The Italian army is planning a stopgap purchase of Franco-German CL-289s while it decides what path to follow in renewing its medium-range reconnaissance and tactical UAV fleet and acquiring a medium-altitude long-endurance capability. The army agreed to acquire 20 CL-289s, along with a mission control center and two launchers, to support the European Union's Rapid Reaction Force, which is due to become operational next year. Germany and France are already flying the medium-range recce vehicles, which are used for target acquisition and surveillance.
French Finance Minister Francis Mer said the government is likely to start selling off nonstrategic stakes in state-owned companies by year-end. Flag carrier Air France is expected to be affected.
European carriers' overall passenger traffic is nearly 10% below last year's levels as market recovery remains noticeably slower than predicted. The demand on transatlantic routes no longer shows signs of improving and is lagging at more than 15% below early 2001's numbers, according to the Assn. of European Airlines' (AEA) latest calculations. AEA member carriers continue to tightly curtail capacity in a wide-ranging effort to maintain workable load factors as well as decent yields.
A second-generation Computer-Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (Capps II) prototype, designed to give airlines and airports a ``threat risk assessment'' of passengers, should be completed this week under a $551,000 FAA contract with HNC Software in San Diego, according to Aviation Week's Homeland Security & Defense (HSD) newsletter. HSD reports that the fully developed system, which will likely base risk assessments on rules perfected by the credit card industry, should be in place at airports by year-end.
Jacques Paccard has been elected president of French defense and security industries association Gitep/EDS. He is vice president-defense and security for Sagem.
H. Clayton Foushee, Jr., has been appointed to lead the transportation security practice of the Unisys Corp, Blue Bell, Pa. He was vice president-regulatory affairs for Northwest Airlines and is a former chief scientific and technical adviser for human factors at FAA.
Thomas Bosshard has been named president/CEO and Martha Geisshuesler vice president/chief financial officer of Pilatus Business Aircraft Ltd., Broomfield, Colo. Bosshard was an executive with parent company Pilatus Aircraft, Stans, Switzerland, and succeeds Angelo Fiataruolo, who has resigned. Geisshuesler was aircraft finance manager. Mike Rector has been promoted to completions center manager from avionics manager. Dennis Ruch, who was interiors manager, was named logistics manager, and Ken Schaelchlin has become customer support manager.
CAE Inc. filed registration statements in the U.S. and Canada last week for a proposed offering of 27 million of its common shares, which is anticipated by the end of the month. It's expected to raise $200-230 million in net proceeds, which would be used to pay down debt. The company also has applied to list its common shares on the New York Stock Exchange.
The first launch of the Lockheed Martin Atlas V Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle from Cape Canaveral has been slipped a week to no earlier than Aug. 12. Under the new plan the vehicle will be rolled to Pad 41 for a fueled dress rehearsal July 15-17. It will then be rolled back to the pad on Aug. 11 for liftoff Aug. 12 carrying the Eutelsat Hot Bird 6 spacecraft. Backup launch dates are Aug. 13-14. Managers earlier delayed the launch from late July to Aug. 6, to retest the launch pad's umbilical retraction system in late June.
Dennis Enos has been appointed vice president-PW6000 program at Pratt & Whitney Commercial Engines, East Hartford, Conn. He succeeds Tom Davenport, who is retiring. Enos was vice president-Operational Military Engine Programs.
The NASA Contour Comet Nucleus Tour spacecraft is in a highly elliptical Earth orbit following launch here July 3 on the first leg of a four-year $159-million flight to intercept and image two comets in unprecedented detail. Ground controllers at the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) Mission Operations Center in Laurel, Md., will spend the next six weeks checking the spacecraft and preparing final targeting for a planned Aug. 15 ignition of the vehicle's 6,070-lb.-thrust ATK Tactical Systems Co. Star 30BP solid propellant Earth escape motor.
Eurocopter received a 20.3-million-euro ($19.7-million) contract to upgrade 35 German army CH-53G/GS transport helos for instrument-flight-rule conditions, making them readily adaptable for civil airspace and international risk-management missions. The upgrade, due for completion by 2005, will include multifunction displays, GPS receivers, a second VHF/AM radio for links with civil ATC and DME units to replace Tacan for civil landing approach procedures.
With an eye to carving its niche in a new market, Lockheed Martin plans to put directed-energy weapons on ``our own unmanned air vehicle concepts,'' a company official said. The concept competes with Northrop Grumman's, the Navy-backed X-47 unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) that can be flown from aircraft carriers, and Boeing's, the Air Force's X-45, which has been test-flown. The Boeing aircraft is already being designed to carry a high-power microwave (HPM) device as an ``anti-electronics'' weapon.
Unmanned aerial vehicles are rapidly coming of age after years of being relegated to the sidelines of limited, specialized missions. While they will proliferate and assume unforeseen roles, it's unlikely they'll replace manned combat aircraft for some time, if ever. Though still in their infancy, UAVs and their armed cousins, unmanned air combat vehicles (UCAVs), achieved a new level of respect during the recent antiterrorist campaign in Afghanistan.
Norbert Arndt has been named engineering director of Rolls-Royce Deutschland. He succeeds Duncan Forbes, who has become director of engineering and technology of the Rolls-Royce Marine Div. Arndt was vice president-engineering and quality of International Aero Engines.
Korean Air and Delta Air Lines will be allowed to expand their marketing agreements to develop a network-to-network flight system on transpacific routes as a result of a U.S. Transportation Dept. decision to grant them antitrust immunity. Delta has won similar rulings with Air France, CSA Czech Airlines and Alitalia to immunize the SkyTeam alliance.
The Indian government approved development of a naval version of the Light Combat Aircraft for operation in 2006. The aircraft is to be carrier-capable. Three LCA flight test articles are in operation.
Pratt & Whitney Space Propulsion has hot-fired its first component for the proposed RL60 upper stage rocket engine, a full-scale thrust chamber injector (see photo). The injector was tested at the company's West Palm Beach, Fla., facility under full-power conditions equivalent to 65,000 lb. of thrust. A full-up test of the developmental engine is planned for the second quarter of 2003. That test engine will use Russian and Japanese turbopumps, but Pratt has said it could produce the turbomachinery in the U.S. if the new engine is bought by the U.S.
International Launch Services has contracted to launch MBSAT on an Atlas III in the fourth quarter of 2003. Built by Space Systems/Loral for Mobile Broadcasting Corp. of Japan, MBSAT is an FS 1300 spacecraft that will provide mobile telephone services in Japan and South Korea.
Matthew J. Goodman has become president/chief operating officer of the Commander Aircraft Co., Bethany, Okla. He was senior vice president-marketing and sales.
NASA has been helping U.S. military and intelligence organizations fine-tune some of the nation's classified optical reconnaissance satellites as it continues to broaden cooperation with the Pentagon under Administrator Sean O'Keefe. In return, the civil space agency has gotten some defense dollars.
Europe's mainstream airlines are ready to take the offensive against increasingly aggressive low-cost carriers. Possible initiatives include the adoption of correspondingly low fares on highly competitive city-pairs and the elimination of restrictions applied to bargain rates. This reorientation, although it could affect yields, theoretically could generate additional off-peak revenues and boost load factor, according to some marketing executives. In the last few weeks, several European airlines significantly reduced their prices.
Lockheed Martin is tailoring a laser for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter that could be ready as early as 2010 for demonstration and the start of a full-scale development program. Variants of the solid-state laser, powered by a drive shaft from an aircraft's engine instead of batteries, also are being considered for use on AC-130 gunships and Lockheed Martin-designed unmanned aircraft. The high-energy laser system is being designed in a joint project with Raytheon.
The German parliamentary budget committee on July 3 approved the purchase of the Taurus KEPD-350 land-attack cruise missile, according to German industry sources, but decisions on both the A400M military airlifter and Meteor radar-guided air-to-air missile were deferred. The parliament will be in recess until September, potentially leaving both the A400M and the Meteor procurements in limbo. German industrialists pointed to internal politics within the government as the cause of the latest delay on the A400M.
Rising post-Sept. 11 insurance rates and expenses related to opening a new route from Tokyo to the southern island of Kagoshima have saddled Skymark Airlines, Japan's first discount carrier, with a $6.6-million loss for fiscal 2001. The carrier's revenues of $53.4 million was 1% more than the previous year. Fortunately for Skymark, it is backed by one of Japan's biggest travel companies, so it's shielded from the bankruptcy that's facing Hokkaido International Airlines, the country's second discount carrier.
