With rates still falling, capacity plentiful and the number of uninsured failures rising, satellite operators are reducing their reliance on self-insurance, despite continued unhappiness with contract terms and conditions.
Each of the two private companies selected for the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program can expect $250 million from NASA if they meet their milestones (AW&ST Apr. 2, p. 78). In June 2006, before the contracts were awarded, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin told a Senate committee that he considered the program to be a "big gamble." Before being one of the winners, Space X's Elon Musk was quoted as saying he worried that the amount offered would not be enough to produce success.
You can now register ONLINE for AVIATION WEEK Events. Go to www.aviationweek.com/conferences or call Lydia Janow at +1 (212) 904-3225/+1 (800) 240-7645 ext. 5 (U.S. and Canada Only) Oct. 17-18--MRO Asia, Shanghai. PARTNERSHIPS Apr. 30-May 2--RFID Journal Live, Orlando, Fla. Sept. 24-28--International Aeronautical Congress, Hyderabad, India. May 22-24--EBACE, Geneva. June 18-24--Paris air show. Sept. 19-22--Aviation Expo China, Beijing.
The hangover from a bad run of stormy winter weather is still affecting U.S. airlines, dampening what should have been a more emphatic return to first-quarter profitability for two of the major legacy carriers, and threatening full-year cost targets. American and Continental both eased back into the black for the first quarter, the first time either airline has managed this since 2000. In both cases the profit would undoubtedly have been larger if not for the series of storms in the first few months of the year.
South Korea will extend the deadline for bids to supply 20 fighters after the international industry failed to take seriously the supposed competition by the committed F-15 operator. With Boeing's F-15K such an obvious candidate, no proposals arrived from the other three companies that the Defense Ministry had named as potential bidders: Lockheed Martin, Dassault Aviation and EADS, representing Eurofighter. Only Boeing submitted a proposal.
All Nippon Airways is keeping an open mind on Airbus A380s and Boeing 747-8s, despite its current aim to streamline its fleet to just three smaller aircraft types. The company says it has been reviewing the policy since it announced in April 2003 that it planned eventually to operate only one small, one medium and one large type--a strategy that has since settled on Boeing 737s, 787s and 777s, including 777-300ERs that are replacing a declining fleet of 747s.
MARKET FOCUS Analysis shows defense stocks do well in presidential election years 11 NEWS BREAKS IATA determined to drive down world- wide accident rate by 25% by '08 15 Cessna displays latest Light Sport Aircraft and Next Generation Piston airplanes 16 Latest bid by AirTran going to Midwest stockholders 16 Australian expert on satellite navigation wins AW&ST's Pogue Award 17 Obituaries for ex-B&CA publisher and Virginia Tech aeronautics professor 18
Jehezkel (Hezzi) Grizim (see photo) has become corporate vice president/ general manager of Israel Aerospace Industries' Military Aircraft Group. He was general manager of the Airborne Early Warning Div. of subsidiary Elta Systems. Shaul Shahar (see photo) has been named general manager of the Tamam Div. of IAI's Systems, Missiles & Space Group. He was director of the Real Time Intelligence and Interpretation Centers Directorate at Elta Systems. Ilan Biton (see photo) has been appointed general manager of the Technologies Div.
Aerospace and defense, like many other sectors, has been buoyed by the advance of computer technology for decades. So does anyone think the party is over in terms of technical advances? Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates doesn't think so. In Beijing on Apr. 19, he spoke to Chinese officials about spreading computer technology to the masses. "I'm often asked: Is the technology revolution going to reach an end, the improvement in the chips and the software, will that start to slow down as we reach some limit?
Regulating arrivals at Chicago O'Hare Airport to avoid overscheduling flights, the FAA has a new name for slots--"arrival authorizations." Airlines still apply for an authorization at the agency's Chief Counsel Slot Administration Office, and the FAA has set a deadline of May 3 to sign up for next winter's international arrivals. That date coincides with the International Air Transport Assn.'s deadline to submit service proposals to its winter 2007 schedule coordination conference that covers Oct. 29, 2007-Mar. 29, 2008.
Rocketplane Kistler (RpK), which is working with NASA seed money to develop its K-1 launch vehicle under the U.S. agency's Commercial Orbital Transportation System (COTS) competition, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Japan Manned Space Systems Corp. to support Japan-ese users of the International Space Station. The Japanese firm was established to provide the same services that RpK would provide to NASA if it is low bidder for COTS services, delivering cargo and perhaps crew to the ISS.
At least three more tests will be conducted on Agni-III, a 3,000-km.-range ballistic missile, according to a statement from India's Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO). The Agni-III was successfully launched on Apr. 12. This followed an abortive attempt in July 2006; both took place at the test range at Wheeler Island near Balasore in the state of Orissa. The 48-ton Agni-III uses a two-stage solid-fuel system with a 1.5-ton payload.
With one of the tallest air traffic control towers in the world--and one of the most automated ATC systems with the latest in safety equipment--Bangkok's new airport is poised for the kind of rapid traffic growth expected in Asia during the next few decades.
Aircraft maker AleniaAermacchi has finally brought the M-346 to a point in its flight trials where the flight control laws start replicating the performance students will encounter.
Ryanair is calling on planning authorities to reject proposed plans for a second terminal at Dublin airport, describing the present design as a "gold plated waste." Michael O'Leary, the airline's combative CEO, says the plan is "in the wrong place, at the wrong cost with the wrong design." The carrier's opposition is being fueled by concerns about what effect the terminal's cost, estimated to be €800 million ($1.08 billion), will have on charges at the facility. O'Leary prefers that airport authorities revert to a plan unveiled in 2005 that would cost about €200 million.
CIT Aerospace of New York has ordered five 737-700s valued at $295 million, bringing its 737 backlog to 15. It also has five 787s on order and has received 31 737NGs.
Scientists who have been analyzing the terabyte-plus of data returned by the orbiting Gravity Probe-B experiment expect to deliver final results by the end of the year, stating once and for all whether Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity was right about a couple of key points. The $760-million NASA/ Stanford/Lockheed Martin spacecraft spent 50 weeks in 2004-05 using some of the most sophisticated instrumentation ever built to measure directly Einstein's predicted geodetic and frame-dragging effects (AW&ST Apr. 12, 2004, p. 50).
Qantas's credit rating probably will fall if a private bid for the airline succeeds, says Standard & Poor's. "The lowering of the rating will reflect the significant weakening in credit quality that will ensue under [the bidders'] ownership, given that the transaction will be substantially financed by debt and lead to a significant increase in the group's financial leverage," says the rating agency.
British Airways is scheduled to complete upgrading cabins in business and first-class sections of its long-haul fleet by mid-2008. To date, of 100 aircraft, 17 have been modified, with up to three Boeing 747-400s undergoing retrofits each month. Completed airplanes already are flying on the London Heathrow-New York route.
Plans for the U.S. to put a missile defense site in Eastern Europe have required some explaining to the Russians. "We sent teams to Moscow to show them exactly what we're thinking about," says the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, USMC Gen. Peter Pace. "The math and geometry [are] fairly straightforward and basic. It tells you that . . . if the Russians were to fire a missile at the United States, the missile that's in Poland would not be able to catch the missile that was fired from Russia. Whether or not they accept it is a question you'd have to ask them."
The Pentagon has approved the first low-rate initial production lot of the $300-billion Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. Pentagon acquisition chief Kenneth Krieg last week OK'd funding for the first two conventional-takeoff-and-landing (CTOL) F-35s. Also included is funding for long-lead items for another six CTOL aircraft and six short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing fighters that will come in Lot 2.
The International Air Transport Assn. is determined to improve on 2006's safety record and drive down the worldwide accident rate by 25% to 0.48 per 1 million departures, by 2008.
Rudiger Grube has been appointed co-chairman of EADS. He is a member of the management board of DaimlerChrysler and an EADS board member. Grube joins Arnaud Lagardere, who is the other co-chairman, and succeeds Manfred Bischoff, who has been named chairman of the supervisory board of DaimlerChrysler. Nominated to succeed Bischoff and Louis Gallois on the EADS board are BNP Paribas President Michel Pebereau and Bodo Uebber, who sits on the DaimlerChrysler management board.
Xian Aircraft has selected Rockwell Collins to upgrade its MA60 turboprops with Pro Line 21 avionics. The avionics suite will include five 8 X 10-in. active matrix liquid crystal displays.
The market for airline MRO will be worth $41 billion this year and is forecast to reach nearly $63 billion by 2017, but providers will be challenged to control costs tightly, manage inventory and boost productivity while adapting a "total care" mentality to win and retain new business.
