The U.K.'s decision to move to larger aircraft carriers and combine vertical/short takeoff and landing aircraft of the Royal Air Force and Navy into a joint force could mean additional purchases of Joint Strike Fighters.
Rockwell Collins and Sextant Avionique are planning major offensives into each other's civil air transport territory in hope of boosting market share and chipping away at the dominant position of their common rival, Honeywell.
Pratt&Whitney and Singapore Airlines' SIA Engineering Co. (SIAEC) have launched a Singapore-based joint venture, Eagle Services Asia, for overhaul and repair of the 94-in. and 100-in. versions of PW4000 engines, the JT9D and CFM56-5. Plans call for third-party customers such as neighboring Malaysia Airlines and carriers from India to Australia to make up 35% of the venture's business by 2000. Pratt&Whitney has a 51% stake in Eagle Services Asia, which is jointly managed but will operate within SIAEC's existing staff and facilities.
Although Eurocopter expresses little desire to acquire Boeing's commercial rotorcraft business, it is interested in reopening talks with Agusta. The Italian helicopter maker concluded a preliminary agreement in April to combine its operations with those of GKN Westland. However, Agusta already is cooperating with the Franco-German firm on the NH-90 frigate/transport helicopter, and its heavy-lift EH-101 would fill a gap at the top of Eurocopter's product line.
Europe will gain few slots in the latest reallocation at Tokyo's Narita airport. Japan's Transport Ministry has divided 202 takeoff/landing slots--that were underutilized by dignitaries--for scheduled flights starting in October (AW&ST July 6, p. 15). The breakdown--86 to Japanese carriers; 74, U.S.; 10, Russia; six, Philippines; four each to China, U.K. and France; and two each to Germany, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. The Japan-U.S. bilateral signed earlier this year called for increased access for U.S. carriers.
Scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center have invented a gel to be applied to insulation tiles like those used on the space shuttle that should improve their insulating qualities 10-100 times.
President Clinton has set forth what security experts say is a landmark strategy to meet the threat of cyber and other unconventional terrorist attacks on the nation's computer systems and basic physical plant, including defense, aviation and telecommunications. The strategy is intended to create a government/industry alliance to fend off computer hackers and other forms of terrorist attack on the nation's economic underpinnings.
Boeing is studying increasing production of its 737 narrow-body transport to as high as 30 aircraft a month to meet strong demand and provide more near-term delivery slots. No decision on the 30-per-month rate has been made, company officials stressed.
The Justice Dept.'s attempt to block the Lockheed Martin/Northrop Grumman merger has triggered no antitrust stampede on Capitol Hill. One reason, insiders say, is that the legal community itself is groping for new definitions of antitrust and competition. In a world in which immense currency exchanges and global transfers of capital are made instantaneously, the meaning of competition has to be considered in an international context, not just a national one, says Norman J. Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute.
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines finalized a buyback plan, valued at nearly $500 million, to complete the Dutch government's withdrawal from the carrier's capital. In addition, KLM concluded an agreement to acquire participation certificates owned by KLM flight personnel's pension fund. However, the Dutch government will retain about 15% of the company's voting rights through preference shares and priority shares.
Against a backdrop of continuing pressure on the French government to relinquish state control of defense and aerospace enterprises, top defense officials from five countries have endorsed a plan to reduce bureaucratic obstacles to industry consolidation within Europe. Defense ministers from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the U.K. signed a letter of intent here last week aimed at removing potential obstacles to rationalization. Special working groups will now be established to identify specific solutions for six key problem areas:
Part of NASA's Great Observatory series, X-ray telescope will focus on objects like black holes, colliding galaxies The $1.4-billion Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF), with 10 times the resolution capability of previous X-ray telescopes, is expected to aid scientists in achieving a better understanding of cataclysmic forces that created and continue to shape the universe.
The first production Bell 427 helicopter made its first flight last month at Mirabel, Quebec. Bell has more than 70 orders for the twin-engine 427, which is scheduled for FAA and Canadian certification late this year. A 427 prototype has accumulated more than 325 hr., reaching an altitude of 17,500 ft. and a top speed of 154 kt.
A fledgling commuter carrier is planning new scheduled services to provide links with the dozens of unaffiliated international airlines operating at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. Trans International Express (TIE) has taken delivery of the first of three 36-seat Short Bros. SD360-300s which will be used to fly to destinations within an hour of JFK, beginning in August. Use of larger aircraft, however, is viewed as likely in the not-too-distant future.
Stratos Global Corp. of Toronto has acquired Teleglobe Canada's mobile satellite communications business, which it had managed under contract since 1996, for C$82 million (U.S. $56 million). Stratos will replace Teleglobe as Canada's signatory to Inmarsat. Stratos officials say they believe the deal represents the first time an Inmarsat signatory status has been purchased on the open market. . . . Matra Marconi won a contract to build Europesat-1B, a Eutelsat telecommunications satellite. Launch is planned for mid-2000.
The U.K. Ministry of Defense is seeking to collaborate with the U.S. on short- and medium-range unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) as part of its effort to enhance army tactical reconnaissance capabilities. The program--dubbed ISTAR for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance--involves a series of studies into future sensors and land and air platforms. As part of the overall ISTAR effort, the U.K. said last week that it will participate in a joint project with the U.S. to develop a stealthy armored reconnaissance vehicle.
Look for large airlines in the U.S. to post outstanding financial performances for the three months ended June 3, due in no small measure to a sharp decline in fuel costs. Carriers are expected to begin reporting their quarterly financials on July 15, starting with AMR Corp., parent company of American Airlines, and ending with Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines on July 23. ``It was a great quarter and about as good as it gets,'' PaineWebber analyst Samuel Buttrick observed.
Still to be finalized in the coming weeks are the details of a cost-sharing arrangement Lockheed Martin and the Pentagon are working out in case of future Thaad failures. A program restructuring also is in the making. LockMart is committing to pay the Pentagon about $15 million for each future test failure. After the last failure, the Pentagon issued a ``cure notice'' forcing the company to come up with a plan to fix problems. Proposed changes include the establishment of five review panels to dissect the program.
Japan's Planet B surveyor is headed for Mars to study the solar wind on behalf of science teams from Japan, the U.S. and Germany, following a successful July 4 launch. The 1,177-lb. spacecraft was put into a 340 X 580,000-km. (210 X 359,600- mi.) staging orbit by a three-stage, solid-propellant M-5 launcher from the Uchinoura launch site at Kagoshima space center in southern Japan. After launch, the mission was renamed Nozomi (hope).
Prisoners of their own vows to investigate absolutely every theory about the TWA Flight 800 crash two years ago, the National Transportation Safety Board is looking further into electromagnetic interference (EMI) as a possible source of the ignition for a center fuel tank blast. The NTSB will pay $45,000 for a Defense Dept. Joint Spectrum Center review of emitters in the vicinity of the crash site off Long Island the evening of July 17, 1996. The EMI work is largely in response to a prolix, article in The New York Review of Books on Apr.
Greece has reacted favorably to a U.S. proposal to create a ``no-fly zone'' over the divided island of Cyprus. Banning military flights over the island is one option being explored to ease tensions between Greece and Turkey, which have escalated as the delivery date draws near for Russian-made SA-10 surface-to-air missiles ordered by the Greek-backed government of Cyprus. Turkey, which supports the Turkish regime in the northern half of the divided island, has threatened a preemptive strike if the missiles are deployed.
