El Al Israel Airlines has opened its King David Lounges in Terminal 4 at New York JFK International Airport. The 1,400-sq.-ft. facility can accommodate up to 125 passengers and features four LCD plasma flat-screen televisions, showers and a Business Center equipped with four computer terminals and 10 wireless Internet connection ports. Plans call for El Al to partner with Bank Leumi to build three other Business Centers in Paris, London and Israel.
A tight competition means neither Boeing nor Lockheed Martin are releasing much detail on their proposals for the GPS Block III design for the U.S. Air Force’s next-generation global positioning satellite system.
The UAV boom continues. General Atomics snagged a USAF contract for $94.3 million to build 36 Predator MQ-1B missile-firing unmanned aircraft and spares, and install Hellfire missile kits.
The EC director general for energy and transport, Mathias Ruete, says China’s decision to deploy its own satellite navigation system, Compass, will require renegotiation of a cooperation deal on Europe’s Galileo network. Ruete says talks have begun on changes in the initial agreement, which covers the four In-Orbit Validation spacecraft, now under construction, and the Galileo Joint Undertaking (GJU), the development management entity that was disbanded in December 2006.
On Sept. 28, the European Union is scheduled to unveil the “non-confidential” version of its take on the Airbus versus Boeing case. This new development in the long-lasting controversy over state aid, indirect aid, subsidies and refundable loans is not expected to be a milestone, just another development in a never-ending case handled by the World Trade Organization. The EU’s posture probably will further exacerbate the transatlantic dispute, instead of being a step toward progress.
Rigorous testing of the first General Electric Honda HF120 has begun at Honda’s Aircraft Engine Research and Development Center in Japan. The engine, rated at 2,050 lb. thrust, has been chosen to power the HondaJet and Spectrum Aeronautical’s Freedom business jets. Tests were scheduled to begin in June but were delayed three months to allow for the incorporation of changes made in a second development core. Despite the late modifications, GE Honda says it still plans to certify the engine by 2009—one year before the HondaJet and Freedom are scheduled to enter service.
Ben Minicucci has been appointed staff vice president-customer service for airports/operational support for Alaska Airlines. He was staff vice president-maintenance and engineering. Sandy Stelling has been promoted to managing director of product development from director of operations strategy and support.
A surprise order from U.K.-based satellite broadband startup Avanti Communications stands to lift the sails of U.S. private launch provider SpaceX. Avanti said last week it will launch its first spacecraft, Hylas, on SpaceX’s Falcon 9, between March and December 2009 from the U.S. Air Force LC 40 range at Cape Canaveral. This area was made available to SpaceX in April 2007.
NASA will trim some instruments, cap spending on others and change some design elements of its $1.7-billion Mars Science Laboratory Rover to cover a $75-million cost overrun.
The EC says it is talking with a consortium of air traffic control operators, ESSP, about taking over operation of the Egnos GPS augmentation system, which the EC is developing with Eurocontrol and the European Space Agency as a precursor to Galileo. ESSP is already handling initial Egnos operations under contract to ESA. Ruete hopes an agreement can be reached by March, when ESA is expected to clear Egnos for full operations. However, certification for its first paying application, for air traffic control, is expected to drag into 2009.
The X Prize Foundation, which launched the space tourism business a decade ago with the $10-million incentive to achieve sub-orbital flight, is extending its reach to the Moon by pairing with Internet giant Google to offer up to $30 million to the first privately funded team to robotically roam the lunar surface.
The European Union has added Ukrainian Mediterranean Airlines and Iranian carrier Mahan Air to its aviation blacklist. The move bars the carriers from operating within the EU until safety upgrades are implemented.
Despite use of cutting-edge technology and a generous helping hand from volunteers and Internet users, Civil Air Patrol and National Air Guard teams by late last week had not found Steve Fossett. The 63-year-old adventurer was last seen Sept. 3 when he took off in his single-engine Bellanca Super Decathlon from the Flying M. Ranch at Yerington, Nev., in a mountain region east of Reno. Users are combing satellite images of the Nevada region and providing leads to searchers. Several aircraft wreckages were found, but none were Fossett’s.
Robert Isom has been named executive vice president/chief operating officer, Daniel Pon vice president-human resources and Kerry Hester vice president-customer service planning of US Airways. Hester will succeed Anthony V. Mule, who will be retiring. Isom was chief restructuring officer for the General Motors Acceptance Corp. and had been senior vice president-ground operations and airport customer service for Northwest Airlines.
I was amused by two recent letters (AW&ST July 2, pp. 7-8) regarding the undermining of aeronautics in the U.S. The opinions expressed in these fits of pique are typical of what I have come to expect from those who read The Right Stuff a little too often. In response to the first letter, aeronautics have not been “looted.” Groom Lake is nothing but aeronautics. And there is this little entity called the U.S. Air Force that has a lot more money at its disposal than NASA Administrator Michael Griffin probably ever will.
John Heimlich, chief economist at the Air Transport Assn., is forecasting that U.S. passenger and cargo carriers will post a collective profit of $5 billion this year, the industry’s best showing since 1999. The bad news is that oil closed above $80 a barrel for the first time last week, placing new pressure on carriers to cut costs and increase revenues to avoid slipping back into red ink.
BAE Systems will work on a U.S. Navy and Canadian system that can identify and track camouflaged and otherwise concealed objects. A $49-million contract will be used to develop Joint Multi-Mission Electro-Optical System sensors for aircraft. Potential uses are surveillance of crops; and search-and-rescue, mine-detection and interdiction-at-sea missions.
With the planned launch this week of the DigitalGlobe WorldView-1 spacecraft, the time has finally arrived where Defense Dept.-sponsored, commercially available imagery will be comparable to recent highly classified imagery produced by National Reconnaissance Office systems.
Operators of Bombardier Q400s are grounding aircraft and halting air services to inspect the main landing gear in the wake of two gear collapse incidents on SAS Scandinavian Airlines’ passenger aircraft.
Military space reconnaissance capabilities are proliferating. This week, the U.S., Israel, India, China and Brazil could advance their commercial, technological and strategic interests with new milsats set to be launched. Once aloft, the satellites will look into each other’s backyards and try to steal each other’s customers. And they all will be watching Iran.
The 2007 FAA-Air Transport Assn. Non-Destructive Testing Better Way Award, which is given for cooperation to advance inspection or testing of aircraft structure, components or systems, has been presented to the team comprised of Todd Dunford, Neil Goldfine, Darrell Schlicker, Yanko Sheiretov, Vlad Tsukernik, Andrew Washabaugh, Mark Windoloski and Vladimir Zilberstein from Jentek Sensors; Mark Thomas, Rob Sutor, Joe Price and Jack Fichter from Navair; Rick Micklos from the FAA and Craig Neslen of the U.S. Air Force.
Ryanair is taking the offensive against Aer Lingus’s plans to set up a hub in Belfast. Starting Oct. 30, Ryanair will station one Boeing 737-800 permanently at Belfast City Airport, making it the low-fare carrier’s 23rd European base. The move comes only weeks after the Aer Lingus decision to make Belfast its hub—a development that Ryanair, which holds a significant stake in Aer Lingus—has been opposing. Ryanair vows it will beat all fares offered between any of Belfast’s airports to any airport in London.
