To say the least, the U.S. Air Force’s quest for a next-generation tanker has evolved into an unprecedented thriller. The third season of this long-running show, now playing in the U.S. and throughout Europe, is even more fascinating and convoluted than the previous chapters and continues to strain transatlantic relations.
Space shuttle astronauts Guion Bluford, Jr., Kenneth Bowersox, Frank Culbertson, Jr., and Kathryn Thornton are scheduled to be inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame at the Kennedy Space Center on June 5. The addition of Bluford, the first African-American to fly in space; Bowersox, pilot of the first maintenance mission to restore the crippled Hubble Space Telescope; Culbertson, commander of the first shuttle night landing at KSC; and Thornton, a mission specialist during the only three-person spacewalk, will bring the number of enshrined space explorers to 77.
This year’s Top-Performing Companies’ results probably come as a relief to those who were expecting the worst after last year’s economic and financial downturns (see p. 44). It turns out that many aerospace and defense (A&D) players did at least as well as in the prior year and have experienced limited damage. This is not to say that the industry is out of the woods. On the contrary, A&D companies may be just entering hard times—and that is particularly true for European players.
Daher plans to introduce a multimission version of the Socata TBM 850 by the end of the year as part of a plan to reinforce the company’s position as a small aircraft systems integrator.
June 10—National Business Aviation Association Regional Forum. Jet Aviation, Teterboro, N.J. Call +1 (202) 783-9000 or see www.nbaa.org/events June 13—Royal Air Force’s Cosford (U.K.) Air Show. See www.cosfordairshow.co.uk June 14-15—Technology Training Corp.’s Defense Export Controls Conference. Hilton Crystal City, Arlington, Va. +1 (310) 563-1223, fax +1 (310) 563-1220 or see www.ttcus.com
Vietnam Airlines will formally join SkyTeam on June 10 as the alliance’s first Southeast Asian member. Earlier this month, the carrier and Air France agreed that AF flights between Bangkok and Paris would carry the Vietnam code. Delta Air Lines has U.S. Transportation Department approval to carry the Vietnam code. Vietnam’s entry into SkyTeam, which has been expected, means the alliance will have two members in the area. The Guangzhou base of SkyTeam partner China Southern Airlines is 800 km. (500 mi.) from Hanoi.
The NTSB, identifying a critical safety issue involving General Electric CF6-45/50 turbofan engines, on May 27 issued four urgent safety recommendations to the FAA. The safety board is asking the FAA to mandate that operators of aircraft equipped with the engine model immediately perform blade borescope inspections of the high-pressure turbine rotor at specific intervals until the current low-pressure turbine LPT S3 disk is redesigned and can be replaced. The replacement disk would have to withstand unbalance vibration forces from the high-pressure rotor.
Asia-Pacific airlines carried more people and cargo in April than a year earlier despite the week-long flight disruptions caused by the Icelandic volcanic eruption. International passenger numbers hit 15.2 million last month, up 11.7%, while traffic measured in revenue-passenger kilometers grew by 8.9%. Total seat capacity increased by a modest 1.2%, which helped push load factor up 5.6 percentage points to 78.4%.
Ellen Beatty (see photos) has been promoted to associate chief financial officer/assistant treasurer from assistant CFO of The Aerospace Corp. , El Segundo, Calif. Jeffrey Crawford has become principal engineer for special programs in the Mission Enabling Operations Div. of the National Systems Group. He was a principal engineer supporting several classified activities.
Scott G. Campbell has been appointed senior vice president/general manager of Kellstrom Defense Aerospace Inc. , Miramar, Fla. He was vice president-sales, purchasing and repairs.
The pending merger with Iberia and anticipated antitrust immunity with alliance partners are likely to trigger changes in British Airways’ long-term business plan.
I was glad to note in “Risk Assessment“ (AW&ST April 26, p. 28) that someone is keeping track of the risk the U.S. will incur by making the defense cuts proposed by this administration. As the article concisely explained, we have officially moved from a low to moderate “acceptable risk” to a moderate one in being able to defend U.S. controlled airspace. This change to our security is what explains how this drawdown is being rationalized.
The U.S. Army is undertaking a “comprehensive” review of its acquisition processes and people, and will include recently mandated congressional reforms and lessons-learned from eight years of counterinsurgency wars. The Army review is taking place in parallel with a Pentagon-led examination of acquisition issues, and will draw upon the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review and the Gansler Commission Report on expeditionary contracting. The Army assessment will be conducted by an “independent” panel co-chaired by Gil Decker, a former Army acquisition executive, and Gen.
The FAA has awarded another round of NextGen contracts worth more than $4.3 billion over 10 years, aimed at demonstrating concepts such as four-dimensional air traffic control and advanced weather systems. If options are exercised, Boeing will receive $1.7 billion, General Dynamics $1.2 billion and ITT $1.4 billion. The base contracts are for five years, with two options to extend. Each company will receive specific task orders. These agreements are part of the System Engineering 2020 (SE2020) effort, which has a spending ceiling of $7 billion.
With the completion of the STS-132 mission of Atlantis, the shutdown of the space shuttle program spreads from manufacturing facilities to the vehicle processing hub here.
The FAA last week proposed a rule generally prohibiting U.S. civil flight operations below 16,000 ft. in Afghanistan, unless authorized by the agency. Affected by the rule would be U.S. air carriers, holders of the U.S. airman certificate and operators of U.S.-registered aircraft, with exceptions. According to the FAA, increased insurgent activity prompted the proposed rulemaking. The agency notes there have been several events of aircraft being hit by small-arms fire, although no U.S. aircraft has been targeted.
In a year when fears of a financial meltdown gripped the world, the global aerospace and defense (A&D) industry held its own. Suppliers fretted about production cuts at Boeing and Airbus that never came to be; instead, the two companies delivered a record 979 aircraft. Concerns that a new Democratic president would slash U.S. defense spending proved overblown as Barack Obama increased the Pentagon’s budget and expanded the U.S. military’s presence in Afghanistan.
Japan’s Akatsuki Venus atmospheric probe is en route to its target planet following separation from its H-IIA F17 rocket, captured 27 min. after launch May 21 local time from the Tanegashima Space Center. Riding piggyback was the Ikaros solar-sail experiment. Controllers at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have since checked out both spacecraft and found them in good shape for their missions. Akatsuki, also known as Planet-C and the Venus Climate Orbiter, is scheduled to reach Venus in December for the start of a nominal two-year orbital mission.
This year’s rankings of publicly traded aerospace and defense contractors are the result of a composite scoring of four equally weighted performance categories that place significant emphasis on operating excellence. Category weightings are based on results of two surveys conducted by Aviation Week with senior management of companies generating annual revenues greater than $1 billion.
