Though the second Bush White House is chivied for its coziness with the energy industry, the defense industry's tentacles inside the administration are more numerous. The World Policy Institute, a critic of defense cronyism, claims that White House and Cabinet-level agencies have 32 former executives, consultants or major shareholders of top defense contractors in policymaking positions. Energy appointees number 21, a third less than defense, the institute says. The connections are both direct and indirect. Northrop Grumman's James G.
Boeing will establish a European Support Center at the Fokker Services B.V. facilities in the Netherlands. The center is to provide life-cycle maintenance and service for military aircraft, beginning with the CH-47 Chinook helicopter and extending later to other platforms. Besides front-office support, the center is to include warehouse and aircraft-on-ground services.
Volga-Dnepr has kicked off the final phase of a program to upgrade the An-124-100 heavy-lift freighter and initiated a long-awaited reengining of the smaller Il-76 cargo aircraft. The moves are expected to help meet mushrooming demand for outsize freight shipments, in particular for humanitarian and peacekeeping operations, notably in Afghanistan.
Lufthansa has decided to order 10 Airbus A330-200s. The deal was not announced at the show, but could be made public shortly. The aircraft might replace the carrier's six A340-200s, which will be transferred to South African Airways. Observers noted that Boeing has offered ex-Singapore Airlines A340-300s in the competition.
EADS officials are furious with the Pentagon, particularly the U.S. Air Force, for promising publicly to let them compete for military contracts and then privately refusing every request. They have decided not to try overturning Boeing's deal with the Air Force to lease 100 Boeing 767s for the phase of the ``smart tanker'' program that will eventually replace hundreds of aged KC-135s. If the contract is rejected by Congress, EADS plans to reenter the contest with a new tanker design sporting a refueling system designed in-house.
Engineers at this isolated propulsion test facility are gearing up to begin testing rocket engine components under development for NASA's Space Launch Initiative (SLI), using test stands specifically built for advanced propulsion work--instead of the recycled Saturn V facilities that have been a Stennis mainstay over the years. Stennis test experts have already used the relatively new E-complex for an activation test of the Air Force's Integrated Powerhead Demonstration (IPD), burning off the gaseous hydrogen used to spin up the IPD's turbomachinery.
Snecma's DEM21 core engine demonstrator has run for the first time at the company's Villaroche, France, test facility. The unit spooled up to nominal speed without incident, engineers said. The small-engine project, to be used as a basis for the SM146 engine targeted for the Russian Regional Jet, features a six-stage high-pressure compressor with 3D aerodynamics designed for HP ratio, along with a low-emissions combustor and a single-stage HP turbine with active clearance control and single-crystal materials. The SM146 engine could be shortlisted for the RRJ by fall.
AgustaWestland has formed partnerships with Lockheed Martin and Thales to bolster attempts to sell the EH101 and Lynx helicopters for U.S. and U.K. defense programs. The Finmeccanica-GKN joint venture signed an agreement here with Lockheed to jointly market the EH101 heavy-lift helicopter for American government applications under the designation US101. Final assembly and production of up to 60% of components would be done in the U.S., although in the beginning production would be limited to kit assembly.
Iberia and British Airways, in an effort to meet growing competition primarily from no-frills and charter companies, plan to broaden their cooperative agreement across their global networks. The carriers have asked the European Commission for antitrust immunity on Italy-France routes. Under the agreement, the carriers plan to increase code-sharing, expand frequent-flier programs and services, and engage in joint planning of route networks.
A report on the worst near-collision in Japanese airline history--one with 677 lives at stake--has aroused public concern about the quality of the nation's air traffic control system, especially because what went wrong in the skies west of Tokyo was hauntingly similar to the July 1 tragedy in Germany. The incident occurred Jan. 31, 2001, near Yaizu and involved a Japan Airlines 747-400 (Flight 907) that had taken off from Tokyo's Haneda airport bound for Naha, Okinawa, and a JAL DC-10-40 (Flight 958) heading from Pusan, South Korea, to Tokyo's Narita airport.
People involved in the aerospace industry have historically been optimistic and tended to take the longer view of problems or challenges encountered in the development of new technology, advanced programs or marketing and economic downturns. If there were any large aerospace exhibit in recent years at which this attitude was not only required, but in strong evidence, it was at last week's Farnborough show.
A new fare structure and significant cost reductions helped make America West the only major carrier to report a year-over-year improvement in earnings, according to Chairman/CEO W. Douglas Parker. Although ``encouraged'' by the results, he cautions that second-quarter losses mirror the industry's ongoing economic challenges. America West Holdings reported an $8.5-million net loss or $0.25 per share, compared with a $42.5-million or $1.26-per-share net loss in the second quarter of 2001.
Midwest Express Airlines and its regional affiliate Skyway Airlines, have lowered their threshold for senior citizen fares from age 62. Effective immediately, people 55 and older may take advantage of the special fares.The tickets, nonrefundable, must be purchased at least 14 days prior to departure, require a Saturday night stay, and travel must be completed no later than 180 days after initial departure.
On Oct. 1, Air France and Russian airline Aeroflot will begin code-sharing on Moscow-Paris services. The airlines will jointly offer six daily flights between Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Moscow Shermeteyevo Airport. Previously, each carrier operated three separate services between the cities.
William C. Kessler, vice president-advanced enterprise initiatives at the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, has been named one of four industry co-chairs for the national Lean Aerospace Initiative. The others are: Gen. Lester Lyles, commander of Air Force Materiel Command; Darleen Druyun, principal deputy assistant Air Force secretary for acquisition and management; and former Air Force Secretary Sheila Widnall, who is now a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Senate Appropriations Committee members gave NASA what it wanted for the space shuttle program in Fiscal 2003--$3.1 billion--but they want the agency to take a closer look at its needs for ground infrastructure and orbiter upgrades. Report language from the committee directs the space agency to set priorities in those areas, ``particularly if we're going to be flying the shuttle until 2020,'' in the words of one committee staffer. NASA's Office of Space Flight is already studying what it would take to keep the shuttles flying that long (AW&ST Apr. 22, p.
Rockwell Collins Commercial Systems will be helping Tenzing Communications and Airbus wire airliners for e-mail and other Internet-esque applications. Tenzing was already working with Airbus, but Collins signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with these two parties last week to help by providing passenger connectivity, and by investing $10 million in Tenzing (AW&ST Apr. 22, p. 17).
Top Bush administration officials say it is essential that the pending Moscow Treaty allow the U.S. and Russia to store thousands of old nuclear warheads they plan to retire from operational deployment, because the U.S. does not manufacture new ones. As the opening stages of Senate ratification get underway on the American/ Russian pact to cut offensive nuclear warheads to within a range of 1,700-2,200, Secretary of State Colin L.
A long-term relationship between the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command and Russia's Gromov Flight Research Institute is developing from two recent reciprocal visits between representatives of the military aerospace centers. A nine-member U.S. team returned in June from a 10-day trip to Gromov and other Russian aerospace institutes during which participants flew on Russian flight test aircraft and met with members of the Duma's defense committee. The trip was a follow-on to the visit in March of five Gromov employees to the Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md.
Ibrahim Youssef has been named president/CEO of IDC Aerospace of Milwaukee. He was general manager. Amilcar Pitre has become controller and human resources director.
When Congress compromises on a spending bill, it usually splits the difference, appropriating more than the stingier house and less than the more generous one. But for military procurement and R&D in the Fiscal 2002 supplemental appropriations bill, it went over the top. The Pentagon's procurement request, $1.430 billion, approved by the Senate but boosted to $1.454 billion by the House, came out of conference with yet another $1 million, at $1.455 billion. And R&D, proposed at $162.7 million, wound up with $282.6 million.
The Thuraya geostationary mobile satellite system says it has signed up 50,000 subscribers and sold 90,000 phones in its first year of commercial service, behind targets but still noteworthy in comparison to other mobile satphone ventures. According to Ali Sulaiman Al-Taher, products and services manager of the United Arab Emirates-based company, there are forecast to be 150,000 users by year-end.
Airbus, EADS and Thales will join forces to develop a global air traffic management system that would be capable of drastically boosting traffic capacity while enhancing safety and efficiency. In broad terms, the joint ``Air Traffic Alliance'' initiative resembles a vast ATM plan presented a year ago by Boeing to meet challenges posed by rapid growth in the U.S. air traffic system.
Karen C. Tripp (see photo) has become general manager of global communications for GE Aircraft Engines, Evendale, Ohio. She was vice president-communications for Rockwell Collins, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
