Cyclone Aviation Products, a subsidiary of Israel’s Elbit, has won a $30-million contract from Spirit AeroSystems to supply composite blocker doors for engines used on commercial jet transports. The doors are scheduled for delivery beginning this year and will continue through 2011. Company officials say the contract could help drive growth in Elbit’s commercial aircraft parts business.
Copa Airlines of Panama has hired Naverus Inc. of Seattle to help it assess its readiness to fly Required Navigation Performance procedures. Naverus will work with Copa to evaluate RNP operational benefits at two airports. Naverus has been hired by Southwest Airlines to aid in implementing RNP operations.
Allan Cook, CEO of Cobham, has been named president of the Society of British Aerospace Companies. Cook, who was vice president, succeeds Chris Geoghegan.
The Defense Dept. is handling public information on six allegedly missing nuclear-armed cruise missiles about as well as it handled the missiles themselves. Air Force Times broke the story last week that six Advanced Cruise Missiles with nuclear warheads flew on a B-52 from Minot AFB, N.D., to Barksdale AFB, La. The Air Force was unaware the weapons were missing until “routine procedures” after the aircraft landed, and the Pentagon has been less than forthcoming about the snafu. “It’s long-standing policy . . .
Jeppesen aims to qualify as a third-party developer of required navigation performance (RNP) procedures in the U.S. as the company works to develop a broad terminal airspace improvement capability.
As the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency awaits the first full results of a critical Mach 10 test of a potential flow-path design for a global-reach hypersonic cruise vehicle, initial findings indicate positive signs for the inlet design.
A second pre-production Bell Helicopter Textron Model 429 helicopter has joined the company’s flight test program in Mirabel, Quebec. Bill Stromberg, executive director of the program, says the second twin-engine aircraft will help Bell increase the test pace, and that expansion of the 429’s flight envelope is about one month ahead of schedule. The two helicopters will depart Mirabel this month to conduct high-altitude/hot-temperature testing in Colorado and Arizona. In addition, Stromberg says Transport Canada and FAA pilots will begin flying the aircraft.
The world has often awaited word about Steve Fossett. But this time, the anticipated news wasn’t about another record-breaking adventure in the air, sea or the ground. It was a matter of life or death. Hopes of finding Fossett in a 600-sq.-mi. mountainous region of Nevada were fading late last week, when rescuers, in the fourth day of of a massive search, failed to find a sign of the 63-year-old-aviator, balloonist and yachtsman.
There has never been a better chance than now to reform the U.S. export regime, experts are saying, but change is in a race with the 2008 elections and faces European and industrial fatigue. Government officials point to pending U.K. and Australian defense export treaties with the U.S., changing attitudes on Capitol Hill, and 19 active reviews examining export controls. They also say the Bush administration is about to implement a bevy of industry recommendations made earlier this year.
DayJet President/CEO Ed Iacobucci has spent more than five years getting his air taxi venture off the ground. He’s about to find out whether his idea will be the trailblazer for a new era of on-demand air travel—or another hyped financial flop.
Lufthansa Systems has developed an improved aircraft performance monitoring web-based software: the Lido Aircraft Performance Monitoring tool. The software allows airline officials to calculate the performance correction factor for each tail number, which creates opportunities to save fuel, plan maintenance and deploy aircraft more efficiently. The correction factor expresses the margin between the performance of a specific aircraft with the average data for that model. The result is that less fuel can often be carried.
You recently reported how A&D companies are experiencing a shortage of engineers. The industry has an overlooked an underserved source of technical talent: professionals whose career paths have taken them to other disciplines and who wish to return to engineering. Unfortunately, the training system does not offer options to help individuals brush up on unused skills.
As a general aviation flier and regular user of the Washington Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), I am pleased that at last some positive changes are being made to ease the burden on us and the air traffic controllers. However, try as I might, I am unable to reconcile FAA Administrator Marion Blakey’s July 26 speech at Oshkosh, Wis., stating “we’re freeing up 33 major GA airports” with the changes depicted in the proposed new ADIZ structure. By my count, only 17 airports will be affected. Of these, only six are public use, and only four of those are paved.
H.F. Schulte and Steve Jensen both bemoan the replacement of aluminum fuselage structures on the 787, and express their worry about lightning strikes and electrostatic fields. The article they cite mentions that conductive mesh has been incorporated into the composite shell of the fuselage for exactly that purpose.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) says the Homeland Security Dept. shows substantial progress in maritime security and moderate improvement in five areas, one of them aviation security. Aviation security needs improvement in seven of 24 areas, according to the GAO, among them air cargo screening technologies, controlling access to airport secure areas and airport perimeter security. The department takes issue with GAO methodology and disputes 42 of 171 performance assessments.
Frontier Airlines’ August unit revenue increased 9.3% over August a year ago to 9.7 cents per mile, a turnaround trend that is continuing in September, outgoing President Jeff Potter says. On routes where Frontier competes with Southwest Airlines at the Denver hub, unit revenue increased 20%, Potter adds. He projects that Frontier’s cost per available seat-mile excluding that for fuel is on track to fall below 6 cents a mile on an annual basis in fiscal 2009. International service, now 20% of the operation, will increase to 25% in 2008.
The Sikh Coalition is opposed to new passenger screening procedures by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration that could force members of the group to remove their turbans during airport checks. The coalition says the changes were made without consulting any Sikh organizations to determine if safety concerns could be met without compromising religious freedom.
Boeing’s winning proposal to produce the upper stage of NASA’s Ares I crew launch vehicle prevailed because of its “significantly” lower projected cost, NASA says, despite the higher technical-merit rating given rival ATK’s proposal. According to the agency’s source selection document, ATK’s final proposal received a technical rating of “excellent,” whereas Boeing’s received a final rating of “very good.” Both teams were rated excellent in past performance history.
Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) is sticking to ambitious growth plans despite last week’s decision to abandon its takeover bid for Auckland airport in New Zealand. The aerospace investor was forced to withdraw its proposal after communities owning 23% of the airport said they were unwilling to sell, and Air New Zealand started a judicial review of the landing charges which opened an opportunity for DAE to pull out.
Atlanta-based LugTrac will use Radio-Frequency ID technology to track airline passengers’ lost baggage under a membership program. Travelers would pay an annual fee of $15.95 and another $9.95 for two RFID tags, says company founder Tom Keesee. LugTrac would use the tags to read and track the bags throughout the system until they are loaded on the flight and unloaded at destination. Membership in the program gives the passenger unlimited access by cell phone or via the Internet to track their bags.
Aviation Lease and Finance Co. has heard from 18 airlines interested in the aircraft Kuwait Airways is not buying, after the Kuwaiti government nixed the deal; seven Airbus A320s and a dozen Boeing 787s were affected.
OHB has completed the acquisition of Kayser-Threde, a leading German supplier of satellite instruments and payload hardware. The company also said launch of Germany’s third SARLupe radar satellite, for which it is prime contractor, is set for Nov. 1.
Six employees of the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth have received the corporation’s NOVA Award for contributions to its mission and business objectives through service, leadership, teamwork and technical excellence.
Thales and Rosoboronexport have agreed to jointly furnish about 100 Thales Catherine thermal imaging cameras to the Russian army. The cameras—the first such Western equipment to be qualified by the Russian forces—will be installed on Russian T-90 tanks.
United Parcel Service logistician Matt Lawrence will be the first executive loaned from private industry to assist the Federal Emergency Management Agency. His nine-month assignment, which began last week, will be under FEMA’s new Logistics Management Directorate. UPS has provided management expertise and funds to non-profit organizations and government disaster relief offices in the aftermath of natural disasters including the recent Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the earthquake in Pakistan (all in 2005) and the Southeast Asia tsunami (2004).
