Esterline Corp.'s CMC Electronics unit is tearing a page out of its civil avionics playbook to offer what it calls the TacView portable mission display. The militarized unit is modeled on the company’s popular civil PilotView Class 2 electronic flight bag designed for use on business jets and airliners (AW&ST June 18, p. 158). About 400 aircraft are now equipped with PilotView. The 5 X 7-in. TacView LCD designed for military use is a high-contrast display.
The long-term future of several key Ilyushin aircraft projects is coming into focus, even though it may mean the production facility in Uzbekistan will have to give up some of its independence. For several months, there has been some question how Ilyushin will be able to support mass production of the Il-76 freighter program and the Il-114 regional turboprop. While Ukraine is trying to maintain its independence in aircraft production, Uzbekistan is betting its best option is to cozy up to Moscow.
Parliamentary approval of funding package for two follow-on Sicral satellites will help ensure a secure military satellite communications capability for Italy and NATO at least through 2025. The Italian parliament defense committees last week approved €90 million ($123 million) needed to cover launch, commissioning and upgrade of the ground segment for Sicral-1B, which is to complement an initial Sicral spacecraft orbited in 2001. A €103-million full-scale development contract was awarded to Thales Alenia Space in January (AW&ST Jan. 22, p. 20).
The International Air Transport Assn. wants to bolster its environmental lobbying clout by building a team dedicated to addressing “green” issues. IATA Director General Giovanni Bisignani presented a vision of a zero-emissions industry. As a next step, IATA plans to hire a director for aviation environment, who will be supported by a staff in charge of addressing economics, technology, best practices and communications.
Private equity giant Carlyle Group has agreed to pay $2.7 billion in cash to acquire Sequa Corp., a publicly traded New York company whose Chromalloy Gas Turbine unit provides aftermarket services to airlines. But as in most A&D transfers these days, Sequa didn’t come cheap. Carlyle will ante up $175 a share for the company, a 54% premium over the stock’s pre-deal closing price and more than double the $80 the stock was trading at just a year earlier. The purchase is subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals.
NASA is losing two of its top managers, but announcement of their impending departures on the same day last week was purely coincidence, agency officials say. Associate Administrator Rex Geveden is leaving the agency’s No. 3 slot to take a lucrative industry job, while Scott Horowitz, associate administrator for exploration systems, is bailing on the high-pressure headquarters scene that has kept him away from his pre-school children more than he would like.
Many insights can be drawn from Aviation Week’s Top-Performing Companies (TPC) rankings, but let me jump straight to a conclusion: As far as continental Europe is concerned, the time has come to shake things up and let a new generation of aerospace & defense (A&D) players emerge. For this to happen, Europe badly needs fresh ideas and money, and this can only come from private equity. What has already happened in the U.S. in that respect should encourage those who want Europe to regain competitiveness and should reassure those who fear private equity greed.
Aeronautical Radio of Thailand Ltd., the air navigation service provider there, has begun operations with the Bay of Bengal Cooperative Air Traffic Flow Management System (Bobcat). As of the beginning of the month, aircraft heading from South and Southeast Asia airports to Europe are tracked by this new software program. About 50-60 westbound flights a day operated by 30 airlines log their slot requests with Bobcat, which allocates slots for entry into Afghanistan airspace at specific times and flight levels.
Sikorsky snagged a $235.6-million contract in a second-year option from the Defense Supply Center to provide spare parts for its helicopters being used by the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. Boeing won a $76-million contract from the Army to produce new CH-47F heavy-lift helicopters. Rockwell Collins picked up a $25-million Air Force contract modification to supply 329 ARC-210(V) electronic protection radio systems for its A-10 fleet.
I read with great interest your editorial “The Greening of Aerospace: Do It Now Or Else” (AW&ST June 25, p. 66). I am a retired aerospace engineer and an environmentalist and while I have always considered AW&ST to be an excellent source of information on the aerospace/defense industry, I never dreamed you would show any ecological/environmental consciousness. I was wrong, and I apologize.
An American Airlines ground traffic control tower under construction at Miami International Airport caught fire on July 11; one worker was injured. Live video of smoke pouring from the tower was shown on national television even before TV reporters could clarify for viewers that it was not the ATC tower.
American Airlines' strategy of keeping a tight lid on spending and fleet growth is paying off with a strong profit rebound, but maintaining this momentum will depend on how the carrier handles a new set of cost challenges.
That could U.S. short-haul, no-frills, point-to-point carrier Southwest Airlines possibly have in common with Singapore Airlines, a global airline known for pampering its passengers? As it turns out, more than meets the eye.
Cessna Aircraft Co. will officially announce its entry into the Light-Sport Aircraft market at EAA’s AirVenture 2007 show that begins next week. The company will display a full-scale mockup of the new, two-seat airplane and release program details.
FedEx last week took delivery of the last A300-600F to come off the Airbus line. The A300 was Airbus’s first product, entering service in 1974 with Air France. The July 12 ceremony marked the first time Airbus is closing a production line. Since program inception in 1969, Airbus sold 821 A300/A310s, of which 630 remain in service.
Regarding your editorial “Capitol Hill ‘Reform’ Won’t Help Deepwater” (AW&ST July 2, p. 66), people like to believe industry can perform so much better than government. This belief stands although government workers win 80-90% of the job competitions with industry. So when industry is put in charge of projects, people are shocked when things don’t work out as planned. People forget that companies are in the business of making money and percentage return on investment, not in giving government the biggest bang for the buck.
Jet Airways, preparing for a $400-million rights issue to fund its expansion plan, may be looking to offer a 25% stake to private equity players in JetLite, the new name for the carrier Air Sahara it acquired in April. India's privately owned Jet Airways has approached global investment companies and equity funds such as Dubai-based Istithmar, U.S private equity firms Texas Pacific Group and Blackstone, as well as Singapore investment company Temasek Holdings. JetLite will be positioned as a low-fare airline, offering all-economy-class seating.
Europe should be able to meet mid-term targets to quiet aviation, but longer-term goals may be in jeopardy unless more is done to curtail airframe-related noise. By 2020, the European Union wants to cut aviation noise 10 dB. from 2000 levels, and it has established a mid-term goal of a 5-dB. improvement by 2010. The just-completed €112-million ($153-million) Silencer research program—funded equally by government and industry and involving 51 partners—highlights both the progress made and what remains to be accomplished.
The advanced radar, capable of locating small targets such as stealthy cruise missiles for F/A-18E/F Block II Super Hornets and EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft, has been ordered into full-rate production. USAF approved buying 437 of the Raytheon-built APG-79 active electronically scanned radars. Australia also is buying 24 AESA-equipped F/A-18Fs. In addition to providing cruise missile defense capabilities, the radar can simultaneously conduct air-to-air and air-to-ground surveillance.
The Air Transport Assn. (ATA) and the National Business Aviation Assn. (NBAA), two of the most effective lobbying groups in Washington, expanded their FAA-reauthorization quarrel last week into the air-traffic-delays arena. On the eve of the Fourth of July travel period and its anticipated delays, the ATA asked the FAA to impose ground holds at Teterboro and other smaller New York area airports proportionally to ground holds at Newark, LaGuardia and Kennedy airports.
Taikoo Aircraft Engineering Co. Ltd. (Taeco) is moving early to adapt to the coming world of composite aircraft less reliant on big, periodic overhauls. The Chinese airframe specialist company is widening its product range to aircraft systems to attract operators of new aircraft whose maintenance regime will be less well-suited to its Xiamen location, a prosperous, historic port 500 km. northeast of Hong Kong. The Boeing 777 has been an early example of the change, but the big industry shift will come with the 787 and Airbus A350.
United, American, Delta and US Airways have garnered U.S. government contracts valued at a total of $1.73 billion--the lion's share of more than $2 billion allocated to 14 airlines--for flights by federal travelers in Fiscal 2008. The average discount is 69%. United topped the list with contracts for 1,343 routes valued at $661 million; followed by American at 1,176 routes for $389.6 million; Delta at 931 routes for $370.5 million, and US Airways at 750 routes for $314.6 million.
Northrop Grumman and L-3 Communications hope to cash in on the Poseidon program by offering an integrated communications capability for the adjunct, unmanned RQ-4N Broad Area Maritime Surveillance aircraft. The Modular Open Systems Architecture is to ensure interoperable connectivity among patrol and reconnaissance aircraft and ships of the Navy and other Defense Dept. organizations. The system is being installed on a Gulfstream G-II flying testbed.
The Boeing Business Jet departed Iceland for an afternoon of weather-gazing 100 naut. mi. south of the island. A front had just moved through, and there were plenty of low-hanging clouds over the ocean to test the Rockwell Collins MultiScan radar against maritime conditions that might produce false alarms.
