MARKET FOCUS Boeing's fortunes looking rosy, though some are skeptical 10 NEWS BREAKS New NATS ATC tower at London Heathrow Airport 16 Iran displays Raad anti-ship cruise missile in military parade 18 Brazil's ATC cited as cause of crash in ExcelAire report 20 WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS Post-shuttle life for Hubble if new hardware arrives, works as planned 22 NRO begins new optical spacecraft procurement 24
David A. Fulghum (Tokyo and Honolulu), Douglas Barrie (London)
Chinese efforts to modernize its airpower, coupled with North Korean missile developments, are triggering concerns about rapidly improving air-strike capabilities in the region. China's increasing offensive and defensive capabilities, identified by senior U.S. military officials and intelligence analysts, are spurring programs for advanced aircraft among their neighbors including India, Singapore, Australia, South Korea and Japan.
Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sees merit in the idea that the Air Force should have the lead in unmanned aircraft operations. If the Air Force provided the Army with UAV operators, that would "free up Army troops to do other things," he says, while avoiding creation of a separate Army corps of UAV operators and maintainers.
IN A SIGN THAT PRIVATIZATION OF AIR NAVIGATION CAN DELIVER services efficiently, Nav Canada plans to reduce its customer fees for the second year in a row. This year's proposed 3% reduction builds on a 1.8% cut for the previous year made on Sept. 1, 2006. Nav Canada CEO John Crichton said cost-cutting and a rise in air traffic make the reduced fees possible. Fees are only up 7% since they were instituted in 1999--or 13 percentage points below inflation, Nav Canada says. The agency is financed through publicly traded debt.
Mercer Management Consulting has signed a letter of intent to acquire the assets of Texas-based Cavok International Inc., which specializes in airframe maintenance and air carrier certification. The transaction is scheduled to close by May 15.
Jena-Optronik is one of 11 companies, in a field of 27,000, chosen by Boeing as a "supplier of the year," the first time a German concern has received the honor. A spinoff of the 19th-century Carl Zeiss firm, Jena-Optronik produces the Astro 15 star tracker used by Boeing in its satellites.
The maintenance of commercial aircraft is a $41-billion industry likely to grow to a $62.9-billion business by 2017, but only if the U.S. air traffic control system improves fast, says the head of the Air Transport Assn.
Lockheed Martin has taken full ownership of the unit that helped complete the Jindalee over-the-horizon radar system used by Australia to monitor air and sea activity far to the north of its own territory. The company is emphasizing the potential business down under that could be drummed up by the unit, formerly RLM Systems. "The acquisition of RLM Systems expands Lockheed Martin's commitment to the Australian defense and intelligence communities, allowing us to provide broader capabilities in country for our government and industry partners," the company says.
Alakai Technologies, OpenAero and Capacg have agreed to develop a flight-data management system using "plug-and-play" technology for piston-engine aircraft, such as the Cirrus SR20. The package is based on the Flight Operational Quality Assurance program for transport-category aircraft--with one exception, there are no FAA requirements to be met. General aviation pilots will be able to monitor, as well as voluntarily and anonymously share, engine trend and flight ops data. They also have the option of using the FDM system as a purely informational tool.
Oboronprom and AgustaWestland are discussing license production of the AW139 helicopter. The Russian unit, which manages helo design and manufacturing facilities in the country, has indicated an interest in the Ulan-Ude rotorcraft production site. Mil Mi-171s are now built there, as are Su-25 ground attack aircraft. A framework agreement could be signed as early as next month.
Spirit Aerosystems will provide component repair and overhaul services for engine nacelles for 777s and 737NGs as part of Boeing's Component Repair and Leasing Services Network Service Center program.
South Korea will decide in 2009 whether to launch full-scale development of its planned KFX indigenous stealth fighter, which has now entered the feasibility-study phase after clearing the hurdle of project definition. The feasibility study will be complete by February next year, says the Agency for Defense Development, the office responsible for managing defense research and development.
Jet Airways is renaming its subsidiary Air Sahara as Jetlite, and will position the carrier as a budget airline. Synergies between the two travel providers would help reduce unit costs, says Naresh Goyal, chairman of Jet Airways. He plans to renegotiate fares and share training facilities to cut costs and make the business model profitable. Jet Airways recently launched a new corporate logo, and deliveries of its first 10 Boeing 777-300ER and 10 Airbus A330-200 transports will begin late this month.
In response to leasing companies, Airbus has created a "focus group" of executives from the 15 manufacturing, repair and overhaul centers that form its global network to work on spare parts, aircraft-on-ground and other fleet issues for the A380. The first meeting is set for this week. Leasing companies sought a total-care package to help them transition A380s from one customer to another, including transfer of documentation from one prime MRO provider to another.
Local environmental effects of global climate change will pose serious security threats in the years ahead, as fragile nations that collapse under shortages of food, water and usable land become lawless areas potentially breeding terrorism and other military threats, a U.S. military think tank concludes.
Former Telesat Canada President and CEO Laurier (Larry) J. Boisvert has been named president of the Canadian Space Agency, a position that had been vacant since the departure of astronaut Marc Garneau last year. Boisvert joined Telesat in 1972, and also served as president and CEO of Telesat Mobile Inc.
Turning to obligations in another worrisome theater, Pace rejected the notion that forming Africa Command would further stretch U.S. forces tagged for Iraq and Afghanistan operations. "What we're trying to do with Africa Command is to have an entity that is not exactly the same as all [the] other commands, but rather has many more participants [from other] agencies of government. The object is to assist governments get ahead of problems."
NASA's latest set of target space shuttle launch dates for the remainder of the year suggests Europe's long-awaited Columbus laboratory module could make it to the International Space Station before the end of 2007, but a couple of key issues remain unresolved. The first is whether Atlantis actually can fly in June as now planned with repairs to its hail-damaged external tank.
Boeing has begun a 62-flight test program for Block 40/45 upgrades to the E-3 AWACS fleet. The program is to measure performance of enhanced navigation, communications, radar and mission computing subsystems. The upgrades include improved automation, human computer interface and lower life-cycle costs that are to drive network-enabled battle management and command-and-control capability.
Cessna Aircraft Co. is scheduled this year to deliver 46 Skyhawks to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and 31 Skylanes to the Civil Air Patrol. ERAU is replacing its entire fleet at Prescott, Ariz., with 17 Skyhawks. Another 29 will be based at the Daytona Beach, Fla., campus. All the airplanes will be equipped with the Garmin G1000 avionics package. CAP's order includes 29 naturally aspirated Skylanes and two turbocharged versions, all equipped with G1000 avionics. CAP operates more than 500 Cessnas for search-and-rescue missions and cadet training.
Anthony J. DiNota has been appointed chief operating officer and Kenneth Ashworth vice president-maintenance and engineering for Atlantic Southeast Airlines. DiNota has been vice president-Atlanta airport operations for ASA, while Ashworth was director of maintenance at SkyWest Airlines.
Midwest Air Group's snub of the latest offer from AirTran Airways of $15 a share positions the hostile acquisition of Midwest Airlines and its subsidiaries on the agenda of the group's June 14 annual meeting.
Brian O'Keeffe, an Australian expert on satellite navigation who was instrumental in changing how air navigation is conducted in his country and in the Asia-Pacific region, has won Aviation Week & Space Technology's Welch Pogue Award.
A Braunschweig-based division of the German aerospace research center (DLR) has inaugurated what it says is the first microwave-based autoclave, to be used in the development of carbon-fiber composites. Microwaves could improve the speed and efficiency of autoclaves, according to some. The device should meet aerospace industry calls for faster development times, DLR says. Test results indicate the device leads to uniform curing of composites. DLR has been working with Fa. Scholz Maschinenbau and Fa. Fricke and Mallah Microwave Technology.
