Dassault Aviation expects to double output as business jet orders continue to flow in at a record pace. Falcon Jet Chairman/CEO John Rosanvallon says surging demand for large-cabin bizjets is pushing the company to raise annual output to 120 units in 18-24 months, up from 75 or so this year and 60 in 2006, even though the aging Falcon 50 will be phased out by year-end. Demand is being driven by the new ultra-long-range Falcon 7X, to begin delivery late May, and Falcon 2000/900 twin-/trijet lines.
Boeing has revealed that 11 787-8 orders listed as unidentified on its web site belong to the TUI Group, an integrated European tourism company. Also included were the sale of 50 737s with blended winglets.
Patrick Coulter has been promoted to manager from assistant manager of the Toronto Learning Center of FlightSafety International. He has been succeeded by Tasneem Hashmi, who was the center's director of training.
Development of a German adjunct interceptor for the Medium Extended Air Defense System (Meads) has been given the green light. The defense ministry has signed a contract with Diehl BGT Defense to adapt the IRIS-T short-range air-to-air missile for surface launch (SL). The contract is valued at €123 million ($167 million). IRIS-T is to serve as a lower-cost interceptor to destroy lower-end targets, leaving more expensive Patriot PAC-3 missiles to handle ballistic missiles under the U.S.-German-Italian Meads project.
Makers of commercial aircraft are expected to fundamentally rethink what they are willing to pay for subsystems after watching very light jet manufacturers strike deals with their supply base, which is delivering relatively low-cost but high-performance avionics and engines. What's in store is a potentially radical shift in thinking by the likes of Dassault, Embraer, Airbus and Boeing. The aircraft makers may try to try to get similarly attractive deals VLJ makers apparently have been able to strike, industry executives suggest.
Unprofitable China Eastern Airlines risks losing its independence, and perhaps disappearing altogether, as a takeover by Air China emerges as an alternative to the foreign partnership that the struggling carrier has been trying to achieve. For the moment, China Eastern is still pushing ahead with the partnership talks, even trying to make itself more attractive to a strategic investor by seeking leniency from the 25% limit on any foreign shareholder's stake.
As carriers operate under the revised extended operations (Etops) rule approved by the FAA in February, Boeing is celebrating its one-millionth 777 Etops flight since the twin-engine aircraft's service entry on June 7, 1995. The company used reported and projected flight data to estimate that the flight took place May 11. The new rule applies a basic 180-min. flight limit to the nearest acceptable alternative airport north of the Equator, or 240 min.
AirTran, Alaska Airlines, ATA, Frontier, Midwest, Southwest and US Airways have prevailed before a Transportation Dept. administrative law judge in a dispute over terminal, maintenance and operations fees at Los Angeles International Airport.
The most fuel-efficient range of a passenger aircraft is around 5,000 km. (3,100 mi.). To fly farther, the aircraft has to be bigger and heavier to carry the additional fuel, have larger and noisier engines to cope with the heavier weight and increased drag, has to have a stronger undercarriage to cope with the increased weight, etc.
Raytheon is trying to win the international race to develop an air-launched weapon that can shoot down ballistic missiles within tens of seconds after launch. Its entry is a new, longer-range version of the AIM-120 Amraam that could be carried by manned fighters or unmanned surveillance or combat aircraft.
Computer Sciences Corp. says two of its pilots have set a world speed flight record from Vancouver to West Palm Beach, Fla., of 33.9 hr. in a Sikorsky S-61 twin-turbine helicopter that the company operates for the U.S. Navy to conduct airborne target launches and recoveries. Don Strother and Tom Algeo set a course record over 6 days, 4 hr. and 2,927.5 naut. mi. for large turbine helicopters, Class E Rotorcraft/subclass E-1g category.
George W. Hamlin has been named Washington-based managing director of Airline Capital Associates of New York. He headed his own firm, Hamlin Transportation Consulting, and has held senior positions at other aviation consultancies.
DEPARTMENTS Letters 6-8 Who's Where 9-10 Industry Outlook 15 Airline Outlook 17 In Orbit 19 News Breaks 20-24 Washington Outlook 25 A European Perspective 59 Classified 70-71 Contact Us 72 Aerospace Calendar 73
New understanding of the mysterious substance known as "dark matter" could emerge if astronauts are able to repair the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on the Hubble Space Telescope during next year's planned servicing mission.
It's harvest season on Capitol Hill, and the search is on for ways to fund pet projects and the ongoing war in Iraq by stripping money from defense programs that have no powerful constituencies. Congressional harvest hands are not targeting today's crop of high-dollar programs, but going for the vital seed corn of tomorrow. One example is the joint-agency Space Radar program, an initiative to orbit a constellation of satellites carrying electronically steered, high-resolution, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems with moving target indication (MTI).
Air France-KLM is in talks with China Southern Airlines to set up a joint-venture cargo carrier. CEO Jean-Cyril Spinetta says the two companies are also negotiating code shares to 14 Chinese cities.
U.S. air travel is expected to be stronger than auto travel this summer, rising about 3% during the June-August season, according to the Travel Industries Assn. Leisure travel will be up 1.4% this summer, with Americans taking a record 330 million trips. Auto travel, however, will continue to account for about 8 in 10 summer leisure trips.
Telesat Canada has agreed to operate Canada's new Radarsat-2 satellite for MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates for the lifetime of the spacecraft's mission. Radarsat-2 will be launched this summer from Baikonur on a Starsem Soyuz rocket.
More than a dozen aerospace companies have acquired Discus software, starting at $1,200, to reduce the time and effort in producing a quality inspection report, says provider Characteristic Solutions Co. of Columbus, Ohio. The tool allows users to assemble drawings, specifications and related documents and manage information in detail. Data can be exported to an AS9102 standard spreadsheet that provides a means to generate a first article inspection electronically.
Scandinavian Airlines International will launch a new fare structure June 1 that will mimic what Air Canada has done in offering various fare classes tied to flexibility. Its other three divisions--SAS Denmark, SAS Sweden and SAS Norway--have already implemented the new pricing. The airline is now concentrating on point-to-point service to mirror low-cost-carriers, and is eliminating its one-stops.
Six members of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) program have received the MDA's Technology Pioneer Award. The winners are: Max Peterson, retired MSX project manager at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory; USAF Lt. Col. (ret.) Bruce Guilmain; USAF Col. (ret.) John Mill; Harry Ames of the Utah State University's Space Dynamics Laboratory; Joseph Chow, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratories; and Daniel Talbert, who is retired from the Sandia National Laboratory.
U.S. regional carriers have brokered a slew of new air service agreements with legacy and some low-cost airlines in the last year and a half, leaving questions about growth prospects for 2008. But airline executives remain bullish that opportunities in the 70-seat-aircraft category will arise.
An unexpected exodus of pilots from regional airlines during the last few months has spurred penalties in the first quarter and slowed growth at some of those carriers, but management at most of the companies remains optimistic about a fast recovery.
MARKET FOCUS Rockwell Collins looks for its first big Airbus contract 12 NEWS BREAKS Astronomers: Repairs to Hubble camera will allow us to check results on 'dark matter' 20 Nose of shuttle Atlantis's external tank shows areas repaired after hail damage 22 Flight tests underway to implement improvements to Eurofighter Typhoon 22 Ground controllers trying to recover two orbital missions with serious problems 23
The House of Representatives has passed a $503.8-billion defense authorization bill for Fiscal 2008 that includes $142 billion to cover Iraq and Afghanistan war costs. The measure kept intact cuts made by the Armed Services Committee to the Army's Future Combat Systems program and the Missile Defense Agency (MDA). It also includes a last-minute provision to integrate the U.S. ballistic missile defense system further with Israel's.
