The relentlessly rising value of the yuan is boosting Chinese airline profits, by devaluing their dollar-denominated debt. Air says its first-half 2007 profit will be 20 times greater than that of a year earlier, partly due to the yuan’s appreciation, which will also help struggling China Eastern to post a profit for its first half instead of a loss. Air China meanwhile hopes to lift its share of traffic at Beijing Capital International Airport to 50% from its present 44% once new facilities are available to it.
U.S. low-cost carriers JetBlue and AirTran are predicting far more favorable conditions in the second half of the year after weak pricing eroded average fares in the second quarter. Still, both carriers posted impressive profits despite their sluggish fares.
The NTSB cited flight crewmember’s failure to verify the airplane was on the assigned runway before takeoff as the probable cause in the crash of a Comair Bombardier CRJ-100 at Blue Grass Airport, Lexington, Ky., on Aug. 27, 2006. All 47 passengers were killed, as well as two of the three crewmembers. According to the Board, mitigating factors included about 40 sec. of non-pertinent conversation between the captain and first officer during taxi, construction work on taxiways leading to Runway 22 and only one air traffic controller on duty in the tower.
Goodrich has been tapped by Singapore Airlines to provide asset management services, which cover component and system maintenance and technical support for the airline’s fleet of 19 Airbus A380s. The long-term customized agreement marks the first selection of Goodrich’s team for A380 support.
Southwest Airlines is about 60% through its second stock repurchase of the year and may replenish cash by borrowing. The carrier finished the first buyback in May—20.5 million shares for about $300 million—and the airline says in a Securities and Exchange Commission report that as of July 17 it had added 20 million shares for $295 million as part of an additional repurchase of as much as $500 million.
The U.S. Defense Dept. and the British Defense Ministry say they have made a major advance for improved interoperability by demonstrating that their newest tactical communications technology—the U.K.’s Bowman advanced digital radio and the U.S. Joint Tactical Radio System—can share voice and data. The experiment was conducted at ITT’s Clifton, N.J., facility and used a software waveform that is being tested for both systems. The demonstration was repeated using JTRS crypto equipment.
Many of the people working on Deepwater at the U.S. Coast Guard Engineering Center in Maryland—particularly the naval architect engineering specialists—have risked or damaged their careers to bring to light the unseaworthy vessels being designed and built by the integrators (AW&ST July 2, p. 66). In the aftermath of the Deepwater meltdown, what has been their reward for speaking out? Nothing. There has been no additional staff to help them perform an almost impossible job.
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope and the Keck telescope in Hawaii to study debris disks around distant stars believe a gigantic, lopsided, needle-shaped disk around a star designated HD 15115 holds clues to the formation of our Solar System. The Hubble imagery (above) also suggests that the feature could be analogous to the Kuiper Belt, the region of rock and ice fragments extending beyond the orbit of Neptune.
NASA’s hopes that private enterprise can make up a “substantial part” of the projected logistics shortfall to the International Space Station after the space shuttle retires in 2010 are optimistic at best, says a former ISS program manager who chairs the task force overseeing station safety for the agency. Tommy Holloway tells House lawmakers the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, which is spending $500 million in seed money to spur development of one or more commercial resupply vehicles, probably won’t be up to the job.
Thales more than doubled net earnings, to €504 million in the first half of the year, on sales of €5.6 billion (up 17%). Orders rose to €5.3 billion, from €4.8 billion a year earlier, and operating margin on sales increased to 7.4%, from 6.6% in the first half of 2006. The company predicted revenues of €12 billion and a margin of 7.5% for the full year.
Joseph G. Gavin (Retired President, Grumman Corp.;)
I am somewhat surprised to see the lack of active criticism of the Bush administration’s vision for space exploration. It seems concerned more with the “how” as opposed to the “why.” Inasmuch as we have been to the Moon—yes, I remember the Apollo days vividly—it is unclear that there is any urgency to return. Past studies have indicated the complexity and implied great expense of a lunar base operation. The argument that the Moon is a necessary training base for manned expeditions to Mars is unpersuasive.
Between blackout periods, seat supply and other restrictions, it’s getting harder and harder to redeem frequent-flier miles, and this has not escaped the notice of Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) of the Senate Finance Committee. Opening a hearing on FAA tax proposals, Baucus welcomes a West Coast academic witness with word that he will receive 4,824 mi. for his trip. Later, however, he says he’s learned that the miles are redeemable only for magazine subscriptions. “I guess you’ll have some reading material for the flight home,” he says. “Thanks again for joining us.”
Cessna Aircraft Co.’s Citation XLS+ is progressing toward FAA certification in the first quarter of 2008, while first flight of the smaller Citation CJ4 is tentatively scheduled to occur in the first six months of next year, according to Cessna. Deliveries of the XLS+ are set for the fourth quarter of 2008. The twin-engine jet features a stand-up cabin, fully integrated Collins Pro Line 21 avionics package and full-authority digital electronic controls for the Pratt & Whitney engines.
an McFeeley (see photo) has been promoted to president from vice president/chief operating officer of Esterline subsidiary Korry Electronics,Bellevue, Wash.
The first six of 66 Hawk Advanced Jet Trainers have achieved interim acceptance by the Indian air force. The first three aircraft are scheduled to be delivered by BAE Systems in September. The training will be extended to include Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) test pilots later this month. Fifty IAF pilots have already undergone training at the Hawk Synthetic Training Facility based at RAF Valley. The first 24 aircraft are being built at BAE Systems’ U.K. facilities in Brough, East Yorkshire.
China’s growing role in global aviation and aerospace is spreading to finance, with one of the cash-rich country’s largest financial institutions targeting airlines as a growth market for wider financial services, including debt and equity investment. The ambitions of that institution, Bank of China, have become evident from its takeover last year of Singapore Aircraft Leasing Enterprise, which it has now renamed BOC Aviation.
US Airways has hired TeamSAI and LEK Consulting to help it find root causes of problems and to make recommendations for improving operations. The consultants plan to spend July observing airports as well as the airline’s systems and operations control centers and should issue preliminary findings by mid-August.
The U.S. Army has authorized planning, at least, for Future Combat Systems low-rate initial production. Boeing and the Science Applications International Corp. will look at long-lead items for the first Spin Out and the Manned Ground Vehicle. The latter is focused on the non-line-of-sight cannon initial production platform, which is to be fielded in 2010. The first Spin Out consists of equipment to improve situational awareness and communications capability for the current force through technology insertions to Abrams tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and Humvees.
NASA and DuPont will work together on a urethane foam insulation toughened with the company’s Kevlar fiber, which is already in use on the International Space Station as protection from micrometeorites. Under the Space Act agreement signed July 11, materials scientists from DuPont and the Marshall Space Flight Center will develop ways to get Kevlar fiber into the cell walls of the insulating foam. The Ares I crew launch vehicle is seen as an early application, although other spacecraft also could benefit, the company says.
An ambulating robot being devised by the European Space Agency has completed a second set of trials in a neutral buoyancy tank at the European Astronaut Center in Cologne, Germany. Intended to assist astronauts in extravehicular activity and eventually to handle mundane EVA tasks, Eurobot features three identical arms, each provided with seven joints, a camera and an end-effector.
UPS has taken delivery of the first of 13 Boeing 747-400 Freighters it plans to introduce over the next three years. The aircraft will be used for service primarily to Asia-Pacific destinations, but also to Cologne, Germany; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; and Mumbai, India. The carrier operates 11 747-100/-200s, but they are converted passenger aircraft and lack the tilt-up nose of a factory freighter. In 2-4 years, the -400s are to replace 747 classics, but current demand will keep all of its 747s working. UPS also uses 38 MD-11Fs on long-haul routes.
East Star Airlines will become the first privately owned Chinese carrier to run services beyond the mainland, although the first of those will be to China’s own special territories, Hong Kong and Macau.
Much of China’s civil aircraft industry will go into publicly listed companies, one of them open to foreign shareholders, under plans by aerospace conglomerate Avic I. As the industry prepares to compete with Western firms, the reorganization should help raise efficiency by concentrating work into companies that must answer to non-government owners. And it will push forward the separation of commercial business from key military work, the melding of which has been an obstacle in the pursuit of foreign contracts.
A letter by Steve Jensen (AW&ST June 25, p. 7) raised an interesting issue. All commercial passenger aircraft since at least the early Douglas Corp. models have, among other things, been very effective at flying Faraday cages/shields because of their electrically highly conductive outer skins. This has provided adequate protection from unavoidable lightning strikes.
