In anticipation of the Kyoto Protocol's tight environmental constraints, the Assn. of European Airlines (AEA) and European Assn. of Aerospace Industries (AECMA) will join forces to help gradually reduce CO2 emissions generated by commercial transports. AEA and AECMA recently completed a ``joint statement on the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions for aviation,'' which has been submitted to Loyola de Palacio, the European Commission's vice president and transport commissioner.
Northwest Airlines plans to apologize to passengers of Flight 1020 and issue them free tickets after they were delayed for over three hours while on board a plane outbound from Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport to Washington-Dulles International Airport on Dec. 26. According to Northwest, the flight was eventually canceled due to poor weather. The airline is also surveying passengers to see how they were treated.
European airlines were restoring operations late last week after being badly hit by the fierce storms that ravaged France and neighboring countries. Airports were closed when wind gusts of more than 100 mph. hit northern Europe. Passenger terminals at Paris-Orly and Basle airports were damaged and had to be closed. Nine Crossair aircraft were damaged by wind-driven cargo containers and equipment at Zurich, Stuttgart and Copenhagen.
China's air passenger market is estimated to grow at an 8% year-over-year basis during the next decade, according to Liu Jianfeng, head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China. During this period, China plans to transition its air traffic control system from a procedures-based operation to a radar-based system. As the world's most populous country moves to a market-based economy, improved living standards will increase consumer demand for air travel, Liu said.
Matcom has won a three-year contract worth up to $5.5 million to support military equipment testing at the Naval Air Warfare Weapons Center at China Lake, Calif.
Korean Air has announced plans to replace 15-18 of its aging aircraft, mainly Boeing 747-200/300s, in the wake of its third hull loss of 1999 and 13th since 1990. Spokesman Kee Seung-yon said the South Korean carrier will purchase or lease 17 aircraft from Boeing and Airbus this year and order an additional 10 by 2001. The 2000 orders announced Dec. 27 include three Boeing 777s, eight 737-800s, two 747-400 freighters and four Airbus A330s.
Anthony Siregar (see photo) has been named vice president-marketing and sales for DY 4 Systems, Kanata, Ontario. He was vice president-international new business development for King Products Inc.
Malaysia Airlines said a ``maintenance oversight'' caused it to make an emergency landing of a Rolls-Royce Trent 800-powered 777-200 after both engines suffered low oil pressure after takeoff from Kuala Lumpur for a flight to Auckland. The Dec. 4 incident ended without either engine being shutdown as the crew returned to Kuala Lumpur. But both were replaced as a precaution. A MAS official said the engines were losing oil pressure from a breather tube that had been disconnected during maintenance. A breakdown in communications during a shift change was blamed.
Kellstrom Industries Inc.'s Solair Div., Euralair Industries and Israel Aircraft Industries have established a strategic alliance to provide complete support to all Boeing 737 operators in Europe. The partners will offer airframe maintenance, including C and D checks; components maintenance, including auxiliary power unit, landing gear wheels and brakes; and supply chain management, including material and logistics management, purchasing services, inventory lease, exchange and loan, warehousing and warranty administration.
Evan Smith has become senior vice president-strategic planning of Spring Technologies Inc., Falls Church, Va. He was director of the intellectual property and patent practices at the law firm Greenberg Traurig.
Thierry Antinori has been named excecutive vice president-sales of Lufthansa German Airlines. He succeeds Stefan Pichler, who has been appointed chairman of C&N Touristic.
Recovery operations for EgyptAir Flight 990 have largely concluded with 70% of the Boeing 767 having been raised and brought to a hangar at Quonset Point, R.I. Wreckage includes large portions of the wing, tail, fuselage and engine, said NTSB Chairman Jim Hall. Furthermore, a U.S. Navy research submarine surveyed the debris field with sonar and video equipment. It gathered footage on the only remaining submerged engine.
U.S. and German authorities have signed an agreement to transfer the Rhein-Main air base at Frankfurt to civilian use by 2005. The facility, which was a major staging area for U.S. military aircraft, will become part of the Frankfurt airport. The cost of the handover will be about $36 million. ASIA-PACIFI
A felony charge of possession of explosives was brought against a mechanic at American Airlines' maintenance base at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on Dec. 28. When airport police stopped Jere Wayne Haney, 42, for a traffic violation, they noticed dozens of single-serving liquor bottles in his car. That led to a search of his apartment in Grapevine, Tex., in which police said they found 50 lb. of ammonium nitrate, assault rifles and ammunition, along with white supremacist literature and a book on bomb making.
Confidence in Fairchild Aerospace's ambitions in the regional aircraft market is expected to be significantly strengthened by a long-waited recapitalization plan. Clayton, Dubilier&Rice (CDR), a U.S. equity investor, and Allianz Capital Partners (ACP), a subsidiary of the German Allianz insurance group, have formed an investment fund to acquire the U.S./German aircraft manufacturer for $1.2 billion. The transaction is to be completed in May.
In a wake-up call for U.S. export watchdogs, a contract to build the bus and antenna deployment platform for Canada's Radarsat 2 remote sensing satellite has gone to a European firm, Alenia Spazio. The bus will be Alenia's new Prima model being developed for Italian Space Agency ASI. It is the first export application for Prima, which is targeted at Italy's planned Skymed-Cosmo dual-use radar/optical satellite constellation (AW&ST Apr. 5, 1999, p. 66).
DirecTV has ordered a Hughes HS 601HP satellite, the first in the DirecTV fleet to use highly focused spot beam technology for expansion of local programming in U.S. markets. DirecTV-4S, set for launch in the fourth quarter of 2001, will be the fifth satellite DirecTV has ordered from its sister company, Hughes Space and Communications. The spot beam technology will enable the company to add more local channels in current and planned markets and extend local channel services to smaller American cities.
In-orbit instrument checks are proceeding on the $1.3-billion Terra satellite, NASA's flagship in a 15-year effort to build a global climatic model of Earth. With a separation weight of 10,506 lb., Terra was the largest payload ever flown by an Atlas/Centaur and the first launched from the Western Test Range here using that first- and second-stage combination.
Chris Cool has been appointed vice president-manufacturing, quality and lean of Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems and Aerostructures (ISA) of Dallas. He succeeds Vinny DeStefano, who has retired. Cool was vice president-manufacturing operations and lean implementation for the aerostructures segment of ISA.
With the third servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope completed last week, NASA officials are hoping the orbiting observatory will operate for another decade. But plans are afoot to retrieve Hubble with the space shuttle and return it to Earth once its useful life is over. The idea is to display the observatory in the National Air&Space Museum in Washington. Meanwhile, NASA and astronomers are narrowing design and science instrument options for the Next Generation Telescope, the Hubble replacement envisioned for launch about 2008.
Orbital Sciences Corp.'s stock price shot up 21% on Dec. 28 after the company announced it had been awarded a ``five-year satellite production contract by NASA . . . valued at up to $1.5 billion.'' Nice, huh? Not quite. NASA headquarters had indeed announced--11 days earlier--that it intended to parcel out $1.5 billion in bus contracts over the next five years for 14 space science, Earth science and technology spacecraft.
The U.S. relies on the Air Force, and the Air Force has never been the decisive factor in the history of war,'' Saddam Hussein declared before his devastating pounding at the hands of coalition air forces in Desert Storm. Slobodan Milosevic learned from that mistake and responded by building a credible air defense system. But, in doing so, he neglected the space side of the aerospace equation.
Carey A. Smith, a former president/ CEO of Lockheed Martin Canada, has been appointed vice president-international business development of Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics&Surveillance Systems, Moorestown, N.J.
Even though the Pentagon has decided to put the brakes on industrial consolidation, the Defense Science Board is recommending the Defense Dept. embrace the trend. ``To be sure, there are risks to [the Defense Dept.] in relying heavily on a fully globalized commercial sector and on a transnational defense industrial base,'' the Pentagon's independent experts are saying. ``On balance, however, the Task Force found these risks to be manageable.'' The Pentagon has been slow in developing a policy to allow transatlantic mergers while preserving U.S. secrets.
