Gulfstream Aerospace's remarkable end-of-year performance in 2011—delivering 35 aircraft, including a dozen G650s, in the fourth quarter—serves to mask the true condition of the business aviation manufacturing industry, which remains unwell. On Feb. 22, when the General Aviation Manufacturers Association reveals the tally of aircraft its members built last year, the reaction is likely to be pained. Again. It's been that way since the market collapsed in late 2008.
Rolls-Royce is a brand that it synonymous with Britain, but from 2012 on, half of the engine-maker's Trent engine production capacity will be in Singapore. The manufacturer has built an assembly plant, a wide-chord hollow titanium fan-blade factory, and a training center and research laboratory at Singapore's Seletar Aerospace Park. It is the company's first such fan-blade factory outside Britain and its first engine assembly plant outside Europe.
Marchelle Franklin has been named deputy aviation director for community development and government relations at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. She was senior assistant to the mayor, deputy chief of staff and co-chief of staff.
Fifteen new F-35 aircraft are grounded owing to the backward loading of parachutes in their Martin Baker ejection seats. Included in the grounding are six aircraft at Edwards AFB, Calif., used in the flight-test program, which is critical to keeping the program moving forward, and nine at Eglin AFB, Fla.
Pat Camacho (see photo) has been appointed VP-integrated command, control communications and intelligence systems for Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Defense Systems Div. in the company's Information Systems Sector. He was director of the critical infrastructure and force protection unit.
Deals for mergers and acquisitions in global aerospace and defense hit a new high in 2011, reaching $43.7 billion, according to a new study by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
A week that included a rare debate on space policy among presidential candidates finished with some notable space hands endorsing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Campaigning along Florida's “Space Coast,” Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich had proffered an admittedly “grandiose” idea of colonizing the Moon, mainly via incentives to private industry. Opponents said the idea is unrealistic and pandering. Gingrich even envisioned statehood for the Moon. “It may be a big idea, but it's not a good idea,” Romney retorted in a debate televised from Jacksonville.
Cathay Pacific and AviancaTaca are bolstering their commitment to Airbus. Cathay Pacific is adding six A350-900s to its backlog that already lists 30 of the Rolls-Royce-powered aircraft ordered in 2010. Those 30 were to be delivered in 2016-19; the additional six are to be handed over in 2016-17. Meanwhile, AviancaTaca has finalized a previous commitment for 33 A320NEOs and 18 classic A320s. Deliveries of the NEOs are due to begin in 2017.
The high profile Airbus has given the A380 magnifies any of its problems in the public eye. The mega-transport's latest setback, cracks in a wing component that must be repaired in much of the fleet worldwide, may end up as little more than a footnote, however. Airbus has put in place changes to its A380 wing assembly process to address the occurrence of component cracks as it becomes apparent that most A380s already built require fixes to deal with the issue.
The British might have once ruled the Indian subcontinent, but the French are taking over its skies. The Indian government late last month named Dassault Aviation's Rafale the lowest-cost bidder against the rival Eurofighter consortium's Typhoon in the long-running and fiercely contested competition to supply at least 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) to the Indian air force (IAF).
EADS board of directors has approved a planned management reshuffle after naming former European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet to the board in a bid to appease the French government. The leadership transition will now unfold as initially planned, with Airbus CEO Tom Enders succeeding retiring EADS CEO Louis Gallois this summer, and Fabrice Bregier moving into the top job at Airbus. Arnaud Lagardere takes over as EADS chairman from Bodo Uebber. The arrangement reflects the complexities of balancing French and Germany interests in the company.
Europe may be mired in financial austerity, but that has not derailed the region's effort to duplicate GPS with the Galileo satellite navigation and timing constellation. Instead, it is changing the economic equation underpinning the program.
AMR Corp. is looking to shed close to 20% of its workforce under a bankruptcy reorganization plan that includes $2 billion in annual savings and a further $1 billion in revenue growth. The company, which owns American Airlines and American Eagle, has only started to reveal details to its unions so specifics are scarce, but it is clear the operator wants to close its widebody maintenance facility in Fort Worth and reduce the size of its Kansas facility, choosing instead to outsource its repair work to reduce operating costs.
Thomas Kreidler has joined General Dynamics C4 Systems, Scottsdale, Ariz., as VP-worldwide product sales. He has held similar positions at Lumeta Corp., Juniper Networks and Sun Microsystems.
South Korea has formally launched its F-X fighter competition, with the goal of having bids in hand on June 18. The program is expected to be for around 60 aircraft. The competition is expected to pit a version of the Boeing F-15, which South Korea has bought in recent procurements, against the Lockheed Martin F-35, recently acquired by Japan.
Michael Mecham (San Francisco), Robert Wall (London), Leithen Francis (Singapore )
Once known as the home of big airplanes, the Asia-Pacific region's growth now spans so many commercial jet market segments that even manufacturers of regional aircraft are beginning to find ways to keep from being squeezed out by the big guys.
Russian space officials will scrap the next Soyuz crew carrier bound for the International Space Station (ISS) after it was damaged in a testing mishap at RSC Energia last month. Mike Suffredini, NASA's ISS program manager, says the descent and propulsion modules developed cracks and leaks after the spacecraft was overpressurized during a test of its flight-worthiness. As a result, the planned April 1 docking of Soyuz TMA-04M/30S to ISS will slip until “the middle of May,” he says.
FAA has taken a major step in its much-delayed en route air traffic control upgrade, beginning operational use of the new system at six more FAA centers across the U.S. The En Route Automation Modernization (ERAM) system achieved initial operating capability at the six centers in December and January. ERAM will be the backbone operating system at all FAA en route centers, and is considered a precursor to NextGen.
Kary Morihara (see photo) has been named director of training and development for Aloha Air Cargo. She was a business program developer for the Sullivan Family of Companies.
European governments have been notorious for their open or hidden subsidies to support national carriers. But tighter controls imposed by the European Commission, coupled with the effects of the sovereign debt crisis, are taking their toll on the weakest airlines—as witnessed by the recent demise of Spanair and the de facto collapse of Malev.
Tarek Ragheb has been appointed senior adviser-international sales for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Savannah, Ga.-based Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. With the new role, Ragheb takes on added responsibilities for the group he has headed for 18 years.
