Bret Neely (see photo) has been named senior director for sales and marketing for Greenpoint Technologies Inc. , Kirkland, Wash. He was president of Kenco Brokerage Inc. and senior USAF B-1B instructor pilot.
Boeing has opened its first simulator-based mission training site for the F-15E at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho. The site has two high-fidelity, dual-cockpit simulators with a 360-deg. visual system. Lockheed Martin provides the instructor/operator and the electro-optical/infrared imaging system as well as the geographical databases. SAIC is responsible for a brief/debrief station.
The National Aviation Co. of India Ltd. (Nacil), the new holding company for merged Indian and Air India, has taken delivery of its first Boeing 777-300ER, which was bought with financial guarantees from the U.S. Export-Import Bank. Exim financing of two 777-200LRs is also complete. Exim is guaranteeing 85% of the loans, with the remaining coming from commercial banks at rates below the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor).
EADS faces the prospect of delayed payback on all three of its big three aircraft development programs, following a $2-billion overrun on the A400M, unless it can persuade its customers and partners to help share some of the extra cost.
About 500 union workers for United Space Alliance (USA) at Kennedy Space Center are back to work after a strike that lasted almost five months, making them available for launch processing of the Atlantis STS-122 vehicle that was to roll to Pad 39A late last week. During the bitter strike by the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 2061 over stalled contract negotiations, pickets walked at gates leading into KSC and the union daily posted the names of union workers who crossed the picket lines.
Boeing is starting detailed design work on the 747-8 Intercontinental, having completed “firm configuration” based on the same 18-ft. stretch as the freighter. Passing the milestone, the manufacturer also says it has absolutely no plans to offer a shorter version of the stretch to meet the longer range demands of a handful of potential operators such as Emirates.
Regarding Boeing researchers’ belief that they have set a new helicopter endurance record at 12.1 hr. with their Hummingbird unmanned rotorcraft (AW&ST Oct. 22, p. 34): They will have to be a little more specific in their claim—by adding “unrefueled” perhaps—since the military has often exceeded that flight time via air refueling. The ultimate helicopter flight endurance record is probably the nonstop transatlantic crossing by two U.S. Air Force H-3s for the 1967 Paris air show. They logged 30 hr. and 46 min. with nine air refuelings.
Ryanair has filed its threatened complaint with the European Court of First Instance over the European Commission’s failure to crack down on alleged subsidies that rival Air France receives.
Japan’s defense ministry will be the first direct foreign buyer of Goodrich’s Grid-Lock flight control surfaces for the F-15. The U.S. Air Force has retrofitted about 75% of its fleet of 700 F-15s, and Goodrich has sold them through the Defense Dept.’s Foreign Military Sales office to other countries.
Chances may be improving for General Electric and Airbus to reach an agreement on a powerplant offering for the A350XWB twin-widebody, but definite steps to cement a relationship are probably still several months off.
In response to a letter by Curt Woodall, “Make Airlines Pay Real Money” (AW&ST Oct. 15, p. 9), and as a pilot for a legacy carrier, the most obvious but overlooked reality is that the traveler has shouted that the demand for a low price shall trump the demand for good service for the great bulk of passengers and markets.
Thales has completed flight testing to demonstrate its TopOwl helmet-mounted sight/display system in a military transport night-vision environment. The demonstrations were conducted under operational conditions on board a French air force C-160 Transall tactical airlifter, and may generate interest for qualifying the system on the Airbus A400M transport. Originally designed for helicopters, TopOwl features a 100% overlay of a binocular image on a helmet visor.
Robert Wall (Paris), Michael A. Taverna (Paris), Douglas Barrie (London)
Years of growth have put Dubai at the center of a changing landscape for the global air transport industry. But even by the standards of the dynamic region, 2008 is shaping up to be a watershed year when Emirates receives its first Airbus A380.
SkyWest Airlines pilots again have rejected affiliation with the Air Line Pilots Assn., by a 65% majority. Less than 1,000 of the 2,600 eligible pilots voted in the month-long balloting conducted by the National Mediation Board.
According to a new government road map, France’s future will be cleaner and greener. A highly publicized environmental summit—emphatically characterized as a “green New Deal”—drew up plans for decisions, regulations and multiple initiatives expected to make France an environmentally virtuous nation.
Pentagon officials are rejecting the 22-year-old Azerbaijan radar that Russia is offering to detect Iranian missiles and missile tests as part of a European defense shield. They say the installation is fine for early warning but doesn’t have the resolution needed to pick out critical details at long range and guide a defensive missile to a precise intercept. The sensor, classified until a recent visit by U.S. officials, is one of nine of its type built during the Soviet era. Operational since 1985, it has a detection radius of 6,000 km.
Rosalie W. Allen (see photo) has become Huntsville, Ala.-based managing partner/chief operating officer of Janson Communications , Manassas, Va. She was director of nearby NASA Marshall Space Flight Center’s Office of Strategic Analysis and Communications.
Lori Ranson (Washington), Michael A. Taverna (Paris)
French turboprop manufacturer ATR hopes a brand-new Thales avionics suite and other improvements will further boost turboprop sales, and help turn around the weak North American market. The new features will be the hallmarks of the company’s upgraded model line ATR 42/72-600, which will begin replacing current 500 models around 2010. Executives say ATR has been in discussions with a potential customer for the new model since early last October (AW&ST Oct. 8, p. 24).
Europe’s new plan for a European passenger name record policy is running into airline opposition. The Nov. 6 proposals from by the European Commission’s Justice, Liberty and Security Directorate General call for carriers to provide 19 pieces of data on their passengers to government security agencies, approximating what the U.S. demands. But the airlines worry that it’s not a harmonized approach and therefore burdensome to comply with different demands from EU member states.
Arinc has won a contract to install iMUSE common-use check-in technology and the Baglink baggage source message delivery system at Singapore Changi Airport. Annapolis, Md.-based Arinc expects to complete installation of the technology at Changi Terminals 1, 2 and 3 by March 2008.
The U.S. Air Force just last week selected the Raytheon APG-63(v)3 active, electronically scanned array radar (AESA) radar to upgrade its F-15E fleet. Production options could involve 224 Strike Eagles. Raytheon has sold advanced AESA radars to Australia for its new F/A-18F fleet and Singapore for its tandem-seat F-15SPs.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy took advantage of a state visit to Washington to reiterate his country’s desire to consider reintegrating NATO’s military command, while strengthening Europe’s ability to act independently of NATO where necessary, as in Darfur (AW&ST Nov. 5, p. 39). He said Paris is studying how to reinforce its effort in Afghanistan, either through enhanced training or other means, and assured President Bush the effort will be maintained as long as necessary.
Thales Alenia Space says it has transferred the Rascom-1 telecom satellite to Kourou, French Guiana, where it is to be launched with Intelsat/JSAT Horizons-2 in Arianespace’s sixth and final 2007 Ariane 5 mission in December. Intended to provide urban/rural and international telephone service, broadcasting and Internet service across Africa, the 6.4-kw., 3.2-metric-ton satellite carries 12 Ku- and 8 C-band transponders. Owned by RascomStarQAF of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Rascom-1 will be the first indigenous pan-African fixed satellite service spacecraft.
