The French left wing's return to power has enormous implications, some potentially damaging, for the French/European aerospace scene. The government of Prime Minister Lionel Jospin is expected to reorient the nation's defense policy, cancel planned privatizations, oppose deregulation and forge a new path for Air France as well as Paris' airports. The main changes involve a retreat from the right wing's free-trade policy and nearly completed consolidation initiatives.
CINCINNATI-BASED COMAIR, a Delta Connection carrier, placed a firm order for 18 more Canadair Regional Jets valued at $330 million, with deliveries to begin in September. The carrier, which already operates 50 RJs, was considering whether to add to its existing fleet or to acquire the new Embraer EMB-145. Besides the firm order, Comair's agreement with Bombardier Regional Aircraft includes conditional orders for 12 and options for 45 additional aircraft. If exercised, some of the options could be converted to the 70-seat RJ Series 700.
After a late start, the German aerospace/defense industry, led by Daimler-Benz Aerospace (DASA), is starting to make headway in efforts to become more competitive, according to company officials and industry analysts.
Lockheed Martin, the largest U.S. defense contractor, is teaming up with Intersputnik, the old Soviet Bloc's answer to Intelsat, to form a new business venture that will combine Western satellite technology with a valuable portfolio of orbital slots.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has become chairman of Pakistan International Airlines. He has been a member of the National Assembly and chairman of its Standing Committee on Defense. Abbasi succeeds Hasan Raza Pasha, who is now Defense secretary.
No dramatic shifts in business strategy are expected after Lockheed Martin completes the transition to a new executive team in the spring of 1998. But the company does plan to focus more intensively than it has in the past on increasing revenues across the board and less on expanding the size of the enterprise through mergers and acquisitions. ``The corporation is moving into a new era,'' said Marcus C. Bennett, executive vice president and chief financial officer.
Boeing is planning to use appliques instead of paint to coat its new Joint Strike Fighter candidate. The process, jointly developed by Boeing and 3M under a JSF-related technology maturation contract, would greatly reduce paint-related JSF support and in-service costs while nearly eliminating the use and disposal of hazardous materials. The technology should be easily transferable to other military and commercial aircraft, Boeing said.
The international move toward individual in-flight entertainment systems and competition from better-equipped Asian carriers is prompting Qantas to start a three-year, A$550-million upgrade of its products.
Bruce D. Roberts (see photo) has been appointed vice president/Miles 2000 program director and Kenneth E. Zitek director of ground combat training programs for Cubic Defense Systems Inc. of San Diego. Roberts was senior vice president/group manager and Zitek division vice president/general manager, both for the Science Applications International Corp.
Juergen Habermeier has been appointed vice chairman of the Hexcel Corp., Stamford, Conn. He has been president/chief operating officer. John J. Lee, who has been chairman/chief executive officer, will also be president.
Susan M. Coughlin and Carroll Wilson Suggs have been named to the board of trustees of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Fla. Coughlin is president/chief operating officer of the BDM Air Safety Management Co., and Suggs is chairman/president/chief executive officer of Petroleum Helicopters Inc.
Photograph: Aluminum alloy will replace composite materials on engine inlet (foreground) side skins. Northrop Grumman is fabricating an all-composite horizontal stabilizer and redesigning the engine nacelle for the U.S. Air Force's C-17 as part of a government/industry effort to use advanced manufacturing techniques to reduce the aircraft's acquisition cost and weight. David L.
Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways and Dragonair expect to have all of their Airbus A330-300s back in service this week after they were grounded because of lubrication/bearing problems in their Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines (AW&ST June 2, p. 24). Changeouts of the engines' Hispano-Suiza step aside gearboxes on Cathay's 11 A330s and the four flown by Dragonair began early last week.
United Parcel Service inaugurated Boeing 747-100 direct freighter service between Chicago O'Hare and Tokyo Narita airports on June 3, replacing its previous 767-300 Tokyo-Anchorage service. The -100's route will be flown five times weekly, with an intermediate stop in Anchorage. According to UPS, the aircraft will have 29 containers on the upper deck and nine on the lower, and bear the average maximum load, for this route, of 200,000 lb.
LanChile has ordered three more Boeing 767-300ERs in a deal valued at $300 million. The aircraft will be powered by General Electric CF6-80C2 engines with deliveries to start in April. Santiago-based LanChile, formally known as Linea Aerea Nacional de Chile, already operates 10 of the aircraft.
Lt. Gen. Ronald V. Hite (USA, Ret.) has become senior vice president of Cypress International Inc. He was military deputy to the assistant Army secretary for research, development and acquisition.
Gen. Merrill A. (Tony) McPeak (ret.), former U.S. Air Force chief of staff, and Blanche M. Touhill, chancellor of the University of Missouri-St. Louis, have been named to the board of directors of Trans World Airlines. They are succeeding Jewel Lafontant-Mankarious and Lawrence Roos.
Rear Adm. Richard D. Williams, 3rd, has been named vice president-special projects for Parsippany, N.J.-based DRS Technologies Inc.'s Precision Echo subsidiary and Capt. Donald A. Hempson, Jr., (see photo) vice president-programs for DRS Ahead Technology. Both are retired from the U.S. Navy.
THE U.S. GOVERNMENT'S ongoing Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust review will probably delay Raytheon Co.'s proposed mergers with Hughes Aircraft and Texas Instruments to November, according to John C. Weaver, president and chief operating officer of Hughes Aircraft. Weaver said the government's second request for information from Hughes and TI means a 30-60-day delay is probable. ``We can't look at each other's costs and overhead rates and details of any common activity until after that [Hart-Scott-Rodino] is complete,'' he said.
Projected changes in GPS navsat signals to benefit civil users while reducing the prospect that GPS could be used by unfriendly military forces were outlined in a recent joint statement by the Defense and Transportation departments. The policy statement disclosed plans to add navigation signals for civil use on a second GPS frequency, with details slated to be announced by early 1998. Ambiguities in the recent announcement reflect the difficulty of achieving enhanced civil capabilities without compromising the Pentagon's security concerns.
Designers of Boeing's Anti Ballistic Missile Laser (ABL) aircraft have added two flat-panel 10-in. battle management displays to the modified 747-400 freighter's cockpit, for improved flightcrew situational awareness. A special 300-lb., roll-on, roll-off modular console also is being engineered for the aircraft's command and control compartment. Made from composite materials with quick-attach oxygen and wiring, it will allow the in-development ABL to carry eight consoles for training purposes and four for operational missions. About 30 min.
Two major defense organizations are at odds over a proposal to design and orbit a constellation of two dozen or more small satellites that could track mobile targets with radar and relay images to battlefield commanders within seconds. The Surveillance, Targeting and Reconnaissance Satellite (Starlite) constellation of low-Earth orbiting satellites is a proposal from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) aimed at supplying tactical intelligence directly to the theater without relying on the more cumbersome national systems.
THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS HAS CONDUCTED what it believes to be the first flight tests using a dual GPS/Glonass receiver to provide differentially corrected GPS and Glonass data to an experimental flight management system for 4-D guidance. Tests including instrument approaches were conducted in a BAC 1-11 at the Defense Test and Evaluation Organization's Boscombe Down airfield in England. The aircraft was equipped with an ARINC bus, a 20-channel GPS/Glonass receiver developed by the Scottish university, differential uplink using RTCA format and C-band data link.
