Rocky Hill, Conn., near Pratt&Whitney in East Hartford.
Large Russian commercial space hardware and Proton rocket elements, some of it involved in the recovery from two failures, is shown at the sprawling Khrunichev plant near Moscow. There is a diversity of hardware at Khrunichev. The 20-ton FGB-2 spacecraft (picture No. 1) is for sale by Khrunichev for possible commercial use on the International Space Station (ISS). Khrunichev believes the module could haul 9 tons of extra supplies to the station and function as a commercial laboratory. The initial FGB module is already part of the ISS in space.
The U.S. Air Force/Lockheed Martin Titan IVB successfully returned to operation for critical geosynchronous-orbit missions May 8 during a $682-million flight that is also propelling major management and quality control upgrades across multiple areas. The three successive Titan IVB mission failures in 1998-99 that sparked these changes caused the loss of $3 billion in hardware, forced sweeping defense and contractor reassessments, prompted a shakeup at Lockheed Martin and spawned a sense that U.S. aerospace is in crisis (AW&ST May 3, 1999, p. 31).
Russian Energomash rocket engines for the competing Atlas III and Sea Launch Zenit boosters, along with their massive test-stand facility, are shown at the company's Khimky production facility near Moscow. The first Lockheed Martin/International Launch Services Atlas III powered by a twin-nozzle RD-180 is scheduled for liftoff from Cape Canaveral on May 15. The flight is an important test of the same engine that will be used in the Atlas V evolved expendable launch vehicle (EELV). An Energomash technician works on an Atlas III engine (photo right).
LMI Aerospace Inc. has signed a four-year, $55-million contract extension to produce skins, wing panels, floor beams and curtain tracks and other components for commercial aircraft for Boeing's Seattle and Wichita, Kan., facilities.
Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle made the first round-trip, non-stop, unescorted, unrefueled flight to Europe by a UAV on May 10. However, success of the trip from Florida to Portugal and back was tempered by an automatic shutdown of the all-weather synthetic aperture radar when the aircraft reached Europe.
Pratt&Whitney has signed a 12-year, $110-million fleet management program agreement with American Eagle and its affiliate, Executive Airlines Inc., for their ATR turboprop aircraft.
The FAA has awarded a contract for up to 105 Mk. 20A Category 1 instrument landing systems to Airsys-ATM, a European joint venture of Thomson-CSF and Siemens. The Mk. 20A ILS is the only commercial ILS approved by the FAA for Category 1, 2 and 3 operations.
RADA Electronics Inc. of Netanya, Israel, is developing an Internet-based line-replaceable unit tester called E-CATS, utilizing its automated Commercial Aviation Test Station (CATS) as its basis. The emphasis is to be on improving the ``maintenance environment'' through an Internet connection providing video, data and voice conferencing capability. First connections for RADA customers to its service centers are to be available by mid-2001. The system is to be accessible beyond RADA's customer base in 2002.
Globalstar's first-quarter results have confirmed some analysts' belief that the hand-held, satellite-based global telephone system would get off to a slow start. But because the numbers were influenced by the start of initial service relatively late in the quarter, observers now believe the second quarter of commercial service could be an important indicator of the system's future success.
The White House has directed the Pentagon to consider new cuts in the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal before Presidents Bill Clinton and Vladimir Putin meet in Moscow this summer. The move is raising concern both in the Defense Dept. and Congress. The White House has asked the Pentagon to examine cutting nuclear forces to 1,500-2,000 warheads from the START II level of 3,500 warheads. The Administration may offer the reductions in return for Moscow's agreeing to change the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty to allow the U.S.
Swissair and Sabena expect to have their new code-sharing partnership with American Airlines up and running this summer. The U.S. tentatively granted the three carriers antitrust immunity for their venture late last month. Code-sharing on flights between Dallas-Fort Worth and Brussels and Zurich will begin Aug. 6. Swissair's parent company, SAirGroup, is increasing its stake in Sabena to 86%, and the two carriers are already beginning to consolidate ticket offices and marketing activities in London and other major European cities.
Delays in Joint Strike Fighter development and a sense in Congress that the program is technically not mature enough to move into its next phase have prompted defense committees to slash JSF funds as much as $170 million.
Boeing plans to ship its X-40A demonstrator to NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center this month for the planned start of unpowered approach and landing tests in August. The unpiloted X-40A--originally developed by Boeing as a precursor to the U.S. Air Force's Space Maneuver Vehicle (SMV) program--is now serving as a pathfinder to evaluate systems for NASA's X-37 vehicle in the approach and landing phase of its mission.
The combination of a rapid descent, a right bank and turn, and a possible 10-kt. tailwind appear to have been among the factors that stalled the right rotor of a U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 and caused its fatal crash from low altitude. The Apr. 8 accident in Arizona is still under investigation, and no determination has been made of its cause. But evidence is accumulating about a series of events that produced the right rotor's loss of lift and subsequently the aircraft's right yaw and nose-first plunge into an airport parking ramp during training exercises.
