Defense Secretary Robert Gates didn’t want to scrap the revised Air Force replacement tanker competition but says issuing new ground rules in the waning days of the Bush administration would have raised eyebrows. “Part of my concern was, frankly, I didn’t like the smell of approving a potentially $100-billion contract or opportunity in the last day or two of being on the job,” Gates tells the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The ongoing consolidation of network carriers in the U.S. and Europe could provide growth opportunities for low-fare airlines even though some players are likely to disappear, contend executives from several low-cost carriers. “We think there will be a gravitation toward Southwest Airlines in these conditions,” says Executive Chairman Herb Kelleher. Rivals are reducing capacity by 15-17% on routes where they compete with Southwest, he says, adding that “it may be a smaller market, but we’ll get a bigger piece of it.”
While the recent grounding of DayJet disappointed those who hoped the per-seat, on-demand carrier harkened a new era in commercial aviation, neither Eclipse Aviation, its aircraft supplier, nor the air taxi industry as a whole seemed to regard the failure as a significant setback, but rather as a promising venture that was undercapitalized. And with 2,500 DayJet customers in the Southeast U.S. now without a ride, at least three companies were lined up to fill the vacuum.
Several peace-aligned organizations are trying to build public support for Senate legislation that would effectively ban the U.S. from using and exporting cluster bombs. The activists want the U.S. government to agree to a treaty worked out last spring among 110 other nations that effectively bans cluster munitions. The Defense Dept. under Secretary Robert Gates has crafted a new cluster munitions policy that eliminates extra ordnance and tries to sharpen guidelines over their use.
Embraer has named Flybe Aviation Services, an Exeter, England-based member of its parts pool program, as an authorized maintenance and support center of its E-Jet and ERJ 145 regional jet families. Flybe’s low-cost airline operates the Embraer 195. The move is part of a plan to expand the Brazilian airframer’s European aftermarket support network.
Iberia has concluded agreements to expand its engine and component repair and overhaul business and enter the corporate jet market. One will see SR Technics repair CFM56-5C engines on Iberia A340-300s, while Iberia will handle repairs for various SR Technics components. A second, preliminary deal saw Iberia become the preferred repair-and-overhaul provider for CFM56-5As in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
A Northrop Grumman-led team completed a static firing of the second-stage rocket motor for the Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI). Missile Defense Agency Director USAF Lt. Gen. Henry (Trey) Obering says the test was a success. The first KEI flight is set for next year. With KEI, both stages are to burn for about 30 sec. each to achieve a high-speed flight. The interceptor is designed to quickly deliver a kill vehicle to destroy missiles as they boost or travel through space toward their targets. This was the third of five second-stage booster motor tests.
In the flurry of activity during the final days before recessing, Congress delayed the vexed FAA reauthorization issue for another six months. FAA funding was extended through Mar. 6, 2009, as part of a wider Continuing Resolution that keeps spending at current levels. A separate bill temporarily renews the agency’s operating authority. Acting FAA Administrator Robert Sturgell urged a 12-month extension, but lawmakers want to get a full reauthorization bill finished well before that.
The Defense Dept. has started buying about $5 million worth of commercial synthetic aperature radar imagery from the Canadian Space Agency-MacDonald Dettwiler partnership, the first of many potential agreements to come, says Gary Payton, Air Force deputy undersecretary for space. Similar purchases from systems operated by Germany, Israel and Italy are being considered as the Pentagon weighs options for fielding a Space Radar system in 2012. The Air Force is assembling requirements from combatant commanders in Europe, the Pacific and Middle East.
A week of heavy lobbying by the Italian government has caused Alitalia unions to reconsider and accept job cuts and work-rule changes demanded by a group of investors looking to salvage parts of the Italian flag carrier. The investment group CAI (Compagnia Aerea Italiana) also notified the Italian bankruptcy administrator for Alitalia that it would resume talks on a takeover that were suspended last year. The new deadline for completing a deal is Oct. 15. The agreement came at the last minute with Alitalia at risk of losing its air operators certificate.
NASA and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory are looking for university and industry partners to establish three national hypersonic science centers. The jointly funded program will support university-level basic science or engineering research to improve the understanding of flight at hypersonic speed, defined as Mach 5 or faster. NASA and AFRL plan to set aside up to $30 million over five years to fund the centers, meaning a maximum grant of about $2 million a year.
British industry is concerned that the U.K. government risks repeating policy errors at an upcoming space summit, missteps that previously stymied London’s involvement in some European space programs. The U.K. is, belatedly, expected to increase funding for the next phase of the European Space Agency’s Global Monitoring for Environment and Security program, now known as Copernicus. While vocally supportive of GMES/Copernicus, the U.K.’s initial allocation was seen as too low by industry.
On Nov. 19, 1969, Apollo 12 astronaut Pete Conrad took a moonwalk to inspect the robotic Surveyor 3 probe. Now, 50 years after its founding, NASA is struggling to regain the luster it attained with the Moon missions. The Bush administration wants to establish an outpost on the Moon, but NASA lacks funding even for new robotic landers to survey potential sites. And it isn’t clear the next administration will support a return to the Moon at all.
Among the aerospace institutions celebrating milestone anniversaries this year—we have observed the birthdays of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Federal Aviation Administration in recent issues—the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is in the most precarious position, made more so by events of the past few weeks.
The first “A” in NASA has been through a rough patch in recent years, but there is renewed optimism among the agency’s aeronautics researchers. Since slumping to an all-time low earlier this decade, NASA’s aeronautics program has been restructured and revitalized.
Middle East low-fare carriers believe they’ll avoid the economic turmoil shaking up the European and U.S. airline markets, but they are confronted by their own barriers to growth. “Thank God we are in the Middle East,” quips Marwan Boodai, chief executive officer of Kuwait-based Jazeera Airways, noting that the regional economies are strong and that financing is ample, in contrast to other regions. “We are capitalizing on huge growth.”
It’s an axiom of the airline industry that the reliability of financial forecasts decreases as oil price volatility increases. So with oil prices fluctuating wildly recently, it’s never been less clear how the U.S. airline industry will fare over the next several months. Healthy profits in 2009? Losses? Multiple bankruptcies? It’s anyone’s guess at the moment, and all of these outcomes have been forecast at different times over the past four months.
Officials at Serbian airline JAT Airways insist the carrier is not headed for bankruptcy, but they acknowledge that changes will have to be made in the next two months, including a 5-15% reduction in wages, cutting of catering services and taking aircraft out of service. In addition, the airline is trying to trim other operational expenses and is discussing partnerships and code-share agreements with 10 airlines. JAT, however, still plans to grow and next summer will seek to increase capacity of its charter business by 15%.
French armaments agency DGA has selected Thales to upgrade the Elint system on France’s two C-160G Gabriel signals intelligence aircraft. The upgrade, to be introduced into service in 2011, is intended to allow the aircraft to meet evolving naval and air radar threats. The Gabriel also carries a Thales-provided Comint payload.
The pilot profession has lost an enormous amount of compensation as well as dignity since 9/11. The airline leaders have used the supply/demand argument—and the experience level—to cut wages to the lowest denominator. We have pilots with less than six months’ cockpit experience flying America’s unsuspecting passengers under the disguise of major airlines’ banners. When is this issue going to be addressed?
M7 Aerospace is teaming with San Antonio Aircraft Support (SAAS) to offer a major modification service dedicated to providing custom interiors and avionics work for business jets, regional airline aircraft and turbine helicopters. Plans call for SAAS to design and fabricate interiors; M7 Aerospace is to perform the installations. In addition, M7 will offer avionics systems upgrades replacing analog systems with glass panel equipment. The team will be headquartered in M7’s 426,000-sq.-ft.
The Pentagon is conducting an expedited recertification process for the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite system, after it reported a cost overrun to Congress earlier this year. The overrun was largely due to the addition of a fourth satellite to the purchase after a break in production. Recertification for AEHF should be finished in mid-October, says Gary Payton, deputy Air Force undersecretary for space. Launch of AEHF 1 is now set for no later than November 2009.
NASA is pushing ahead with early procurement actions on the heavy-lift rocket it needs to go to the Moon and a lander for crew and cargo once it gets there, but a decision to keep flying the space shuttle beyond 2010 could stall those plans.
The British Defense Ministry is considering funding an electro-optical reconnaissance satellite capability, with an initial operation as early as 2010. The prospect is part of Planning Round 09, which would see the ministry fund the deployment of a constellation of four electro-optical satellites to provide full-color imagery at a resolution of 1.2 meters (4 ft.). Submetric resolution would be provided with the last two of the four-satellite constellation.
