After waiting years for permission, China Southern Airlines on July 21 inaugurated three-times weekly services from Guangzhou to Los Angeles with a Boeing 777-200IGW powered by General Electric GE90 engines. Los Angeles is China Southern's 27th international destination, and to celebrate, the carrier is offering an extraordinary fare of about $500 when tickets are purchased in Hong Kong dollars. Hong Kong is just 70 mi. from Guangzhou and serves as China's major foreign exchange gateway and source of manufacturing jobs. The 7,800-mi. flight will take 12-14 hr.
GULFSTREAM AEROSPACE CORP. posted a net income for the second quarter of $39.5 million compared with $9.3 million in the same quarter of 1996. Total revenues more than doubled from $244 million in last year's quarter to $523 million. The company has a backlog of 98 aircraft. Officials plan to increase production to 60 aircraft annually by 1999. Gulfstream delivered seven long-range Gulfstream 5s and five Gulfstream 4SPs during the quarter.
Designed to test advanced, low-cost general aviation turbofan engines under initial development by Williams International, the company's V-Jet 2 experimental aircraft has reached altitudes up to 30,000 ft. and speeds of 295 kt. as its flight test envelope is gradually expanded.
Airbus Industrie's restructuring has taken on fresh urgency now that the European Union and Boeing have settled their differences over the McDonnell Douglas merger, averting a potential transatlantic trade war. Last-minute concessions by Boeing addressed all the objections raised by EU competition authorities to the merger of Airbus' two major rivals in the commercial aircraft market. EU Competition Commissioner Karel Van Miert said there was ``broad agreement'' that the remedies sought by the commission ``have largely been supplied.''
Lucas Aerospace is acquiring the engine controls business of Smiths Industries, located in Basingstoke, England. The unit, which employs 150 people, manufactures controls for a wide range of gas turbine engines, including the Eurojet EJ200 and the BR710.
The Pathfinder mission is demonstrating the planning and precision that will be required to carry out communications with the new series of Mars landers, orbiters and rovers scheduled to be launched to the planet during the next decade. The past three weeks of operations on Mars have shown that such operationally intensive lander-rover missions can pose significant communications challenges for the spacecraft project office as well as NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN). Several problems were recorded since the vehicles landed on the Martian surface July 4.
Polish flag carrier Lot in 1998-99 plans to spin off its charter operations and to sell a minority stake to outside interests. The plan is meant to capitalize on strong need for on-demand passenger transport in Poland without drawing on the airline's financial resources, which already are taxed heavily by an ambitious fleet renewal program and a previous arrangement to create a regional airline affiliate. Earlier this month, Lot received two leased Boeing 737-300s to serve the charter market.
Phillip T. LePore, president of Hughes Technical Services Co., Vienna, Va., will also be president of Hughes Training Inc., Arlington, Tex. He succeeds Stuart I. Moore, who has retired.
Russ D. Kinsch has been named chief financial officer and Larry J. Orr vice president-manufacturing of SSE Telecom Inc., Fremont, Calif. Kirsch was vice president/CFO of the Signal Technology Corp., and Orr was vice president-operations of Telco Systems.
Kent E. Hutchinson has become senior vice president of the Kaman Aerospace Corp., Bloomfield, Conn. He was president of the Norden Systems subsidiary of the Northrop Grumman Corp.
L-3 Communications Corp. intends to aggressively pursue the Texas Instruments chip-making operation that Raytheon recently inherited and must sell as part of its settlement with the U.S. Justice Dept.
The Boeing Co. should be commended for having succeeded last week in staving off a European Commission ruling against the company's planned merger with the McDonnell Douglas Corp. and averting what might well have escalated into a full-blown U.S.-European trade war.
Brown&Root Inc., the launch operations and support contractor for the U.S. Air Force at Cape Canaveral, has received ISO 9001 certification for its work at the launch site. According to U.S. Air Force officials, the company is the first contractor at the facility to receive the approval. The certification is sanctioned by the International Organization for Standardization, based in Geneva.
Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems has capitalized on its ``Lean Initiatives'' experience through cost reductions on F-16 production--even as rates dropped dramatically--while also revamping internal business practices to improve company competitiveness on future fighter programs.
The U.S. Air Force this week is conducting initial orbital checkout on the first of a new generation of Lockheed Martin Block 2R Global Positioning System spacecraft launched here July 22 on board a Delta 2 booster. The launch of this first 2R (photo, right), represents a major shift in the GPS program to a new contractor and more advanced spacecraft, compared with the previous Rockwell International Block 2A design (AW&ST Jan. 20, p. 22).
A new Russian Mir cosmonaut crew set for launch to the crippled station Aug. 5 will be almost totally devoted to repairing and refurbishing the station following removal of the current crew from further repair options. Russian Mir station managers have ordered the current crew of Vasily Tsibliev, Alexander Lazutkin and Michael Foale to, in effect, stand down and regroup amid concerns that stress and fatigue have increased the risks to their safety and the conduct of all but routine operations.
Dassault Falcon Jet Corp. has begun initial deliveries of the upgraded Falcon 50EX aircraft. The three-engine business jet features more powerful AlliedSignal Engines TFE-731-40 powerplants and advanced avionics. Cruise performance has improved to Mach 0.80 from Mach 0.75, and the aircraft has a higher climb rate and flies 400 naut. mi. farther than the previous Falcon 50. Two aircraft were delivered this month, and another 14 are undergoing completion at the company's center in Little Rock, or are in final assembly at Dassault's facilities in Merignac, France.
Flight tests of a proposed Mission Computer Upgrade (MCU) for the Northrop Grumman E-2C Hawkeye 2000 airborne early warning/command and control aircraft have been completed, and Defense Dept. officials expect to decide late this month or early in August whether to approve the MCU for low-rate initial production. Technical and operational evaluations are scheduled for 1999. The upgraded computer is smaller, lighter and more powerful than its predecessor, according to Northrop Grumman.
Bernie DeSena has been appointed vice president-field services for Chicago O'Hare and Jane G. Allen vice president-flight service for American Airlines. DeSena held the same position in Los Angeles, while Allen has been vice president-employee relations.
Turkish Airlines is scheduled to take delivery in August of its fifth Airbus Industrie A340-300. Airline officials said the $123.5-million purchase was financed by a consortium comprised of the Turkish government, Credit Apricole Indosuez and Banque Nationale de Paris. The carrier operates its A340s on daily nonstop flights to New York, and flights several times a week to Tokyo, Osaka, Bangkok and Chicago.
