Marv Sambur has been named to the board of directors of Proxy Aviation Systems Inc., Germantown, Md. A former assistant Air Force secretary for acquisition, he also serves on the Air Force Science Advisory Board and National Academy of Science Studies Board.
German and U.S. scientists still will have to wait until 2009 to start gathering test data using the Sofia (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) infrared sensor aircraft, but the program took a big step forward late last month with the first flight of the highly modified Boeing 747SP.
The air cargo industry, consolidating into a handful of global players and building with new and larger capacity freighters and multiple passenger-to-freighter conversion programs, is living up to the axiom long associated with this vital segment of commercial aviation: Bigger Is Always Better
Bjorn Naf has been named chief operating officer of Bahrain-based Gulf Air. He was CEO of Kenya-based Transafrik International and had been executive vice president-product and services for Swiss International Air Lines.
Singapore Technologies Engineering has extended its push into the market for supporting startup Chinese airlines. The company says its components division will support 15 A320- family aircraft of Shanghai-based Juneyao Airlines for seven years under a $16-million contract. STAero previously signed up United Eagle, China United, Spring and Okay airlines, all of which are not aligned with the Chinese government.
Cessna Aircraft Co. has delivered the first Citation Encore+. The 11-seat business jet replaces the original Encore and features a higher gross weight, Fadec engine controls, increased payload, new Collins Pro Line 21 avionics and a redesigned interior.
A man-portable surface-to-air missile was the cause of the fatal crash of a British Lynx Mk. 7 utility helicopter in Basra, Iraq, on May 6, 2006, according to a U.K. Defense Ministry Board of Inquiry report. All five British personnel on the helicopter were killed. The report, heavily censored in some areas, does not identify the type of missile, but SA-7 Grail variants and the SA-14 Gremlin are candidates. The SA-14 is considerably more capable than the SA-7, and is fitted with a cooled infrared seeker.
Lockheed Martin has won a $23-million contract to start long-lead preparations for modernizing the first production C-5M Super Galaxy airlifter, as part of the U.S. Air Force's reliability enhancement and reengining program. The current engines are to be replaced with the commercial General Electric CF6-80C2, which is to provide a 22% increase in thrust, use 30% less runway on takeoff, and show 58% faster climb. The company also won a $54.5-million contract to provide 22 sniper targeting pods to Pakistan.
Much of the funding for the Iraq war is being directed to the Army and Marine Corps, and while the ground forces replace war losses, some analysts have suggested the Air Force may need to tighten its belt and cancel some programs. USAF Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley disagrees and says he can recapitalize the Air Force with an additional $20 billion per year. Leave it to a retired blue-suiter, former Air Combat Command chief Gen. Richard Hawley, to speak candidly on the question. "Money. It consumes almost everyone who works at the Pentagon.
J.P. (Jack) London, who is chairman/ CEO of CACI International Inc., has received the 2007 Fleet Adm. Chester W. Nimitz Award for leadership in the maritime defense industry from the Navy League of the U.S. in Washington. USN Vice Adm. (ret.) John Lockard has won the Arleigh Burke Award for leadership in the maritime industry. He is president of Boeing's Precision Engagement & Mobility Systems.
Aviator Robert A. Hoover and NASA space shuttle manager N. Wayne Hale, Jr., and the STS-121 team responsible for a crucial mission that restored confidence in the program, have won the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum Trophy. Hoover is honored for "lifetime achievement" and Hale and the STS-121 team for "current achievement."
Robert Wall (Paris), Michael Mecham (San Francisco)
Airfreight growth rates in the coming years are expected to outpace those for passenger traffic. That sustains Boeing's historic emphasis on building cargo aircraft and has shifted thinking at Airbus to viewing a robust freighter offering as a must-have, rather than just a nice-to-have.
FAA reauthorization legislation proposed by Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and ranking member Trent Lott (R-Miss.) of the Senate Commerce aviation subcommittee makes it all but certain that the FAA's cost-based user-fee proposal to finance ATC operations is dead. Opposition to user fees among House Democrats is strong, and the Rockefeller-Lott proposal would leave intact current taxes and fees paid by airlines and their passengers, notably including the excise tax on tickets.
Craig Deyrle recently sent a letter criticizing an article regarding global warming (AW&ST Mar. 19/26, p. 93). He asks that Aviation Week stick to the facts. I say he should do his homework before lobbing accusations. The area of Greenland once inhabited by Vikings remains inhabited, and not under "many feet of ice" as he contends.
Air China has increased its flights to Linzhi, Tibet, from Chengdu to five a week to accommodate growing tourist traffic to the Tibetan plateau. The airline operates Boeing 757s using Required Navigation Performance procedures developed by Naverus of Kent, Wash. The GPS-guided approaches allow the 757s to fly down mountain valleys as narrow as 1 naut. mi. (AW&ST Sept. 25, 2006, p. 52).
AMERICAN EUROCOPTER HAS RECEIVED ORDERS FROM emergency medical services provider Memorial Hermann Life Flight for six EC145 twin-engine helicopters. They will accommodate two patients and have special mission equipment and medical personnel for neonatal transport and care of patients with serious heart conditions.
Emphasizing immediate war needs over long-range, big ticket programs, House Armed Services subcommittees are authorizing money for more C-17s and engine upgrades for National Guard F-16s, while making cuts to the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) and several missile defense programs.
Fred Fischer has been appointed senior vice president-strategic sales for the FLO Registered Traveler program for the Saflink Corp., Kirkland, Wash. He held a similar position at Verified Identity Pass Inc.
The stage is set for 2009 flight tests of Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne's X-1 scramjet after its performance met or exceeded expectations in wind tunnel trials at NASA Langley Research Center.
Lockheed Martin launched operation of its F-35 Automatic Logistics Information System (ALIS) Apr. 30. Developed at the company's Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. division in Fort Worth, ALIS will be used initially to capture real-time flight test data from the first pre-production F-35A Lightning II test airplane. Eventually, the system is designed to become the key information channel for the Joint Strike Fighter's overall support network after the fighter enters service, currently scheduled for 2012.
Raytheon snagged a $14.5-million U.S. Air Force electronic system center contract for the Global Broadcasting Service. The company will build 59 Army receiver suites and 698 USAF Internet Protocol receiver suites that will more quickly provide theater commanders with specialized command-and-control data. More precisely, the system gives warfighters an operational picture in near real-time. GBS is a high bandwidth data broadcast system that carries heavy multimedia files to free local networks from bandwidth-intensive files.
International Communications Group has garnered FAA Parts Manufacturer Approval to produce and replace satcom systems for Boeing 737-700s. ICG has a licensing agreement with Greenpoint Technologies to sell the company's AeroCom 3000B, ICS-200 and Sigma-7 products for the U.S. Air Force C-40C program.
Walt Havenstein, the new president and CEO of BAE Systems plc's U.S. subsidiary, frowns when asked about his company's acquisition plans. "The market cap on some of these companies is at all-time highs," he laments. "We see some little acquisitions, but the big acquisition activity is going to have to wait for a little softening of the market."
Reading about the regardless-of-reason juggernaut progress of NextGen is frustrating. U.S. airspace belongs to the people, not the airlines, yet the great focal thrust of NextGen is in calculating how clearances and dynamic routing can avoid hub congestion. Saddling general aviation with user's fees and taxes to pay for NextGen is tantamount to subsidizing the failed business model of airline hub and spoke. The inefficiency of that set-up is frustrating for travelers, yet the airlines persist in its common use.
A slowdown in Asian airfreight growth during the past year seems unlikely to shift the longer trend in which the region increasingly dominates the global industry. The rise of the Chinese economy is propelling the region's airfreight in many ways--and none of those fundamental drivers looks likely to change anytime soon.
