Snecma has entered the first engine competition with its Silvercrest offering, but with no run-time on the powerplant, company executives are sanguine that even if success eludes them this time, there will be plenty of opportunities to prevail ahead. For the French engine maker, Silvercrest is an ambitious project to expand its product range. The engine family, slated to emerge in the coming years, is targeting business and smaller regional jets.
The NextGen ATC system, a program winding its way through the Washington labyrinth trying to be born, has lost its mojo. When the multi-agency Joint Planning and Development Office was created to pursue NextGen, the office was led by Charlie Keegan, who also was vice president for operations planning at the FAA's Air Traffic Organization (ATO). This clout gave the program a significant power base inside the FAA.
I was shocked to see the picture showing part markings engraved on a turbine blade, and to read that this sort of thing is being used in practice (AW&ST May 7/14, p. 19).
Michael A. Taverna (Little Rock, Ark. and Bordeaux, France)
Planners at Dassault Falcon Jet look to take advantage of a sharp ramp-up in completions of the Falcon 7X to expand use of Catia/Product Lifecycle Management tools to its other high-end models.
The Navy's Air Warfare Center Weapons Div. at China Lake, Calif., conducted the first successful demonstration--against a moving target--of what it contends is the world's smallest fire-and-forget precision-guided missile: the 5.3-lb., 25-in.-long Spike. The missile acquired, tracked and hit a 30-mph. target from more than 750 yd.
MBDA has bought Bayern-Chemie/ Protac, the maker of the motors for many of its missiles. Bayern-Chemie/ Protac was owned in equal parts by EADS Deutschland and Thales. The unit is being bought by MBDA's German arm.
Petr V. Balabuev, the former head of Ukraine's Antonov design bureau, died on May 17 after a long illness. He was 76. After graduating from the Kharkov aviation college in 1954, he began his career in Kiev in the aerospace sector and took part in the development of almost 100 aircraft models and modifications, including the Antonov An-124 Ruslan super-heavy airlifter. In 1984, Balabuev became head of the design bureau, a post he held 21 years.
Southwest Airlines--far and away the success story among U.S. airlines during the early-2000s economic downturn, terrorism shocks, disease scares and war--is approaching the end of a remarkable financial adventure that has fueled the past several years of its continuing profitability.
Mobile Satellite Ventures has ordered launches for two high-power L-band satellites that Boeing is building for the operator's planned mobile wireless service. International Launch Services (ILS) was tapped for a 2009 mission on a Proton/Breeze M vehicle flying from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Sea Launch Co. will launch a second satellite in 2010 from its floating pad at an equatorial position near Kiribati in the Pacific Ocean.
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The Pentagon is trying to figure out how to judge the effectiveness of weapons that don't blow up targets or smash them on impact. To focus that effort, the Air Force has renamed its Air Intelligence Agency, headquartered at Lackland AFB, Tex., the Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency. Organizationally, the agency will move from Air Combat Command to the deputy chief of staff for ISR(A2), currently Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula, and it will be considered a field operating agency.
The U.S. Senate Commerce Commit- tee has approved a four-year FAA reauthorization bill without controversial user fees. The bill leaves in place current taxes and fees paid by airlines and their passengers, including the excise tax on tickets. The measure, if enacted, would phase out the airlines' $0.43-per-gal. fuel tax over five years while more than doubling business-aviation fuel taxes to $0.491 per gal.
Critical weeks lie ahead for EADS and its aircraft maker Airbus. The European aerospace giant's long-term fortunes have much resting on how a number of political, labor and industrial issues are resolved this summer.
The U.S. Army is planning to take a crawl-walk-run approach to fielding a new tactical signals intelligence system after having learned a host of lessons from the Aerial Common Sensor (ACS) program termination in 2005.
Oil-rich Kazakhstan plans to use some of its extra cash to upgrade its 87,000-member military with the latest space technologies, including space-based communications, navigation and mapping gear.
Scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) hope a technique they developed to generate the first map of an extrasolar planet can be applied to map Earth-like planets around distant stars, once the James Webb Space Telescope is operational. The planet known as HD 189733b is anything but Earth-like--it is a hot gas giant orbiting a star slightly smaller and cooler than the Sun that lies 60 light years away toward the constellation Vulpecula. But with 33 hr.
Astrium indicates the first of three U.K.'s fifth-generation Skynet military communications satellites, launched on Mar. 11, has entered service. The company says it fully met an obligation to bring the unit into operation by Apr. 24 under a £3.6-billion ($7-billion) 20-year contract with the U.K. government (AW&ST Mar. 19/26, p. 112).
Emirates is shaking up the Middle East airline market, and creating strong pressure on carriers in Europe (p. 50). And with Emirates' huge spending power, buying 47 A380s and taking delivery of one new long-haul aircraft per month, Airbus and Boeing also must listen when Emirates speaks. Rival, big-name Middle East carriers are trying to keep pace, while others are looking to make their fortunes through other avenues, such as low-fare service. Ted Fahn photo.
MBDA has completed qualification trials for its MM40 Block 3 antiship missile. The last firing, on Apr. 28, included a littoral attack trajectory from more than 160 km. and more than double the overall range of the existing missile--two of the features of the upgrade.
Colleen C. Barrett, president/corporate secretary of Southwest Airlines, has been named the 2007 winner of the Tony Jannus Award, which is given by the Tampa and St. Petersburg (Fla.) Chambers of Commerce. The award commemorates Jannus as founder of the world's first scheduled airline, which began service with daily round trips between Tampa and St. Petersburg on New Year's Day 1914.
Inmarsat reported a 16% jump in revenues to $140.8 million for the first quarter, and a 24% surge in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The Broadband Global Area Network, which entered service last year, generated revenues of $7.1 million in the first quarter and recorded 9,842 subscribers, reflecting strong demand for land-based and aeronautical services.
Clay Jones, who is chairman/president/ CEO of Rockwell Collins, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has won the James Forrestal Industry Leadership Award from the National Defense Industrial Assn. The award recognizes close working relationships between government and industry toward meeting national security requirements.
Indonesian commercial aviation shows little sign of slowing its rapid expansion, despite two crashes this year and criticisms of the industry's safety record. State airline Merpati is boosting its fleet by 25% with the lease of 10 Boeing 737-300s. The Indonesian franchisee of Malaysia's Air Asia says it is also getting extra 737-300s from a U.S. lessor, saying it will receive one a month from June to October. That will give Indonesian Air Asia a dozen -300s.
