British Airways will reap savings of only $32 million or so from last week's pact with ground services personnel--their wages will be frozen for two years--but the labor agreement sends a strong message to the financial community: The U.K. carrier fully intends to meet its goal of reducing operating expenses by $1.6 billion by 2000 and remain one of the world's most competitive airlines.
Proliferating inventory-management programs at AAR Corp.--an opportunistic response to the aviation industry's desire to save costs through outsourcing--are fueling strong revenue and earnings growth.
THE DEFENSE ADVANCED RESEARCH Projects Agency and the U.S. Army Topographic Engineering Center have tapped Pacific-Sierra Research Corp. to develop the next generation of technology to cope with fusion problems in intelligence systems. The effort will build on teammate Lockheed Martin Astronautics Corp.'s previous work for the Army's All Source Analysis System, which is already deployed.$end 51 FILTER CENTER EXPANSION UNITS TO RDI COMPUTER CORP.
EUROPEAN COMMISSION competition authorities have decided to take the next step and launch an in-depth inquiry into the merger between Boeing and McDonnell Douglas after a preliminary four-week investigation. The inquiry, which could take up to four months, will focus on the merger's impact on the market for commercial aircraft. It said Boeing already has more than 60% of the market for aircraft of more than 100 seats and the merger with its only U.S. rival would leave just a single competitor--Airbus Industrie.
The U.S. General Accounting Office says the recommendations of the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security represent a ``good start'' toward mapping improvements. However, in a recent report the GAO questioned whether the FAA--crippled by an insular culture--is capable of fashioning a first-rate program to implement the recommendations (AW&ST Feb. 17, p. 65).
NASA'S MARS PATHFINDER spacecraft, launched about one month after the space agency's Mars Global Surveyor satellite, has overtaken MGS on Pathfinder's faster and shorter trajectory to the planet. Pathfinder will end its seven-month journey July 4 with a direct dive into the Martian atmosphere in preparation for landing on the surface about four minutes later. MGS will arrive three months later to begin its orbital mission.
AIR FRANCE WAS CONFRONTED by a mounting controversy late last week between top management and cockpit crews. French pilot unions are scheduling strikes for this week and late April, in a desperate effort to halt the company's plan to introduce a lower salary scale for 450 young cockpit crewmembers who will be hired during the next three years. ``The planned strike actions have no tenable justification,'' Air France Chairman/CEO Christian Blanc said.
Renato Claudio Costa Pereira, president of Cernai, the Brazilian international air navigation agency, has been named secretary-general of the International Civil Aviation Organization, effective Aug. 1. Pereira will succeed Philippe Rochat of Switzerland.
SEXTANT AVIONIQUE WILL SUPPLY AVIONICS to South Africa's ATE for a first batch of 12 Rooivalk attack helicopters. Sextant's share in the program includes a laser gyro inertial navigation system, flight deck and helmet-mounted displays. First delivery is scheduled for next year.
British tour operator Flying Colours Leisure Group has started its own airline using all-new Boeing 757-200s. ``If you are going to be a major player [in the British tour industry] you've got to have your own airline,'' according to Errol Cossey, chairman and chief executive of Flying Colours Airlines, the group's in-house airline. By vertically integrating, tour operators ``can double their profits and more'' in the traditionally competitive, low-margin tour business, Cossey said.
Phil Odeen, president of BDM International, has been named chairman of the U.S. National Defense Panel. Other members are: Richard Armitage, former assistant Defense secretary for international security affairs; Richard Hearney, former assistant U.S. Marine Corps commandant; David Jeremiah, former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman; Robert M. Kimmitt, managing director of Lehman Brothers; Andrew Krepinevich, director of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments; James P. McCarthy, former U.S.
THE EXTENT OF RECENT flooding along the Ohio River was dramatically illustrated in two infrared images from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's polar orbiting NOAA-14 satellite. The 1996 image (top), compiled from data from the spacecraft's Advanced Very-High-Resolution Radiometer, shows normal conditions in the river basin that include parts of Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. A 1997 image (bottom) indicates where the river has swollen out of its banks, flooding areas up to 6.2-mi. (10-km.) across.
A large question mark still hangs over what was expected to become one of the Pacific Missile Range Facility's major projects. Will the proposed Mountain Top 2 experiments--which might produce a defense against fast, low-flying cruise missiles and, possibly, a method to detect stealth aircraft--be approved by the Pentagon?
High costs are leading Japan's Science&Technology Agency (STA) away from development of a separate Hope minishuttle after the Hope-X technology demonstrator is launched in 1999. As Japan's National Space Development Agency (NASDA) focuses on commercial activity for the H-2 launcher, attention has shifted away from its role in launching the unmanned Hope minishuttle. But the 22-ton Hope is one of the H-2's prime long-term payloads. Hope is designed to resupply the space station, for which NASDA is contributing a research laboratory.
Boeing has won a landmark, long-term order from Delta Air Lines for 106 firm and 124 option transports valued at more than $16 billion. The purchase also launches Boeing's new 300-seat 767-400 transport and likely will add Delta to its list of 777 customers.
Next month, French independent carriers Air Liberte and TAT European Airlines are planning to integrate their operations further, under a far-reaching code-sharing agreement. In addition, they are tentatively planning to operate under a still-unspecified single name. Both troubled airlines are controlled by British Airways and operate domestic and long-haul routes with a combined 40-aircraft fleet. Last year, they carried 4.6 million passengers.
The National Space Development Agency and the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science of Japan will use a staged orbital descent to the lunar surface in their ambitious unmanned Selene mission that is to succeed the Lunar-A orbiter/lander now in preparation for launch.
Al Zito has become director of the service parts center and Larry Dean has been promoted to Western U.S. sales manager for the Dassault Falcon Jet Corp., Teterboro, N.J. Zito was director of product support for K-C Aviation in Dallas, while Dean was a regional inside sales representative.
The Eurofighter 2000 is back in the hunt in the United Arab Emirates fighter competition, which could be worth up to $5 billion, alongside Lockheed Martin's F-16 and Dassault Aviation's Rafale.
Austrian Airlines is scheduled to acquire a 36% stake in Nikki Lauda's Lauda Air by June 1. According to the tentative agreement concluded earlier this month, Lauda will remain Lauda Air's chief executive officer. Austrian's strategic goal is to establish a group of mid-size carriers, including domestic regional airline Tyrolean Airways, to operate a 77-aircraft fleet. The planned agreement also would lead to a link between Austrian and Lufthansa. The German airline is selling nearly half of its 39.7% share in Lauda to Austrian while retaining the rest.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory is preparing to build two prototype, V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft-portable ``instant hospitals'' for the U.S. military. The Advanced Surgical Suite for Trauma Casualties could save up to 25% of the seriously injured combat soldiers who now die of wounds, according to Col. William Wiesman, director of the medical research center at Fort Detrick, Md. The modular system will weigh less than 2 tons and emphasize lightweight, miniaturized medical equipment.
Rockwell's Collins Avionics&Communications Div. has won a competition to provide Royal Danish Air Force C-130s with its FMS-800 flight management system. The upgrade project includes the integration of GPS aiding of inertial navigation, coupled with the FMS-800, which features 5-in. FDS 255 liquid crystal flat panel displays. Additional equipment includes an APS-85 digital autopilot, dual ADS-85 air data systems and FMR-200X color weather radar. Denmark operates a squadron of three C-130Hs.
A prototype of the Russian-built RD-180 kerosene-liquid oxygen rocket engine Lockheed Martin plans to use for its new Atlas 2AR and Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle boosters was delivered to the company's Astronautics facility near Denver in mid-March.
